Since I'm in a rant mood this morning, I'm going to rant about what has really been striking me as I have read Fairfield Life over the last few weeks -- the level of FEAR being expressed by thirty to forty year meditators.
That shocks me. It shocked me in France on vacation, because I was surrounded by people who *don't* live in FEAR; the French *aren't* afraid all the time. If one were thinking of adjectives to describe the French, FEARful is not one that anyone would come up with. And it's the same here in Spain. You can somewhat accurately describe the Spanish as a tad shallow, or as lacking a work ethic, but living in FEAR? Never. But Americans? Just watch the News. Every other article is FEAR-based. And on this forum? Every other post is FEAR-based, and these posts are coming from people who have been meditating regularly for 30 to 40 years. The list of things that people FEAR on a regular basis on this forum is *astounding*. They're terrified of "socialized medicine" and of Commies who might actually provide them with some health care. They're terrified of a skinny black man. They're terrified of people coming to take their penis substitutes away. The men are afraid of the women and some of the women are afraid of the men. So what's UP with this? What is WRONG with TM that practicing it for 30 to 40 years still leaves people so susceptible to media- generated FEAR, and leaves them indistiguisable from all of the other Americans talking FEAR 24/7? One would think -- especially given its hype and "sales brochures" -- that a good meditation each morning and evening would wash all the media-generated FEAR away, and leave the TMers able to chat about more productive things. But does that really happen? I really don't see these levels of FEAR in forums from some other spiritual traditions. Some of them actually use the forums to talk about spiritual things. Fairfield Life seems to focus mainly upon the FEARS of its participants, on scapegoating the people or things that they want to blame their FEARS on, and on trying to demonize and insult and yell at each other. Is that really the legacy of 30 to 40 years of TM?
