[Buddha-l] Eckhart Tolle

[Joy Vriens]

Vaj wrote:

>> There is a chance TM (c)(r) will be taught free in Dutch secondary 
>> schools as an optional course (keuzevak), part of philosophy. It is 
>> hoped this meditation technique will help to improve the learning 
>> performances of the students and give them a higher motivation. The 
>> project will start in the secondary school of Lelystad this year.
>>
>> http://www.nieuws.nl/120909/Transcendente_meditatie_als_keuzevak

> I wonder if they are charging the schools?

I don't know. I am not from that region, nor do I know anyone there. 
They must have a powerful lobby or an infiltrator in the national 
education. The same event would be totally unthinkable in France. I 
guess they see it as an investment. Like when Microsoft a couple of 
years back sold their products very cheap (compared to their usual 
prices) to schools.

> What started out as a fairly 
> innocuous inexpensive "mantra shamatha" technique in the 60's has become 
> an expensive propostion in most areas. The cultishness has become 
> stranger and stranger. More recently the "Maharishi" has declared his 
> own government, crowned people as rajas, started his own political 
> party, his own monetary system and bilked westerners out of over a 
> hundred million dollars for a "Vedic pundits for world peace initiative" 
> which never materialized. Now they are trying to raise 10 trillion 
> dollars for a global organic farming initiative. It gets weirder. 

I was raised a Catholic. Nothing I haven't seen yet...

> Vipassana is a lot cheaper!

Sure, but a bit flat compared to the Maharishi's hyperactivity, isn't it?