--- In [email protected], satvadude108 <no_re...@...> wrote:
[snip] > > I tell yas these rambling tales Shemp just to show you > I am interested in hearing your TMSP experiences and what > led you to distance yourself from the Movement. Hearing > it from someone still satisfied with their is always interesting. > > Think cool thoughts Shemp. It makes summer in Arizona > bearable. [snip] What makes me different from Barry, satvadude, I think is the fact that I still do TM. With the exception of a few periods in my life when I wasn't regular, I've pretty much done TM twice a day since I started in April 1973. I went to TTC a year later. And I must tell ya' I pretty much was uncomfortable with the Movement from my first contact with them at TTC. It seemed filled with vindictive, unhappy people who, for the most part, did NOT reflect what TM is supposed to create in its practitioners. I'm talking here of the people running the thing, not the course participants and yes, of course, there were certainly the Nabby types but mostly good, decent people. And, again, I suspect, unlike Barry, I didn't conclude that TM didn't work because of the schmucks I met running the TMO. I put that down to the fact that an organisation claiming to be able to solve your problems is probably going to attract a disproportionate percentage of nutcases and -- voila! -- here they are around MMY. To date, I haven't been dissuaged from that assessment. Here's another way I am different from Barry: there are, literally, thousands of paths, techniques and ways to get to "the goal". TM is one of them. Barry believes that unless one tries other methods one cannot claim that TM is the best way. Perhaps he is right. I certainly haven't tried many others other than TM so I certainly can't say anything in that regard. But with all the methods out there I would, literally, have to try at least one a day for the rest of my life in order to rationally and fairly say that TM is the best. And I don't think Barry has tried all the methods either (or he wouldn't have the time that he devotes to pulling Judy's pigtails everyday here on this forum). So unless ALL methods are tried, no one is in a position to say this one or that one is the best. TM attracted me because of (1) its simplicity and ease and universality which, despite what Barry tells you, IS most definitely unique to TM (except for those teachers that teach techniques that they themselves learned from the TMO and MMY); (2) whether they're ultimately legit or not, the TMO had the technique tested scientifically...AND boldly dare the public at large and the scientific community to study it; and (3) no change in lifestyle, religion, or whatever was required to do it (at least that was the way TM was taught back in the day...now, of course, it's different and that's the subject of what we're discussing here, isnt' it?). Numerous times on this forum I have reproduced the 1974 Belgium discourse by MMY (it's about 30 seconds long) in which he says: just do TM twice a day and then go about your business; indeed, you can do hundreds of different meditations if you want as long as you do TM twice a day. This discourse is so important to me because, in an albeit extreme way, it epitomizes what TM is supposed to be all about. But back to your original question, above. I find the TMO filled with people who really are not on the same path as me...and these are people that I dearly love, who I consider great friends, and whom I've known now for decades and worked alongside in the TMO and/or went to MIU with. But they are on an entirely different path than me; they are on the TM Guru path whereas I am on the TM Program path. And you know what? The two paths ARE 180 DEGREES DIFFERENT FROM EACH OTHER AND THEY ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH EACH OTHER. And I have been shunned, ostracized, and isolated for being on the TM Program and adhering and sticking to it. Am I bitter? Yes, I am. And I am angry at the TMO for taking the path that they have...and for shutting people like me out. God bless them all if they want to do yagyas, ayurveda, architecture, start political parties and all that stuff...BUT IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TM PROGRAM; IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE TM PROGRAM. Indeed, as I mentioned before, the interference of their path into MY path has destroyed the TMO and ruined any chance for the successful dissemination of the TM Program throughout the world. I am especially bitter towards those who were fortunate enough to be around MMY and had the chance of telling him that he was going about things the wrong way. Gosh, it wasn't rocket science to know things would turn out the way they did. But instead of being useful to him by NOT being Yes-Men, they enabled him by being vampires and sucking the life-blood out of him and telling him what they thought he wanted here. It was their dharma -- yes, their dharma -- to stand up to him EVEN IF IT MEANT BEING EXPELLED FROM HIS ORBIT and tell him that he shouldn't do the things he did. As I've said here before, these people sold their souls for a few schekels of darshan...and the world has and will suffer because of it. People such as Off-World quite rightly question me as to why I stay anonymous on this forum and don't use my real nmae. The reason is that I still hold out hope that things will get better -- even slightly better -- and I want the option of either living in Fairfield and going to the dome for daily practise or taking a course, something I won't be able to do if I use my real name and end up on a blacklist the way Rick has. So I suppose I have to share some of the guilt as well because I am NOT using my name and NOT standing up to the powers that be in the way I probably should. One other thought I'd like to leave you with, sattvadude. One of the explanations always given in the Movement as to why Maharishi would always make the crazy decisions that he did was: oh, as a guru, he is "weatherproofing" you. As a guru, he is doing things to make you flexible in your way of thinking and acting which will make you stronger. What seems crazy to you on the surface actually makes sense on a more subtle level and it is a technique gurus have of teaching you, releasing karma from you because you are so attached to the way you do things, and it will get you to enlightenment much quicker. Well, if that's the case then I propose to all those in the TMO that the last 30 years of the wrong directions Maharishi took were ALSO "tests" that MMY presented to you and what he actually wanted you to do was stand up to him and PREVENT him from doing all the stuff that was entirely contradictory to the original teachings. And you all failed miserably.
