Grasshopper, you have too many thoughts for one seeking realization. Quick, what was your original face?
Sent from my iPhone On Apr 10, 2009, at 11:55 AM, Duveyoung <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote: Turq, This is one nice effort. Put this in the hands of your imagined 16 year old, and she will be thoroughly armed against the TMO strategies. Edg --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote: Finally, for all of those out there in FFL-Land who (given their posting history) have always wanted to be considered the equal of TM Teachers and thus be able to provide "the answers we have already prepared" in reply to any question asked of them, here is a Pre- TM Teacher Training Course test for you. By taking this test and passing it, you certify your status as an "Almost TM Teacher," one able to parrot the "right" answers almost as well as any real TM Teacher. By *refusing* to take it, and answer every question, you certify your status as a complete wuss and as a despicable coward. That means you, Judy. Real TM Teachers, "recertified" or not, are also encourage to participate by taking the test. So are TM critics. It's an equal opportunity test. :-) ************************************************* THE WANNABEE TM TEACHER TEST When answering the following questions, assume that the person you are speaking to is a 16-year-old girl, an intelligent one who is interested in learning TM in her school as part of the DLF initiative but who has done a little Web surfing and is asking you to clear up a few questions so that she can in turn clear them up with her parents so that they will sign the permission slip she needs to partake in the DLF "Quiet Time" program. She is looking to you for honest answers. 1. My parents are quite conservative Christians. They are concerned that I might be getting involved in a different religion. Is TM based in religion? 2. How many mantras are there? I've read on the Web that there are only a few and that they are given out on the basis of age. Does that mean that all of the kids in my class (who are all the same age I am) are going to get the same mantra? 3. Where do the mantras come from? I have read on the Web that in India they are considered either the names of, the nicknames of, or invocations of sev- eral of the Hindu deities (gods and goddesses). Is this correct? 4. What's up with this 'puja' thing? Again, on the Web I've read the translation of it, and it is *filled* with the names of Hindu deities. And, according to these Websites, at the end I am going to be asked to kneel. Does that mean that I am bowing to these deiites? 5. I looked at the tm.org website, and there is no mention there of 'Rajas,' the people who (as I under- stand it) run the TM organization. On other Websites, and in fact on old versions of the tm.org website I found on the Internet Wayback Machine, there are LOTS of mentions of them, plus photos of them dressed up in long robes and gold crowns. What's up with this? Who are these people? And why does it look as if the tm.org Website has been "cleaned up" to remove all mention of them? For example, here is a photo of one of them, the 'Raja' in charge of America: http://tinyurl.com/dhb89n 6. For that matter, if all of these 'Rajas' really DO run the TM organization, why aren't there any women among them? I'm a girl. Does that mean that I'm some kind of second-class citizen in the TM organization? 7. Similar to the deletion of any mention of the 'Rajas' on tm.org, there seems to have been a deletion of any mention of 'pundits,' even though one can still find videos of them on the Web like this one: http://globalcountryofworldpeace.org/maharishi_vedic_pandits12.html This is an official TM Website, right? So why have all mentions of these 'pundits' been removed from the main site? And what's up with their funny clothes and all sitting in neat little rows chanting Indian religious scriptures like that? Is this what you have in mind for us during "Quiet Time?" 8. Did Maharishi *really* call Britain a "scorpion nation" and forbid the teaching of TM there? Did he *really* say "Damn Democracy?" Did he *really* say that most of the capital cities of the world should be torn down and rebuilt from the ground up based on "rules" he found in ancient Indian scriptures? These things have all been said on the Websites I've visited, and they sound too outlandish to be true. What's the real story? 9. Another thing that seems to be missing from the tm.org Website recently is any mention of "enlighten- ment." That used to be ALL OVER that Website. One site I found said that Maharishi used to promise enlighten- ment as a result of practicing the TM technique for as little as 5-8 years. If this is true, surely you can point me to some of the people who have been practicing TM for that period of time or longer, so that I can ask them what 'enlightenment' is like and whether I want it, right? What are their names so I can contact them? 10. The tm.org Website used to talk about the TM-siddhis program, and how one can take a course to learn how to levitate. Now there is no mention of it. If I were inter- ested in such a course, is it still being given, and if so, is the cost of it covered by the Lynch Foundation the way that my initial TM instruction would be? If not, how much is that course going to cost me? ------------------------------------ To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links