Thank you, Turq, for your kind words and thoughtful reply. I appreciate it. In order to have seen M's darshan at it's finest, one had to spend years in close proximity. Though often sublime, there were certain, rare times, when it ascended to astonishing heights. My guess would be that, at those times, he did surpass Rama's similar times, but, perhaps, many other times, Rama surpassed him. But who's counting and, of course, it doesn't really matter. Like I said, I'm sorry I missed him, but it wasn't meant to be. And thanks for the job advice. The folks at my old job, though, aren't kindly disposed. I was fired for cause. (Yes, folks, I colluded with my subconscious, for a complex variety of reasons, to so hijack myself.) So this puts a rather large wrinkle in my securing a new position and, of course, disqualifies me from unemployment benefits. (I am, as yet, undecided about appealing.) m
On Jul 27, 2011, at 12:57 PM, turquoiseb wrote: > --- In [email protected], turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], Mark Landau <m@...> wrote: > > > > > > Is there anyone here who spent long and equal time with > > > M and Rama? > > > > Besides me, you mean. 14 years each. > > > > > I have one friend who felt that Rama's darshan blew M's away. > > > > I would have to agree. > > Mark, I was rushing somewhere earlier, thus the brevity > of my reply. I'll try to do more justice to a reply in > this post, since you have brought up the guy's name a > couple of times and seem honestly curious. > > To put my view in some perspective, I never spent any- > where near the time you did in close proximity to MMY, > but I did get to meet and work with him "close up" many > times during the period when I was a TM State Coordinator > and was Stan Crowe's second-in-command in the Western > Regional Office. I usually don't talk all that much about > Rama here, but it's been on my mind lately because I find > myself part of a new online forum among 90+ former Rama > students, pretty much the most contact I've had with any > of them since 1996. So it's been on my mind. > > Pretty much everything I have to say about him is in a > book I wrote about my time with him called Road Trip Mind. > The price is right, if you're curious -- it's online, free, > at: http://www.ramalila.net/RoadTripMind/index.html > > If you choose to peruse it, please bear in mind that I am > held in pretty much the same regard by Rama True Believers > as you might be by TM True Believers. I bailed from his > study a couple of years before he offed himself, and even > though I carried through on my promise to him to write a > book about my time with him, it is far from the Party Line. > I struggled long and hard trying to come up with some way > that I could write about him and yet remain true to myself. > If it has any value in the canon of "books about spiritual > teachers," that value is probably that it's a "seeker's > tale," not another tale about another perfect teacher. I > tried my best to be honest in it, and tell the story *as > I saw it*. You can find books about him by more...uh... > serious students at this link: > http://www.ramalila.net/LetDrLenzsStudentsBooksTeach/index.html > > One of the reasons I'm replying is to second the comments > of many on this forum. I love the stories you tell, and the > way you tell them. There is a refreshing honesty there that > is sadly missing from many attempts to tell the story of > that most confusing of beings, a Supposedly Enlightened > Teacher. > > One of the things Rama once said was that in his opinion > there could never be any such thing as *the* definitive > book about any spiritual teacher. He felt that the only > thing that could do any of them justice was 20 to 30 books, > all written by different people and told from their per- > spective, and all of them mutually contradictory. I feel > the same way about any attempt to tell Maharishi's story. > I'd love to see your attempt added to the canon. If not > for publication, in posts here or on a blog of some sort. > I think you have a unique voice, and that your view of > what it was like to spend time with him would do much to > "fill in the gaps" of the story of a complex individual. > > On the job front, I second the advice here to NOT put your > photo on your resume. In Europe that is standard, but that > is Europe. I've been an HR person in the past, and I know > that many US companies have a rule that if they receive a > resume containing a photo it goes straight into the trash, > unread. The reason is that they cannot take the chance of > being accused of "racial profiling" in their hiring > practices. I also second the notion of "networking," and > talking to people you worked with in your former company, > and any contacts you developed outside the company as > part of doing your job. Good luck, on all fronts. > > Turq (Barry Wright) > >
