[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
How old was the kid, could you tell? Elementary school, high school? Near or at college age. As I understand it, what's called Vedic math (which may not be all that Vedic anyway) is a system for doing arithmetic, not higher math. If that's the case, learning to do arithmetic this way wouldn't stop him from going on to a career in higher math. Right, but the way MMY argued it, using examples that to me implied a very limited understanding of math in any form, Vedic math is the be all and end all.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
I'm still puzzled as to why you suggest the kid might have forfeited a promising career. If Vedic math isn't the be-all and end-all, he'll find that out in pretty short order. He might, or he might forfeit important academic and career choices and set himself back years. If we knew who the kid was I'd send them email telling them to forget what M said and just get on learning maths. That advice is plain evil, and it reflects very badly on John Hagelin that he's allowed that recording to be re-broadcast.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, guyfawkes91 guyfawke...@... wrote: I'm still puzzled as to why you suggest the kid might have forfeited a promising career. If Vedic math isn't the be-all and end-all, he'll find that out in pretty short order. He might, or he might forfeit important academic and career choices and set himself back years. If we knew who the kid was I'd send them email telling them to forget what M said and just get on learning maths. That advice is plain evil, and it reflects very badly on John Hagelin that he's allowed that recording to be re-broadcast. Actually, I'd have to hear the full radio show to know for sure. MMY's answer may not have been very clear, or perhaps Rick misheard in the first place (or MMY was going totally senile at that time or...) Lawson
[FairfieldLife] Okefenoke
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/03/13/travel/escapes/0313-swamp_5.\ html http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/03/13/travel/escapes/0313-swamp_5\ .html
[FairfieldLife] The broken industrial farming system
The peer-reviewed Medical Clinics of North America concluded last year that antibiotics in livestock feed were a major component in the rise in antibiotic resistance. The article said that more antibiotics were fed to animals in North Carolina alone than were administered to the nation's entire human population. We don't give antibiotics to healthy humans, said Robert Martin, who led a Pew Commission on industrial farming that examined antibiotic use. So why give them to healthy animals just so we can keep them in crowded and unsanitary conditions? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15kristof.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/opinion/15kristof.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bat-Shit Insane -- A Generalized Rant About Language
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: Not to the argument I'm making, which is about double standards. I am not the policewoman of the board. Indeed you are not. We all know who is. When driving her motorized wheelchair to fight evil and LIES everywhere, some- times she even wears her old grade-school hall monitor's sash to display her authority. :-) I know that Turq treats you terribly. Poor Judy. :-) If I were you I would not stoop to his level. The day Judy can write a CREATIVE putdown, or a CREATIVE *anything*, something that she didn't cut and paste from someone else who did her thinking for her, she will rise to my level. But it is not my job to police that situation. After all the years you two have been engaged, it is impossible for any of us to force a cure. And sensible. After all, it's not as if any of YOU have a hall monitor's sash, right? When YOU tell us to Get back to class and stop acting up, it's not as if we need to pay attention to you, right? :-) You want logic, then be logical. Your bad behavior is not excused by anyone else's bad behavior. Even mine. Of course it is. He did X first is the whole lynchpin of Judy's position. We are responsible for our own nastiness, even if there is a double standard. And I do not think there is a double standard. Turq gets as much flack as you on this board. To be honest, Ruth, what IMO Judy is upset about is that Turq can make people laugh and she cannot. Turq can write silly stuff about her and get away with it because people can see in it another side that *IS* silly, and having fun, even if it's adolescent fun. Judy has no such other side. She has only one mode -- aim that motorized wheelchair at sinners (those who don't believe or act the way she thinks they should) and run them down. And then cut and paste someone else's thoughts to justify it. If you had been paying attention, you would have noticed that the thing that pisses Judy off the most and sets her off in Get Barry mode is NOT when I attack her. It's when other people on this forum react to some of the things I write as if they actually like me. She has spent FIFTEEN YEARS trying to get people not to like me. When she sees that happen- ing despite her best efforts, it makes her a little more bat-shit insane than usual. And if during those periods she tries to attack me and I don't respond, she attacks SOMEONE ELSE, because she's just got to take her frustration out on someone else. Look back at this week's posts, Ruth. I carefully did NOT reply to any of Judy's provocations, and instead laid low. (Except for the Starship Any Day Now. Mea culpa.) And so what happened? Judy began to attack you. Next up would have been Sal. Think I'm exaggerating? Watch for the trends in the future. I will talk to either of you with courtesy when I am treated with courtesy. So far, Turq has treated me OK. So has Vaj. So has everyone here but you and Nabby but Nabby made up with me. I am not lily white. I made a comment to Raunchy during the election where I misjudged her, but she forgave me and moved on. She understands that a message board on the internet is just a conversation and that misunderstandings can occur. This is why Judy is Hall Monitor Of The Gods and you are a mere peon, Ruth. You have missed the Vedic Commandment that declareth: If anyone thinks differently than you want them to think, or worse, thinks about YOU differently than you want them to think, that is NOT a mere 'mis- understanding.' It is just cause for *Vendetta*, for a lifelong obsession in which you do every- thing you can possibly think of to destroy the other person. You must HATE them as the living incarnation of all those other things you HATE. By comparison, Ruth, I really don't hate Judy. I find her laughable, and find a kind of perverse joy in helping others to laugh at her, too. In a sane world, sooner or later all of those people laughing at her would one day wake her up and allow her to laugh at herself, and chill. But we all know that's never going to happen. So until then, I will continue being creative and laugh- ing, and Judy will continue doing anything she can think of to destroy the enemies of Hall Monitors like her everywhere. Which of us do you think will be having more fun? I *admit* that it's adolescent fun. But look at Judy's posts, Ruth -- to me and to you. Do you see someone having fun with their lives in ANY of them? You're the object of a vendetta, Ruth. You're trying to talk sense to Don Corleone while he's loading up his shotgun for a hit. Not gonna happen.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: On Mar 15, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Duveyoung wrote: The Christians whom I've banged against think that TM's pure being is the Devil's Playground -- one is opening one's self to demonic possession, ya see? Maybe that comes not from TM itself, but from the people practicing it. Do you remember the Domes during the heyday of screaming and yelling? Imagine what they would have thought in Fiuggi, with dozens of people sitting in lecture halls twitching uncontrollably, their bodies shaking, their arms spasming out of control like Doctor Absoderlickliebe (Strangelove).
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
Different strokes for different folks. Your whole reply seems to be a defense of figuring out how the game is played and playing within its rules. That is a viable way to make money; I am not con- vinced it's a viable way to make Art. In my experience those who crossed the boundary into Art did so by pandering as little as possible to the people who held the pursestrings and as much as possible to their muses. YMMV. There is NO QUESTION that your attempt at writing a TV show would be more commercial than mine. But would you be writing it, or would the people whose rules you are playing by be writing it? Pandering to mediocrity replicates mediocrity. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: TurquoiseB wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: TurquoiseB wrote: Different strokes for different folks is what I said, and Different strokes for different strokes is what I meant. You can have your opinion; I can have mine. The universe is seemingly big enough to contain both of them. :-) I wanted to come back to this because you *conveniently* left off the rest of my paragraph which stated I was judging from a production point of view not taste. I don't know if you've ever made any films, even just short ones as I have using actors but I was looking at it much from the standpoint of the techniques used in filmmaking. ... I had neither the time nor the inclination to get into some egobattle with you before, and I have neither the time nor the inclination to do so now. But I will do one thing, and explain a difference between how I think you are seeing and judging these TV series and the way I see and judge them. It's not an ego battle. Why do you think it is? It's a discussion. I don't think you understand the nature of the medium you are dealing with. Oh yes I do. Probably better than you think. After all I have worked in television. And that's not an ego trip either. It was just a gig. :-D You keep talking about these episodes as if they were standalone, one-hour movies that have to work *as* one-hour movies. That's a very commercial and very limited way of looking at the medium of TV. Yes, it's relevant because audiences and network executives are stupid, and look at ratings to tell them whether to allow a series to continue or not. And many creators of bad TV series *pander* to this by writing episodic television that is basic- ally a series of short stories, each designed to pander to the ratings police and provide a neat little package to viewers each week and thus stay on the air. Okay, now tell us how Dollhouse is doing in the ratings then. True masters of the genre don't do this. They take a leap of faith and assume that the series will be on the air as long as they want it to be. Sometimes they lose in this leap of faith, as Joss Whedon did in Firefly/Serenity. There he was only given a total of sixteen hours to tell his story. True masters? Where are you getting this? Most people who craft TV series (which is an entire art form itself) know the realities of working with networks. There is kind of a form that they work around. There are things like how long the episode should be and how quick you jump back into the story after a commercial break (leaving a little buffer because some stations switch a few seconds late). Some will craft the episodes so that each episode can stand alone or be presented out of order. CW's Supernatural comes to mind though there is a an ongoing subtext it still won't prevent the network or station once if syndicated to play them out of order. You have some interviews with Joss you'd like to post links to that say he works completely out of the context of usual series production? I listened to his commentaries on Firefly but that was years ago and nothing comes to mind like that. Also I have a friend who after his first successful software company venture decided he wanted to do a sci-fi series. People he knows in the business warned him that doing a TV series is more pain than it is worth. After some attempts to get it off the ground he abandoned the idea and instead went into producing concert DVDs (some you may have seen). What I seem to notice is that many of the people who produce TV series often worked their way up into that position (unless they came from a successful film and were asked to create a series). Some started out in production and some even as child actors. But THINK about that. Sixteen hours. That's the equivalent of eight movies. And that was a series that was tragically cut short. Buffy had *144* hours to tell its story. Angel had *101* hours to tell its story. Battlestar Galactica had 76 hours to tell its story. I think Stu will tell a lot of
[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shukra69 shukr...@... wrote: Hagelin is a physicist who teaches physics and so was Maharishi, so is the head of the Maharishi school in Fairfield. Of course they want more mathematicians . You can't get anywhere in Physics without Math. You are misunderstanding something there. Hagelin WAS a physicist he is now a religious nut. Marshy was NEVER a physicist. Subjects like computer science and management are the only things they can teach at MUM without contadicting the vedic wisdom that underpins the whole thing. Biology? Not without flatly contradicting His Most Awesome Majesty Ramalama Whatever. History? Not with Marshy's approach and interpretation to the alleged supreme wonders of the east. Sociology? Psychology? WWhat would be the point when we already know everything? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer rick@ wrote: The other day while driving, I was listening to KHOE, the local MUM radio station (http://khoe.org/) and there was a show in which John Hagelin was reading meditators' questions to Maharishi. One kid asked him whether he should study modern mathematics, which he obviously wanted to do. Apparently he had heard that MMY has said that it was a waste of time. MMY reaffirmed that it was a waste of time, and proceeded to explain why in a way that made it obvious he didn't really know much about modern mathematics or probably even Vedic mathematics. This struck me as irresponsible, as the kid obviously respected MMY's opinion, and might forfeit a promising career based upon it. I can think of numerous other examples in which people asked MMY for advice, believing that whatever he said would be cosmically infallible, and he offered it, apparently believing the same thing, and the advice turned out to be wrong. Moral of the story: Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. ~ Buddha
[FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, billy jim emptyb...@... wrote: On the other hand, the Lama I work with, Younge Khachab Rimpoche, insists that HHDL is also yogi and not just a scholar. I have asked him this at least three times. He should know since he is a Geshe Rabjam trained at Ganden Monastery (the Dalai Lama's own) and is a Rime scholar-yogin himself. Although trained as a Geshe, he is a Kagyu Khenpo Dzogchen yogi scholar. That means I have it on good authority who is the real thing. Yeah, but does he have a Hall Monitor sash? Without one of those no one can be considered an authority. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Buddie and Gerry?
It seems possible, Buddie and Gerry have known each other in some previous lifetime?? :0
[FairfieldLife] The real problem with films and television -- the patrons
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: Different strokes for different folks. Your whole reply seems to be a defense of figuring out how the game is played and playing within its rules. That is a viable way to make money; I am not con- vinced it's a viable way to make Art. In my experience those who crossed the boundary into Art did so by pandering as little as possible to the people who held the pursestrings and as much as possible to their muses. YMMV. There is NO QUESTION that your attempt at writing a TV show would be more commercial than mine. But would you be writing it, or would the people whose rules you are playing by be writing it? Pandering to mediocrity replicates mediocrity. Just to show that I do understand and appreciate your points, Bhairitu, here's a rap about what I see as the thing that most stifles creative films and television: they cost so much fucking money. The notion of auteur cinema is a fiction. Every film and every television series is a *collaborative* work between teams of creative people, teams of set builders and Teamsters and support people, and teams of Money People. It costs a bloody FORTUNE to make a film or a television series. And therein lies the rub. In past centuries, and in past artforms, occasionally artists could transcend the need to rely on *patrons*. As a painter, you could theoretically go out and gather minerals and make your own paints from them and create something *anyway*, even if you could not find a wealthy patron to support you. A few of those artists are hanging in museums today. (Not many, but a few.) If you were Rodin, and penniless and without a patron, you could steal gravestones from Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris and recarve them as sculptures. (He did.) But make a movie? Or a TV series? The closest anyone has come to making a *successful* film on a shoestring are the two films with the high- est ROI in film history -- El Mariachi and The Blair Witch Project. Both were created on a shoe- string budget and became successful; both were flukes. Neither was Art, just an attempt to make a movie and get it seen by audiences. Most others were created within the system. And we (whether real critics or armchair critics) tend to laud as creative artists those who have managed to create something interesting *while pandering to the patrons and their creativity-stifling system*. The system is almost DESIGNED to produce mediocrity, and does. What we tend to applaud as creative in the film and television world is something that has merely reached the upper limits of mediocrity. After the debacle of Apocalypse Now, auteur films really don't get made much. About the only way a film might get made without having to pander to the Medioc- rity System would be if someone had enough money to Do It All Themselves, *outside* the system. And then hope to high heaven that the system would know a good thing when it saw one, and distribute the resulting film. To some extent, that's what Danny Boyle did with Slumdog Millionaire. It was made within the system for *creating* films, but well outside the necessary system for getting distributed and seen. And it almost did NOT get distributed and seen. It took someone at Fox Searchlight to do what no one else had done and take a chance on releasing it in theaters rather than sending it direct to DVD for it to become eligible for the Academy Award it won as Best Picture. I *admire* the people who work within the system and who accomplish near-Art by kissing the asses of people who aren't talented enough to wipe their own asses. That kind of dedication to being able to create *something*, even if you know that it's never going to be Art because of the system you're working within, deserves recognition and applause. At the same time, I don't have to call it Art. And most of the people who produce near-Art by working within the existing system of mediocrity don't call what they do Art, either. They call it making a living, and dreaming of one day, in a better world, making actual Art.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Hugo richardhughes...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shukra69 shukra69@ wrote: Hagelin is a physicist who teaches physics and so was Maharishi, so is the head of the Maharishi school in Fairfield. Of course they want more mathematicians . You can't get anywhere in Physics without Math. You are misunderstanding something there. Hagelin WAS a physicist he is now a religious nut. Marshy was NEVER a physicist. Guess, whose words: ``Gott wurfelt nicht!'' [God does not play dice!] ``Quantum mechanics is very impressive. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One. I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice.'' ``It seems hard to look in God's cards. But I cannot for a moment believe that He plays dice and makes use of `telepathic' means (as the current quantum theory alleges He does).''
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
Just as an example of one of the things that people come to believe are the rules that they have to follow when creating TV series: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: Most people who craft TV series ... know the realities ... There is kind of a form that they work around. There are things like how long the episode should be and how quick you jump back into the story after a commercial break (leaving a little buffer because some stations switch a few seconds late). In Europe, TV shows do not start on the hour or on the half hour. They can go under time or over time easily, because the broadcast schedule adapts to the content, not vice versa. And in France, *no television show* is ever interrupted by a commercial. Except for lesser stations that rebroadcast old movies, all com- mercials are shown at the beginning of the show or at the end of the show. What you are suggesting as the realities are only that because people SETTLED FOR THEM. And because no one stood up against them as barbaric. If you tried to write a television series for France that assumed commercial breaks, it would come off as a jumbled, start-and-stop series of vignettes, not a seamless whole. And it would be perceived that way because that's what it would be. I *understand* that you are taking the pragmatic, this-is-the-way-things-are-in-America point of view. All I'm trying to point out is that things don't have to be that way.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
Hagelin WAS a physicist he is now a religious nut. Marshy was NEVER a physicist. Quite right, he is an ex-physicist. No one in the physics community thinks he is a physicist any longer. He did a degree, published some mildly interesting papers, and then went nuts. Subjects like computer science and management are the only things they can teach at MUM without contadicting the vedic wisdom that underpins the whole thing. Biology? Not without flatly contradicting His Most Awesome Majesty Ramalama Whatever. History? Not with Marshy's approach and interpretation to the alleged supreme wonders of the east. Sociology? Psychology? WWhat would be the point when we already know everything? If taught properly, even computer science and management theory would contradict vedic wisdom as interpreted by the TMO. I can't imagine any management theorist would think that letting top level management buy their positions and then sit around wearing crowns while keeping the lower orders on low pay or no pay and having to engage in charity fundraising to keep the business afloat was a bright way to run an organization. What on earth do they teach them in their management classes? Maharishi University of Management always strikes me as being an oxymoron like The Dick Cheney School of Ethics or the George Bush Institute of Diplomacy Anyone have any news on the 10,000's of students queuing up for Maharishi Central University? Last I heard Wynne was telling lies about how wonderful it was all going, while the local newspaper was reporting that the girders were rusting quite nicely and the weeds were coming along just fine but apart from that nothing was happening.
[FairfieldLife] WFF Smackdown Match: Synecdoche NY vs. Dollhouse
[ This is just for fun, and because Bhairitu's gotten me on a film talk kick this morning. ] Both Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York and Joss Whedon's Dollhouse are ridiculous. They are both stories about *artificial worlds* that do not and could not exist in real life. In Synecdoche, a B-list theater director (as played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) is rescued from the obscurity of doing remakes of Death of a Salesman in Schenectady by being awarded a magical genius grant that allows him to create the theater piece of his dreams. So what he does is rent a *huge* warehouse in New York and rebuild New York in it. This goes on for 40 years, as he recruits actors to live in the mini-New York and get into their characters there. There is never a performance. In Dollhouse, an evil corporation creates an equally artificial world in which people they have kidnapped or blackmailed into being there have their memories wiped, and then re-imprint them with other people's memories and send them out on assignments with these new memories and skills. When they are not on assignment, they live in the artificial world of the Doll- house, waiting to go on stage and perform. Charlie Kaufmann, who has written some interesting if overly-stuck-inside-his-head screenplays in the past, was given an obviously huge budget and a dream cast to work with in Synecdoche. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Tom Noonan, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and the great Samantha Morton. The result, FOR ME, was unwatchable. Go figure. For me, I could find *nothing* to identify with or empathize with in any of the characters. They were a *monument* to being self-absorbed. I could not muster up *caring* about any of them. It was as if -- FOR ME -- Charlie Kaufman managed in his directorial debut *exactly* the same rambling, self-absorbed nonsense that his character did in the enormous warehouse in New York. So in any World Film Federation Smackdown Match, I have to declare Synecdoche -- FOR ME -- the clear loser. Sadly, so far, I can't really declare Dollhouse the winner. Joss Whedon seems to have had the opposite of Charlie Kaufmann's pull amongst the Gods Of Casting. He's working with a group of mainly unknowns. In time, given his skills as both a director and a cultivator of talent (look what he did with Summer Glau, who had only acted in one one-hour TV episode before), all of these people might turn into really good actors and actresses. FOR ME, that has not happened yet, and may never, because of the ratings game. My problem with Dollhouse is that, so far, I really can't bring myself to either identify with or care all that much about the characters. More than I can for any of the characters in Synecdoche, but still not enough to really grab me. At the five- episode point of Firefly, I was IN LOVE with all of the characters. I knew them as well as I did my own family and friends, and *considered* them my family and friends. That has not yet happened with Dollhouse, and may never. So far, I am more taken with the abstract ideas at the core of Dollhouse than I am with any of the characters and how those abstract ideas affect them. With time, that may change. But sadly, I agree with Bhairitu and with the majority of critics that as a result of the ratings game this series may not ever *have* that much time. So in my little Smackdown Match, sadly I perceive two losers, with no winner in sight. And FOR ME it's all about the characters. Do I like them? Would I like to have a beer with them? Would I ever consider them my friends? With Synecdoche, New York, that question is answered by an unequivocal No. And I have a real *thing* for Samantha Morton. But I wouldn't want to spend any time with her character in this film. With Dollhouse, so far none of these characters would ever become my friends. I might want to go have a beer with them and see if there is any substance beneath the surface, but I'd *have* to because I haven't seen much of that substance *on* the surface, onscreen. Compare and contrast to Firefly. I would have counted *any* of those characters among my group of friends after the *pilot*, much less after five hour-long episodes or after a two-hour movie. So that series, although now dead and gone, is for me the clear winner. But all of this is just OPINION. That's all that ANY film criticism or TV criticism is, or will ever be. It's one person rapping about whether a film or a piece of television connected with their lives and allowed them to enjoy it. Whether someone else feels the same way, and finds an equal amount of enjoyment in the same film or TV series is NOT a given, no matter how famous or respected the critic.
[FairfieldLife] Re: [StruggleWithJudaism] Elders of Zion to Retire (Better late than never)
Sonow no ones in charge of the world? The Elders of Islam are moving up? Arhata Elders of Zion to Retire Backward: A Purim Spoof By Anthony Weiss Published March 04, 2009, issue of March 13, 2009. Print Email Share Author Archive Purim The Elders of Zion, the venerable and shadowy Jewish organization that controls the international banking industry, news media and Hollywood, has announced that it is disbanding so that members can retire to Florida and live out their golden years on the golf course. We had a good run, said one senior Elder, reminiscing over old photographs of world leaders in his musty, wood-paneled office at an undisclosed location. Maybe we ran the world for just a little too long. Anyway, now it's Obama's problem. After a humiliating year left most of its financial holdings, as well as the entire civilized world, on the verge of collapse, the organization has re-defined its mission in terms of bridge games and making it to restaurants for the Early Bird Special. BACKWARD ASSOCIATION The Wild Bunch: The Elders of Zion, pictured here in younger, more rambunctious days, are hanging up their fezzes and heading south. Noted Morris (third from left), `The only thing I'm looking to dominate now is a Piña Colada.' The announcement comes after a year in which many of the Elders' most prized institutions suffered disheartening failures. The vaunted global banking system, which lay at the heart of Jewish world domination for almost two centuries, collapsed with astonishing rapidity, requiring trillions of dollars in bailout funds. The newspaper industry, through which the Elders have controlled world opinion, is in shambles, with prominent papers declaring bankruptcy and forcing millions of readers to form their own opinions. And, in the unkindest cut, Hollywood suffered the humiliation of losing the Oscar for Best Picture to Indian film Slumdog Millionaire. The organization' s reputation for financial probity had also taken a hit amidst rumors of billions in losses in private Kalooki games against Sheikh Hamad bin `Isa of Bahrain. According to inside sources, the organization also lost close to $1 trillion with disgraced investor Bernard Madoff. Even before this past year, though, the Elders were facing hard times as they struggled to stay relevant and attract young members. The organization has tried to project a more youthful image, setting up a Facebook page and founding a new Hipsters of Zion youth division, which has sponsored a number of singles nights. But youngsters haven't been interested. World domination just doesn't resonate with the younger generation of Jews, said Marvin Tobman, a professor of non-profit management at San Diego State University and expert on Jewish communal life. They want the fun of fixing the world, not the responsibility of running it. These recent troubles have worried even some of the Elders' sharpest critics. I always used to complain that Jews ran the world, said Reginald Weber, author of Zionists and Zookeepers: The Unholy Alliance. But now I'm starting to worry that nobody's in charge.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 5:20 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: On Mar 15, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Duveyoung wrote: The Christians whom I've banged against think that TM's pure being is the Devil's Playground -- one is opening one's self to demonic possession, ya see? Maybe that comes not from TM itself, but from the people practicing it. Do you remember the Domes during the heyday of screaming and yelling? Imagine what they would have thought in Fiuggi, with dozens of people sitting in lecture halls twitching uncontrollably, their bodies shaking, their arms spasming out of control like Doctor Absoderlickliebe (Strangelove). Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: [StruggleWithJudaism] Elders of Zion to Retire (Better late than never)
Yes, I knew this was coming. (Please don't ask how). Hilarious. BTW, is that Rush Limbaugh in the upper right hand corner? Who'd have ever guessed! Of course as long as the Merovingian dynasty of Jesus and the Magdalen are still alive, secretly practicing Cathar gnostico-sexual rites, I know I can still sleep soundly at night and get some consolamentum. On Mar 16, 2009, at 8:06 AM, Arhata Osho wrote: Elders of Zion to Retire Backward: A Purim Spoof By Anthony Weiss Published March 04, 2009, issue of March 13, 2009.. Print Email Share Author Archive Purim The Elders of Zion, the venerable and shadowy Jewish organization that controls the international banking industry, news media and Hollywood, has announced that it is disbanding so that members can retire to Florida and live out their golden years on the golf course. We had a good run, said one senior Elder, reminiscing over old photographs of world leaders in his musty, wood-paneled office at an undisclosed location. Maybe we ran the world for just a little too long. Anyway, now it's Obama's problem. After a humiliating year left most of its financial holdings, as well as the entire civilized world, on the verge of collapse, the organization has re-defined its mission in terms of bridge games and making it to restaurants for the Early Bird Special.. BACKWARD ASSOCIATION The Wild Bunch: The Elders of Zion, pictured here in younger, more rambunctious days, are hanging up their fezzes and heading south. Noted Morris (third from left), `The only thing I'm looking to dominate now is a Piña Colada.' The announcement comes after a year in which many of the Elders' most prized institutions suffered disheartening failures. The vaunted global banking system, which lay at the heart of Jewish world domination for almost two centuries, collapsed with astonishing rapidity, requiring trillions of dollars in bailout funds. The newspaper industry, through which the Elders have controlled world opinion, is in shambles, with prominent papers declaring bankruptcy and forcing millions of readers to form their own opinions. And, in the unkindest cut, Hollywood suffered the humiliation of losing the Oscar for Best Picture to Indian film Slumdog Millionaire. The organization' s reputation for financial probity had also taken a hit amidst rumors of billions in losses in private Kalooki games against Sheikh Hamad bin `Isa of Bahrain. According to inside sources, the organization also lost close to $1 trillion with disgraced investor Bernard Madoff. Even before this past year, though, the Elders were facing hard times as they struggled to stay relevant and attract young members. The organization has tried to project a more youthful image, setting up a Facebook page and founding a new Hipsters of Zion youth division, which has sponsored a number of singles nights. But youngsters haven't been interested. World domination just doesn't resonate with the younger generation of Jews, said Marvin Tobman, a professor of non-profit management at San Diego State University and expert on Jewish communal life. They want the fun of fixing the world, not the responsibility of running it. These recent troubles have worried even some of the Elders' sharpest critics. I always used to complain that Jews ran the world, said Reginald Weber, author of Zionists and Zookeepers: The Unholy Alliance. But now I'm starting to worry that nobody's in charge.
Re: [FairfieldLife] BBC News Online: Warning over narcissistic pupils
I was quite spoiled as a small child - with attention - breast fed, large family, I also had three older sisters , grandmother living across the street. I was very much feeling - entitled - until I watched my father die when I was eight. Everything changed. But I still recognize this entitlement streak in my nature and I can add that it has not helped me in life at all. On the other hand, I think that when shrinks think they know something that's when we should consider the job just begun. My experience Mith Maharishi School Children was none of this. A lot of them were as polite as can be. I remember a small boy who had an old father, who sometimes when I was going to class would grab my hand and walk with me. It was a nice place. In the eighties. I'm sure that Taste of Utopia was the previous high point of the US Movement, and present World Movement. - Original Message - From: I am the eternal l.shad...@gmail.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 8:46 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] BBC News Online: Warning over narcissistic pupils My teacher friends in Ireland, Scotland and Texas tell me this article describes what's going on in their school. I have no idea what goes on at the Maharishi School but I can tell you that I never, ever want to be near a TM brat. The kid screams, cries, screams and I never hear even hush. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7943906.stm Page last updated at 16:56 GMT, Saturday, 14 March 2009 Warning over narcissistic pupils By Katherine Sellgren BBC News, at the ASCL conference The growing expectation placed on schools and parents to boost pupils' self-esteem is breeding a generation of narcissists, an expert has warned. Dr Carol Craig said children were being over-praised and were developing an all about me mentality. She said teachers increasingly faced complaints from parents if their child failed a spelling test or did not get a good part in the school pantomime. Schools needed to reclaim their role as educators, not psychologists, she said. Dr Craig, who is chief executive of the centre for confidence and well-being in Scotland, was speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders conference in Birmingham. She told head teachers the self-esteem agenda, imported from the United States, was a a big fashionable idea that had gone too far. She said an obsession with boosting children's self-esteem was encouraging a narcissistic generation who focussed on themselves and felt entitled. They (schools) are not surrogate psychologists or mental health professionals Dr Carol Craig Narcissists make terrible relationship partners, parents and employees. It's not a positive characteristic. We are in danger of encouraging this, she said. And we are kidding ourselves if we think that we aren't going to undermine learning if we restrict criticism. Parents no longer want to hear if their children have done anything wrong. This is the downside of the self-esteem agenda. I'm not saying it's of no value… but you get unintentional consequences. Since 2007, there has been a statutory responsibility on schools in England to improve pupils' well-being and primary and secondary schools are increasingly teaching social and emotional skills. Indeed it is possible that Ofsted inspectors will soon appraise schools' performance in this area; and well-being could be one of the measures used in the school report card system that the government wants to introduce. But Dr Craig told head teachers that this was not the role of schools. Schools have to hold out that they are educational establishments, she said. They are not surrogate psychologists or mental health professionals. Learning about feelings from a professional in a classroom did not send out a positive message, she added. And she warned there was a danger the more schools taught emotional well-being, the less parents would take responsibility. We run the risk of undermining the family as the principal agent of sociability, she said. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com 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:fairfieldlife-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:fairfieldlife-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: fairfieldlife-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use
[FairfieldLife] Re: The Spirit Level - could change politics
yes this is about correlational clusters but other studies coming out also pointing to the social curse of inequality, like recent one from the World Health Organization: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/mar/11/mental-health-inequality which found that even the better off in societies with more inequality have more mental health problems than their counterparts in societies with lower inequality, so not a question about poverty, bad education etc per se although obviously these are ALSO contributing factors... Who has the agenda here though? Right-wingers threatened by such findings? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, grate.swan no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, claudiouk claudiouk@ wrote: they find is that, in states and countries where there is a big gap between the incomes of rich and poor, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, obesity and teenage pregnancy are more common, the homicide rate is higher, life expectancy is shorter, and children's educational performance and literacy scores are worse. The gap in income distribution has grown over the last 20-30 years and is troubling. However, By this description, what they found are the seeds of many many hypotheses, 99% of which they ignore. And they appear from your de3scripton to have croowend their favorite hypothesis as fact. As solid as thier hypothesis are: A country with x lead leads to large gap in income distribution (LGID). X could be mental illness, obesity, alcohol abuse, etc. And what about third factors? maybe both LGID and any of the x's, say mental illness, might both stem, from low levels of education. Or perhaps education that is too specialized -- not breaded and well rounded enough. What about unknown factors. Maybe there are factors y and z that we have not connected to the ills above, but indeed are the root of the problem. The Scandinavian countries and Japan consistently come at the positive end of this spectrum. They have the smallest differences between higher and lower incomes, and the best record of psycho-social health. And this somehow proves that the first leads to the other? The countries with the widest gulf between rich and poor, and the highest incidence of most health and social problems, are Britain, America and Portugal. The authors' method is objective and scientific, If it is, you have not presented any part of that. What is presented is someone starting with an agenda and filling in observations that appear to make their point. I am not arguing for or against LGID. I am arguing against agenda driven science. That's Bushian.
[FairfieldLife] Problem encountered at the Gates of Heaven
Image at Gates of Heaven: http://neatorama.cachefly.net/images/2007-01/believer-jerk.gif Christian imagery of scolding: Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.' Matthew 23:16 Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Matthew 23:19 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. Luke 11:52 ===
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 15, 2009, at 6:25 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: I think once you are discussing the perspective of the 10 commandments you are assuming that. Thou shalt not have other Gods before thee contains the assumption that this is an option. So I don't believe that most Christians don't have a problem with this since it is the first commandment. By the time they get to adultery they seem to get more casual... Isn't it interesting that in the 10 Comms there's no commandment against rape? Sal
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bat-Shit Insane -- A Generalized Rant About Language
Is this just narcissism on Barry's part, or does it cross the line into solipsism? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: snip Look back at this week's posts, Ruth. I carefully did NOT reply to any of Judy's provocations, and instead laid low. (Except for the Starship Any Day Now. Mea culpa.) And so what happened? Judy began to attack you. Next up would have been Sal. Think I'm exaggerating? Watch for the trends in the future. Since Barry professes to be keeping such close track of my posts dealing with him, I decided to keep track myself for a week or two to see whether his counts were accurate. From March 6 through Sunday, *exactly two* of my posts concerning Barry were NOT in response to provocations of me by Barry. And one of those was not a provocation but simply a comment on something he'd said about Lynch's school program. The other was the old post I reproduced from alt.m.t in which he suggested TM critics were so angry because they felt themselves to be failures. The conclusion is inescapable: Barry's many attacks on me this past week were a function of his freakout over my having stumbled on that old post of his, because that was the only provocation of mine that wasn't directly inspired by a provocation of his. The other conclusion is that Barry simply makes up his tallies, as he does above, and appears to forget his own provocations, as well as his responses to my replies to them, as soon as he's made them.
[FairfieldLife] The Uncertainty, The Darkness, and Waking Up at 3 A.M.
March 15, 2009 A few days ago, I went out my door for a walk. After going down the gravel road in front of my house for a few minutes, I found myself staring straight on at a small group of deer. What a beautiful sight they were. As we stood there locked in a long gaze for several minutes, I noticed that instead of the five I had counted, there were actually ten. Eventually, they moved oh so slowly away and I progressed on with my walk. On my way back home, as I neared my house, there they were again, as they had moved along on their journey, crossed though my land, and ended up along another stretch of the gravel road I was journeying upon. This time, there were eleven, but as we stood there looking at each other once again, another deer emerged, making a total of twelve. Again, we had a wonderful encounter and interaction, and again we moved on with our own journeys. It occurred to me, as I encountered this beautiful gentle energy of the deer, yet twice in one day, that they possessed a wonderful message. At first they appeared as five…the energy of change. Then came ten…the energy of new beginnings with the zero being an extra energy of special inner gifts. Progressing to eleven, a new portal was opened, with the dual number one serving as pillars of new beginning energy for a wonderful entry point. And then eventually, they emerged as twelve…the final energy of a higher way of being..of a new dimension…of completion and perfection. And this is what is occurring now for so many of us. First we experienced great change and much that was new. The energies were encouraging us to leave much of everything behind and to set up a very new foundation for ourselves. New and different was the theme. Change readying for new beginnings. Along with this, we progressed through a portal to a new and different shore. And currently, depending upon where you are on your journey home, there may be a strange and unsettling calm, a void or standstill, a space of no movement, and a wondering where you are now. As always, we wait for the perfect time…we wait for enough souls to come to their own places on this journey…their own places in the new with their own new foundations now being set up. So in this way, after we progress to a certain point we may feel that not much is occurring, as the critical mass needs to be met before the next big surge forward and big experience of new and exciting adventures can arrive. Yes, we are laying a very important new foundation now. We all need to be ready. From new web sites, to new cars, to new clothes, better health, or perhaps new homes and new friends, we are preparing for something very big…for the new dimension of completion and perfection. We are now being asked to wait as everything is not quite where it needs to be before we move ahead. All the pieces are not yet together as a whole. It is not yet time. Shortly after the equinox on March 20th, there will be a bit of a shift along with the new moon on the 26th, and our new beginnings will then begin to open more fully. Waking Up At 3 A.M. Part of this preparation involves waking up at around 3 a.m. every morning, unable to go back to sleep. The last time I saw this happening was a very long time ago, when we were adjusting to the higher vibrations and evolving very rapidly in the beginning stages of our spiritual evolutionary, or ascension process. There is a lot of energy running through us as we are preparing. Our souls want to get moving with their new roles, but it is not yet time. We are grounding in the new energies here in our new spaces, and thus, we indeed need to be here and not in another reality of dream time. We need a break from being gone as so much is occurring on all levels…we need to be here. If you are one who is unusually sensitive, you may be finding it difficult to be out in the world, or to even have interactions at all with anything going on “out there.” Much of the old world can feel downright awful, as it is currently in such a major transition that the instability can throw us off balance and off course. Sensitives can oh so easily pick up these feelings of instability and uncertainty from others, but know as well, that the energies of the fall itself can be ever present as well. The energy of uncertainly, as all the pieces are not yet together for a big thrust forward, can be felt at all levels. At our soul levels we always know what is occurring. Thus, our souls serve to protect us in every way by making it very clear what is occurring at higher levels. The uncertainly can manifest as fear and uneasiness, as a jittery feeling of insecurity and vulnerability, but it is only our souls telling us to wait a bit longer before we forge ahead. It can be difficult to make any kind of decision then, as there is so much unpredictability now present, as well as these energies now being shaky, confusing, not attached to anything, and simply hanging
[FairfieldLife] Re: Irresponsible Advice
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shukra69 shukr...@... wrote: Hagelin is a physicist who teaches physics and so was Maharishi, Well, he is said to have a B.A. degree in physics. That doesn't really make him a physicist. so is the head of the Maharishi school in Fairfield. Of course they want more mathematicians . You can't get anywhere in Physics without Math. You are misunderstanding something there. I think this must be the case. I just checked the MUM Web site, and it has a B.S. in math with *40 math courses*, all apparently in standard areas (including higher math), except for one course in Maharishi's Vedic Mathematics. Students can get certification to teach elementary or secondary school math. Also: The faculty organize annual mathematics festivals at the University that have attracted hundreds of high school students. Students regularly present their own research papers at the annual meeting of the Iowa Section of the Mathematical Association of America. Several students have received Outstanding Student Paper awards. Students participate in national and regional mathematics competitions. Two teams have received Honorable Mentions for their creativity and teamwork in the national Competition in Mathematical Modeling. It's hard to see how MUM students could participate in these programs and competitions if they didn't have a solid founction in standard modern math. If MMY thought studying modern mathematics was a waste of time, it looks like he forgot to tell MUM. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Rick Archer rick@ wrote: snip One kid asked him whether he should study modern mathematics, which he obviously wanted to do. Apparently he had heard that MMY has said that it was a waste of time. MMY reaffirmed that it was a waste of time, and proceeded to explain why in a way that made it obvious he didn't really know much about modern mathematics or probably even Vedic mathematics. This struck me as irresponsible, as the kid obviously respected MMY's opinion, and might forfeit a promising career based upon it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: snip The Buddhists and other more honestly Hindu groups seem to do an OK job of this disclosure. I don't think it's comparable, though. The Hindu groups don't think of themselves as not conflicting with other religions, and Buddhists don't have gods. Many Hindus believe that all other religions are contained within Hinduism. Plenty of Indians spiritual masters have claimed this about Christianity including Yogananda and his predecessor in the West Swami Vivekananda. I don't think they're comparable. Let's see, a self-proclaimed yogi comes to America, gains a following including Hollywood actors and entertainment business people by offering a method for inner peace for the East. It's not only comparable the guys almost all ran the same campaign. If you read Vivekananda and Yogananda it is clear. They believed that their spirituality contained Jesus as some sort of minor avatar. And plenty of versions of Buddhism does include Gods. The most common form in Thailand, Theravada Buddhism has all sorts of beings to propitiate. But they are not evangelical. And Thailand isn't the West. The refutation was about your claim that Buddhists don't have gods. This is false. I don't understand the relevance in pointing out the geographic location of Thailand. There are thousands of South East Asians in my area and I've been to their temples and seen their gods. snip I don't think what you find on the Internet amounts to a comprehensive understanding. If someone can't form an educated opinion of the different sides of this issue from the material that has been generated on this site and ALT TM they are pretty thick. Biases can be noted and a person can find out that the brochure version of the TM teaching is not the whole story. Alt.m.t and FFL are about the *last* places I'd recommend for a clear and comprehensive understanding. snip But you have been an enthusiastic advocate of your position and that is all on record so I don't know why you don't feel more positively towards the work we have all done to make our view known. On FFL we all, or almost all, have a common basis of understanding, and that was largely true on alt.m.t as well. That's the big missing piece, experience of the practice and also of the instruction. I thought we were discussing people who wanted more information about TM BEFORE they start. snip More to the point, what difference does it make to the 2x20 practitioner what MMY's religious practices were as long as he wasn't teaching them? In my campaign to phone the 10,000 TM initiates at the DC center in '84, I found that this demographic is a myth, even back then. The number of people who continue the practice without going on is insignificant. Again you are deciding what difference it makes to the person who doesn't know the history of their practice. I am in favor of more disclosure and you seem reluctant to worry their pretty little heads. I think we disagree about the religious nature of japa meditation using TM mantras. I don't even think TM can be called japa. Or if TM is japa, then what's currently taught as japa isn't japa. In his earlier works Maharishi defined TM in exactly the same way. He even taught it that way in India, asking for a person's Istadeva. If he respected Western religions as he did his own precious Hinduism he would have given Christians the name of Jesus as their mantra as the the monks do in the Jesus prayer. But as a triumphalist he kept it Hindu. That aside, you and I have very different understandings of the nature of religion and the nature of TM. Yes. And you didn't answer my question. You lost me here, snip Seems to me the folks who could benefit most from TM are the ones who either wouldn't want to go to the trouble of personalizing it or would consider doing so anathema. I really haven't found one of the benifits of TM is making someone more open minded have you? I've seen it, but that's not the point. But believing that you might know what is best for a person and withholding full disclosure about the TM practice seem to be far apart on the ethics spectrum. I don't think that's some kind of absolute. I think it's all much more complicated than that. I am advocating the the new meditator gets to be the judge of that. I also think this ethics of full disclosure issue is often more something to bash MMY with than it is a concern for the sensibilities of religionists. Here you use a Sophist trick to imply that my motives are somehow suspect. Even the term bash Maharishi is full of spin. After researching his teaching for 15 years I have concluded that Maharishi is wrong about his theories of human consciousness and development. I have concluded after being trained as a
Re: [FairfieldLife] Alice Waters - 60 minutes
Yeah, she's cool. I have started slowly doing some service for their Green school in NOLA. - Original Message - From: Arhata Osho To: arhatafreespe...@yahoo.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 12:35 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Alice Waters - 60 minutes 1.. News results for alice waters Alice Waters' Crusade For Better Food - 5 hours ago Alice Waters has been preaching the virtues of cultivating fresh food for decades. As Lesley Stahl reports, this world-renowned chef and restaurateur hopes ... CBS News - 4 related articles »
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment
Tender Buddy, slack off a bit on the caffeine. - Original Message - From: TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 4:30 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, billy jim emptyb...@... wrote: On the other hand, the Lama I work with, Younge Khachab Rimpoche, insists that HHDL is also yogi and not just a scholar. I have asked him this at least three times. He should know since he is a Geshe Rabjam trained at Ganden Monastery (the Dalai Lama's own) and is a Rime scholar-yogin himself. Although trained as a Geshe, he is a Kagyu Khenpo Dzogchen yogi scholar. That means I have it on good authority who is the real thing. Yeah, but does he have a Hall Monitor sash? Without one of those no one can be considered an authority. :-) To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: On Mar 15, 2009, at 6:25 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: I think once you are discussing the perspective of the 10 commandments you are assuming that. Thou shalt not have other Gods before thee contains the assumption that this is an option. So I don't believe that most Christians don't have a problem with this since it is the first commandment. By the time they get to adultery they seem to get more casual... Isn't it interesting that in the 10 Comms there's no commandment against rape? Sal Or slavery. Holding up the 10 Commandments as some sort of moral guide is one of my pet peeves. There are actually two versions of them in the Bible. And the penalty is death. So the same people who recognize that killing someone for sleeping with another person's wife is ridiculous, still think it is appropriate to hold up this nonsense as a profound insight for society. Only 2 of them are widely enforced by our legal system.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also. I believe there is a direct connection between flying and the speaking in tongues experience with the use of a trance state within a social belief context as the link. On Mar 16, 2009, at 5:20 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunshine@ wrote: On Mar 15, 2009, at 3:40 PM, Duveyoung wrote: The Christians whom I've banged against think that TM's pure being is the Devil's Playground -- one is opening one's self to demonic possession, ya see? Maybe that comes not from TM itself, but from the people practicing it. Do you remember the Domes during the heyday of screaming and yelling? Imagine what they would have thought in Fiuggi, with dozens of people sitting in lecture halls twitching uncontrollably, their bodies shaking, their arms spasming out of control like Doctor Absoderlickliebe (Strangelove). Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@... wrote: On Mar 15, 2009, at 6:25 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: I think once you are discussing the perspective of the 10 commandments you are assuming that. Thou shalt not have other Gods before thee contains the assumption that this is an option. So I don't believe that most Christians don't have a problem with this since it is the first commandment. By the time they get to adultery they seem to get more casual... Isn't it interesting that in the 10 Comms there's no commandment against rape? Sal It's just interesting or do you have an opinion about it? IMO rape is included in the commandments against coveting, stealing and murder. Coveting precedes rape: A rapist craves a woman to satisfy his desire. Stealing: A rapist covets a woman then he takes her. A woman owns her body. Taking a woman's body by force without her permission is rape/stealing. Murder: Rape is an act of violence intended to destroy a woman's right to self-preservation. Rape often engenders permanent damage to the woman's sense of well being, if not a murderous end to her life.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
---Men get raped by women too, as well as by each other as well as the others by the others. ---Let's face it 'getting used' is just a subtle form of rape. Men 'get used' just as women, so some women think it's open season. It's not always fun or nice. hehe :) Isn't it interesting that in the 10 Comms there's no commandment against rape? Sal It's just interesting or do you have an opinion about it? IMO rape is included in the commandments against coveting, stealing and murder. Coveting precedes rape: A rapist craves a woman to satisfy his desire. Stealing: A rapist covets a woman then he takes her. A woman owns her body. Taking a woman's body by force without her permission is rape/stealing. Murder: Rape is an act of violence intended to destroy a woman's right to self-preservation. Rape often engenders permanent damage to the woman's sense of well being, if not a murderous end to her life. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Kirk kirk_bernha...@... wrote: Tender Buddy, slack off a bit on the caffeine. Coffee had nothing to do with it. I was poking fun at the idea of emptybill claiming someone as an authority simply because he's bought into the idea that he is an authority. If I may quote a noted Buddhist: All dharma groups are the same dysfunctional entities. This is simple fact. I happen to believe this, too. In person, if a teacher seems knowledgeable about things I am not, I am thankful for what he or she has to teach me. But I do not take ANYTHING they say as authoritative, or as coming from an authority. The things they say come, as far as I can tell, from Just Another Human Being, just like me, and possibly just as dysfunctional as me. One of the things I do here from time to time is point out the trick of appeal to authority. This trick is *always* the same, no matter who uses it, or for what reason. Einstein said X, and Einstein was an authority, therefore X is true. Replace 'Einstein' with 'Maharishi' in that sentence, and you have Maharishisez, used as a thought-stopper. Replace 'Einstein' with 'Younge Khachab Rimpoche' in that sentence, and you have exactly the same thing used IMO not only as a thought-stopper but as an example of My guru's lineage is longer and better than than your guru's lineage. Replace 'lineage' with 'dick' in that last sentence, and you have what I think is really being said. - Original Message - From: TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 4:30 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, billy jim emptybill@ wrote: On the other hand, the Lama I work with, Younge Khachab Rimpoche, insists that HHDL is also yogi and not just a scholar. I have asked him this at least three times. He should know since he is a Geshe Rabjam trained at Ganden Monastery (the Dalai Lama's own) and is a Rime scholar-yogin himself. Although trained as a Geshe, he is a Kagyu Khenpo Dzogchen yogi scholar. That means I have it on good authority who is the real thing. Yeah, but does he have a Hall Monitor sash? Without one of those no one can be considered an authority. :-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, raunchydog raunchy...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine salsunshine@ wrote: On Mar 15, 2009, at 6:25 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: I think once you are discussing the perspective of the 10 commandments you are assuming that. Thou shalt not have other Gods before thee contains the assumption that this is an option. So I don't believe that most Christians don't have a problem with this since it is the first commandment. By the time they get to adultery they seem to get more casual... Isn't it interesting that in the 10 Comms there's no commandment against rape? Sal It's just interesting or do you have an opinion about it? IMO rape is included in the commandments against coveting, stealing and murder. Coveting precedes rape: A rapist craves a woman to satisfy his desire. Stealing: A rapist covets a woman then he takes her. A woman owns her body. Taking a woman's body by force without her permission is rape/stealing. Murder: Rape is an act of violence intended to destroy a woman's right to self-preservation. Rape often engenders permanent damage to the woman's sense of well being, if not a murderous end to her life. God gives women to certain men in the Bible as slaves for a reward. The Biblical God is not only NOT insinuating an anti rape and slavery message in his 10 Commandments, he is explicitly PRO rape and slavery. You are reading much too much into the commandments which start with a self-serving no-compete clause worthy of a car dealership franchise. I am a fan of the Bible as important literature, but on the human rights scale it gets an F.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment
No, I know, I got a good kick out of your one liner. Just cracking one back is all. For 'my dick' gurus who are biggest, I find the one most close to cumming is Longchenpa. Sorry if my way of putting that offends anyone, including the Dakinis. But you all know me by now. - Original Message - From: TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 10:26 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Kirk kirk_bernha...@... wrote: Tender Buddy, slack off a bit on the caffeine. Coffee had nothing to do with it. I was poking fun at the idea of emptybill claiming someone as an authority simply because he's bought into the idea that he is an authority. If I may quote a noted Buddhist: All dharma groups are the same dysfunctional entities. This is simple fact. I happen to believe this, too. In person, if a teacher seems knowledgeable about things I am not, I am thankful for what he or she has to teach me. But I do not take ANYTHING they say as authoritative, or as coming from an authority. The things they say come, as far as I can tell, from Just Another Human Being, just like me, and possibly just as dysfunctional as me. One of the things I do here from time to time is point out the trick of appeal to authority. This trick is *always* the same, no matter who uses it, or for what reason. Einstein said X, and Einstein was an authority, therefore X is true. Replace 'Einstein' with 'Maharishi' in that sentence, and you have Maharishisez, used as a thought-stopper. Replace 'Einstein' with 'Younge Khachab Rimpoche' in that sentence, and you have exactly the same thing used IMO not only as a thought-stopper but as an example of My guru's lineage is longer and better than than your guru's lineage. Replace 'lineage' with 'dick' in that last sentence, and you have what I think is really being said. - Original Message - From: TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 4:30 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Gayatri, Buddhist mantra, HHDL on enlightenment --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, billy jim emptybill@ wrote: On the other hand, the Lama I work with, Younge Khachab Rimpoche, insists that HHDL is also yogi and not just a scholar. I have asked him this at least three times. He should know since he is a Geshe Rabjam trained at Ganden Monastery (the Dalai Lama's own) and is a Rime scholar-yogin himself. Although trained as a Geshe, he is a Kagyu Khenpo Dzogchen yogi scholar. That means I have it on good authority who is the real thing. Yeah, but does he have a Hall Monitor sash? Without one of those no one can be considered an authority. :-) To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 10:54 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also. I believe there is a direct connection between flying and the speaking in tongues experience with the use of a trance state within a social belief context as the link. It would probably be harder to convince non-evangelicals however that speaking in tongues creates coherence in brain waves. :-) The bubbling bliss TMSP experience is also popular in some churches, and known as Holy Laughter Anointing. Same phenomenon, different context. In fact, Sarah Pailin is a bubbling blisser. The idea of Sarah's brain emitting coherence of any kind is indeed quite interesting! Nonetheless, comparing the two would be a very interesting study! Bubbling Bliss, Jesus-style: ON A RECENT WEEKNIGHT IN TORONTO, 1,500 worshipers gathered in the Vineyard Christian Church and had a good laugh. It began when a dozen pilgrims from Oregon got up to introduce themselves and then began to fall to the floor, laughing uncontrollably. An hour later, the huge new church looked like a field hospital. Dozens of men and women of all ages were lying on the floor: some were jerking spasmodically; others closed their eyes in silent ecstasy. A middle-aged woman kicked off her pumps and began whooping and trilling in a delicate dance. (Newsweek)
[FairfieldLife] The Protocols of the Drinkers of Coffee
Hate can make sense to the 'fear based, ignorant mind'. For the 'fragile non- mature minds this writing can make enough sense to further justify unexamined inner feelings of millions - and, IT DOES! Coincidentally, the CEO of Starbucks (Howard Schultz) is a contemporary of mine who was also in the same Summer house as I was when we were both corporate salesmen for big corporations in Manhattan (his was Xerox). He was and IS no more of a negative Zionist than I am or Santa Clause and Easter Bunny is (or, ARE THEY?).. Words create illusions that control idiots! Arhata Jewish World Review March 16, 2009 / 20 Adar 5769 The Protocols of the Drinkers of Coffee By Melanie Phillips If this were only a joke! What we are up against within the Islamic world is quite simply a wholesale negation of reason; nothing less http://www.JewishWo rldReview. com | From Egypt, further evidence that the Islamist hatred of the Jews is not caused by Israel's behaviour or even its existence. It's caused by... hatred of the Jews. Here, Egyptian cleric Muhammad Hussein Ya'qoub raves: If the Jews left Palestine to us, would we start loving them? Of course not. We will never love them. Absolutely not. The Jews are infidels – not because I say so, and not because they are killing Muslims, but because Allah said: 'The Jews say that Uzair is the son of Allah, and the Christians say that Christ is the son of Allah. These are the words from their mouths. They imitate the sayings of the disbelievers before. May Allah fight them. How deluded they are.' It is Allah who said that they are infidels. Your belief regarding the Jews should be, first, that they are infidels, and second, that they are enemies. They are enemies not because they occupied Palestine. They would have been enemies even if they did not occupy a thing. Allah said: 'You shall find the strongest men in enmity to the disbelievers [sic] to be the Jews and the polytheists. ' Third, you must believe that the Jews will never stop fighting and killing us. They [fight] not for the sake of land and security, as they claim, but for the sake of their religion: 'And they will not cease fighting you until they turn you back you're your religion, if they can.' This is it. We must believe that our fighting with the Jews is eternal, and it will not end until the final battle – and this is the fourth point. You must believe that we will fight, defeat, and annihilate them, until not a single Jew remains on the face of the Earth. Egypt, let us not forget, is a `moderate' Arab state that has a peace agreement with Israel. It is nevertheless a major source of barking-mad Jewish demonisation in the Arab world. Here is Egyptian Cleric Salama Abd Al-Qawi warning Muslims against the Protocols of the Elders of Zion – the notorious Czarist forged claim that the Jews covertly rule the world — and many US companies : They [the Jews]began conspiring to annihilate the Islamic and Arab nation, to plunder its resources, and to destroy its youth. Regretfully, the plots they hatched are being implemented today in detail. One of their conspiracies, which stemmed from their black hatred, was to gain control over the entire global economy, bringing the world under their thumb. So they founded huge companies, which, like spiders, send their webs all over the world. The main goal of these companies was to erase Islamic identity. ... Many basic products, which may be found in many Muslim households, like the Ariel, Tide, and Persil laundry detergents, are made by Zionist companies. The Coca Cola and Pepsi companies and all their products – Seven Up, Miranda, Fania, and all these products, all the carbonated beverages, with very few exceptions that don't bear mention... Almost all the carbonated beverages are Zionist-American products. [...] Some restaurants, I'm sad to say, are teeming with Muslim youth, and their safes are full of the money of Muslims... McDonalds is Jewish-Zionist, Kentucky Fried Chicken is Jewish-Zionist, Little Caesar, Pizza Hut, Domino's Pizza, Burger King... By the way, all these products, which I have mentioned... In addition, there is a new type of coffee these days... All these are pure Zionist products, especially what is known as Starbucks, the well-known coffee. It is Zionist. Ah yes, Starbucks: home of the Zionist genocidal apartheid bean.. In January, Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi brought viewers of al Nas TV urgent news about the Starbucks logo: Has any of you ever wondered who this woman with a crown on her head is? Why do we boycott Starbucks? ... The girl on the Starbucks logo is Queen Esther. Do you know who Queen Esther was and what the crown on her head means? This is the crown of the Persian Kingdom. This queen is the queen of the Jews. She is mentioned in the Torah, in the Book of Esther. The girl you see is Esther, the queen of the Jews in Persia... Can you believe that in
Re: [FairfieldLife] The Uncertainty, The Darkness, and Waking Up at 3 A.M.
Interesting! Where is the small town? What kind of a dog walks with you at that hour (here all females at night walk with dogs in this very safe town). Arhata March 15, 2009 A few days ago, I went out my door for a walk. After going down the gravel road in front of my house for a few minutes, I found myself staring straight on at a small group of deer. What a beautiful sight they were. As we stood there locked in a long gaze for several minutes, I noticed that instead of the five I had counted, there were actually ten. Eventually, they moved oh so slowly away and I progressed on with my walk. On my way back home, as I neared my house, there they were again, as they had moved along on their journey, crossed though my land, and ended up along another stretch of the gravel road I was journeying upon. This time, there were eleven, but as we stood there looking at each other once again, another deer emerged, making a total of twelve. Again, we had a wonderful encounter and interaction, and again we moved on with our own journeys. It occurred to me, as I encountered this beautiful gentle energy of the deer, yet twice in one day, that they possessed a wonderful message. At first they appeared as five…the energy of change. Then came ten…the energy of new beginnings with the zero being an extra energy of special inner gifts. Progressing to eleven, a new portal was opened, with the dual number one serving as pillars of new beginning energy for a wonderful entry point. And then eventually, they emerged as twelve…the final energy of a higher way of being..of a new dimension…of completion and perfection. And this is what is occurring now for so many of us. First we experienced great change and much that was new. The energies were encouraging us to leave much of everything behind and to set up a very new foundation for ourselves. New and different was the theme. Change readying for new beginnings. Along with this, we progressed through a portal to a new and different shore. And currently, depending upon where you are on your journey home, there may be a strange and unsettling calm, a void or standstill, a space of no movement, and a wondering where you are now. As always, we wait for the perfect time…we wait for enough souls to come to their own places on this journey…their own places in the new with their own new foundations now being set up. So in this way, after we progress to a certain point we may feel that not much is occurring, as the critical mass needs to be met before the next big surge forward and big experience of new and exciting adventures can arrive. Yes, we are laying a very important new foundation now. We all need to be ready. From new web sites, to new cars, to new clothes, better health, or perhaps new homes and new friends, we are preparing for something very big…for the new dimension of completion and perfection. We are now being asked to wait as everything is not quite where it needs to be before we move ahead. All the pieces are not yet together as a whole. It is not yet time. Shortly after the equinox on March 20th, there will be a bit of a shift along with the new moon on the 26th, and our new beginnings will then begin to open more fully. Waking Up At 3 A.M. Part of this preparation involves waking up at around 3 a.m. every morning, unable to go back to sleep. The last time I saw this happening was a very long time ago, when we were adjusting to the higher vibrations and evolving very rapidly in the beginning stages of our spiritual evolutionary, or ascension process. There is a lot of energy running through us as we are preparing. Our souls want to get moving with their new roles, but it is not yet time. We are grounding in the new energies here in our new spaces, and thus, we indeed need to be here and not in another reality of dream time. We need a break from being gone as so much is occurring on all levels…we need to be here. If you are one who is unusually sensitive, you may be finding it difficult to be out in the world, or to even have interactions at all with anything going on “out there.” Much of the old world can feel downright awful, as it is currently in such a major transition that the instability can throw us off balance and off course. Sensitives can oh so easily pick up these feelings of instability and uncertainty from others, but know as well, that the energies of the fall itself can be ever present as well. The energy of uncertainly, as all the pieces are not yet together for a big thrust forward, can be felt at all levels. At our soul levels we always know what is occurring. Thus, our souls serve to protect us in every way by making it very clear what is occurring at higher levels. The uncertainly can manifest as fear and uneasiness, as a jittery feeling of insecurity and vulnerability, but it is only our souls telling us to wait a bit longer before we forge ahead. It can be
[FairfieldLife] Immaculate Emanation.
Immaculate Emanation. Immaculate: Perfect, Pure, Pristine, Flawless, Faultless. Emanation: Production, Discharge, Release, Emission. What are you and from whence did you arise? What evidence exists for the answer to this question? Does it matter? Do you mind? But I say that I was made in my mummy's tummy? If you were then you are nought but a physical body, a machine. I say that you arose in another kind of womb and that you are not a body but a unique Mind. And I say that the greatest endowment bestowed upon you in that womb is the gift of Consciousness. And I would add that your greatest blessing during a lifetime here is to return to that womb in order to redeem your awareness of that fact. I would further add that to at least attempt putting yourself on the path of the quest to re-establish the awareness of that foundation would be beneficial and pragmatic. I say that you are an Immaculate Emanation, and that you arose before the rising of the sun and the shining of the stars, before the flowing of the waters, and the emergence of the land. I don't know what to say to that claim. Then don't say anything, for there is no need. Simply set about questioning yourself and asking yourself what you are and from whence you arose, for only your self knows the answer to that. So, find your self and you will know. And when you do come to know your self then you will also know the deepest inward depths of all things brought forth into emanation, and as to why they are issued forth, and in such multitude and variety. If it is as you say, and if I did come to find the source of my self existence then would I be joining some kind of elite group of people? No, you would be joining a tiny minority, as of yet, of beings who are castigated, ridiculed, rebuked, put down by the herd, shunned, despised. And yet you say that it would be beneficial, pragmatic, to find this ground of being of which you speak? Yes, for your sake and for life's sake. Where would I look for this immaculate foundation? Inwards. How would I set about the quest of looking ? By questioning your self and the condition of its natural reality of existence, and as to why you exist; and whilst doing these things in such a way that is sincere, honest, open, and pure, dedicated, striving to know and understand, and leaving yourself wide open to finding that no matter what you think that it may be or may be like prior to that knowing. Empty yourself of prejudgments and assumptions, and cling not to any ideas that you have collected from people along the way. Take no baggage with you along that search. Should I not listen to anybody else who may be offering good advice on all this? No, listen to nobody. For if they were right in so saying then you will come to find out that they were right in so saying; but if they were wrong then not only will you come to find out that they were wrong but that which they told you which was wrong will hamper you and obstruct your quest. Listen to everybody by all means, but subscribe to none of it as being the truth of it. You must find that for yourself alone, and with no assistance or the accompaniment of men. You have to take that journey alone. How will I know when I have found that which you are referring to? You will know it because it will be axiomatic, unarguable, unquestionable, indubitable, unreasonable, unearthly, and as plain and simple a ABC when known. You will not be able to questions its truth for you will be IT and living IT there back in that virgin, pristine, primordial womb in an eternal and unchanging NOW. That is how you will know. You will not be able say or even think that it is not so. So what exactly must I abandon or give up on this inward journey to attain to that primordial and first pure understanding ? You have to give up everything which have, everything which you own, everything which is on loan to you in time. You must lose it all, including time itself. This sounds utterly ridiculous. Yes it does, but that is how it is on that journey to it. But do not try discarding these things for yourself, for it is something which will be done to you, by that process itself, not something done by you. And yes, it is true that none of this is reasonable. That means that reason would never arrive it this foundation, or guess it or theorise it. But when known it does not defy reason, and even logical compression when known. Indeed it is dead simple to understand even by the daily rational discursive temporal mind, once it is known. It is dead simple. Nothing is easier to understand than what you are and from whence you come, whilst there. How will I know when this actual journey kicks into play and is beginning to happen? You will be in a dark place, alone; and maybe apprehensive. Along that journey you may see image emanations, visions, visual likenesses of this or that. But in due course all that will go, end, and you
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@ wrote: Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also. I believe there is a direct connection between flying and the speaking in tongues experience with the use of a trance state within a social belief context as the link. Perhaps, but have you seen the eeg of people speaking in tongues? L
[FairfieldLife] Maharishi Central University [Re: Irresponsible Advice]
Regarding Maharishi Central University, here's a video news clip from a television station in Hastings, NE, which was produced in May, 2008. http://new.khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?storytopic=10storyid=13392 I have been away from the TM movement for twenty-seven years, and this clip revives memories of discomfort over how grandiose things were getting when I left. Yet my memories of the TM community and attendance at MIU include deep, positive feelings of idealism, inner freedom and people all around me making personal sacrifices for higher, mutual ideals. Those ideals are embodied in the architectural computer animations and the partially completed buildings of the MCU campus in Smith Center, KS. Lately I've been musing on how the trajectory of the TM Organization, and that of the path I took afterwards, seems to parallel the path of Western society as a whole over the last 25 years or so. There has been a mood of optimism and dynamic progress, followed by a period of irrational exuberance, and now we find that we went a little too far and need to bring our optimism (reflected in the value of assets) back closer to concrete reality. Unfortunately, the tendency in a contraction is to become too pessimistic, so the value of assets plunges below what would be rational. I'm afraid the TM movement will be facing this contraction, just as wider society will. But does that mean that spirituality is headed for a contraction as well? IMO, Absolutely not! According to my intuition, history shows that the greatest spiritual progress has been made during the hardest times. God doesn't need a huge infrastructure to help his souls learn what he sent them here to learn. In the early seventies, the late historian and social commentator Studs Terkel collected audio interviews for his book Hard Times (selections on webpage below). Check out his conversation with Peggy Terry (near the bottom of the page). She didn't earn a Ph.D. (barely finished the sixth grade) but check out the revolution in her understanding as the result of living through the Great Depression! http://www.studsterkel.org/htimes.php --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, guyfawkes91 guyfawke...@... wrote: Anyone have any news on the 10,000's of students queuing up for Maharishi Central University? Last I heard Wynne was telling lies about how wonderful it was all going, while the local newspaper was reporting that the girders were rusting quite nicely and the weeds were coming along just fine but apart from that nothing was happening.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: The bubbling bliss TMSP experience is also popular in some churches, and known as Holy Laughter Anointing. One of the annoying personality characteristics I see in many heavy religious groups is the I'm happier than you plastered on smile. Gurus like Maharishi and Shri Ravi pull this one. I guess if a person meeting them is a bit insecure or unhappy this has an effect. But under that smile is just another human with the same happiness and sadness as the rest of us. When I talk to a super religious person (my hobby) I often feel that this mask has a bit of condescension. Of course this could just me my stuff projected onto them. But the tendency to show the outsider the happy face to make them believe your system of belief is all that, is pretty common. I remember the love bombing we used to do to non meditating visitors to MIU. Some like the poet Robert Bly saw through the ploy and called us out on it. That was an amazing moment in retrospect. But in my business dealings I have learned that the always happy mask is a deception to watch out for. It often hides a personal bitterness as I found out when I opened for one of my blues heroes. He was a big smiler whenever I meet him but once I got to know what a miserable fuck he was, I realized the smile was all an act. On Mar 16, 2009, at 10:54 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@ wrote: Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also. I believe there is a direct connection between flying and the speaking in tongues experience with the use of a trance state within a social belief context as the link. It would probably be harder to convince non-evangelicals however that speaking in tongues creates coherence in brain waves. :-) The bubbling bliss TMSP experience is also popular in some churches, and known as Holy Laughter Anointing. Same phenomenon, different context. In fact, Sarah Pailin is a bubbling blisser. The idea of Sarah's brain emitting coherence of any kind is indeed quite interesting! Nonetheless, comparing the two would be a very interesting study! Bubbling Bliss, Jesus-style: ON A RECENT WEEKNIGHT IN TORONTO, 1,500 worshipers gathered in the Vineyard Christian Church and had a good laugh. It began when a dozen pilgrims from Oregon got up to introduce themselves and then began to fall to the floor, laughing uncontrollably. An hour later, the huge new church looked like a field hospital. Dozens of men and women of all ages were lying on the floor: some were jerking spasmodically; others closed their eyes in silent ecstasy. A middle-aged woman kicked off her pumps and began whooping and trilling in a delicate dance. (Newsweek)
Re: [FairfieldLife] Success of drug decriminalization in Portugal
Drug decriminalization, starting with MedMare in Cali, will lead to greater psychiatric research which will be in turn good for basic human understanding. Dualizing drugs due to overweaned moral sensibility leads to them becoming hidden into the underpinnings of our world. People need to know how to personally relate to the world to obtain what they need for happy brain function. Nothing else seems reasonable. Drug decrim is a first step towards a world of better psychiatric understanding. Calling some criminal because they were not set up to entertain better living through chemistry is purely wrong. Before psychiatrists can prescribe meds for basic human illnesses of mind they must work with the ones which have worked longest with us, not just toss them all out. Since many mental illnesses occured as well through their use and abuse. Since they have longest longevity, and some may say 'morphagenic' availability for human understanding. Having entered the meme since before history. Some version of the magic mushroom grows everywhere on Earth. Spontaneously. We humans mix foodstuffs for our cattle which do not allow formation of shroomies. Specifically, so that we can't get to them. Quite a strange world. This little weed called a Datura with a purple or white flower has existed for all of human history. A strange side effect of atropine from Belladonna is that it counteracts some biological agents. Thus it's carried in army kits on front lines. Make drug decrim an avenue into humanism. This will help our VA hospitals as our Vets get back from wars. From where they were all drug addicted. By hook or crook. Otherwise an influx of rotting mental health is going to be the next big wave across America. It just may be anyway. Of course no one will say I told you so. It just seems so obvious. Just as I called the heroin influx. And now it's everywhere. Best not to ignore, but to utilize.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
Fascinating, really! - Original Message - From: Vaj To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 10:45 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson. On Mar 16, 2009, at 10:54 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Or the TMSP folks who couldn't stop twitching. Now there's research I'd like to have seen: TM-Sidhi Induced Tourrette Syndrome in Young College Students, a Longitudinal Study of fMRI and PET Imaging Outcomes Hey unstressing's good for you, so why study it? Duh. It would be interesting to compare them to Fundie Christians who fall on the floor and quake, rattle and twitch also. I believe there is a direct connection between flying and the speaking in tongues experience with the use of a trance state within a social belief context as the link. It would probably be harder to convince non-evangelicals however that speaking in tongues creates coherence in brain waves. :-) The bubbling bliss TMSP experience is also popular in some churches, and known as Holy Laughter Anointing. Same phenomenon, different context. In fact, Sarah Pailin is a bubbling blisser. The idea of Sarah's brain emitting coherence of any kind is indeed quite interesting! Nonetheless, comparing the two would be a very interesting study! Bubbling Bliss, Jesus-style: ON A RECENT WEEKNIGHT IN TORONTO, 1,500 worshipers gathered in the Vineyard Christian Church and had a good laugh. It began when a dozen pilgrims from Oregon got up to introduce themselves and then began to fall to the floor, laughing uncontrollably. An hour later, the huge new church looked like a field hospital. Dozens of men and women of all ages were lying on the floor: some were jerking spasmodically; others closed their eyes in silent ecstasy. A middle-aged woman kicked off her pumps and began whooping and trilling in a delicate dance. (Newsweek)
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 12:10 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: Some like the poet Robert Bly saw through the ploy and called us out on it. Do you remember what he said? I've seen both sides of it. I've definitely seen the smarmy, condescending, put on smile. But I've also seen actual ecstasy in Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Vodouisants, Shamans and Buddhists. The most useful seem to be those who knew how to use it deliberately and purposefully, rather than the more overt public display of their devotion, but I also repsect that it also is a community phenomenon. More numbers = greater coherence. Interesting to me is that Christians, once one has the experience of some Charismatic siddhi, they can pass it on, i.e. shaktipat of the Holy Spirit. It appears to be a universal phenomenon.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 12:05 PM, Kirk wrote: Fascinating, really! How much do you wanna bet that the more people who are present, the more powerful the laughter, divine drunkedness and divine slaying (passing out), etc.? Some of the people scream or make animal noises. Sound familiar? In India they call it bhava samadhi.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: On Mar 16, 2009, at 12:10 PM, curtisdeltablues wrote: Some like the poet Robert Bly saw through the ploy and called us out on it. Do you remember what he said? He called us out for not showing him our real human face with all our smiling. Of course I'm a happy smiley person usually so perhaps he was just a bitter old fuck! He said we were trying to be more than human with the full range of experiences with our bliss fixation. He felt our over the top standing ovations were manipulative. He actually got kind of pissed off at us and gave us quite a lecture. I've seen both sides of it. I've definitely seen the smarmy, condescending, put on smile. But I've also seen actual ecstasy in Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Vodouisants, Shamans and Buddhists. Yeah I was giving the most negitive interpretation. I've also met plenty of people who exude a lot of happiness, myself included. It can be a natural aspect of your neurology and POV and isn't necessarily evidence of some supernatural attainment. People who are fit, eat right, and don't have a shitty life, often project vitality and happiness. And some of them believe it is a result of their lifestyle and can be quite smug about it too. The most useful seem to be those who knew how to use it deliberately and purposefully, rather than the more overt public display of their devotion, but I also repsect that it also is a community phenomenon. More numbers = greater coherence. Interesting to me is that Christians, once one has the experience of some Charismatic siddhi, they can pass it on, i.e. shaktipat of the Holy Spirit. It appears to be a universal phenomenon.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Maharishi Central University [Re: Irresponsible Advice]
It is odd to be away from the TMO/MMY madness for so many years and then to hear people prattle on about nonsensical concepts such as the center of a country being where you can best influence the country (uh?) and building 50 campuses, one for each state. Such craziness. Can you imagine that place in 5 years? Just rusted steel girders, that's all. --- On Mon, 3/16/09, yateendrajee mcint...@scn.org wrote: From: yateendrajee mcint...@scn.org Subject: [FairfieldLife] Maharishi Central University [Re: Irresponsible Advice] To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, March 16, 2009, 12:02 PM Regarding Maharishi Central University, here's a video news clip from a television station in Hastings, NE, which was produced in May, 2008. http://new.khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?storytopic=10storyid=13392 I have been away from the TM movement for twenty-seven years, and this clip revives memories of discomfort over how grandiose things were getting when I left. Yet my memories of the TM community and attendance at MIU include deep, positive feelings of idealism, inner freedom and people all around me making personal sacrifices for higher, mutual ideals. Those ideals are embodied in the architectural computer animations and the partially completed buildings of the MCU campus in Smith Center, KS. Lately I've been musing on how the trajectory of the TM Organization, and that of the path I took afterwards, seems to parallel the path of Western society as a whole over the last 25 years or so. There has been a mood of optimism and dynamic progress, followed by a period of irrational exuberance, and now we find that we went a little too far and need to bring our optimism (reflected in the value of assets) back closer to concrete reality. Unfortunately, the tendency in a contraction is to become too pessimistic, so the value of assets plunges below what would be rational. I'm afraid the TM movement will be facing this contraction, just as wider society will. But does that mean that spirituality is headed for a contraction as well? IMO, Absolutely not! According to my intuition, history shows that the greatest spiritual progress has been made during the hardest times. God doesn't need a huge infrastructure to help his souls learn what he sent them here to learn. In the early seventies, the late historian and social commentator Studs Terkel collected audio interviews for his book Hard Times (selections on webpage below). Check out his conversation with Peggy Terry (near the bottom of the page). She didn't earn a Ph.D. (barely finished the sixth grade) but check out the revolution in her understanding as the result of living through the Great Depression! http://www.studsterkel.org/htimes.php --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, guyfawkes91 guyfawke...@... wrote: Anyone have any news on the 10,000's of students queuing up for Maharishi Central University? Last I heard Wynne was telling lies about how wonderful it was all going, while the local newspaper was reporting that the girders were rusting quite nicely and the weeds were coming along just fine but apart from that nothing was happening. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] Bhava samadhi photos
Very interesting photos of bhava samadhi: http://www.shiva.org/BhavaSamadhi.htm
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: snip The Buddhists and other more honestly Hindu groups seem to do an OK job of this disclosure. I don't think it's comparable, though. The Hindu groups don't think of themselves as not conflicting with other religions, and Buddhists don't have gods. Many Hindus believe that all other religions are contained within Hinduism. Plenty of Indians spiritual masters have claimed this about Christianity including Yogananda and his predecessor in the West Swami Vivekananda. I don't think they're comparable. Let's see, a self-proclaimed yogi comes to America, gains a following including Hollywood actors and entertainment business people by offering a method for inner peace for the East. Difference in *scope*. Plus which, Yogananda's students can't just get a quickie technique. Even the mail-order home-study course involves a year's study of Yogananda's metaphysical and how-to-live teachings and preliminary practices before they can even apply to learn Kriya Yoga (which involves formal commitment to a guru-disciple relationship). snip And plenty of versions of Buddhism does include Gods. The most common form in Thailand, Theravada Buddhism has all sorts of beings to propitiate. But they are not evangelical. And Thailand isn't the West. The refutation was about your claim that Buddhists don't have gods. I should have said Buddhism *as generally taught in the West to Westerners* doesn't have gods. I thought that would be understood. Thailand is a red herring in the context of this discussion. snip But you have been an enthusiastic advocate of your position and that is all on record so I don't know why you don't feel more positively towards the work we have all done to make our view known. On FFL we all, or almost all, have a common basis of understanding, and that was largely true on alt.m.t as well. That's the big missing piece, experience of the practice and also of the instruction. I thought we were discussing people who wanted more information about TM BEFORE they start. Exactly my point. On alt.m.t and FFL, with very few exceptions, we're talking to each other, not to wannabes. The wannabes are obviously missing our basis of experience for what we say. More to the point, what difference does it make to the 2x20 practitioner what MMY's religious practices were as long as he wasn't teaching them? In my campaign to phone the 10,000 TM initiates at the DC center in '84, I found that this demographic is a myth, even back then. The number of people who continue the practice without going on is insignificant. Even if that were the case globally, the folks I've been talking about are the ones who don't go on. I'm not making any claims about those who do. In any case, those who *do* go on discover what the story is for themselves. Just out of curiosity, how many people have you encountered who did go on who became upset because they felt they'd discovered that TM was in conflict with their religion? Again you are deciding what difference it makes to the person who doesn't know the history of their practice. I am in favor of more disclosure and you seem reluctant to worry their pretty little heads. I'm not deciding anything. And I made it very clear I was ambivalent about which way to go. I think we disagree about the religious nature of japa meditation using TM mantras. I don't even think TM can be called japa. Or if TM is japa, then what's currently taught as japa isn't japa. In his earlier works Maharishi defined TM in exactly the same way. He even taught it that way in India, asking for a person's Istadeva. I'm talking about the method itself. In everything I've ever read about japa, the point is the repetition, to say or think the mantra as many times as possible. Obviously that isn't the case with TM. If he respected Western religions as he did his own precious Hinduism he would have given Christians the name of Jesus as their mantra Unless he didn't think the name worked as a mantra.(*) If he didn't think Jesus would work as a mantra but gave it to Christians anyway, he'd be pandering to their religious beliefs just to get their $$$. But believing that you might know what is best for a person and withholding full disclosure about the TM practice seem to be far apart on the ethics spectrum. I don't think that's some kind of absolute. I think it's all much more complicated than that. I am advocating the the new meditator gets to be the judge of that. Yes, I know. I'm saying I'm not sure they can be given enough information in an intro lecture or even get it messing around on the Web to enable them to make a fully informed judgment, and that partially informed judgments
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
Uh, during the Eighties we cut out all that weird shit from the Domes. Some didn't stop, the butt bouncing seeming to emanate from someplace more what is it - brain stemmy?! As you are well aware the butt bouncing occurs in other Eastern religions as well. No different from sufis dancing or me dancing like I will be in a few minutes cause I have basic Spring Fever. Gotta clean, so play music. I was just impressed by her that's all. I just dig on women a bit too much. Is all. She wouldn't be less in touch with herself for the experience. I like women to be self actualized. It's a turn on. I liked her whether I care about politics or not. Anyone watching, Kings? - Original Message - From: Vaj To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 11:53 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson. On Mar 16, 2009, at 12:05 PM, Kirk wrote: Fascinating, really! How much do you wanna bet that the more people who are present, the more powerful the laughter, divine drunkedness and divine slaying (passing out), etc.? Some of the people scream or make animal noises. Sound familiar? In India they call it bhava samadhi.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 1:28 PM, Kirk wrote: Uh, during the Eighties we cut out all that weird shit from the Domes. Some didn't stop, the butt bouncing seeming to emanate from someplace more what is it - brain stemmy?! As you are well aware the butt bouncing occurs in other Eastern religions as well. No different from sufis dancing or me dancing like I will be in a few minutes cause I have basic Spring Fever. Gotta clean, so play music. I was just impressed by her that's all. I just dig on women a bit too much. Is all. She wouldn't be less in touch with herself for the experience. I like women to be self actualized. It's a turn on. I liked her whether I care about politics or not. Anyone watching, Kings? Yeah, I watched it. The Davey and Goliath redux was a bit much, but it was entertaining--other than the commercials. I'll record it next time so i can skip 'em. It was funny seeing Al Swearingen as King.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig lengli...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, sparaig LEnglish5@ wrote: Well, not everyone accepts the universal being schtick that is basically a Hindu interpretation of the TC state. As I have pointed out before, a strong atheist might well attain God Consciousness or Unity Consciousness' ala MMY's definitions and still remain a strong atheist. Just because YOU can't conceive of that happening doesn't mean its impossible, or even unlikely. If these states really ARE natural states of consciousness, then the number of interpretations of the states will be unlimited. L Lawson, your point of view is interesting. But why do you believe that these states may really be natural states of consciousness? Shurg, why not? Recent research on sucesful athletic champions and managers shows they fall closer to the enlightened part of the Brain Coherence Index than non-champions/unsucessful managers. If that research is replicated by idependents it might lend credibility to MMY's theory that enlightenment is natural whlie non-enlightenment indicates sub-optimal functioning. Even if you accept this, isn't it a huge step from here to God consciousness or Unity consciousness? Of course it is. Even Fred Travis won't discuss scientific research on GC/UC, at least with me. And even if long term meditators and champion athletes had similar brain patterns we don't know why and it doesn't say anything about whether the meditators are also now better, faster, smarter and closer to enlightenment. But I understand your interest. This was my interest years ago, I just didn't see things panning out. The meditators simply are not exhibiting characteristics of highly effective people in any noticable way. COmpared to WHOM? Someone else, or their younger selves? I can assure you that people DID notice a change when I first learned TM and when I first learned the TM-Sidhis. Whether or not this change was a result of TM/TM-Sidhis practice or not, I couldn't say. Likewise people notice when I have NOT meditated on a given day at least once. Whether this is a sign of not receiving ongoing benefits, a sign of the body lacking a specific physiological state it's used to or even a sign of addiction- withdrawal, I couldn't say. Thanks for your thoughts. I have many friends that have meditated for years. When they first learned the siddhis, they were very excited and happy. That faded years ago. Now they are a bunch of people in their late 50s. Two have serious health problems. One has serious mental health problems. None seem to have improved lives as a result of meditation or the siddhis. Irritability runs a bit high. But as you say, we can't have an experiment of one. I do not know what they would have been like without the TM. However, I have not met long term meditators that have created a strong positive impression on me, and often the impression is negative. Eg, Bevan and Haglin. I also know that meditation can be a habit so if you stop there might be some discomfort from breaking the habit for a couple of weeks. Do you believe that TM can be taught without the puja? What is the purpose of the puja? I know that MMY was always super paranoid about the puja. That may have been due to some mystical belief about its power, or a marekting belief, or simply him covering his mystical derriere since he was never supposed to become a guru but ended up fulfilling that function for many people anyway and the pujah was his way of claiming that he wasn't the guru, Gurudev was. Thanks! I like how you do not enthrone anyone. God consciousness by MMY: In Maharishi's (1972) description of higher states of consciousness, the sixth state of consciousness, God consciousness, is defined by the unbounded, self-referral awareness of cosmic consciousness coexisting with the development of refined sensory perception during the three relative states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. Perception and feeling reach their most sublime level, the finer and more glorious levels of creation are appreciated, and every impulse of thought and action is enriching to life (pp. 23-6?23-7). The sixth state is referred to as God consciousness, because the individual is capable of perceiving and appreciating the full range and mechanics of creation and experiences waves of love and devotion for the creation and its creator. Thus, in this state one not only experiences inner peace, but profoundly loving and peaceful relationships are cultivated with all
(Was:Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson) Now: Kings!
Kirk, Kings! Wasn't that good? I really enjoyed it. Like an alternate reality.
I like how the blond hero is being presented as this sattvic guy that simply
follows his integrity while most about him plot and scheme for power. I think
the show is based on the real life inner workings of Raja Wynne and Vedic City.
;-)
--- On Mon, 3/16/09, Kirk kirk_bernha...@cox.net wrote:
From: Kirk kirk_bernha...@cox.net
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, March 16, 2009, 1:28 PM
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Uh, during the Eighties we cut out all that weird
shit from the Domes. Some didn't stop, the butt bouncing seeming to emanate
from
someplace more what is it - brain stemmy?! As you are well aware the butt
bouncing occurs in other Eastern religions as well. No different from sufis
dancing or me dancing like I will be in a few minutes cause I have basic
Spring Fever. Gotta clean, so play music. I was just impressed by her that's
all. I just dig on women a bit too much. Is all. She wouldn't be less in touch
with herself for the experience. I like women to be self actualized. It's a
turn
on. I liked her whether I care about politics or not.
Anyone watching, Kings?
- Original Message -
From:
Vaj
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 11:53
AM
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My
response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 12:05 PM, Kirk wrote:
Fascinating,
really!
How much do you wanna bet that the more people who are present, the more
powerful the laughter, divine drunkedness and divine slaying (passing out),
etc.? Some of the people scream or make animal noises.
Sound familiar?
In India they call it bhava samadhi.
[FairfieldLife] Maharishi Central University [Re: Irresponsible Advice]
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, yateendrajee mcint...@... wrote: Regarding Maharishi Central University, here's a video news clip from a television station in Hastings, NE, which was produced in May, 2008. http://new.khastv.com/modules/news/article.php?storytopic=10storyid=13392 That was a three-part video series, and I archived all three videos on my server: http://alex.natel.net/ffl/video/ 519peace.wmv 520peace.wmv 521peace.wmv The most recent news article I could find is from Sept 2008: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/19/america/NA-US-Transcendental-Tension.php http://is.gd/nA99
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: snip The Buddhists and other more honestly Hindu groups seem to do an OK job of this disclosure. I don't think it's comparable, though. The Hindu groups don't think of themselves as not conflicting with other religions, and Buddhists don't have gods. Many Hindus believe that all other religions are contained within Hinduism. Plenty of Indians spiritual masters have claimed this about Christianity including Yogananda and his predecessor in the West Swami Vivekananda. I don't think they're comparable. Let's see, a self-proclaimed yogi comes to America, gains a following including Hollywood actors and entertainment business people by offering a method for inner peace for the East. Difference in *scope*. Didn't become as big of a fad? I just read an interesting account of Elvis's experiences at the Self Realization Fellowship. That group like Maharishi was able to fast track celebrities. Plus which, Yogananda's students can't just get a quickie technique. Even the mail-order home-study course involves a year's study of Yogananda's metaphysical and how-to-live teachings and preliminary practices before they can even apply to learn Kriya Yoga (which involves formal commitment to a guru-disciple relationship). This has nothing to do with my point that the three biggest Hindu evangelists in the West did present Christianity as an aspect of Hinduism which is a view I came across a lot in India and in Indian books. They fight with Buddhist who dismiss the caste system and Muslims over turf and power. They are usually pretty cool with Christians and view Christ as a minor Avatar. snip And plenty of versions of Buddhism does include Gods. The most common form in Thailand, Theravada Buddhism has all sorts of beings to propitiate. But they are not evangelical. And Thailand isn't the West. The refutation was about your claim that Buddhists don't have gods. I should have said Buddhism *as generally taught in the West to Westerners* doesn't have gods. I thought that would be understood. I don't know why you think this helps your point. By the numbers, most Buddhists believe in Gods. Thailand is a red herring in the context of this discussion. I may have lost your original point then. Most Buddhists do believe in gods was my correction. snip But you have been an enthusiastic advocate of your position and that is all on record so I don't know why you don't feel more positively towards the work we have all done to make our view known. On FFL we all, or almost all, have a common basis of understanding, and that was largely true on alt.m.t as well. That's the big missing piece, experience of the practice and also of the instruction. I thought we were discussing people who wanted more information about TM BEFORE they start. Exactly my point. On alt.m.t and FFL, with very few exceptions, we're talking to each other, not to wannabes. The wannabes are obviously missing our basis of experience for what we say. I thought the premise of most of your corrections to my posts was for the benefit of such an audience. In any case my contributions certainly were me going on record with my POV and I'm proud of the work we did together, that is now eternally recorded on the Web till the next ice age. I think we did some good work delineating where we disagree and consider it a genuine contribution to perspectives on TM for anyone interested. It is even searchable! More to the point, what difference does it make to the 2x20 practitioner what MMY's religious practices were as long as he wasn't teaching them? In my campaign to phone the 10,000 TM initiates at the DC center in '84, I found that this demographic is a myth, even back then. The number of people who continue the practice without going on is insignificant. Even if that were the case globally, the folks I've been talking about are the ones who don't go on. I'm not making any claims about those who do. In any case, those who *do* go on discover what the story is for themselves. Just out of curiosity, how many people have you encountered who did go on who became upset because they felt they'd discovered that TM was in conflict with their religion? All the monks who were initiated at Spencer Mass monastery eventually withdrew their support for TM once they got into it deeply enough to understand the hidden theological basis that conflicted with their religion. Most people I know who got into it deeply replaced their religion with TM. The deeper you go into the organization the more clearly it is
[FairfieldLife] Dead Sea Scrolls
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090316/wl_time/08599188542100
[FairfieldLife] AIG
Heard recently that AIG was headed by Hank Greenberg for 40 years and was considered a sterling company until Spitzer, who was running for governor, began to put the political screws on Greenberg because he (Greenberg) was a Republican. The board of AIG got nervous and three years ago, let Greenberg go to be replaced by Liddy. Liddy, a democrat, proceeded to run AIG into the ground. Obama recently said that Liddy has come around regarding the bonus issue and is a good guy. The bonuses were structured into the payment plan contract dependent on performance. There was nothing immoral about it.
[FairfieldLife] Obama teleprompter receiving messages from aliens.
It appears US President Barrack Obama has been channeling messages from the Alien 'Ztch3' from an undisclosed extraterrestrial planet using his teleprompter. You can hear them unscrambled here: http://www.zteck.com/radio/tv.htm NASA has been notified and the authorities are currently engaged in updating congress...breaking story!! http://www.ibiblio.org/lunar/message.html
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: snip I certainly am not a biblical expert, Nope. Neither am I. I read the bible back in college years ago. So the current message of accepting Jesus as your lord and savior isn't enough, you have to fear and tremble too. At least according to Paul. It's more complicated than that. If you sincerely ask for God's forgiveness, you get it unconditionally. But that doesn't mean you sit back and coast. As my favorite minister, William Sloane Coffin, was fond of saying, Christianity hasn't been tried and found wanting, it's been tried and found difficult. Where for Christianity, God is there, you just accept it. Some say you need to ask for forgiveness to get to heaven or to be part of the kingdom of God, others say Jesus took on your sins so all is already forgiven. Jesus wasn't exactly straightforward about what exactly is the kingdom of god. But I am not aware of any sort of meditative process to reach this kingdom of god. The basic theory of Christianity seems to be that Jesus did the work for you. That's how the Christian Scriptures have been interpreted. My original point, of course, which you appear to have missed entirely, is that there may be other valid interpretations (not least because what has come down to us in written form may not be exactly what Jesus actually taught--the notion that Jesus did the work for you comes from Paul, who never met him, at least in the flesh). That Jesus may have taught some form of meditation is a fairly widespread notion, not limited to TMers by any means. Some of the extracanonical texts such as the Gnostic Gospels contain pretty pointed suggestions to that effect. Plus which, if he did teach meditation, it would likely have been an oral teaching that got lost or was even suppressed when Christianity became organized and created a hierarchy on which one was dependent for the sacraments. And in any case, Christianity is not devoid of meditation techniques by any means (e.g., centering prayer), some of which are quite similar to TM. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing In a follow-up to The Cloud, called The Book of Privy Counseling, the author characterizes the practice of contemplative unknowing as worshiping God with one's 'substance,' coming to rest in a 'naked blind feeling of being,' and ultimately finding thereby that God is one's being. The Cloud of Unknowing draws on the mystical tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, which has reputedly inspired generations of mystical searchers from John Scotus Erigena, through Book of Taliesin, Nicholas of Cusa and St. John of the Cross to Teilhard de Chardin. ... It has been described as Christianity with a Zen outlook, but has also been derided by some as anti- intellectual. And then there's always Meister Eckhart, of whom Schopenhauer wrote: If we turn from the forms, produced by external circumstances, and go to the root of things, we shall find that Sakyamuni [the Buddha] and Meister Eckhart teach the same thing; only that the former dared to express his ideas plainly and positively, whereas Eckhart is obliged to clothe them in the garment of the Christian myth, and to adapt his expressions thereto. The point is, we don't know how much clothing in the garment of Christian myth has taken place since Jesus' day. We don't even know how much Paul himself did to create the myth to serve his own purposes, or how much the institutionalized Church did to protect its own interests. But as Karen Armstrong pointed out in what I quoted in my original post, it's only in relatively modern times that forming new interpretations of scripture has been discouraged. A religion was only born after Jesus died and it is a collection of stories and myths, the focus of which was resurrection. If Jesus was trying to promote something else, like a meditative practice or a search for advanced stages of consciousness, he was not very successful. I do know that the gnostic gospels have a less literal flavor than the biblical version. But they did not make the history that is the Bible did and did not become a major religion. I am less interested in what a religious teacher has to say than how the myths and legends develop after the fact to make the religion. I think it is the myths that people want and maybe often need. The myths of life after death. Of superhuman powers. Anything that indicates we might be more than flesh and blood. Why did MMY not just stick to TM 2 times 20 but get into superhuman powers? It is what people want to see. Frankly, whether a gospel is gnostic or bibical, I think that they are all myths and who knows anything for sure about Jesus or
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_re...@... wrote: It could be because consciousness is just us, flesh and blood, neurons firing and hormones secreting. And enlightenment is accepting this and being joyful and at peace with the instant we exist and with the connections we make in the natural world. Tip of the hat and deep bow. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, ruthsimplicity no_reply@ wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: snip I certainly am not a biblical expert, Nope. Neither am I. I read the bible back in college years ago. So the current message of accepting Jesus as your lord and savior isn't enough, you have to fear and tremble too. At least according to Paul. It's more complicated than that. If you sincerely ask for God's forgiveness, you get it unconditionally. But that doesn't mean you sit back and coast. As my favorite minister, William Sloane Coffin, was fond of saying, Christianity hasn't been tried and found wanting, it's been tried and found difficult. Where for Christianity, God is there, you just accept it. Some say you need to ask for forgiveness to get to heaven or to be part of the kingdom of God, others say Jesus took on your sins so all is already forgiven. Jesus wasn't exactly straightforward about what exactly is the kingdom of god. But I am not aware of any sort of meditative process to reach this kingdom of god. The basic theory of Christianity seems to be that Jesus did the work for you. That's how the Christian Scriptures have been interpreted. My original point, of course, which you appear to have missed entirely, is that there may be other valid interpretations (not least because what has come down to us in written form may not be exactly what Jesus actually taught--the notion that Jesus did the work for you comes from Paul, who never met him, at least in the flesh). That Jesus may have taught some form of meditation is a fairly widespread notion, not limited to TMers by any means. Some of the extracanonical texts such as the Gnostic Gospels contain pretty pointed suggestions to that effect. Plus which, if he did teach meditation, it would likely have been an oral teaching that got lost or was even suppressed when Christianity became organized and created a hierarchy on which one was dependent for the sacraments. And in any case, Christianity is not devoid of meditation techniques by any means (e.g., centering prayer), some of which are quite similar to TM. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloud_of_Unknowing In a follow-up to The Cloud, called The Book of Privy Counseling, the author characterizes the practice of contemplative unknowing as worshiping God with one's 'substance,' coming to rest in a 'naked blind feeling of being,' and ultimately finding thereby that God is one's being. The Cloud of Unknowing draws on the mystical tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, which has reputedly inspired generations of mystical searchers from John Scotus Erigena, through Book of Taliesin, Nicholas of Cusa and St. John of the Cross to Teilhard de Chardin. ... It has been described as Christianity with a Zen outlook, but has also been derided by some as anti- intellectual. And then there's always Meister Eckhart, of whom Schopenhauer wrote: If we turn from the forms, produced by external circumstances, and go to the root of things, we shall find that Sakyamuni [the Buddha] and Meister Eckhart teach the same thing; only that the former dared to express his ideas plainly and positively, whereas Eckhart is obliged to clothe them in the garment of the Christian myth, and to adapt his expressions thereto. The point is, we don't know how much clothing in the garment of Christian myth has taken place since Jesus' day. We don't even know how much Paul himself did to create the myth to serve his own purposes, or how much the institutionalized Church did to protect its own interests. But as Karen Armstrong pointed out in what I quoted in my original post, it's only in relatively modern times that forming new interpretations of scripture has been discouraged. A religion was only born after Jesus died and it is a collection of stories and myths, the focus of which was resurrection. If Jesus was trying to promote something else, like a meditative practice or a search for advanced stages of consciousness, he was not very successful. I do know that the gnostic gospels have a less literal flavor than the biblical version. But they did not make the history that is the Bible did and did not become a major religion. I am less interested in what a religious teacher has to say than how the myths and legends
[FairfieldLife] Four kinds of transcendence (Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.)
See below: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_reply@ wrote: Here's something that would be a huge red flag to any Christian: Maharishi was asked if transcending was like dying. Maharishi closes his eyes for almost a minute, then opened them and said, Yes. Try that on your family members. Edg Since there are millions of so-called Christians that think of themselves as born-again (which obviously implies the death of the old person and rebirth anew), only the most retarded could have a problem with what MMY said. TM, in fact, gives meaning to the expression born-again, since it is necessary for a person to be reborn many times (by daily transcending the old limits one lived and being reborn with expanded awareness). You have failed to understand or are manipulatively ignoring the implications of Maharishi's yes. It is powerfully asserting that TMers have the power to die multiple times and come back from the dead -- JUST LIKE CHRIST. This is a huge big deal to Christians. Christians understand that born again does NOT mean reincarnation -- that is: that one gets a whole new body which one traveles to during the intermission know as death. Born again to Christians means a major transformation of one's personal intent to be less of a sinner by making Christ the center of one's life and trying to do what Jesus would do -- it is not about actual dying and being reborn in any sense except having a psychological paradigm shift. Maharishi wasn't being metaphorical -- he actually meant Yes, I just now died and came back. All that could be called me was ended, and by the 'grace of who knows what' I came back again. Maharishi wasn't saying that he'd come back with a new personality or new values -- he was saying he CAME BACK FROM THE FUCKING DEAD!!! This is a power only ascribed to God by Christians (with but few loop holes that can make Christian thought a bit mooty when we consider the raising of the dead by the disciples after Christ's death, or that one of the prophets went bodily into heaven.) No modern Christian would be comfortable claiming mastery over death. Yogis tell us that transcending is: 1. Placing the attention on thoughts, we transcend the outer world -- that is: we do not process ideation about outside things or issues and are eschewing one's giving to the senses any attention while the senses continue to report to us. Quick what's your elbow feel like right now? Well, ha, the elbow was telling you this all the while you were reading these words, therefore, this reading process is a method to create transcendence, see? 2. By becoming aware of the subtler aspects of the objects of consciousness, the grosser or more lively forms of experiences are dampened and/or ignored and/or stopped. Even with a terrible headache one can still be aware of less attention-getting thoughts/experiences. This shows that the field of thought can have big and little events, and that the attention is not hand-cuffed into solely attending the big events of the mind. 3. Becoming aware of that which never changes -- a stable patten of mentation -- the attention is put upon some sort of frictionless mode of harmony. This is an action that allows the mind to transcend even the subtlest of multi-thought experiences and have the attention reside on a single thought/state -- the thought: I am. No other thoughts are given attention -- this doesn't mean that the brain isn't thinking other thoughts -- just like ignoring your elbow doesn't end its sending you messages. Instead, the awareness is now able to precisely focus on the simplest aspect of one's existence even in the midst of a huge array of other processes that are being ignored. 4. Finally after some time (who knows how much?) the body/mind becomes so comfortable residing in one-thoughtness that it gets the mojo necessary to become able to place the attention on attention itself. One's attention can finally, automatically, effortlessly, as-if-by-grace-alone, slip onto zero-thoughtness -- that is to say: realizing that Identity is immaterial and that this Absolute is beyond all thoughts and experiences -- beyond even the ultimate thoughts of worshiping in a perfect fashion the perfection of the perfectness of the state of amness where all the gunas are in harmony. Christians are using Christ as their japa bead/talisman. They opine that thinking about Christ is the way to transforming their personalities into WWJD saintly personas. To them, if one can undo death, then Christ's role as a savior is obviated, and TM directly threatens this meme which they consider sacrosanct. As a TM teacher, in order to get folks to meditate, I had to hold back tons of information that I knew would be certain to sour their interest in TM. If there was a class action suit brought against TM teachers -- I'd be one of the most guilty -- I lied by omission
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: None of which you have any need to deal with if all you want is a simple relaxation technique. What if that is what you want and then later find out the religious overtones? That might be disturbing to you and you might find that it is inconsistent with your religious beliefs. That was my point, the simple technique comes with baggage. I you are going to pay big bucks for TM, the TMO owes you an education. And not a blown out of proportion pseudo scientific slide show on the physiological effects of TM. As an aside, if a simple relaxation technique is what you want, then why pay $2500 or $1500 whatever it is now when there are plenty of free techniques? I wonder how many people have been taught at these prices in the last 10 years. My hunch is that the high price weeded out those looking for simple relaxation.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
TurquoiseB wrote: Different strokes for different folks. Your whole reply seems to be a defense of figuring out how the game is played and playing within its rules. That is a viable way to make money; I am not con- vinced it's a viable way to make Art. In my experience those who crossed the boundary into Art did so by pandering as little as possible to the people who held the pursestrings and as much as possible to their muses. YMMV. There is NO QUESTION that your attempt at writing a TV show would be more commercial than mine. But would you be writing it, or would the people whose rules you are playing by be writing it? Pandering to mediocrity replicates mediocrity. Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working right. I mean how hard is it to write so your episode is 22 minutes or 44 minutes in the two part form? That isn't very imposing and you are going to have scenes whose transitions will work perfectly for commercial breaks. Even cleverer writers have fun (and make more money) giving you a cliff hanger right before where they know the commercial will go. You won't notice these on the DVDs of the show though many of us who are familiar with the medium pretty much know where the break was. And it doesn't have to hurt the story at all. While on the topic of commercials you don't need to lecture me on TV in other countries. When I was a kid I was very interested in the TV medium (not just watching it). I read articles in electronic magazines about TV in other countries, Even TV Guide had some good articles on that. I knew that England charged a license for a TV and didn't have commercials. France actually had the first HDTV in the 1950's at around 800 lines but then the channel took up too much bandwidth so that system was dropped. At age twelve my artwork (I drew since I could hold a pencil) got me a little work creating title cards for the local TV station. I got to hang out with people in the business and unlike many small town mom and pop stations (usually started by local radio station owners) this one was started by some Los Angeles channel 9 refugees. As an aside it is interesting to note that the first movie they played the first evening of broadcasting was the BBC version of 1984. I think they were trying to say something there. Not did I get my hands on a camera (to check my art) but learned a lot from the engineers and some about the business from the station managers. It was interesting to thumb through the movie library catalogs to see what could be run. It was also an ABC affiliate. I loved the technology and along with my art and music projects as a kid also built electronic projects. That helped me understand the technology of computing but computer programming to me is like another artform: painting with code. In the late 70's I bought a used Super-8 camera and a sound dual 8 projector. I made some little films with friends. A Citizen Sidha I knew was a college film school grad. He gave me lots of tips and critiques on my films. A funny thing was that the projector I bought came with a 10 minute reel from Star Wars. He pointed out classic techniques that George Lucas was using in it. Unfortunately it took another 10 years before I realized that George Lucas was the neighbor across the street in Mill Valley in 1970. I'm not good at remembering names and by the time he was in the press
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
Script Analysis: I = 32 iterations Me = 22 iterations My = 11 iterations I've = 3 iterations Yep, you sure were looking for a discussion and not an egobattle, all right. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working right. I mean how hard is it to write so your episode is 22 minutes or 44 minutes in the two part form? That isn't very imposing and you are going to have scenes whose transitions will work perfectly for commercial breaks. Even cleverer writers have fun (and make more money) giving you a cliff hanger right before where they know the commercial will go. You won't notice these on the DVDs of the show though many of us who are familiar with the medium pretty much know where the break was. And it doesn't have to hurt the story at all. While on the topic of commercials you don't need to lecture me on TV in other countries. When I was a kid I was very interested in the TV medium (not just watching it). I read articles in electronic magazines about TV in other countries, Even TV Guide had some good articles on that. I knew that England charged a license for a TV and didn't have commercials. France actually had the first HDTV in the 1950's at around 800 lines but then the channel took up too much bandwidth so that system was dropped. At age twelve my artwork (I drew since I could hold a pencil) got me a little work creating title cards for the local TV station. I got to hang out with people in the business and unlike many small town mom and pop stations (usually started by local radio station owners) this one was started by some Los Angeles channel 9 refugees. As an aside it is interesting to note that the first movie they played the first evening of broadcasting was the BBC version of 1984. I think they were trying to say something there. Not did I get my hands on a camera (to check my art) but learned a lot from the engineers and some about the business from the station managers. It was interesting to thumb through the movie library catalogs to see what could be run. It was also an ABC affiliate. I loved the technology and along with my art and music projects as a kid also built electronic projects. That helped me understand the technology of computing but computer programming to me is like another artform: painting with code. In the late 70's I bought a used Super-8 camera and a sound dual 8 projector. I made some little films with friends. A Citizen Sidha I knew was a college film school grad. He gave me lots of tips and critiques on my films. A funny thing was that the projector I bought came with a 10 minute reel from Star Wars. He pointed out classic techniques that George Lucas was using in it. Unfortunately it took another 10 years before I realized that George Lucas was the neighbor across the street in Mill Valley in 1970. I'm not good at remembering names and by the time he was in the press had gained a bit of weight so I didn't recognize him. Even more embarrassing was that a friend talked with him once and mentioned me and he said now there's a name from the past and said to say hello. I even went with him and a few other folks to Stinson Beach once for a little film shoot with his Bolex. The practical reality is that film is a lifetime career.
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
Turq, Bhairitu is one of our biggest brains here, and you're simply running away from an intellectual challenge that he took a ton of time to present to you. Bhairitu put a lot out, and, you've just tossed the whole effort aside as if it were the work of a crazy guy. This is your way. How can you stand looking in the mirror knowing how you start fights, take positions and then run with your tail between your legs at the first sign that you're not going to win the argument? Bhairitu -- consider this about as close as you'll ever get to Turq saying uncle. Turq, this is your most irritating personality dynamic -- knowing this about you, who will try to engage in serious dialog with you? To me, unless you can reform this aspect, you are merely a very clever troll who is no more a contributor here than Arhata. Edg --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_re...@... wrote: Script Analysis: I = 32 iterations Me = 22 iterations My = 11 iterations I've = 3 iterations Yep, you sure were looking for a discussion and not an egobattle, all right. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working right. I mean how hard is it to write so your episode is 22 minutes or 44 minutes in the two part form? That isn't very imposing and you are going to have scenes whose transitions will work perfectly for commercial breaks. Even cleverer writers have fun (and make more money) giving you a cliff hanger right before where they know the commercial will go. You won't notice these on the DVDs of the show though many of us who are familiar with the medium pretty much know where the break was. And it doesn't have to hurt the story at all. While on the topic of commercials you don't need to lecture me on TV in other countries. When I was a kid I was very interested in the TV medium (not just watching it). I read articles in electronic magazines about TV in other countries, Even TV Guide had some good articles on that. I knew that England charged a license for a TV and didn't have commercials. France actually had the first HDTV in the 1950's at around 800 lines but then the channel took up too much bandwidth so that system was dropped. At age twelve my artwork (I drew since I could hold a pencil) got me a little work creating title cards for the local TV station. I got to hang out with people in the business and unlike many small town mom and pop stations (usually started by local radio station owners) this one was started by some Los Angeles channel 9 refugees. As an aside it is interesting to note that the first movie they played the first evening of broadcasting was the BBC version of 1984. I think they were trying to say something there. Not did I get my hands on a camera (to check my art) but learned a lot from the engineers and some about the business from the station managers. It was interesting to thumb through the movie library catalogs to see what could be run. It was also an ABC affiliate. I loved the technology and along with my art and music projects as a kid also built electronic projects. That helped me understand the technology of computing but computer programming to me is like another artform: painting with code. In the
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
brilliant-- and TB unequivocally has his ass handed to him with both hands. my well deserved dig at TB aside, i was pleasantly surprised to see you comparing programming to screenwriting. maybe 20 years ago i had my first and only programming job, building a human resources back up tracking system with Turbo Pascal. as it forced me to program in a structured format, with reusable subroutines, i had the thought that one day i would like to write a book, using the basic logic of the programs i had written as the underlying foundation. i never wrote the book, but have applied the logical constructs of programming in general to all sorts of analysis. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: TurquoiseB wrote: Different strokes for different folks. Your whole reply seems to be a defense of figuring out how the game is played and playing within its rules. That is a viable way to make money; I am not con- vinced it's a viable way to make Art. In my experience those who crossed the boundary into Art did so by pandering as little as possible to the people who held the pursestrings and as much as possible to their muses. YMMV. There is NO QUESTION that your attempt at writing a TV show would be more commercial than mine. But would you be writing it, or would the people whose rules you are playing by be writing it? Pandering to mediocrity replicates mediocrity. Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working right. I mean how hard is it to write so your episode is 22 minutes or 44 minutes in the two part form? That isn't very imposing and you are going to have scenes whose transitions will work perfectly for commercial breaks. Even cleverer writers have fun (and make more money) giving you a cliff hanger right before where they know the commercial will go. You won't notice these on the DVDs of the show though many of us who are familiar with the medium pretty much know where the break was. And it doesn't have to hurt the story at all. While on the topic of commercials you don't need to lecture me on TV in other countries. When I was a kid I was very interested in the TV medium (not just watching it). I read articles in electronic magazines about TV in other countries, Even TV Guide had some good articles on that. I knew that England charged a license for a TV and didn't have commercials. France actually had the first HDTV in the 1950's at around 800 lines but then the channel took up too much bandwidth so that system was dropped. At age twelve my artwork (I drew since I could hold a pencil) got me a little work creating title cards for the local TV station. I got to hang out with people in the business and unlike many small town mom and pop stations (usually started by local radio station owners) this one was started by some Los Angeles channel 9 refugees. As an aside it is interesting to note that the first movie they played the first evening of broadcasting was the BBC version of 1984. I think they were trying to say something there. Not did I get my hands on a camera (to check my art) but learned a lot from the engineers and some about the business from the station managers. It was interesting to thumb through the movie library catalogs to see what could be run. It was also an ABC affiliate. I loved the technology and along
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
most of us have already figured out that Turq just posts to see his words in print; all Turq, all the time. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_re...@... wrote: Turq, Bhairitu is one of our biggest brains here, and you're simply running away from an intellectual challenge that he took a ton of time to present to you. Bhairitu put a lot out, and, you've just tossed the whole effort aside as if it were the work of a crazy guy. This is your way. How can you stand looking in the mirror knowing how you start fights, take positions and then run with your tail between your legs at the first sign that you're not going to win the argument? Bhairitu -- consider this about as close as you'll ever get to Turq saying uncle. Turq, this is your most irritating personality dynamic -- knowing this about you, who will try to engage in serious dialog with you? To me, unless you can reform this aspect, you are merely a very clever troll who is no more a contributor here than Arhata. Edg --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB no_reply@ wrote: Script Analysis: I = 32 iterations Me = 22 iterations My = 11 iterations I've = 3 iterations Yep, you sure were looking for a discussion and not an egobattle, all right. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working right. I mean how hard is it to write so your episode is 22 minutes or 44 minutes in the two part form? That isn't very imposing and you are going to have scenes whose transitions will work perfectly for commercial breaks. Even cleverer writers have fun (and make more money) giving you a cliff hanger right before where they know the commercial will go. You won't notice these on the DVDs of the show though many of us who are familiar with the medium pretty much know where the break was. And it doesn't have to hurt the story at all. While on the topic of commercials you don't need to lecture me on TV in other countries. When I was a kid I was very interested in the TV medium (not just watching it). I read articles in electronic magazines about TV in other countries, Even TV Guide had some good articles on that. I knew that England charged a license for a TV and didn't have commercials. France actually had the first HDTV in the 1950's at around 800 lines but then the channel took up too much bandwidth so that system was dropped. At age twelve my artwork (I drew since I could hold a pencil) got me a little work creating title cards for the local TV station. I got to hang out with people in the business and unlike many small town mom and pop stations (usually started by local radio station owners) this one was started by some Los Angeles channel 9 refugees. As an aside it is interesting to note that the first movie they played the first evening of broadcasting was the BBC version of 1984. I think they were trying to say something there. Not did I get my hands on a camera (to check my art) but learned a lot from the engineers and some about the business from the station managers. It was interesting to thumb through the movie library catalogs to see what could be run. It was also an ABC
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_re...@... wrote: Turq, Bhairitu is one of our biggest brains here, and you're simply running away from an intellectual challenge that he took a ton of time to present to you. Bhairitu put a lot out, and, you've just tossed the whole effort aside as if it were the work of a crazy guy. That's not true. I tossed it all off as if it were the work of someone with a great deal of ego on the line. Same way I do with your stuff. Same way I'm doing with your stuff now. Get used to it.
[FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, enlightened_dawn11 no_re...@... wrote: brilliant-- and TB unequivocally has his ass handed to him with both hands. If that's the way you see it, fine. From my side, I deftly avoided Yet Another Dick-Size Contest. I stated my position with regard to any film I write about very clearly; I cannot do more: But all of this is just OPINION. That's all that ANY film criticism or TV criticism is, or will ever be. It's one person rapping about whether a film or a piece of television connected with their lives and allowed them to enjoy it. Whether someone else feels the same way, and finds an equal amount of enjoyment in the same film or TV series is NOT a given, no matter how famous or respected the critic. But for the record, I really liked your perform- ance in Tootsie, Jim.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Four kinds of transcendence (Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.)
On Mar 16, 2009, at 3:29 PM, Duveyoung wrote: See below: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante no_re...@... wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung no_reply@ wrote: Here's something that would be a huge red flag to any Christian: Maharishi was asked if transcending was like dying. Maharishi closes his eyes for almost a minute, then opened them and said, Yes. Try that on your family members. Edg Since there are millions of so-called Christians that think of themselves as born-again (which obviously implies the death of the old person and rebirth anew), only the most retarded could have a problem with what MMY said. TM, in fact, gives meaning to the expression born-again, since it is necessary for a person to be reborn many times (by daily transcending the old limits one lived and being reborn with expanded awareness). You have failed to understand or are manipulatively ignoring the implications of Maharishi's yes. It is powerfully asserting that TMers have the power to die multiple times and come back from the dead -- JUST LIKE CHRIST. This is a huge big deal to Christians. Christians understand that born again does NOT mean reincarnation -- that is: that one gets a whole new body which one traveles to during the intermission know as death. Born again to Christians means a major transformation of one's personal intent to be less of a sinner by making Christ the center of one's life and trying to do what Jesus would do -- it is not about actual dying and being reborn in any sense except having a psychological paradigm shift. Maharishi wasn't being metaphorical -- he actually meant Yes, I just now died and came back. All that could be called me was ended, and by the 'grace of who knows what' I came back again. Maharishi wasn't saying that he'd come back with a new personality or new values -- he was saying he CAME BACK FROM THE FUCKING DEAD!!! This is a power only ascribed to God by Christians (with but few loop holes that can make Christian thought a bit mooty when we consider the raising of the dead by the disciples after Christ's death, or that one of the prophets went bodily into heaven.) No modern Christian would be comfortable claiming mastery over death. Yogis tell us that transcending is: 1. Placing the attention on thoughts, we transcend the outer world -- that is: we do not process ideation about outside things or issues and are eschewing one's giving to the senses any attention while the senses continue to report to us. Quick what's your elbow feel like right now? Well, ha, the elbow was telling you this all the while you were reading these words, therefore, this reading process is a method to create transcendence, see? 2. By becoming aware of the subtler aspects of the objects of consciousness, the grosser or more lively forms of experiences are dampened and/or ignored and/or stopped. Even with a terrible headache one can still be aware of less attention-getting thoughts/ experiences. This shows that the field of thought can have big and little events, and that the attention is not hand-cuffed into solely attending the big events of the mind. 3. Becoming aware of that which never changes -- a stable patten of mentation -- the attention is put upon some sort of frictionless mode of harmony. This is an action that allows the mind to transcend even the subtlest of multi-thought experiences and have the attention reside on a single thought/state -- the thought: I am. No other thoughts are given attention -- this doesn't mean that the brain isn't thinking other thoughts -- just like ignoring your elbow doesn't end its sending you messages. Instead, the awareness is now able to precisely focus on the simplest aspect of one's existence even in the midst of a huge array of other processes that are being ignored. 4. Finally after some time (who knows how much?) the body/mind becomes so comfortable residing in one-thoughtness that it gets the mojo necessary to become able to place the attention on attention itself. One's attention can finally, automatically, effortlessly, as-if-by-grace-alone, slip onto zero-thoughtness -- that is to say: realizing that Identity is immaterial and that this Absolute is beyond all thoughts and experiences -- beyond even the ultimate thoughts of worshiping in a perfect fashion the perfection of the perfectness of the state of amness where all the gunas are in harmony. Christians are using Christ as their japa bead/talisman. They opine that thinking about Christ is the way to transforming their personalities into WWJD saintly personas. To them, if one can undo death, then Christ's role as a savior is obviated, and TM directly threatens this meme which they consider sacrosanct. As a TM teacher, in order to get folks to meditate, I had to hold back tons of information
[FairfieldLife] dying daily
by Michael Turner: This state is what Kirpal refers to as being above body consciousness. As we unite ourselves with the Spiritual [Sound] Current, It gradually lifts our inner awareness up - initially above our physical consciousness. People over the last 30 years have become very familiar, overall, with terms like out-of-body experience, near-death experience or astral projection. This is one aspect of pure, above-body consciousness. It's rather like the river lifting boats up off the banks as it rises. You learn to be lifted up with this Wave of Spirit and, on a very tangible basis, we discover that we are not our physical bodies. This is the most dramatic experience that most people have on an initial level, and the most valuable. Because, even though many or most of us on this planet have some religious background - or even some metaphysical background - and say Oh well, I'm not my body. There's Heaven after I die. I will exist. - it's hard to really believe this unless we can prove it to ourselves. Meditation makes it possible for the disciple to die while still living in the material body, before the time comes for him to actually die. This is the `dying daily' referred to by St. Paul; the ascending each day to the higher spiritual worlds during the time of meditation. The soul rises to these worlds while one is engaged in contemplation in the same way as it rises to them at the time of death. - Sawan Singh (Discourses on Sant Mat, p. 266) Until we can prove this to ourselves, that we exist beyond the body - until we learn to die daily, to leave the physical body through the meditation -all talk of the eternality of the self, and eternality of God, is just that - talk. It's just a bunch of words, a bunch of books, a bunch of lectures. And it sounds really good. But you need to prove it to yourself.
[FairfieldLife] Re: AIG
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com , Joe Smith msilver1...@... wrote: Heard recently that AIG was headed by Hank Greenberg for 40 years and was considered a sterling company until Spitzer, who was running for governor, began to put the political screws on Greenberg because he (Greenberg) was a Republican. The board of AIG got nervous and three years ago, let Greenberg go to be replaced by Liddy. Liddy, a democrat, proceeded to run AIG into the ground. Obama recently said that Liddy has come around regarding the bonus issue and is a good guy. The bonuses were structured into the payment plan contract dependent on performance. There was nothing immoral about it. AIG has always been a con. The basic premise of such a company under Greenberg was a pure scam from day one. And your scam to blame it all on liberals is laughable: The bottom line is that Hank Greenberg wandered out of the very safe, well-capitalized world of insurance into the surreal world of credit default swaps where you can create endless amount of risk, said Christopher Whalen, co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics, which provides analysis and ratings to banks. Forbes -- http://tinyurl.com/c8g9p4 ANALYSIS-AIG's meltdown has roots in Greenberg era: http://tinyurl.com/c8g9p4 [pic] http://www.forbes.com/breakingnews/Reuters_full.html http://www.forbes.com/breakingnews/Reuters_full.html NEW YORK (Reuters) - Maurice Hank Greenberg's legacy as the man who built AIG (nyse: AIG http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?\ tkr=AIG - news http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=AIG - people http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=AIG ) into the world's largest insurer was tarnished by a 2005 probe but questions about whether he created a financial monster that subsequently ran amok could cause greater damage to his image. The former Army captain -- who left AIG in 2005 amid allegations he used off-balance sheet transactions to improperly boost profits -- had previously been revered for his track record of steady profit growth over a 38-year tenure. In the years since he quit AIG, Greenberg has pursued other business interests, but much of his time has been spent defending his name and railing against a succession of CEOs who replaced him at AIG. But AIG's posting on Monday of a $61.7 billion quarterly loss, the biggest in corporate history, and the announcement of a third bailout by the U.S. government have prompted his critics to ask whether Greenberg planted the seeds of the financial disaster that already threatens to cost taxpayers $180 billion. Greenberg's creation more than two decades ago of a financial products unit, which has triggered the bulk of AIG's massive losses, is their main focus. Credit default swaps, or CDS, held by AIG Financial Products have been the biggest driver of AIG's losses, which have exceeded $100 billion over the past five quarters. The bottom line is that Hank Greenberg wandered out of the very safe, well-capitalized world of insurance into the surreal world of credit default swaps where you can create endless amount of risk, said Christopher Whalen, co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics, which provides analysis and ratings to banks. -OffWorld
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
Arhata might contribute more if.. The 'rif raf' of nonsensical gossip here that is unheard of on any Yahoogoups I've encountered. Only the rare contribution by someone seems of any real value. If it weren't for my soon to be effort to encourage anyone to take the challenge of providing a community/national service through 'freespeech displays' this Spring/Summer, I'd see little purpose in all this 'gibber jabber' that exceeds all 12 of the other Yahoo groups I'm on together. Surprised you haven't banned this 'rebel truth mixer already' - perhaps there is intelligence here somewhere, inspite of those who refuse to add their personal email to the list, instead using re...@yahoogroups.com to hide behind. The Christian groups seem to be among the worst, but the Maharishi and Osho groups are not far behind in their 'guru worship' shit. My suggestion is to limit each person to 30 messages rather than 50 per week to clean things up. And, allow some positive challenging in 'dialog from' rather than so much mumbo jumbo. Also, question this only TM meditation technique when there are hundreds of others available. I've met hundreds of TMers with no evidence that it seems to help but for ones that never did anything to upgrade their consciousness before. All 'guru types' are for the minions who bend over for instruction and are willing to change one form of robot behavior for another! I get 5% of the dialog here than from thousands of other connections altogether. That fact clearly indicates a great level of denial and perhaps fear to step outside the 'den of TM' - wouldn't you say. Time to get a little courage and dialog instread of huddling behind anonyimity and think ing someone out side your cult is a boogieman! BOO! Seems like 90% of the responders here are men - what's that all about? Take a hit, get over the ego crush or denial and make this a more meaninful site. And class judgment is the same as a football coach coming in to kick butt, except those players don't take their game and run to mommies apron strings! What the hell, enjoy, Arhata Turq, Bhairitu is one of our biggest brains here, and you're simply running away from an intellectual challenge that he took a ton of time to present to you. Bhairitu put a lot out, and, you've just tossed the whole effort aside as if it were the work of a crazy guy. This is your way. How can you stand looking in the mirror knowing how you start fights, take positions and then run with your tail between your legs at the first sign that you're not going to win the argument? Bhairitu -- consider this about as close as you'll ever get to Turq saying uncle. Turq, this is your most irritating personality dynamic -- knowing this about you, who will try to engage in serious dialog with you? To me, unless you can reform this aspect, you are merely a very clever troll who is no more a contributor here than Arhata. Edg --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, TurquoiseB no_re...@.. . wrote: Script Analysis: I = 32 iterations Me = 22 iterations My = 11 iterations I've = 3 iterations Yep, you sure were looking for a discussion and not an egobattle, all right. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@ yahoogroups. com, Bhairitu noozguru@ wrote: Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
On Mar 16, 2009, at 3:32 PM, ruthsimplicity wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jst...@... wrote: None of which you have any need to deal with if all you want is a simple relaxation technique. What if that is what you want and then later find out the religious overtones? That might be disturbing to you and you might find that it is inconsistent with your religious beliefs. That was my point, the simple technique comes with baggage. I you are going to pay big bucks for TM, the TMO owes you an education. And not a blown out of proportion pseudo scientific slide show on the physiological effects of TM. As an aside, if a simple relaxation technique is what you want, then why pay $2500 or $1500 whatever it is now when there are plenty of free techniques?I wonder how many people have been taught at these prices in the last 10 years. My hunch is that the high price weeded out those looking for simple relaxation. This is precisely why I've commented here before I fully support the modern trend towards a totally scientific and humanist adbhidharma (Buddhist metaphysical base behind a meditation technique) based meditation method, and indeed that's what many scientists, humanists and atheists like Sam Harris are egging for. It's actually already here. What the west wants and needs is a total no bullshit meditation method that contains no cosmic and religious bullshit, but is completely based on solid science of the human condition, as we now know it and as we are just beginning to see it through honest, no holds barred 'western enlightenment' approaches. Interestingly, one of the most religious persons you could think of-- the Dalai Lama--fully supports this. In fact he supports this to the extent that if scientific research discounts Buddhist texts, we need to instead modify our mindsets to the scientific one, in deference to the Buddhist textual one. Most are already painfully aware of the lie that MMY's technology was and still is. If they are honest with themselves, they know this. Others will have built in blinders to certain aspects of his teaching or will be so gushingly liberal and bent towards imagining some common, underlying basis of all religion (which of course blindly ignores the important uniqueness' of these same religions) that they will instinctively gloss TM as some universal panacea. That's also why TM Inc. remains dangerous: because it remains a marketed lie which never honestly discloses it's real nature and design.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: GTV
The analysis says nothing. It's not about ego at all. One has to qualify their background. Apparently you have none. Most people could care less whether these pronouns are used. You are using a tactic that a lot of right wing talk show hosts use in this country: deflecting the discussion from the issue. The pronoun count has nothing to do with the issue. Get over it. Now once again, let's hear about your artistic career. TurquoiseB wrote: Script Analysis: I = 32 iterations Me = 22 iterations My = 11 iterations I've = 3 iterations Yep, you sure were looking for a discussion and not an egobattle, all right. :-) --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu noozg...@... wrote: Four posts on this topic by you this morning! Boy are you wound up over it. Well, I'll just spend one addressing all four. First off, Turq, I've been in the arts all my life. It's a natural inclination for me (and in my horoscope as well -- hehe). Haven't you noticed that my favorite films are often foreign and art films? I decry formula made Hollywood stuff. I would never write purely by formula and there are plenty of creative people that can work within the framework. That said I DO find formulas interesting. I went in search of formulas and techniques to get some screen writing off the ground. I figured why not write a bunch of bad scripts first to hone the trade rather than spend a lot of time on one (my friend does that). This is just like how I learned to write music. You will write bunch of crap first but after you get in the swing of things you start writing something worth listening to and that other find interesting too. And again that said, I am a trained musician. I went to college for that. I learned the techniques and formulas for composition. One thing that the professors emphasized is that you don't write using the formulas but rather fall back on the when you are in a bind with your composition and use them as tools to find where you went wrong. The script frameworks and techniques used in screen writing are much like chord progressions. Experienced writers can riff over them. This stuff is not at the front of their mind. It is at the back and tools they can use to help fix sections that aren't working right. I mean how hard is it to write so your episode is 22 minutes or 44 minutes in the two part form? That isn't very imposing and you are going to have scenes whose transitions will work perfectly for commercial breaks. Even cleverer writers have fun (and make more money) giving you a cliff hanger right before where they know the commercial will go. You won't notice these on the DVDs of the show though many of us who are familiar with the medium pretty much know where the break was. And it doesn't have to hurt the story at all. While on the topic of commercials you don't need to lecture me on TV in other countries. When I was a kid I was very interested in the TV medium (not just watching it). I read articles in electronic magazines about TV in other countries, Even TV Guide had some good articles on that. I knew that England charged a license for a TV and didn't have commercials. France actually had the first HDTV in the 1950's at around 800 lines but then the channel took up too much bandwidth so that system was dropped. At age twelve my artwork (I drew since I could hold a pencil) got me a little work creating title cards for the local TV station. I got to hang out with people in the business and unlike many small town mom and pop stations (usually started by local radio station owners) this one was started by some Los Angeles channel 9 refugees. As an aside it is interesting to note that the first movie they played the first evening of broadcasting was the BBC version of 1984. I think they were trying to say something there. Not did I get my hands on a camera (to check my art) but learned a lot from the engineers and some about the business from the station managers. It was interesting to thumb through the movie library catalogs to see what could be run. It was also an ABC affiliate. I loved the technology and along with my art and music projects as a kid also built electronic projects. That helped me understand the technology of computing but computer programming to me is like another artform: painting with code. In the late 70's I bought a used Super-8 camera and a sound dual 8 projector. I made some little films with friends. A Citizen Sidha I knew was a college film school grad. He gave me lots of tips and critiques on my films. A funny thing was that the projector I bought came with a 10 minute reel from Star Wars. He pointed out classic techniques that George Lucas was using in it. Unfortunately it took another 10 years before I realized that George Lucas was the neighbor across the street in Mill Valley in
[FairfieldLife] Pterosaur compared to a giraffe
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2009/images/giraffe.JPG
[FairfieldLife] $850.00
It's a Katrina thing. Ne1 have $850 for someone's rent. It's not for me. If so please PM me. I know some people like to help others like that sometimes. Thanks. I can't pay it back myself. Other person is semi disabled and lost everything during Katrina.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bhava samadhi photos
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Very interesting photos of bhava samadhi: http://www.shiva.org/BhavaSamadhi.htm I don't know if it is, but it appears to be similar to Christian Holy Rollers: Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQqyzXhD6Tsfeature=PlayListp=3441AD0738FF2BD7index=7 http://snipurl.com/dyc9x
Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Bhava samadhi photos
On Mar 16, 2009, at 6:50 PM, do.rflex wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: Very interesting photos of bhava samadhi: http://www.shiva.org/BhavaSamadhi.htm I don't know if it is, but it appears to be similar to Christian Holy Rollers It sure does to me. If it weren't for the Indian faces, it could be a pict from the deep south in the era of black-and-white photography. Most people don't realize how deep the parallels are between conservative, right-wing American religion and conservative, right- wing Hindu religion until they look at pictures like these. If I told you these were people in contact with the creative intelligences of an underlying unified field as found in modern physics, could I get you to change your mind? ;-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: Bhava samadhi photos
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: That trance-dancing chick would definitely come home with anybody who can produce some decent weed and a place to sleep inside. On Mar 16, 2009, at 6:50 PM, do.rflex wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradhatu@ wrote: Very interesting photos of bhava samadhi: http://www.shiva.org/BhavaSamadhi.htm I don't know if it is, but it appears to be similar to Christian Holy Rollers It sure does to me. If it weren't for the Indian faces, it could be a pict from the deep south in the era of black-and-white photography. Most people don't realize how deep the parallels are between conservative, right-wing American religion and conservative, right- wing Hindu religion until they look at pictures like these. If I told you these were people in contact with the creative intelligences of an underlying unified field as found in modern physics, could I get you to change your mind? ;-)
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj vajradh...@... wrote: This is precisely why I've commented here before I fully support the modern trend towards a totally scientific and humanist adbhidharma (Buddhist metaphysical base behind a meditation technique) based meditation method, and indeed that's what many scientists, humanists and atheists like Sam Harris are egging for. It's actually already here. What the west wants and needs is a total no bullshit meditation method that contains no cosmic and religious bullshit, but is completely based on solid science of the human condition, as we now know it and as we are just beginning to see it through honest, no holds barred 'western enlightenment' approaches. Interestingly, one of the most religious persons you could think of-- the Dalai Lama--fully supports this. In fact he supports this to the extent that if scientific research discounts Buddhist texts, we need to instead modify our mindsets to the scientific one, in deference to the Buddhist textual one. Most are already painfully aware of the lie that MMY's technology was and still is. If they are honest with themselves, they know this. Others will have built in blinders to certain aspects of his teaching or will be so gushingly liberal and bent towards imagining some common, underlying basis of all religion (which of course blindly ignores the important uniqueness' of these same religions) that they will instinctively gloss TM as some universal panacea. That's also why TM Inc. remains dangerous: because it remains a marketed lie which never honestly discloses it's real nature and design. Many excellent points Vaj. On Mar 16, 2009, at 3:32 PM, ruthsimplicity wrote: --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, authfriend jstein@ wrote: None of which you have any need to deal with if all you want is a simple relaxation technique. What if that is what you want and then later find out the religious overtones? That might be disturbing to you and you might find that it is inconsistent with your religious beliefs. That was my point, the simple technique comes with baggage. I you are going to pay big bucks for TM, the TMO owes you an education. And not a blown out of proportion pseudo scientific slide show on the physiological effects of TM. As an aside, if a simple relaxation technique is what you want, then why pay $2500 or $1500 whatever it is now when there are plenty of free techniques?I wonder how many people have been taught at these prices in the last 10 years. My hunch is that the high price weeded out those looking for simple relaxation. This is precisely why I've commented here before I fully support the modern trend towards a totally scientific and humanist adbhidharma (Buddhist metaphysical base behind a meditation technique) based meditation method, and indeed that's what many scientists, humanists and atheists like Sam Harris are egging for. It's actually already here. What the west wants and needs is a total no bullshit meditation method that contains no cosmic and religious bullshit, but is completely based on solid science of the human condition, as we now know it and as we are just beginning to see it through honest, no holds barred 'western enlightenment' approaches. Interestingly, one of the most religious persons you could think of-- the Dalai Lama--fully supports this. In fact he supports this to the extent that if scientific research discounts Buddhist texts, we need to instead modify our mindsets to the scientific one, in deference to the Buddhist textual one. Most are already painfully aware of the lie that MMY's technology was and still is. If they are honest with themselves, they know this. Others will have built in blinders to certain aspects of his teaching or will be so gushingly liberal and bent towards imagining some common, underlying basis of all religion (which of course blindly ignores the important uniqueness' of these same religions) that they will instinctively gloss TM as some universal panacea. That's also why TM Inc. remains dangerous: because it remains a marketed lie which never honestly discloses it's real nature and design.
[FairfieldLife] A single Spiritual Tradition?
will there be a single Spiritual tradition? (from the Shivabalayogi website): A month before his mahasamadhi, Swamiji assured devotees of a global mission. He predicted that within forty years, there would be a single spiritual tradition in the world, including India, America, the Near East, and Europe. He and his devotees were working not for themselves, but so that people can come to know God. Swamiji said that he had placed people throughout the world in positions to be able to help in this work. The time would come when they can come forward and participate... I disagree. Although much of Buddhism is compatible with non-dualist Hinduism, the M-fields are somewhat distinct; say...compared to complementary shades of blue and green. The m-field of Christianity otoh generates an incompatible discordant vibe and will remain that way. Islam dances to an even different drummer. Nope. Buddhism and Hinduism are somewhat separate versions of Sanatana Dharma and will remain that way. Christianity will be the odd guy out. I can't predict the fate of Islam. In any event, the separateness of religions is here to stay.
[FairfieldLife] Post Count
Fairfield Life Post Counter === Start Date (UTC): Sat Mar 14 00:00:00 2009 End Date (UTC): Sat Mar 21 00:00:00 2009 301 messages as of (UTC) Mon Mar 16 23:35:30 2009 37 authfriend jst...@panix.com 31 TurquoiseB no_re...@yahoogroups.com 23 Kirk kirk_bernha...@cox.net 20 curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@yahoo.com 18 Vaj vajradh...@earthlink.net 17 sparaig lengli...@cox.net 16 ruthsimplicity no_re...@yahoogroups.com 12 grate.swan no_re...@yahoogroups.com 11 Duveyoung no_re...@yahoogroups.com 9 Rick Archer r...@searchsummit.com 9 Bhairitu noozg...@sbcglobal.net 8 do.rflex do.rf...@yahoo.com 8 BillyG. wg...@yahoo.com 7 shukra69 shukr...@yahoo.ca 7 Arhata Osho arhatafreespe...@yahoo.com 6 bob_brigante no_re...@yahoogroups.com 5 raunchydog raunchy...@yahoo.com 5 guyfawkes91 guyfawke...@yahoo.com 5 Sal Sunshine salsunsh...@lisco.com 4 cardemaister no_re...@yahoogroups.com 4 arhatafreespe...@yahoo.com 4 Robert babajii...@yahoo.com 4 Joe Smith msilver1...@yahoo.com 3 yifuxero yifux...@yahoo.com 3 enlightened_dawn11 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 3 claudiouk claudi...@yahoo.co.uk 3 Peter drpetersutp...@yahoo.com 2 jimjim5886 jimjim5...@yahoo.com 2 I am the eternal l.shad...@gmail.com 2 Hugo richardhughes...@hotmail.com 1 yateendrajee mcint...@scn.org 1 satvadude108 no_re...@yahoogroups.com 1 off_world_beings no_re...@yahoogroups.com 1 emptybill emptyb...@yahoo.com 1 dhamiltony2k5 dhamiltony...@yahoo.com 1 boo_lives boo_li...@yahoo.com 1 billy jim emptyb...@yahoo.com 1 Zoran Krneta krneta.zo...@gmail.com 1 Nelson nelsonriddle2...@yahoo.com 1 Mike m...@thepump.com 1 John jr_...@yahoo.com 1 Dick Richardson somerse...@yahoo.com 1 Alex Stanley j_alexander_stan...@yahoo.com Posters: 43 Saturday Morning 00:00 UTC Rollover Times = Daylight Saving Time (Summer): US Friday evening: PDT 5 PM - MDT 6 PM - CDT 7 PM - EDT 8 PM Europe Saturday: BST 1 AM CEST 2 AM EEST 3 AM Standard Time (Winter): US Friday evening: PST 4 PM - MST 5 PM - CST 6 PM - EST 7 PM Europe Saturday: GMT 12 AM CET 1 AM EET 2 AM For more information on Time Zones: www.worldtimezone.com
[FairfieldLife] Hall of the Sith Lords
http://edandmari.com/starwars/Lords.html
Re: [FairfieldLife] $850.00
Nevermind. - Original Message - From: Kirk kirk_bernha...@cox.net To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 5:42 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] $850.00 It's a Katrina thing. Ne1 have $850 for someone's rent. It's not for me. If so please PM me. I know some people like to help others like that sometimes. Thanks. I can't pay it back myself. Other person is semi disabled and lost everything during Katrina. To subscribe, send a message to: fairfieldlife-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!'Yahoo! Groups Links
[FairfieldLife] ! Transcend ! ye Sinners
Repent, is used in English translations of the Gospels for the Greek word metanoia. But going back to the Greek, it turns out that metanoia can also be understood to mean transcend (beyond-mind). Absolutely, ! Transcend ! you sinners. You who so sin against your own inner Nature repent your non-practice ways, go beyond the mind.
[FairfieldLife] featuring Billionaire El Chapo
El Chapo: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/13/mexico.forbes.list/
[FairfieldLife] Re: BBC News Online: Warning over narcissistic pupils
Kirk kirk_bernha...@... wrote: I was quite spoiled as a small child - with attention - breast fed, large family, I also had three older sisters , grandmother living across the street. I was very much feeling - entitled - until I watched my father die when I was eight. Everything changed. Would you care to elaborate? I am in the process of examining my childhood, which I remember as only very ideal, to try to find some clues to some adult issues I am presently dealing with. As well, my wife's dad died when she was just a baby, and that, naturally has played a significant role in her life. But I can recall no such event, yet I have issues that I am trying to get some clarification on. Thanks
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@... wrote: Let's see, a self-proclaimed yogi comes to America, gains a following including Hollywood actors and entertainment business people by offering a method for inner peace for the East. It's not only comparable the guys almost all ran the same campaign. If you read Vivekananda and Yogananda it is clear. They believed that their spirituality contained Jesus as some sort of minor avatar. Okay, I'm jumping into this thread without a lot of background. But from past comments, I gather you are skeptical about Yogananda. I think you have implied that he was a phony. Same for Vivekananda? I mention this because I have always held both in high regard.
[FairfieldLife] Re: Hall of the Sith Lords
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, yifuxero yifux...@... wrote: http://edandmari.com/starwars/Lords.html AJUNTA PALL Dark Lord of the Sith (6,900 bby). Ajunta Pall was one of the first great Sith Lords. He was one of the Jedi that first rebelled against the old Light Side teachings in favor of the Dark Side. They rebelled against their Jedi Masters and were eventually driven off into hiding. It was then that the outcast Jedi encountered the Sith race and began building their empire. He was famed to have created a sword of terrible Dark Side power. The sword is rumored to still lie within his tomb on Korriban. H... I wonder if he's any relation to Tom Pall.
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, lurkernomore20002000 steve.sun...@... wrote: curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@ wrote: Let's see, a self-proclaimed yogi comes to America, gains a following including Hollywood actors and entertainment business people by offering a method for inner peace for the East. It's not only comparable the guys almost all ran the same campaign. If you read Vivekananda and Yogananda it is clear. They believed that their spirituality contained Jesus as some sort of minor avatar. Okay, I'm jumping into this thread without a lot of background. But from past comments, I gather you are skeptical about Yogananda. I think you have implied that he was a phony. Same for Vivekananda? I mention this because I have always held both in high regard. I do find Yogananda's miracle saint stories far fetched and a bit naive. He seems inclined to take claims at face value. His experience of seeing Krishna waving at him seems very, very silly to me. I forget what I read from Vivekananda but I do remember that he got physically pushed around by Westerners who didn't appreciate his Eastern message which makes me think he was pretty brave. He was a real trail blazer. I should read his biography, I'll bet it is very interesting. If you see value in either of their teachings good on ya mate. My loss, your gain.
[FairfieldLife] New file uploaded to FairfieldLife
Hello, This email message is a notification to let you know that a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the FairfieldLife group. File: /TM Research/Bibliography TM Research 12 March 09 Chalmers Word 97-03.doc Uploaded by : rick_archer r...@searchsummit.com Description : TM-research bibliography from Dr. Roger Chalmers You can access this file at the URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/files/TM%20Research/Bibliography%20TM%20Research%2012%20March%2009%20Chalmers%20Word%2097-03.doc To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/members/web/index.htmlfiles Regards, rick_archer r...@searchsummit.com
[FairfieldLife] Re: My response to David Orme-Johnson.
curtisdeltablues curtisdeltabl...@... wrote: I do find Yogananda's miracle saint stories far fetched and a bit naive. He seems inclined to take claims at face value. His experience of seeing Krishna waving at him seems very, very silly to me. I forget what I read from Vivekananda but I do remember that he got physically pushed around by Westerners who didn't appreciate his Eastern message which makes me think he was pretty brave. He was a real trail blazer. I should read his biography, I'll bet it is very interesting. I had a Ramakrishna/Vivekananda phase. Very fulfilling time. Yes, I did take something away from it. Autobiography of a Yogi was one of my first spirtitual reads. Made a big impact on me. If you see value in either of their teachings good on ya mate. My loss, your gain.
