Dang, I'm falling love with fucking Shemp!

What the hell?

Edg

--- In [email protected], "shempmcgurk" <shempmcg...@...> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> 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.
>


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