--- In [email protected], "Patrick Gillam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- TurquoiseB wrote: > > --- Patrick Gillam wrote: > > > > > > You know how SCI sees creation in layers? In the Course, these > > > are the layers, from the surface to the core: > > > > > > - Nice guy, trying to get by, impinged upon by circumstances. > > > - Raging maniac angry at the world > > > - Scheming ego, looking for ways to attack without appearing > > > to have attacked. > > > - Guilty schlub who feels no one would have anything to do > > > with him or her if they knew what he or she was really > > > like -- a greedy, possessive egomaniac. > > > - Christ consciousness > > > > > > I may have missed a level before Christ consciousness, but you > > > get the picture. > > > > > I think you got it right. I personally feel that the > > CiM hierarchical schema is simplistic and only correct > > if one bends one's perception of the world to believe it > > Ever since I read the CiM schema in a book about the Course, > I've been observing the world to see if it fits that CiM model. > The CiM model above seems awfully severe. Yet, I can see how > it applies in many cases. > > Certainly I can see how I and people around me seem to be > constantly shoring up our egos. "Looking in the mirror to > reinforce it" is a variation on Peter Sutphen's metaphor. > > What's your perception, Unc? What are you seeing as shortcomings > in the CiM model above?
Allow me to preface this with an admission that I know *nothing* about the Course In Miracles stuff except a brief encounter with a woman who had been intimately involved with it since its inception. Based on her tales of the backbiting, lawsuits, intrigues and downright nastiness that went down within the group, I never devel- oped any interest in learning more. That said, what I'd perceive as shortcomings in the model you mention are: 1. It's a model. "The map is not the territory." Any model is, by definition, wrong, and potentially damaging in that it lures people into believing it's true and thus shaping their lives and perceptions to fit the model, as opposed to just perceiving reality. 2. If there is a hierarchy implied in the sequence you listed the "stages," I fail to see any resemblance in it to the universe I live in. The nice guy is further away from the "core" than the raving maniac and the guy who lives on guilt? 3. It (or what you wrote of it) seems to believe that we are only at *one* of these stages at any given moment. I come from a more Buddhist perspective, which has no prob- lem assuming that we are at all of them simultaneously. As you can see, I have a problem with almost *all* models of consciousnes and the universe. They're fun to play with, but when one starts to mistake the map for the terri- tory, Bad Things can happen. The tales I was told (by an insider) of what happened in the upper echelons of the CiM movement indicate to me that there is some truth to that. We're talking nastiness that makes the TMO look like a kindergarten playground. (And before you ask, I don't really remember any details...it was 2 years ago, it sounded so nasty that I blotted it all out, and about all I remember is that it had to do with who "inherited" the organization, the power, and all of the money when the originator died, or something like that. Something to look forward to when Maharishi croaks.) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
