--- In [email protected], "Premanand Paul Mason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Evaluating spiritual topics is an open domain here where anyone, > regardless of standing, may profer opinion. > > It is of note that rather than offering reasoned argument, you > resort to making a personal attack.
These two statements, taken together, describe a *lot* of behavior here. FFL is essentially anti-elitist. It has no established elite hierarchy and it has no dogma that must be protected and spread. It is a forum for examining issues and discussing them, with every poster considered an equal. Some people don't like this. They *like* considering themselves "the elite." They *like* considering anyone who doesn't believe the things they believe to be less evolved than they are, on a lower rung of evolution. If you think about it, what you're seeing on FFL is a rejection of the model of the TM teacher. "The TM teacher," as created by Maharishi, is supposed to be, above all else, *believed*. Their word is supposed to be law -- if a student starts talking about "off the program" stuff, or asking questions that the teacher would rather not have asked, the model that we all learned from Maharishi was that the teacher just silences the opposition and makes a statement, and that statement is supposed to be regarded as Truth, with a capital 'T.' That's how Maharishi teaches; that's how he taught us to teach. He even taught us, as teachers, *to* disregard what anyone said that wasn't what we, as teachers, wanted talked about. Remember "Every question is a perfect opportunity for the answer we have already prepared?" And he taught us, as teachers, to *attack* anyone who doesn't follow the party line. We've all seen innumerable instances of him or his minions kicking someone out of the movement *because* they didn't treat the dogma as 'Truth.' The bottom line is that the model we were presented as TM teachers was "control freak," with rigid beliefs that *must* be believed, or else. Bob and others still feel that way, still *like* that model, and *don't like* the fact that they can't just say something here and have it considered Truth. And what they like the least is being laughed at when they try. I say that FFL is the next step in the evolution of the TM teacher and practitioner, one in which there is NO hierarchy, NO 'elite' at the 'top,' and in which everyone's opinion has *exactly* the same weight, which is none whatsoever. We're all just trying to figure shit out; NO ONE has a handle on 'Truth.' I kinda like it that way. I really enjoy seeing the day-to-day unfolding of karma, and the way that those who feel that they have all the answers, and that they have the right to impose those answers on others are consistently laughed at. It's perfect -- the way elitists *should* be treated. Laugh at them until they lighten up. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/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/
