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SRF Walrus
Mt. Washington, Ca
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srfwalrus
ezOP
(6/3/03 6:43 pm)
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Call to action
Hello,

As an SRF member who loves his Guru, I am reminded of an old expression that got thrown around in the 1960s: "America, love it or leave." That was supposed to imply: "If you love your country, you won't criticize the war in Vietnam." Well, I do love my country, just as Master did, but at that time, loving America to me meant opposing what I saw as the worst military mistake in our country's history. As an anti-war activist, I did my little part to try to bring the issues to the public's attention. Well, thirty years have past, and I find myself in a similar situation. SRF needs help. We just lost another monk
this week, Br. Eduardo, who was much loved in Encinitas for his inspiring services. If this
hemorrhaging of monks continues, SRF will be in serious trouble on several levels. So what can we do? Kvetching is good, but action is better.

I would like to propose to the group that we take some positive action. Will anyone be interested? Am I wasting my time? My proposal, subject to approval and amendment by the group, would be to draw up a position statement, short and concise, with several cogent criticisms of SRF, include a few constructive suggestions for correcting the problems, and publish this as an advertisement in the Yoga Journal. My reasoning is that it is apparent to me that the vast majority of SRF members are not even aware that problems exist at Mother Center.

Devotees in other countries are particularly immune to the notion that everything is not rosy at SRF. Before the SRF membership can bring pressure to bear as a whole on the leadership at Mother Center, the SRF family has to understand that there are problems that need solving. A public declaration would be (I think) a good way to get everyone's attention. We should, I believe, phrase it as politely as possible, and stress that we are taking this stand because we care about Master's work and we feel that constructive change is necessary (if for no other reason than to stem the tide of monastics who are leaving), and of course we would have to keep it completely anonymous. What do you think? You know the Walrus group better than anyone---would this be met with outright rejection, or might some members find this a plausible approach? After all the criticism I read of SRF on the Walrus, one might think that some of the members might be inclined to take action. However, there does seem to be a fair amount of paranoia on the site, which might quell any proposed action. Well, please let me know what you think, and also please explain the rules for posting, and the issue about whether registration makes you a member of the board.

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