It's not difficult to agree that David Lynch's motivations are noble, that he believes in TM and that it would be good for students. It may be a bit of a mischaracterization to suggest that he's an independent, good-hearted philanthropist who just happens to do TM and like it. He seems to be more of the True Believer.
He attended the millionaires' "Enlightenment Course" and it was after that he began promoting TM in a big way, travelling around with Hagelin et al. Every country he visits to promote TM he does it as part of the movement structure, not independently. He wears the white suit, he goes to Vlodrop. He's appeared in videos promoting the ME. He seems to be in there with the movement heirarchy like a dirty shirt. (Oops thier shirts don't get dirty!) Isn't he also a trustee of MUM? When he first started his foundation and giving interviews he was asking for SEVEN BILLION dollars to teach TM to students, create groups of yogic flyers, invincibility etc. (Remember, for the TMO, the main reason to focus on students is because they view them as the best source for groups of yogic flyers, albeit one that needs to be constantly replenished. There's little interest in TM for its own sake.) Whether he started the foundation to control his own donations, or because it had become abundantly clear over the decades that no one is going to give one or seven billion dollars to the TMO, is anyone's guess. To Lynch's credit, when it became apparent the seven billion wasn't going to fly, he scaled back his plans proportionately. OTOH he readily admits to not being enlightened--were he enlightened, when the seven billion failed he would have asked for 700 billion or seven trillion. :) Whether David Lynch wanted his $ to result in more initiations and so got the TMO to agree to a fee of $600 when a whole school learns or whether other potential donors who truly are independent and just want students to have the benfits insisted their dollars go further than $2500 a pop is also just speculation. As for the foundation "withdrawing" the grant, my guess is that order came directly from Maharishi when he heard there was some resistance in that school. "Fine--they don't want it, take it away." And yes, I agree it's the TMO's own fault if they encounter resistance to introducing TM in schools. OTOH, it's rare to hear Turq defending a TBer as noble AND sensible, :)) so enjoy. --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The cause of the abject failure of the Lynch > Foundation to help 275 people to learn TM is *not* > right-wing Christianity. It's the TMO. > > David Lynch has a noble intent. He has experienced > numerous benefits from practicing TM, and wishes > that more people could learn it and also benefit. > But he understands that the thing that is standing > in the way of people learning TM is *the TM organ- > ization itself*. That organization, with its high > prices and its history of cultishness, is the > reason why almost no one is learning TM. Since > the TMO was never going to do anything to correct > this situation and make TM more available to more > people, Mr. Lynch tried to. > > IMO he picked a dumb way to do it. You don't mess > around with school systems in the US without running > into flack, no matter *what* program you want them > to provide to students. IMO what he should have done, > if what he wanted to do was increase the number of > people starting TM, is to make public some kind of > scholarship fund with *no* school or guvmint affil- > iation, open to everyone. For example, offer to > pay 90% of the cost of learning TM for *anyone* > who is willing to commit to practicing it regularly > for six months or so. That would have been more > expensive for him, but it might have worked, and > no one would have been able to interfere with it. > > But let us not lose sight of the REAL PROBLEM. > It's not right-wing Christians or even vocal ex- > TMers. It's Maharishi, and the TMO. > > *They* are the ones who have priced TM out of the > reach of the public. *They* are the ones who are > preventing people from learning TM. David Lynch > is doing what he's doing to *counteract* their > influence. He deserves credit and praise for what > he's doing to help more people learn to meditate. > Maharishi and the TMO deserve none at all. > 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/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> 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/
