A few weeks ago I stumbled upon one of the best- written Wikipedia articles I'd ever seen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance I repost the link because I think it's relevant to recent discussions in which otherwise rational TMers, people who *know* the meaning of the puja and the realities of the tradition from which TM springs AND the realities of the lifestyle and the restrictions that the TMO imposes on its members insist that TM "is not a religion." I mean, we've got Nabby saying that Paul Mason is definitely, without a question going to Hell for taking the teachings of Guru Dev and making them public, whereas Maharishi is one of the greatest Masters in history for doing the same thing. In the past we've had people who have such an adverse reaction to the TM-siddhis that they can- not practice them personally say that they are safe and recommended for others. We've had women who claim to be radical feminists brush off the realities of performing a puja that requires them to bow down to a bunch of men who would never have allowed a woman to be in the same room with them. We've had people who never became TM teachers claim to "know" what those who did were taught about how to handle objections. We have guys like Nabby claiming that those who believe differently than he does are going straight to Hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, while *he* is leading a spiritual lifestyle for wishing fervently that they go to Hell. In the political arena, we have people decrying one candidate for "stretching the truth" while going *out of their way* to defend "their" candidate when she does *exactly* the same thing. And above all, we have people still claiming that TM is the "fastest, most effective pathway to enlight- enment" while having not a *single* person "certified" by the TM movement as an example of an enlightened being. And we've got people still claiming that TMers are going to be flying Any Day Now and that World Peace and Heaven On Earth are right around the corner, as close as the sound of the next thud of a butt-bouncer landing on foam or the next chant of pundits locked behind barbed wire in a compound in Fairfield. I guess what I'm suggesting is that if there is any- thing that the TM technique and its long-term practice CAN be recognized as teaching, and teaching well, it is how to live with cognitive dissonance. Long-term practitioners of TM have learned to *ignore* this cognitive dissonance so well that they don't even see it when it is held up in front of their eyes. Now THAT is an achievement.
