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SRF Walrus

Mt. Washington, Ca

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SRF Walrus > Treatment of Members/Monastics > Counseling
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PostMonk Unregistered User (9/7/01 11:05 pm) Reply	Counseling I just wanted to warn any SRF members who may want to call SRF for counseling. The monastics are encouraged to get your name at the start of a counseling call so that they can submit a report to Membership Services on what you said. This report will go into your permanent membership file. Most of the monks don't do this. But some of the social climbers do. I don't know about the nuns. Don't even get me started on the state of the monastic-to-monastic "counseling" system. It is nothing more than sick, soul-corroding mind-control. It is criminal to see what some of these "counselors" do and say to the young, eager monks. SRF is lucky it has not been sued for emotional abuse.
Fresh Unregistered User (9/8/01 5:31 am) Reply	Class Action Law Suit I have proposed several times the idea of raising a class action lawsuit against SRF for emotional abuse. People say there's no case here. But I am convinced we have an overwhelming positive chance. Any thoughts?
Crog Unregistered User (9/8/01 5:50 am) Reply	Lawsuit If our goal is to help each other, help ourselves, and help Master’s organization improve, which of these is served with a class action lawsuit? Bringing their problems out in the open I do feel WILL help. The stuff SRF management does is so disappointing that once the general membership knows, something will be done. Does a class action lawsuit do more harm than good? Or does it help this goal? SRF lives by the lawsuit (if you were not aware). I hate to drop down to their level.
Fresh Unregistered User (9/8/01 10:54 am) Reply	To Crog I would consider a lawsuit as a last resort. More for effect than anything else. If other lay-disciples caught wind that a formal action was being taken against SRF, they would take us more seriously. The legal system doesn't always have to be associated with servile motives. We have all been manipulated, used, and even emotionally abused. I'm surprised, for example, that Ben and Mike did not sue SRF for the horrendous treatment they recieved. Monastics have been psychologically manipulated and toyed with, have been pushed out of their homes if they don't follow the party line. When they leave, does SRF help them? If we were to have the SRF organization analyed by psychologists and sociologists, what would they conclude? SRF makes people believe it is a one-stop shop. Then, when those poor souls have left all behind to follow their guru, they use the person until that person is no longer useful to them. Then it's bye-bye Charlie! Haven't you met many ex-monastics or employees or even members who have to start their lives all over again, have lost years, have new traumas to deal with. Who is going to pay for their therapy bills? I say we keep on doing what we're doing, but if SRF continues to ignore us, we wake them up with the only thing they understand or respect: a lawsuit. Master once wrote that their are different tactics you must take depending upon the opponent you're dealing with. If you're Gandhi facing England, you can appeal to their sense of civility by practicing non-violence. If you're trying to sway Nazi Germany through non-violence, you'll be cut to pieces with shrapnel.
PostMonk Unregistered User (9/10/01 11:01 pm) Reply	Class Action Nothing will make SRF change except full public disclosure of what needs to be changed. Soft, respectful words have no effect on the colossal, self-righteous egos of those in charge. I have seen it for decades. Insiders are slapped down with a stern admonishment to obey. Outsiders are dismissed as not having the "training" and therefore failing to understand. These people tell young monastics to forget their families. And fill their heads with speech after speech about how SRF is the "true" family now. But the proof is in the pudding, my friends. During all those years that I turned my back on my family in order to be loyal to SRF, my family never stopped calling me, reaching out to me, caring about me and loving me. The very DAY SRF leaders found out I was leaving, the other monastics were told to avoid me because I was no longer "one of them". Of course, most of the monks ignored this and were wonderfully supportive. In the years that I have been gone, SRF itself has never even once called to see how I have adjusted to my new life. And I say this without hyperbole --- I could die in the street and SRF would not lift a finger to help me. So much for spiritual brotherhood. Now you tell me which is the real family. Perhaps a class action lawsuit is just what the SRF leadership needs to wake up. Please don't take this to mean that the monks are this way. I still have many dear friends in the Ashram. There are many wonderful guys in there. I am referring to the organization's leadership. They are hypocrites.
xmonk Unregistered User (9/11/01 11:04 am) Reply	Class Action Post Monk, Thank you, dear brother, for your exact description of the situation. What you say is total truth. Hypocrisy rules the organization. No matter what they tried to drum into our heads, I found who my true family is. Someone mentioned, in another entry, Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said: "Free at last, free at last, Great God Almighty, Free at last!" I feel that freedom. I also feel God's love as I have never felt it before. As you so eloquently stated, the only thing that will stop these monsters is the public airing of the truth of just what SRF is and how they operate. Somehow, the cultish mental and spiritual abuse, of monastics and laity alike, has to be stopped.

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