Sam attended his first course of LAndmark education (Fees- Rs.5500/-) and promptly signed up for the next level of the same (at a WHOPPING Rs.10,000/-)... !
Why do educated, sophisticated, otherwise intelligent people with good family support and dedicated friend circles, need to resort to these New Age courses?
Worse still, why should they PAY THROUGH THEIR NOSES to be able to acheive peace?
Is peace, well-being and happy fulfilling life, not the right of the poor? Do we need more peace than people in countries ravaged by war, like Afghanisatan, Iraq, Vietnam? Do these New Age philosophies reach out to such people and do this for free?
I completely agree, that
1. Our mind should be open to coaching... (coachable!), but that does not mean allowing ourself to get brain-washed. We should be allowed to think that we can lead happy lives, without signing up for expensive courses.
2. Facts are different from interpretation, but there is no one single fact in life. It is, was, and will aleays be interpretations. Language, History, Science, Maths, Morality & Ethics, everything we learned, is proof that interpretations abound !
3. It is touching to see people open out about their deepest fears, humiliations, et al. But it should also make us aware that in our lives we also have people who have cried to us, who have been angry with us, but just never did it on a stage/ podium. And we have done all this as well. All societies & religions have some ethics inclining towards 'empathy' and 'sympathy'. We're taught this/ we learn on our own as kids. And we *DO* practice it in life, unconsciously.
4. We are partially responsible for everything that has happened to us. But the percentage of partiality varies between 1-100. We ARE and ARE NOT responsible for everything that happens in the world. There is a Zen theory- the butterfly effect. A tiny butterfly flapping its wings at one end of the universe may lead to a typhoon/ tornado in another part of the world. So should the butterfly apologise for flapping it's wings? Should it not flap them ever again?
The problem with most of these courses is that it takes advantages of people's lack of reading and philiosophical awareness. Books have always been my best friends. People equate books with bookish-ness, with learning by rote. But I've always learnt so much, I have questioned so much from them.
I have come to believe, that there is no ONE GURU, no ONE FORMULA, no ONE RELIGION... the world & the God entity in all its complexity, are TOO BIG to fit into any ONE... I m a believer of multitudes. All of us are gurus and shishyas, and everywhere we go is a Jeevan ki Paathshala...
Sunday, March 09, 2008
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1 comments:
I read your blog entry with interest. A couple of points, coming from someon who has taken some of the Landmark courses:
1) No one needs the Landmark courses to be happy. I found it to be extremely valuable and thought provoking, and I would have been fine without it.
2) The idea that we're 100% responsible is not presented as the TRUTH. What is presented is that the degree to which you can take responsibility for something is the degree to which you have power around something.
3) I have taken other business seminars and self-development courses, and Landmark Education's were the least expensive of any of them.
4) If this is brainwashing, then I'd like more of it! Seriously, I would say that what got ingrained in me in the Landmark courses were all things that I already know but wasn't doing--For instance, we all know we'd like to make a positive contribution to people and society as a whole, but I for one wasn't spending much time doing it.
Other than that, I wouldn't disagree with anything you are saying!
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