Article 8219 of alt.buddha.short.fat.guy: Path: news1.digex.net!news.intercon.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!nic-nac.CSU.net!charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu!olivea!uunet!news.delphi.com!usenet From: Charlie Rubin Newsgroups: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy Subject: Re: Rama book - complete text (very long, in 15 parts) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 94 20:28:33 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Lines: 315 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: bos1g.delphi.com X-To: Charlie Rubin Message-ID: <181352Z11071994@anon.penet.fi> Path: news.delphi.com!uunet!EU.net!news.eunet.fi!anon.penet.fi Newsgroups: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy From: an112477@anon.penet.fi X-Anonymously-To: alt.buddha.short.fat.guy Organization: Anonymous contact service Reply-To: an112477@anon.penet.fi Date: Mon, 11 Jul 1994 18:10:44 UTC Subject: No subject Lines: 304 This book is electronically distributed with full permission of the author. Please feel free to download and pass along to interested parties. (c) Copyright 1993 by Mark E. Laxer All Rights Reserved. Outer Rim Press 4431 Lehigh Rd., #221 College Park, MD 20740 Appendix A: Excerpts from WOOF! In a fabricated advertisement (Issue #4; February, 1981), Atmananda poked fun at televangelists: "Dear Friends in Christ...I want to offer you my secrets of success so that you can make fantastic profits before the world ends! This offer is good for a limited time only, so act now. Send $500.00 for my new book, Better Living With Jesus Through Voodoo. You will receive your copy in a plain brown bag. Here is a brief selection of some of the wonderful topics my book covers: 1) How to make Satan work for you, 2) Selling religious trinkets to the poor, 3) Using television to rake in the millions, 4) Fourteen genuine fake miracles you can impress your congregation with, 5) Using guilt to pry the last pennies from your friends' pockets, 6) How to make your own religion look good while defaming all the others, 7) Convincing people that you once took Jesus to lunch, 8) Seven great strategies to win at pinball, 9) How to give a fire and brimstone sermon that will cast fear into the hearts of all Christians, 10) Tax shelters to protect your new fortunes. All this and more can be yours if you act now! Don't delay. Send for my book today. Yours in Christ and Heavenly Bucks$, The Right Reverend Armageddon T. Thunderbird, Esq." In "Swami Muktaneeshprabhphada's Thoughts For Clean Living & Laundry" (Issue #6; March, 1981), Atmananda satirized Indian gurus: "Greetings on you, my favorite little people! Today I am going to discuss things with so much spiritual significance...You all want to attain Illumination, I know that you do. You are good children. But at the same time many of you have dirty and disgusting thoughts about sex, sex and sex. Now you must put these rotten thoughts away. You can't achieve Enlightenment thinking about sex. You must think about me. If you meditate on your dear old Swami then you will become pure -like your laundry..." In "Constipation Cure" (Issue #7; April, 1981), Atmananda struck out at the Moonies: "Constipated? Can't go at all? REAM YOURSELF with Reverend Mune's Original Korean Holistic Reamer. All Natural, Heavy Metal, Available in decorator colors." In "Polarity Institute For The Criminally Insane - Formerly Twingle's Military Academy for the Criminally Insane" (Issue #6; March, 1981), Atmananda lambasted New Age groups: "Dear Holistic Friends, It is with the greatest joy that I can invite you to a free weekend of fun and kinkyness at the GRAND OPENING of the Polarity Institute for the Criminally Insane. We know that if you will come to one or two of our free sessions we can hook you into a long term program which will cost you thousands!...How do we manage this? By putting pictures in our ads that are filled with subliminal sexual stimulation, by filling our ads with a lot of nonsense about the types of therapies we offer. And last but not least, by relying on your own insecurity and lack of faith in your own natural healing abilities. Choose from any of the fine therapeutic programs we offer to you: 1) QUESADILLA WRAPS. Imagine your naked body being wrapped in warm cheese-filled Quesadillas. Very good for gout and ingrown toenails. 2) Luxuriate in a GUACAMOLE HOT TUB. Wonderful for mild psychosis. 3) LIE ON ONE OF OUR EXCLUSIVE 'Clam Beds' and be stroked with a flamingo feather by Ultra Violet, one of our staff 'workers.' 4) TEQUILLA & GINSENG BODY RUB Wonderful for asthma, heart attack, cerebral hemorrhage and mild back aches. Located in Beautiful Downtown Tijuana, The Home Of The Stars. Gwidcard accepted." Appendix B: Excerpts from Rama's Tape "Welcome To Lakshmi" (1982) "During the first year, you will in effect become a new person. Even your personality structure will alter...we're just trying to cleanse your being...to just wash away those layers of maya, to teach you enough of our language so we can begin to communicate in a more sophisticated manner spiritually... "Initially, the first few years, we're just trying to get basic obstructions out of the way, get your ideas of selfhood out of the way, just open you up to your own perfection. And as we remove more and more of these obstructions, then I am able to do more and more for you. "You must keep a journal...of your spiritual experiences...when you write it down, it brings it very much into the physical consciousness...in other words, it will imprint the experience on your mind. Then, you should read your journal over from time to time...You see, the mind refuses to believe a lot of what we do...but when you bring the mind into the action of writing it down, the mind agrees and accepts these things... "A large part of our program has to do with self-giving. Self- giving is totally important in my estimation. Everything we do is predicated upon it. You can only meditate a few hours a day, but you can give of yourself constantly. You should feel your whole life is nothing but self-giving...there is a great deal of self-giving you can do around the Centre, which will help you. Naturally, whenever you give to a spiritual organization, you enter into that circle of light, and you gain much more for it than if you had just gone out and helped one of your neighbors, from a karmic point of view. The way that you can give of yourself at the Centre, well, there are a few ways. Naturally, the most important is economically. Money is necessary in this world to run a spiritual organization. The more money we have, the more people we help. It's a very simple equation..." Appendix C: Excerpts from Rama's Tape "Sophisticated Sexuality" (1983) "As the years went on, I found that my relationships got better. They changed, though, as I changed...The love became very pure and then it was no longer painful. As I went on, relationships got better and better. And they meant less... "I found that love and sexuality continued to be one of many doorways that seemed to continue to help me in evolution. It just seemed to be there. I had no choice in the matter. As I have no choice in anything that happens anymore... "I no longer could love one person. I just found that I loved everyone. Equally... "It's no more special to sleep with one person than another. What's the difference? It's all a dream anyway... "So I decided the best thing to do was to avoid the Watergate mentality. And to be in full disclosure. Without the sense that anyone would understand. Most people and most of you are threatened completely by your own sexuality. You don't know how to deal with it. You're terribly afraid of it. And it's a terrible threat to see someone who is at ease with it... "So I knew it wouldn't be easy. But at the same time I...had to be myself...I was never particularly interested in impressing others. Otherwise I would not have been part of the Woodstock nation. I rejected society ages ago, and came back to it because it seemed like an interesting thing to do... "I began to hear rumors that well, I was -I don't know what I was doing -I haven't listened to much of the rumors but I guess, umm, I don't know, that I was making love to millions of women, or something like that, uhh, I don't know. That hasn't been the case; it might be a wonderful idea, but to be quite honest, I haven't the time because I'm very busy; it's very demanding running a spiritual community. It might be a heck of a lot more fun than some of the things I do... "I've been very fortunate without one exception; all of the women I have ever met and have been involved with have been wonderful. Remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. And I feel they have all been my teachers. As are all of you my teachers... "But I think it's time everybody grew up. And stop being so petty. About their own lives or other people's lives. And instead, turn their attention towards what matters: money! Sex is the preoccupation of adolescence. Money is the preoccupation of adults. And Lakshmi is the goddess of money... "So I think it's time everybody adopted a more professional attitude about their lives. In other words, don't focus so much on your relationships. Have fun with them. Or if you don't have them, you don't want them, have fun with that. But don't bother with what other people in the Centre do so much... "Sexuality, I think, is a little different for me than it is for most people in that there is almost no body awareness whatsoever. It's just light... "If you can't handle the fact that someday you might be enlightened, and still fall in love with people and love them and be with them, and if you can't deal with that, if you hate yourself so much and hate your sexuality so much that you think it has no light in it...If you think it makes a difference if I have ten thousand sports cars, and ten million girlfriends, and lead a very flashy life, and eat at only the most fashionable restaurants, which I don't, but if that would make a difference in what we do, in other words, if you can carry my lifestyle to the most absurd proportions in your mind, and that would make a difference in the meditation process, then you shouldn't work with me. I don't think you should work with any teacher. 'Cause you don't know what it's all about yet. You should come to the fashionable restaurants with us and have a good time. 'Cause we have a good time. 'Cause God is in everything..." Appendix D: Excerpts from Rama's Advertisements and Brochures (from a full-page spread in The New York Times) The Still Center of the Turning Worlds "There is a still center of Eternity. A place where all pasts, presents and futures meet. This intersecting point of knowledge and experience, pleasure and pain, mortality and immortality has been described and referred to in a variety of different ways by mystics, prophets and teachers who have experienced it. "Some have described it as God or Heaven. Others have referred to it as Nirvana or Tao. In Zen it is called Zen mind or Enlightenment. "While names, descriptions and methods for reaching the still center of being vary greatly, the ultimate worth of this awareness is agreed upon by all who have shared it. The experience of the still center of being brings freedom, self-control, balance and power to those who have attuned their lives to it. "Zen is the study of the Ten Thousand States of Mind and of Enlightenment, the still center which lies beyond the Ten Thousand States of Mind. It is a highly personal study which brings clarity and purpose into the lives of those who practice it. "Zen Buddhist thought has had a profound influence upon Chinese and Japanese history and culture. A great deal of the current success of the Japanese corporate mind stems from the effect of centuries of Zen practice in Japan. Martial arts, dance, poetry, the tea ceremony and many other forms of personal, athletic and artistic expression have been given birth to by Zen mind. "Zen is a highly refined and artistic approach to the meaning of life. It isn't necessary to learn Oriental customs or to speak the Japanese language to successfully practice it. All that is required is an open mind, patience, a good sense of humor and an intense desire for self-improvement. "I have written a free booklet about Zen for the 'computer age' called 'The Zen Experience.' (sm) In it I discuss Zen in more depth and describe both contemporary and traditional methods I employ in teaching Zen at seminars and in private practice. "If you would like to learn more about Zen and the wonders of your own mind, call or write for this free booklet..." * * * (from a RAMA SEMINARS notice; June 7, 1987) "The cost of Saturday's Desert Excursion will be $500. If you choose to attend both the Saturday and Sunday Excursions the rate will be $1,000...No personal checks will be accepted..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.