3. Constantly bombard others with extremely negative or one-sided portrayals of religion.
TurquoiseB: > On my walk this morning I passed a church, through the > windows of which I heard the voices of children in a > catechism class. I didn't understand the Dutch, but I > certainly understood the scene. The pastor or whatever > he is called in that church would spout a phrase and > then the children were expected to repeat it. Rinse > and repeat, first with all the children repeating the > phrase in unison, and then singly, as the pastor went > around the room listening to each of them say it. The > kids who got it right (in his view) were praised; the > ones who didn't were chastised and shamed in front > of the other kids. > > This reminded me of what I see as the basis of the > recent Pile On Vaj fest. Some people, many of whom > never became TM teachers themselves, declared him > "not a real TM practitioner" because some of his > descriptions of the practice deviated from the TM > catechism. In my view, children who had settled for > learning something by rote were trying to play the > role of the pastor and chastise someone who committed > the dastardly sin of describing things in his own words. > > The TM movement is all about catechism. Pretty much > the only things you could possibly get brownie points > for in the TMO were 1) giving them large amounts of > money, and 2) repeating what you'd been taught ver- > batim. TM teachers were taught that deviating from > the verbatim catechism was a violation of "the purity > of the teaching." Pretty much the only strokes or > "attaboys" that lower-class TM citizens (non-teachers, > non-Governors) could get were for repeating back to > higher-class TM citizens (teachers, Governors) what > they'd been taught, verbatim. Catechism 'R Us. > Parrots 'R Us. > > Back in my TM days I was a parrot, too, and was > considered one of the best at the art of verbatim > squawking. :-) But long ago I stopped trying to > please the parrots who taught me to parrot the > things they were taught to parrot by other parrots > and started phrasing things the way I felt like > phrasing them. I see nothing wrong with this. > > Thus while those still in the TM fold may speak of > the practice as "effortless," I cannot. I know that > some minimal amount of effort is involved, and is > involved in ALL forms of meditation that require > the practitioner to return their focus to an object > of meditation (a mantra, yantra, whatever). I've > also been exposed to forms of meditation that are > truly effortless, in that they have no object of > focus at all. So, knowing this, it would be a lie > for me to describe TM as effortless; my personal > experience tells me it is not. > > Some would probably berate me for this. You will > have to forgive me if I ignore them, and use my own > words. I hope Vaj continues to do so, too. I may > not always agree with his choice of phrasing and > the way that he describes things, but I respect > the fact that he chooses his own words, often with > precision and clarity. I have no such respect for > the parrots. >
