[FairfieldLife] Walking Away (was Re: 'Jagger with the Stones~ Angie!'...)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartaxius@... wrote: By the way, I have never heard the Stones' song mentioned at the beginning of this post. I looked up the lyrics though, and guess what, I can kind of see why Barry likes it. It is not my cup of tea. If he can see spiritual development stages in it, fine. I do not. No problem. What I saw in the song was my subjective experience. I wasn't trying to sell it to anyone. But I will explain it a little, because that gives me the opportunity to bring up a neat topic: Walking Away. Having run into a forum of former Rama students, some of whom walked away from him and others who hung in there until the end, and had him walk away from them, I've been reading some of their Walking Away stories lately. The moments in which the long strange trip that was studying with Rama ended for them. Angie struck me as an appropriate soundtrack for many of these heartfelt stories. There is a bittersweet quality about the moment of Walking Away. Such moments have that quality whether you are walking away from a long-time lover or walking away from a long-time spiritual teacher. I think that Jagger and Richards did an admirable job of capturing the poignancy of such mutual walking away moments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMkFjYRWM4M Oh, I am s not special. I flunked the test. Take pity upon my wretched mundane soul*. Don't be such a drama queen. No such putdown was ever intended, nor do I think it even existed. Some hear a rock song and it has no meaning or emotional loading for them; some hear it and it clicks a circuit on in their brains and unlocks a set of memories and emotions for them. No harm, no foul either way IMO. I mean, there are probably people on this forum who cannot comprehend why I don't get all choked up and emotional and bhaktified when I hear Paul McCartney's Cosmically Conscious. They can hear something special in the song, something that makes it meaningful to them. I cannot. So even if the putdown you imagined were true, in this case I'm the person who is not special. :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz8ZNtoCHrI Then again, Cosmically Conscious has gotten 44,144 hits on YouTube. The two versions of Angie on YouTube have gotten 15,293,646. Which of those numbers in your opinion indicates specialness and which does not? See? Does not compute. It's not quantifiable. You either groove with a song or you don't. Being special has nothing to do with it.
[FairfieldLife] Walking Away (was Re: 'Jagger with the Stones~ Angie!'...)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb no_reply@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartaxius@ wrote: snip Oh, I am s not special. I flunked the test. Take pity upon my wretched mundane soul*. Don't be such a drama queen. No such putdown was ever intended, nor do I think it even existed. Some hear a rock song and it has no meaning or emotional loading for them; some hear it and it clicks a circuit on in their brains and unlocks a set of memories and emotions for them. No harm, no foul either way IMO. I mean, there are probably people on this forum who cannot comprehend why I don't get all choked up and emotional and bhaktified when I hear Paul McCartney's Cosmically Conscious. They can hear something special in the song, something that makes it meaningful to them. I cannot. So even if the putdown you imagined were true, in this case I'm the person who is not special. :-) Um, no. With regard to Cosmically Conscious, Barry is special because he *doesn't* like it. And not just because he doesn't find it meaningful, but because he thinks it's a horrendously bad song and has made it crystal clear he believes anyone who disagrees has terrible taste. He uses the song as a counterexample in this post because he knows Xeno wasn't on FFL at the time he was busy making himself special for excoriating it and those who liked it (I don't recall anyone here who did, though, as it happens). Just for fun, let's recall what Barry said about the Stones' song: Great video, Robert. One of my favorite Stones songs, and a lovely version of it. To some, it might remind them of various stages of the spiritual development process. Others may hear only a rock song. Note that he couldn't just say, It reminds me of various stages of the spiritual development process. He had to contrast himself with those poor un-special people who are not so reminded. *Of course* it was a putdown. That's how Barry thinks, always in terms of comparing himself--his opinions, his behavior, his likes and dislikes--with others. It's simply not acceptable in his mind for him to be on the same level as everyone else. If he isn't special, he's nothing.
[FairfieldLife] Walking Away
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@... wrote: no one does that, especially not from a position in which they are respected and perform well. seems he left out many crucial conversations with his bosses at the time.:) Sure they do, a lot of us did. That was one of the things that made leaving for me so poignant. I couldn't deny what I had concluded about Maharishi's teaching, but I was enjoying the fruits of 15 years of dedication to to his programs: more face time with Maharishi, teaching big groups when I wanted. And I loved teaching TM, so my decision was not easy. It would have been much easier to have been kicked out, believe me. I'll chime in here, because on another group the issue of Walking Away from a long-time relationship with a spiritual teacher or a spiritual group is being discussed, and the topic is on my mind. Personally, I would think that a *lot* of the people here who have Walked Away have done so quietly and with no fanfare. It was the rare person who Walked Away from TM with fanfare. Chopra did, because he was so visible, but me and Curtis? We were just small cogs in a big machine. In all likelihood no one noticed I was gone. he was definitely kicked out of the TMO, and will spend the rest of his life trying to make that someone else's fault. I don't think so but I didn't know him then. But I will say that when I left many stories like this went around about me and they couldn't have been further from the truth. The movement line is that you MUST have been disgruntled and that something must be wrong with you if you leave. You can't say I don't believe this teaching is true and just leave with dignity. You can't be *allowed* to say I don't believe this teaching is true and just leave. You have committed heresy and must be made to PAY, even if only in the form of negative thoughts and wishes aimed at you by your former friends. That's one of the reasons I Walked Away quietly, and made no fuss about it. The only TMers I ever talked to, other than at the occasional party, had *also* Walked Away. I think it took six months or more before the people I'd previously worked with noticed that I never came to the Center any more but still lived in L.A. and put two and two together and real- ized that I'd become a heretic and they couldn't be seen with me any more. To be honest, there was *much* more demonization of me when I Walked Away from the Rama trip. TMers are real lightweights when it comes to demonizing a former friend turned heretic. The demonization of people leaving groups is one of the creepy qualities of these groups. The creepiest. I know you don't dig Turq but I have never seen any evidence here from people who know him personally that he left the movement for any other reason than his own decisions for his personal growth. That, and I could not stand to be around the TM movement any more. It had gone places and done things I could no longer allow myself to be associated with. I went to where people were nicer and more ethical, the real world. And in retrospect I think it was one of the best things I ever did in my whole life, spiritually. I'm of the opinion that Walking Away from a heavy spiritual path is one of the most transforming things that a seeker can do ON a spiritual path. Yeah, there is a value to sticking to it, no matter what, the way some people stick to a bad marriage for years, but IMO there is a possibly greater value in realizing when the marriage has jumped the shark. When I realized that my marriage to the TMO had jumped the shark, I quietly ended the TV series. Most of the people I've met who Walked Away from the TM movement did the same thing, and left quietly. Think about it...if you're Walking Away from a smelly old dead shark, do you really want to call a lot of people's attention to it? :-)
