iHateDuplicity
Patron with Honors
Forgive my long posting here but I have a point to make and this seemed the best forum to do it in. I'm new on this site and I'm not saying anything about myself or my own personal story because I still have friends and loved ones involved in the Church who I'd prefer to stay connected with for now. So this is the best you'll get out of me for now.
Marty has been posting lately about the Tao Te Ching and its adoption in his practice. I am not a die-hard follower of Marty. Hell, at this point I'm not a die-hard follower of anyone after the betrayal and deceit that I discovered was Scientology. I'm a little too jaded at this point to start putting my blind trust in anyone again.
However, there are truths to be found out there which I believe are useful for anyone to lead a better and happier life. Say what you will about Hubbard (and I could say a lot both good and bad), I will not agree to throw every single thing he ever said into the fire just because I disagree with some of his rules and regulations. One thing I do agree with Hubbard about is that wisdom is free for the taking and philosophy should not be an ivory tower activity.
I just came across this quote from the Tao Te Ching (while reading a paper about web design, of all things) and it seemed to explain some things to me which I thought might be applicable to what Scientology has become, so I'm sharing it here for everyone. Do with it what you will. I think it describes some of what has gone wrong with Scientology. Scientology philosophy was originally a much softer and accepting system than it has become now. I think everyone here was drawn into Scientology to some degree because of that attitude of freedom and acceptance and the idea that "hey, you actually are okay and you are a good person and you have worth and value." That is a powerful thing to tell someone and it implies a great degree of acceptance - what Hubbard calls 'granting beingness.' Originally, Scientology was all about this.
For me, and I think for many on ESMB, when that acceptance was later betrayed and rejected - through rabid enforcement of KSW, squashing one's own ideas and originations, incorrect labelling and enforced disconnection and all the other claptrap nonsense that Scientology has morphed into - there is a tremendous feeling of betrayal and rejection. Guess I'm waxing philosophic today.
So here's the quote I found that inspired all this:
“A newborn is soft and tender,
A crone, hard and stiff.
Plants and animals, in life, are supple and succulent;
In death, withered and dry.
So softness and tenderness are attributes of life,
And hardness and stiffness, attributes of death.”
Tao Te Ching; 76 Flexibility
Scientology has definitely taken on the attributes of death and is not really long for this world. All of us see it and the rest of the world is catching up fast with the increased attention in the media that Scientology has been getting recently. They could always cease their own dwindling spiral and turn the thing around if they would just truly cancel the destructive practices and put back in what was working back in the 70s and 80s. But I think we all agree that is never going to happen, not just because of the currently church leadership but also because of the faults within its administrative system that prevent it from actually expanding.
Maybe in this thing on the Tao, Marty has a point.
Marty has been posting lately about the Tao Te Ching and its adoption in his practice. I am not a die-hard follower of Marty. Hell, at this point I'm not a die-hard follower of anyone after the betrayal and deceit that I discovered was Scientology. I'm a little too jaded at this point to start putting my blind trust in anyone again.
However, there are truths to be found out there which I believe are useful for anyone to lead a better and happier life. Say what you will about Hubbard (and I could say a lot both good and bad), I will not agree to throw every single thing he ever said into the fire just because I disagree with some of his rules and regulations. One thing I do agree with Hubbard about is that wisdom is free for the taking and philosophy should not be an ivory tower activity.
I just came across this quote from the Tao Te Ching (while reading a paper about web design, of all things) and it seemed to explain some things to me which I thought might be applicable to what Scientology has become, so I'm sharing it here for everyone. Do with it what you will. I think it describes some of what has gone wrong with Scientology. Scientology philosophy was originally a much softer and accepting system than it has become now. I think everyone here was drawn into Scientology to some degree because of that attitude of freedom and acceptance and the idea that "hey, you actually are okay and you are a good person and you have worth and value." That is a powerful thing to tell someone and it implies a great degree of acceptance - what Hubbard calls 'granting beingness.' Originally, Scientology was all about this.
For me, and I think for many on ESMB, when that acceptance was later betrayed and rejected - through rabid enforcement of KSW, squashing one's own ideas and originations, incorrect labelling and enforced disconnection and all the other claptrap nonsense that Scientology has morphed into - there is a tremendous feeling of betrayal and rejection. Guess I'm waxing philosophic today.
So here's the quote I found that inspired all this:
“A newborn is soft and tender,
A crone, hard and stiff.
Plants and animals, in life, are supple and succulent;
In death, withered and dry.
So softness and tenderness are attributes of life,
And hardness and stiffness, attributes of death.”
Tao Te Ching; 76 Flexibility
Scientology has definitely taken on the attributes of death and is not really long for this world. All of us see it and the rest of the world is catching up fast with the increased attention in the media that Scientology has been getting recently. They could always cease their own dwindling spiral and turn the thing around if they would just truly cancel the destructive practices and put back in what was working back in the 70s and 80s. But I think we all agree that is never going to happen, not just because of the currently church leadership but also because of the faults within its administrative system that prevent it from actually expanding.
Maybe in this thing on the Tao, Marty has a point.