--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, t3rinity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > "...he got some mental problems and because of that, > > > the Purusha board wanted to sent him away." > > Yeah, that's how a civilized "ideal society" reacts to > someone developing mental problems, all right. Don't > provide any real help for the person, send them away > so that they aren't an embarrassment to the movement.
Just following up, and hoping to temper my comments somewhat, what this sad story brings out in me is a sense of profound sadness at the memories it brings up in me of my time in the TM movement, and in another spiritual trip. It's been 25 years or more since I had any real physical contact with the TMO, and 8 years or so since I had much contact with anyone from the Rama trip. But both organizations had something in common, something *lacking*, that I've become aware of in the time since. The thing that was lacking was a sense of sangha -- community. I'm rapping about it here to see if those who have lived in Fairfield can shed a different, possibly more positive light on the subject. For me, in the fourteen years I was involved in the TM community, it rarely struck me as being that much of a community. There was shared knowledge, and shared techniques, and a shared lifestyle, and a shared goal -- enlightenment. With all those things going for it, it should have logically been an environment in which people cared about each other deeply, and were there to help one another if they got into a spot of emotional trouble. But it really wasn't like that, in my experience. It was more like one's fellow seekers were nice to have around as long as they were "on the program." The "program" was more important than the people following the program. Go slightly "off" the program, and one learned *very* quickly just where one stood within the sangha. If you expressed a few doubts, it started with shunning, and could progress to apostasy and excommunication if you didn't keep your mouth shut. Start to develop some emotional problems, and there was rarely anyone you could turn to. Not just no one to turn to for help -- how many of us, after all, were trained *to* help in such situations, but even to *talk* to. It was as if the people who had such problems ran into the "we don't focus on negativity" wall of silence. When the behavior or the doubts reached the point of "excommunication," the apostates almost overnight became "ex." They were forgotten; it was if they had never existed. It was embarrassing to think about them, because to think about them poked holes in the oh-so-carefully-constructed myth, so no one ever did. In retrospect, it was just the weirdest thing. And it wasn't just TM. Please don't interpret this as a "dump on TM alone" rap. I saw *exactly* the same pattern in the Rama trip. And I've encountered it in other spiritual organizations since. But I've also encountered the opposite, organizations that embody a true sense of sangha, communities that care very deeply about its members, and are there for them if they get into trouble. It's a wonderful thing to see and feel and be around. In such communities, the myth of what the community is about is never more important than the reality of what the community is about. There is rarely an attempt to hide behavior that is considered "off the program" or "embarrassing." There is almost never an attempt to shun or stigmatize someone because they have a few doubts; in many of these organizations, doubt is seen as an important part of the spiritual process, something that *everyone* goes through along the Way. There is also rarely an attempt to hide behavior that is considered "embarras- sing," because there is no all-pervading image that could be embarrassed. So I guess I'm just asking how people at FFL feel about this issue. Was your experience in the TM community like mine, or, as is likely, did the experience of living in a physical community (like Fairfield) bring real elements of "community" to the community? 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/
