On Dec 11, 2006, at 5:55 AM, TurquoiseB wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote:
<snip>
You really *do* see the fact that
we have different ideas than you have -- an expressing
them -- as somehow "abusing" you.
I kinda doubt that's what Lawson thinks of as "abuse."
I rather suspect he's referring to the abuse you and
Vaj regularly dish out to TMers.
You'll never get this, but for the record, saying
that most TMers know very little about other spiritual
traditions and not much more about their own is not
abuse. It's a statement of fact. Saying that they
repeat memes like "TM is the fastest, most effective
path to enlightenment" based on zero evidence and *no*
experience of other techniques is *not* abuse. It's
describing the situation. and accurately.
If you feel "abused" when the situation is described,
that's your business.
Again, for the record, but not assuming for even
a moment that it'll do any good, what you refer
to above as abuse I regularly dish out to TMers
is your attempt to negatively propagandize what
I say. Here's how it really goes -- I make some
criticism of YOU (Judy Stein) or LAWSON (sparaig),
based on YOUR specific actions, and you character-
ize that as me "dumping on TMers." It isn't. It's
me dumping on YOU. I find *neither* of you terribly
representative of TMers, although you both exhibit
traits that I *would* associate with most TMers.
On the whole, *MOST* of the strong, dedicated TMers
I have encountered here on FFL exhibit either none
or very little of the anger, arrogance, elitism and
close-mindedness that I sometimes complain of in
you and Lawson.
Largely as an experiment, a good number of months ago decided to
mention that TM was a dualistic method of meditation. The idea was
not to characterize that as negative nor to cast it as positive. The
initial intent was to see if some people were not aware of that
simple, basic fact. It's come up several times since then.
What it ended up telling me is who was attached to certain *ideas*
about their own meditation practices and who really knew what they
were doing. The truth is that *most* meditation *techniques* are
dualistic, esp. basic meditation. Even the most sublime teachings
will often contain a subtle dualism.
Some people ended up defending this *idea* as if their lives depended
on it. Some people had a huge amount of attachment to this idea. Some
came out of the woodwork to hurl insults or to defend TM.
Interestingly some of the most knowledgeable people on the list
simply said nothing.
I think at this point I can declare the experiment over. :-)
I learned what I wanted to learn.
Thanks for all of you who participated. Your comments are now part of
the public record.
