---In [email protected], <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote :
Back_For_More, yours is a forbearing sympathy expressed here that seems a very kind understanding of folks here. In fact there are still quite a lot of good people here who would like to see it endure and work out on merit. There are some zealots around that can stand out who can take it too far too. Both ways TM is relatively a small group now compared to decades ago. But still Fairfield is a really nice place to live and meditate. FF is a wonderful little town. Any place where you can walk to every store you require is okay in my books. The weather is a downer, however, and the distance from a big vibrant city is also a downside (although IC is pleasant enough). But, tree-lined streets and older home styles with all the charm of early 20th C architectural features is also a plus. Add that to a law abiding community where locals and meditators mingle and it is all fine. It wouldn't be the last place on the planet I'd choose, that's for sure but you wouldn't catch me at any of those new agey gatherings investigating the latest flying saucer glimpsing or listening to Wanda Cosmo Knowitall communicating via celestial vibrations with my higher self. I ran across an old glossy movement publication in a used bookstore here from your time of the 1970's and 80's with the metrics country-by-country on how the world-wide movement was doing in numbers then. Is kind of eye-opening by contrast to remember the scope of things then. Your Canada was doing pretty well by metrics back then, spiritually speaking, by the numbers then. I'll transcribe some of it later. The scale of the attrition in so many aspects from then is a sobering problem for the existing leadership. However, even on the late 'Invincible America Assembly' course that folded up here recently the Canadian Meditators were present in strength with quite a few who moved down here from back in 2006 when that long meditation course was conceived. It is kind of an empty place without them here now. Jai Canada! Yay Canada and yay Justin Trudeau! ---In [email protected], <awoelflebater@...> wrote : ---In [email protected], <mdixon.6569@...> wrote : Doug, it *may* be a better approach. However, it has, as of yet, to really be proven. To the average person, it sounds more than a bit much. Maybe one day the* movement* will allow independent studies of all of their claims. Till then, we are perceived as snake- oil salesmen and not taken seriously. The general public sees us as a benign cult and a bunch or weirdos that dress and talk funny and generally have odd behavior and beliefs. But one day.... I think if they want to teach TM in schools or in prisons or to the men and women with PTSD that is great. But, for me, when I think of TM I think of the 70's and the 80's (this is when I was practicing it and attending MIU etc) and it seems dated to me. While I have no problem with the technique or anyone practicing it, all the other hooplah seems like a money grab and borders on a bunch of hooey. If the die hards sitting around moldering on Purusha or Mother Divine want to continue to do so, all the power to them but this is for the equivalent of the fanatics in TM, IMO. The fact that some of my former classmates at the ripe old age of nearly 60 choose to live in FF is fairly quaint I'm pretty sure I couldn't manage it. That part seems all about community, though, which is fine as it is probably better than retirement in some old folks home.
