--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rory Goff" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> I think M. Scott Peck put it really well when he outlined
> four stages of growth: 1) Chaos, 2) Fundamentalism, 3) Eclecticism,
> 4) Love.
Interesting model. It could describe my TMO journey -- perhaps others
also.
Chaos -- the seekings stage looking for IT.
Fundamentalism -- Having found IT, being totally committed to it.
Spreading the Word.
Eclectic -- some disenchantment leads to branching out to other views
and methods.
Love -- love for TMO and its "wave" in the 60's an 70's, and love for
all true traditions and schools. And for all seekers and finders.
And I am sure many have found stages 5, 6, and 7.
> He points out that a being identifying with any given stage
> cannot see above or beyond where it is, but can only interpret others
> as being in its own stage ("one of us") or in any stages already
> recognized and "below" it, which (generally) it is reacting against
> as "evil". Thus a fundamentalist (2), only familiar with (1) chaos
> and (2) fundamentalism, would interpret an eclectic (3) as being a
> non-fundamentalist, hence as chaotic, or "evil" (1). Similarly, an
> eclectic (3) can only interpret Love (4) as being non-eclectic, or
> somehow fundamentalist/chaotic, now synonymous with "evil" (2).
That assumes that people have a hierarchtical view of the stages. And
a superiority complex. I look at much of my "fundamentalist" period as
sweet and progressive. I was thinking earlier of perhaps my most
fundamentalist period -- as one of the teams of four governors sent
out to teach the first intro citizen sidha courses in the
spring/summer of 1977. During one lecture Q and A on on of the
4-6week courses, I fell off my chair laughing at a wonderful exchange.
Everyone was laughing long and deep. It was a light, magic time. 2 of
the 7 governors / guys flying and/or around have become rajas. I wish
them the best. Lots of support of nature in that era. And I rememeber
I would go back to my dorm room (at a premier university where we
were holding the course) and sit on the cold linoleum floor in a
lotus, reading the gita -- (the hari krishna one to boot) and loving
it, so absorbed in the knowledge. And great programs. I don't look
back on that period as inferior. It was just different than my current
stage.
> I remember exactly when I first recognized unconditional Love as an
> actual presence or state, irrespective of person, and while I was
> instantly attracted to it, knew I had to Be it, it also scared the
> bejeezus out of me, as I realized that its very presence destroyed
> all my carefully-built-up scholarship and discrimination and mastery
> of eclecticism, everything I had identified with, revealing its core-
> nature of semi-conscious competition, power, etc. (this was in
> Harvard Divinity School). Not surprisingly, this glimpse also
> triggered the onset of a two-year Dark Night of the Soul :-)
My above experience was at Stanford so that explains the smoothness
and grandeur of the experience compared to yours. :)
What I experienced is probably much different, smaller, in terms of
stages than you. However, I don't see or experience and of the
discorrdance that you have. Each (perhaps micro-stage) I have
experienced has flowed into the next. Without horror or destruction of
past stages. Each stage has its charm and value. The first stage, I
touched on that in a post last weekend, was wonderfully charged with
the enthusiasm and energy of a teen seeker. To have that again!
> *L*L*L*
d*d*d
darkness, dumbness and daffiness.
