--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "sandiego108" <sandiego108@>
> wrote:
> >
> > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@>
wrote:
> >
> > > Bingo.
> > >
> > > Selfless service is called that because it's
> > > selfless; you're do the work because it gives
> > > you joy to do the work. If you EXPECT something
> > > "in return," then it's not really selfless
> > > service now, is it?...Every TM teacher who worked
> > > their butts off to raise money for a TM Center
> > > that was then sold out from beneath them by the
> > > TMO has a right to be angry at the TMO for doing it.
> > >
> > > Right?
> >
> > Huh? why does the above make sense to you?
>
> Glad you asked. :-)
>
> Really, I am. The answer relates to a discussion
> here during the last week or so, about whether
> "doing good works" has a value.
>
> I say Yes. Ruth, as I remember, tends to agree.
> Some don't. They think that the idea of "selfless
> service" is some kind of mood-making if the sup-
> posedly good works don't spring automatically
> from the level of the "laws of nature" or some
> such hogwash. I don't agree.
>
> WHY I don't agree is because of the real nature
> of selfless service. It FREES you from having too
> much attachment to any *expectations* regarding
> the service performed. You do something nice for
> someone, or for some charity or group you care
> about, and you do it because it feels good JUST
> to do it. You don't need to believe that doing
> this good work is going to change the world;
> you just do the work.
>
> And the cool part of all this is that if the
> good work DOESN'T change the world, you don't
> feel that you have to bitch and moan and claim
> that your time was "wasted" the way Sparaig is
> about the work he performed for Chopra and, by
> extension, the TM movement.
>
> He did the work. If he had been hip to the real
> nature of selfless service, doing the work would
> have been ENOUGH. He wouldn't feel let down or
> "betrayed" if things didn't turn out the way he
> wanted them to. He would have gotten the
> "benefits" of doing the work just from
> doing the work.
>
> Similarly, if the people who gave a bunch of money
> to Maharishi and the TMO for specific projects that
> never happened understood the nature of selfless
> service, *they* wouldn't necessarily feel bad or
> feel that they were ripped off, either.
>
> It's about ATTITUDE.
>
> I gave a lot of money to the TM movement. I gave a
> great deal more of my time and energy to the TM
> movement. Do I feel ripped off? NO, not at all. I
> was having a *ball* while I was doing this, because
> I was doing it out of a sense of selfless service.
> So things didn't turn out the way I was told they
> would. Big Fucking Deal. I had a *ball* anyway. What
> have I got to bitch about.
>
> Compare and contrast to giving money to the TM move-
> ment or putting in a lot of time and energy furthering
> its goals and having nothing come of it, and then
> feeling like you have the right to bitch and moan.
> Sure, on one level you have the "right," but look at
> what *exercising* that "right" buys you -- it makes
> you miserable and angry and the kind of person who
> hangs onto a grudge for years. Better, in my view,
> to just write the whole experience off to being
> an exercise in selfless service and move on.
>
> This is why I admire Rick and a number of the people
> on this forum who DON'T seem to be holding a grudge.
> They paid their dues...they put in their time and
> their effort and they contributed big bucks and in
> retrospect they now realize that on one level they
> were ripped off. But are they angry and spiteful
> and still holding grudges as a result? Not in my
> estimation. They just write the whole thing off as
> a learning experience, as an exercise in selfless
> service, and they get back to enjoying their lives
> here and now.
>
> That is NOT what I see Lawson doing with regard to
> the time, effort and money he put into promoting
> Chopra for the TM movement. Instead, he's chosen to
> bitch and moan now for years about how Chopra "let
> him down" and let Maharishi and the TM movement
> down. While he certainly has the RIGHT to feel
> that way, it doesn't seem to have made him a very
> happy camper. Similarly, the people we hear from
> from time to time who bitch and moan about how the
> TM movement ripped them off financially and who are
> clearly still carrying a grudge about it don't seem
> to be happy campers to me.
>
> Rick and the other wonderful people here who "took
> what they needed and left the rest" seem more like
> happy campers to me. It's all about ATTITUDE. The
> notion of selfless service can do *wonders* for
> helping develop that attitude.
>
> You can be all pissed off that your hard work didn't
> turn out the way you wanted it to in your dreams,
> or you can look upon all that hard work as selfless
> service and move on. I have a lot more respect for
> those who do the latter, that's all.
>
> That doesn't mean that you can't point out that the
> organization DID rip you off. It just means that you
> don't have to feel bad about it ripping you off.
>
thanks for clarifying that. When I first read what you wrote I
thought you were contradicting yourself. but I just went back and
read it again, and get it. I personally agree with you.
