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SRF Walrus
Mt. Washington, Ca
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JS
Unregistered User
(8/11/01 7:04 am)
Reply 		Training
Who thinks SRF is doing these things to people to “train them” and help their spiritual progress?

Many people reading this board will not know what the treatment is we are all complaining about! But this board is not for them anyway. I agree we should not fill this board with specific complaints. The email I got said it was not an SRF slander board and I hope that remains the case. Let’s just try to help each other discuss the issues and maybe help others before they get hurt.

Does anyone think SRF will read this board and suddenly introspect on their behavior?

SRFdevotee
Unregistered User
(8/13/01 1:52 pm)
Reply 		What is training?
This is an important question. I think the basic answer is twofold: first, everything that happens to us comes directly from the Guru, so it is all training. This is true regardless of our outer circumstances, and is equally true for monastics and lay members. Second, this does not mean that every person in the world is equal to our Guru. As Jesus says, "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" (Matthew, 18:7). So even though each of us has to figure out what we need to learn, it doesn't mean that the reason someone gives their behavior towards us is the one that matters for us. It is too easy to use "training" as an excuse for every type of bad behavior. I have a simple test: what is the basic, underlying feeling that goes along with a situation? Is the "bad" behavior the rule, or the exception? Is good being furthered?

James
Unregistered User
(8/13/01 1:59 pm)
Reply 		Another quote
Great post! I also like this one from Epictetus:

Is my neighbor bad? Bad to himself, but good to me: he brings my good temper, my gentleness into play. Is my father bad? Bad to himself, but good to me. This is the rod of Hermes; touch what you will with it, they say, and it becomes gold.

I agree with the previous post: first, we have to maintain our own right attitude. Quotes like these can help. But, second, those of us involved, have to individually decide what right action is, in each case. It is simply not true that one should never speak up, or non-cooperate with wrongdoing. Anyone who tries to tell you that is the real person distorting Master's teachings.

oldtimer
Unregistered User
(8/13/01 8:05 pm)
Reply 		more
good board, good posts. i see people are finally willing to talk about this. it's like the emperor's new clothes, everyone sees it but everyone is afraid to point it out. it takes a simple child to finally say what everyone should have known from the start.

this quote is from an old novel but is still true today. the offenders will not see themselves--that is why they are offenders. but it helps the peasants keep from going crazy.

"Once self-supported by conscience, once embarked on a career of manifest usefulness, the true zealot never yields. Neither public nor private influences produce the slightest effect on us, when we have once got our mission. Taxation may be the consequence of a mission; riots may be the consequence of a mission; wars may be the consequence of a mission: we go on with our work, irrespective of every human consideration which moves the world outside us. We are above reason; we are beyond ridicule; we see with nobody's eyes, we hear with nobody's ears, we feel with nobody's hearts, but our own. Glorious, glorious privilege! And how is it earned? Ah, my friends, you may spare yourselves the useless inquiry! We are the only people who can earn it--for we are the only people who are always right."

The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins

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