posted on February 5, 2004 02:54:37 PM new
Everyone here seems to be fighting with at least one other poster right now, so I thought it might be fun (as in, healthy) to create a fight-free zone. I don't know much about any of you and maybe none of you will want to divulge anything you deem "personal" but I'd like to put forth an invitation for all of us to at least glimpse the people behind the names. We spend a lot of time together every day; it seems silly that we're not on more familiar terms. So, what I'm asking is that everyone post something about themselves. Maybe Bear will tell us a funny story about his grandkids. Maybe Krafty could describe life in Canada. And so on. In the hope that you'll all be willing to play along, I'll go first:
I assume none of you ever lived in an ashram and perhaps don't know anyone who did/does, so I'll tell you a little bit about my experiences. Despite the bad rap ashrams in general were given after the Rajneesh mess in Oregon, most of them are quiet enclaves where one goes to develop spiritually with the guidance of a guru. (The Hindi word "guru" can be translated thusly: "gu" means dispeller and "ru" means of darkness. These days, it is more common to have "gu" translated as darkness and "ru" translated as light; ultimately, it is another word for "teacher". ) Scores of Catholic nuns and priests used to spend their "vacations" at the ashram in upstate New York. They came there, those with whom I spoke said, to rejuvenate their personal experience of God. It wasn't a matter of having lost their faith or wanting another faith, it was, I gathered, a sort of retreat for them, where a universally accepted version of right living was encouraged and practiced in an exceptionally beautiful environment, where they could contemplate/meditate -- as Catholics -- in a tranquil setting, far away from what I imagined were their "daily grinds" of teaching school and bogging down in everyday realities. It was a great lesson to me, frankly, to discover that even people who'd formally devoted their lives to God needed a day off now and then.
But, there were crazies at the ashram, too. Here's a funny story about my initial encounter with the guru...
I'd been meditating at the Oakland ashram for about three months when I decided I just had to fly to New York (where the guru was staying) and meet her, to see if she was "for real". The shuttle that was supposed to pick me up in Manhattan turned out to be a cargo van full of soft drinks and 100-lb. sacks of basmati rice that were headed to the ashram kitchen, so I made the two-hour trip perched atop several cases of soda, crammed next to about five other people I didn't know. Two of them, both women, were animatedly yacking about "Baba" (the previous guru, who died in 1982) and I couldn't help but hear what they were saying. To my horror, they were, in all seriousness, discussing having stolen and drunk his BATH WATER! They'd even saved little vials of it and were now lamenting that their "supply" was almost depleted!
"Egad," I thought to myself, "these people are CRAZY! I'm not gonna get mixed up in anything that has me drinking bath water!"
I toyed with the idea of simply exiting the cargo van on a corner and hailing a taxi to take me right back to JFK International, but 'a little voice' piped up in me: "Did you really come all this way for nothing, Pat? At least go and meet the guru; if she's crazy too, THEN you can leave."
So, I made it to the ashram in upstate New York, and was scheduled to have two full days with the guru in a meditation intensive. To my great surprise and delight, she spent an hour or so during each of those two days giving a "talk" about all sorts of things. That first day, she was explaining the difference between devotion and fanaticism.
"Oh, yes," she said at one point, her eyes twinkling, "we are constantly on our guard here at the ashram because people make up the craziest 'rituals' all on their own, thinking these are greater than The Practices. This used to infuriate Baba. There was a time when he found out that people were stealing his bath water! (Great guffaws throughout the meditation hall.) Yes," the guru said, nodding her head and laughing right along with us, "his BATH water!!"
The "coincidence" of her bringing up the very topic that had given me such concern, and then calling it crazy herself, saw me through my reservations in a powerful way; that and many other tailor-made-for-me experiences occurred throughout that weekend and I came away from it absolutely knowing that the guru was "for real".
posted on February 5, 2004 03:59:37 PM new
That's too bad. I had a moment there when I thought the dumpster might be the one instrument I could master!
Yeah, bath water! Creepy, eh? Wackos are everywhere...
posted on February 5, 2004 04:10:39 PM new
Here's something you might not know - In the winter, I only shave my legs twice a month and no matter how cold it is, I can't have covers over my feet at night when I'm sleeping.
posted on February 5, 2004 04:14:21 PM new
I once had a passing interest in Sonia Braga's bathwater...but that was a long time ago...
As for me personally, this board knows way more about me than I ever should have admitted.
I teach school
I herd sheep, lots of sheep, wool sheep
I live out in the bushes somewhere along the US/Mexico border, where I run a ranch, that my family has owned for a really long time
I'm divorced and remarried
I have 2 girls and a boy child
I'm an amnesiatic catholic
I'm a dual citizen, and so are two of my kids
My wife begrudgingly makes tortillas, and is known around the ranch as She Who Must Be Obeyed
I have a million cousins, many of whom are idiots...
posted on February 5, 2004 04:31:43 PM new
LoL Snowy! We have Occam's Razors here at Wal-Mart with the co-ordinating Occam's shave gel. (We're not as back woods up here as you might think.)
posted on February 5, 2004 04:53:26 PM new
Hi, I post sporadically & just this past Monday I was diagnosed with bronchitis, which really, really sucks. So you all are part of my daily routine right now because moving around and doing any kind of physical activity right now causes me shortness of breath.
Good idea about this thread, sometimes you are right, it gets a bit tense.
I have 2 dogs & 3 cats. I also foster 3 cats for a local non-profit animal organization. The last one to come into the house was a stray I found outside in the bitter cold a few weeks ago. Finally caught him, put an ad in the paper about a found cat & took him to the vet. Right now he is living the life of Riley in my spare bedroom. He's quaranteened because he has round worms and it contagious to other cats.
Oh and I'm a breast cancer survivor!! It will be 2 years in May this year. That's why seeing Ms. Jackson's breast last Sunday was no big deal. Heck, I think 1/2 the staff of the hospital has seen mine. lol.
Nice to meet you all!
Some days, even wearing my lucky rocketship underwear doesn't help. ~ Calvin & Hobbes
posted on February 5, 2004 05:12:14 PM newOh and I'm a breast cancer survivor!! It will be 2 years in May this year. That's why seeing Ms. Jackson's breast last Sunday was no big deal. Heck, I think 1/2 the staff of the hospital has seen mine. lol.
posted on February 5, 2004 05:27:45 PM new
Thanks Helen! That was my 40th b/day present, just a month early! Nice, huh? lol
And Kraft, I kind of figured not everyone is ticked at everyone else. When Twelve 'speaks', I really do feel the love.
Some days, even wearing my lucky rocketship underwear doesn't help. ~ Calvin & Hobbes
posted on February 5, 2004 05:35:16 PM new
Hi, mlb. Congratulations on your 2 years in advance. Take care of that bronchitis, it seems like lots of people have it here too. I just survived my husband having it (and he gets bad patient of the Decade award).
I have two cats that were rescued, a couple of feral kitties, and a dog, and some mutant fish.
posted on February 5, 2004 05:39:17 PM new
Thanks Snowy, I'm trying to take care of myself & not do too much, but it's driving me bonkers. Was your hubby laid up too? And for how long, if you don't mind me asking.
Thanks for the welcome and good wishes. And by the way, please call me Mary.
And Kraft I know laughter is the best medicine - it's what got me thru my breast cancer 2 years ago. My best friend/roomie was also my guardian angel during that time and has a wonderful sense of humor.
unintentional - no! you don't say. hahaha
Some days, even wearing my lucky rocketship underwear doesn't help. ~ Calvin & Hobbes
[ edited by mlb618 on Feb 5, 2004 05:41 PM ]
posted on February 5, 2004 05:42:44 PM new
That's wonderful news, Mary. Good for you! And, yeah, just hang out here while your bronchitis goes away; you will laugh your ass off at least once a day!
So, Helen, not even a scrap for us?
Edited to greet Mary by her real name Please call me Pat.
posted on February 5, 2004 05:43:19 PM new
Mary, it seemed to be pretty bad for three weeks getting SOB, dizzy, ect. About another week feeling not so good. He finally went to the doctor after 2 weeks.
I think I need lessons from Profe's wife.
You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
posted on February 5, 2004 05:48:56 PM new
Snowy, thanks & I feel for you...
I think mine's been going on for a couple of weeks now, it started out as a cold, but then I started to get winded when I walked up the basement steps or shoveled snow and that's not like me. Monday I was getting dizzy just sitting here (maybe it was one of the threads that did that to me? lol) so I called the dr. & got in. The couch is now my best friend practically.
I really like these kind of threads - it's nice getting to know people a little bit better, whatever's comfortable for people of course.
Some days, even wearing my lucky rocketship underwear doesn't help. ~ Calvin & Hobbes
posted on February 5, 2004 06:26:04 PM new
Ed. To explain Pat's comment below...I had jokingly mentioned that I was trying to teach my husband that I was, like Profe's wife, "one to be obeyed"....but that he was a "slow learner".
[ edited by Helenjw on Feb 6, 2004 07:23 PM ]
posted on February 5, 2004 06:42:23 PM new
Pat, I really dont know what to say or how contribute to this thread. There is just so many interesting facets of my life and personality - NOT!...lol.....
But the thing about personal information on a public board is that you post one thing, and that is encapsulated as your whole. Anybody with half a brain knows thats not true, but we all do it. So at least when the mud gets flung, I prefer to let to it be at the percieved me as unknown poster rather than the real me.
Can ya see the real me? Can ya, Can ya? Now Who'da thunk Pete Townsend was a pedophile?
