--- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jst...@...> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > <snip> > > Pushing buttons *IS* a noble thing, in spiritual > > environments filled with people who wish to > > identify those "buttons" in themselves, identify > > the attachments they reveal, and work on elim- > > inating them. In such environments, the person > > who can help you to pinpoint your own hot > > button issues (and thus your samskaras and > > attachments) is your friend. > > Thing is, in genuinely spiritual contexts, the > button-pushing is not fueled by hostility, hatred, > and obsession, and it's usually done with honesty. >
The honesty thing is very important because, without it, the "I'm pushing buttons for your own spiritual growth out of pure love and compassion for your welfare" routine can be used as an excuse to be nasty to someone. That's why "pushing buttons" is usually left to fully enlightened teachers who can be counted on to perform such incredibly powerful -- and potentially damaging -- spiritual practises with minimal or zero negative effects. Somehow, Barry, I can't get the idea out of my mind that you don't have the best intentions when you are engaged in your "pushing buttons" agenda. I think of your 12 plus years of pushing Judy's buttons on virtually a daily basis. Am I wrong in concluding that it is not the love in your heart that motivates your hate relationship with Judy? You also love to put down the TMO. Fine, they deserve it in most cases. Indeed, you've written some of the best critiques of the Movement I've ever seen...stuff that should be required reading of the top echelon of the TMO. An example (and if anyone has a link to it, I'd love to have it so that I bookmark it for future reference): a few months ago you wrote a fanciful tract, from the perspective of a high schooler, of what would happen if that high schooler were approached to start TM under the David Lynch project and the high schooler went online to do research of what she would be getting into. Simply great stuff. But too often your actions remind me of the very worst I've seen in the TMO, the very people you criticize. I'll give you an example. Back when I was active in my local center in the '70s, there was an initiator who whenever someone wasn't deemed acceptable to go on teacher-training always volunteered to be the one to tell the declined candidate the bad news. "Oh, I'll tell him", he would always say when the matter came up during meetings of the center's teachers. He just loved being the one to tell the failed candidate that he couldn't fulfill a deeply held desire to become a TM teacher. You remind me of him. This "pushing buttons" thing is something you revel in, I suspect, not because it produces any spiritual growth -- which it may or may not do, I simply am not competent to say -- but because of the sadistic satisfaction you get out of it. If I'm wrong on this, fine. But your "pushing buttons" approach would work a hell of a lot better if you backed things up with facts, not some of the obvious bullshit you come up with. I've called you on this on at least 3 occasions over the years and exposed stuff you said as simply figments of your imagination. I suppose you justify those instances by saying to yourself: "well, it COULD have happened; therefore, why not SAY it happened?". But that's not good enough. It doesn't pass the smell test most times (People aren't idiots; they can smell a rat). YOu are on even shakier ground when you play with facts because they can be disputed by research oftentimes. But we can all make mistakes like that; why not just admit it and say: well, I got my facts wrong but this is what I meant. In this recent episode it fell to that mental case in Vermont to suggest what you meant which wasted everyone's time. We all know the point you were trying to make but the facts that you obviously made up simply took away from your point. And it wasn't necessary.
