--- In [email protected], Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Feb 18, 2007, at 1:48 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: > > > I also don't get the Guru Dev worship. > > I'm pretty sure it's the chair and umbrella.
Interestingly, you might be right on that one. NO ONE knows him except through those photos, and in them he looks exotic, and wise, and from a whole different world than the people who idolize him come from. And so they project onto him all of their fantasies of enlightenment, and what that word means or doesn't mean to them. And it was the same thing with Maharishi. He arrived on our shores as this exotic little dark- haired monk in white robes, and everyone swooned and just assumed that everything he said was the Truth, with a capital T. Me, too. I didn't ask any of these OBVIOUS questions at the time, either. And I probably projected my own fair share of fantasies onto Maharishi, although enlightenment was never one of them. Unlike many here, I always took him at his word when he never claimed to be enlight- ened, and when he avoided the issue like the plague every time it came up. But I long ago got used to laughing at myself for just believing shit that was told to me, and for checking my critical faculties at the door because I *wanted* to believe it all. That was *my* issue; he (and others) just took advantage of it. I learned much from all of them ANYWAY. So now my interest is NOT in the guru guys, Maharishi or anyone. It's the *students*. I have a lingering fascination for those who check their critical faculties at the door, and who then realize what they did, laugh, and get over it and move on to laugh at themselves in new situ- ations. And I have an equal fascination for the ones who never get to that point, and who die with the claim check for their critical faculties still in their pocket. It's NOT just the TM move- ment that one sees this in; to believe that is just self importance on the part of TMers. This stuff shows up in almost ALL spiritual trips. And that's what makes it fascinating...
