> On Dec 14, 2005, at 6:37 AM, Premanand Paul Mason wrote: --- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I have received an email relating to a press conference in which > > MMY allegedly "made himself look and sound like an Ill tempered > > raving lunatic." > > Does anyone know of such a conference and do they have a > > transcript? > > The ones I've watched seem edited now. Maybe that's why?
Vaj, your comment (and recent events here on FFL) have left me thinking about a fine film I saw recently, one that IMO has profound implications in many areas of life, including the spiritual search and one's own spiritual sadhana. The film is called "The Final Cut," and it stars Robin Williams (brilliant! in one of his subdued, introverted roles) as a "cutter." In this slightly future story, parents have the option of fit- ting their kids with a Zoe chip, a bio-organic device that records everything they see and do from the moment of birth to the moment of their deaths. Then, when the wearer of the Zoe chip dies, his or her loved ones can ask a "cutter" to make a "Rememory" film of the high- lights of the person's life. And therein lies the problem -- the idea of "highlights," of the necessity to EDIT a person's life to make it more palatable to the loved ones who want to view por- tions of it. Robin's character is the best at what he does, and he's willing to take on *anybody's* life and edit it to remove the offending parts. He thinks of himself as a "sin eater," as in the old (I think) Jewish tradition. I think we see this "editing" of life all the time. All around us, but especially in spiritual traditions. There is a tendency for people to compartmentalize their lives, and show only one small aspect of themselves to the people they care about, while revealing other, less savory aspects of themselves to those that they *don't* care about. You need go no further than recent schizo- phrenic remarks made here on FFL to understand what I'm talking about. How would that person *feel* if people he cared about knew what he did and what he said to amuse himself at other people's expense. But he feels safe doing it, because he doesn't believe they'll find out. They don't read FFL. Similarly, there is a *huge* tendency in spiritual traditions to "edit" the lives of their founders. If the teacher does or says something "messy," there are teams of people whose job it is to "edit it out," to make it appear as if the messy thing never happened. This certainly happens with video- and audiotape; I have seen various "generations" of the same tape come and go, the later generations hugely different from the original as TBs labor to remove all the parts that could be considered "messy." And what's even worse is the "self editing" that the TBs sometimes perform on *themselves*. They *refuse* to accept the veracity of stories that seem "messy," that seem contradictory to the way that they'd like to think of their teacher. I think this is a Big Spiritual Mistake. I think that anyone's life is really about the "raw footage" of that life -- the clean parts *and* the messy parts. And I think that this is even more true when dealing with enlightenment. The enlightened *aren't* all squeaky clean. They fart and shit like other people, and as far as I can tell they make messy mistakes like other people. I believe that "editing" their lives to make it appear as they don't is a disservice to the enlightened themselves, and to people who seek enlightenment and hope to find it in their example. I don't know whether the press conferences in ques- tion are being edited to remove the "messy" parts, but it is *completely* consistent with TM movement history that they are. I have certainly seen the edits done on other tapes and books over the years. And I'm just rappin' about this because I think it's a mistake, a disservice to the person being edited, and to the seekers who are forced to view an edited version of life. IMO, real life is always better. Just my opinion, Unc ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Does he tell you he loves you when he hits you? Abuse. Narrated by Halle Berry. http://us.click.yahoo.com/HcoraC/rbOLAA/d1hLAA/0NYolB/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/
