On Dec 5, 2005, at 1:14 PM, TurquoiseB wrote:
That question, "Why are they talking about it at all?"
says a lot about a very prevalent trend/teaching in the
TM movement that I don't think is positive.
"Don't focus on the negative." "Don't talk about those
unpleasant things." Ever hear those phrases?
It's just a form of censorship.
And don't forget the canned response if, God help you,
you *do* talk about something less than pleasant that
occurred to you along the Way: "You're just unstressing."
In the TMO one is supposed to pretend all the time that
things are just hunky-dory. It was like that in TM centers
throughout America; I can only assume that this pressure
to "always be positive" and to cover up anything that is
less than positive is even more intense in Fairfield.
Not in the town itself, probably on campus. Altho I, like most former TMers, go there maybe once or twice a year at the most.
And God help you if you violate this unspoken taboo.
You are first told that you're unstressing, then you're
shunned, and if you persist in speaking the unspeakable,
you're stigmatized. Your credibility is questioned.
Well, that would be easy to fix--all they need to do is go and get a Ph.D.
And if this doesn't shut you up, there is always beingHorrors.
declared apostate -- thrown out of the TM movement.
I don't think this is a good thing. While one can make
a case for focusing on the positive and not dwelling
overlong on the past, I don't think one can make a case
for stigmatizing those who feel the need to talk about
what's happened to them. I fell that to do so (to stig-
matize or attempt to impune the reputation or the
credibility of the person speaking out) reveals the
spiritual poverty of those who practice it.
Or the fact that some things are pretty much indefensible, and focusing on the person rather than the issue absolves them of having to actually talk about it.
