Unc: > > So how's it make you folks FEEL? I mean, I bailed > > on the TM movement over 25 years ago, and I still > > have enough fondness and gratitude for Maharishi > > that it makes me feel like shit. So what must it > > be doing to those who have hung in there all this > > time? How are you handlin' this? Any thoughts?
Rick: > I'm grateful I no longer have to live that sort of life. > The worst part of being on Purusha was the begging > psychology it put you in. You couldn't walk into a room > without evaluating people in terms of their potential for > supporting you. It tarnished all my friendships. Very honestly spoken. I haven't been there, in any of the spiritual trips I've gotten involved in, but I can empathize with the pressure. > I realize it's traditional for monks to be supported by > householders... More about this later. > ...but there's something about the way the movement > went about it that rubbed me the wrong way. It's later. :-) I'm wondering a lot lately whether the problem is not in how each movement goes *about* having the faithful support the teacher/monk class, but whether the problem is inherent in the very idea itself. I'm an amateur medievalist. One of the books I came to France to write is based on the Cathars (also known as the Albigensians), a religious sect that flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. They had an interesting approach to teaching, one that I have also seen in a number of Buddhist-based organizations I have run across. The Cathar priests (who were composed of equal numbers of men and women) *worked* for a living and taught for free. Everyone in the sect had a job, such as paper- making or woodwork or farming or whatever, and everyone was expected to pay his or her own way. Then the few who chose to become priests would spend their "free" time teaching, paying for everything themselves. I have to admit that I think it's a better model. Of course, if you go that route, it's important to remember not to piss off the Pope and the kings of neighboring lands as you teach for free. Otherwise, you might end up the way the Cathars did. The Roman Church initiated two Crusades and invented the Holy Office of the Inquisition to deal with them, and over the next 80 years killed 200,000 fellow Christ- ians. Shit happens. :-) Anyway, I'm rapping about all this because I don't necessarily think we have to buy into the idea that it is the responsibility of the householders and the rank-and-file of any movement to pay for the lives of the holy elite. > Also, there > are, or at least were, guys on Purusha who take LOA's to > visit their girlfriends, watch lots of movies in their > rooms, etc. Why should that be supported? I think that's > been cleaned up a lot though, in recent years. I'm not gonna go there. You are talking to someone so lowvibe that he once took advantage of his mini- celebrity as a State Coordinator to sleep with eight different women on one six-week ATR course. If some- one else had been paying for the course at the time, I doubt it would have deterred me. :-) > Again the question arises, how much did the Kaplans give > them? Given the nature of the movement, and of lawyers in general, this will probably remain a matter of speculation until the End Of Time. > Will it be used to build or refurbish new digs or create > an endowment for them, or has it disappeared? And that > list of Movement companies in India that Lludrub posted > the other day - how are those funded? Standard bank > financing? Or is the thinking over there: "We'll use > the money from the West to create these companies, > which will multiply the money. Then we'll have more to > support pundit projects over here." If that's what's > been going on, have the businesses made money or > squandered it? Are such things matters of public > record? Veritable koans. And, like koans, questions that there is probably no "right" answer to. Everyone has to figure it out for themselves. That's both the bitch of it all, and the glory of it all. Unc To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
