The Tao of the Traveller

[john morgan]

Hi ex-I,

What you say is true, but many visitors to planet earth have no access to a computer. Soon the DVD will be on general sale and the actual content will be clear. I suspect that the financial aspect waters will remain muddied for a little longer. The credits on the DVD, if there are any, could be a good source of information.

How about a ms. orange smiley? :D Star shape with eyes profoundly looking upward? ;)

[fluffy bunny]

What you say is true, but many visitors to planet earth have no access to a computer. Soon the DVD will be on general sale and the actual content will be clear. I suspect that the financial aspect waters will remain muddied for a little longer. How about a ms. orange smiley? :D Star shape with eyes profoundly looking upward? ;)

Fewer have a DVD player ... but that was all taken into consideration. A friend downloads, even at an internet cafe, and burns many copies onto a DVD or VCC (or they do what the PBKs have apparently mastered in this area). Let's face it ... it is going to happen all over India anyway.

A ms orange smilie? I think it would be more like a Pinocchio character with strings attached.

[chai bhai]

A ms orange smilie? I think it would be more like a Pinocchio character with strings attached.

I think it is a shame that ms orange did not stay. I did read the thread thoroughly and I can understand why she did not. Mostly she was berated for just saying things as she knew them. I noticed that she also had quite a lot of support from the more friendly characters, and so that was good. But - and please do not bite my head off ex-l (I am losing my hair as it is, and then you'll have to floss to get it out of your teeth and it could get very ugly), you could do better to cut people some slack. You have so many ideas about people and you could be wrong sometimes, but you speak as if you are the only one who is always right. I mean, I think it would be good for change to happen, but in our forum we have to be honest and share truthfully even if sometimes other readers do not agree or do not like it, and not be cruel and insulting for the sake of what we think is the 'truth'.

There are many perspectives, many lives and many stories. And you are not the yardstick by which we should measure everything. It read from the beginning like you wanted to just cut her off at the knees just for the sake of it. I know some of her story and I can tell you she is no 'vanilla BK' as you said it. No, not at all. I know that she really supported this site in the beginning too - she was telling everyone to go on it and look. I thought that her postings were honest. She answered your questions and if she did not know something she just said that she did not know it. She did not make something up. Sorry ex-l, but I think you were unfair with her.

At the same time, you say many good things but it is a bit self-sabotage sometimes the way you are saying them. But - just a reminder - don't beat me up for saying how I feel! If I cannot speak freely here, then where? For this to work, it also has to be good and fair for BKs, ex-BKs, PBKs, mgbks, lmnopbks, ukbks, and couldntgiveastuffbks as well as buggeroffbks and imnotamemberbks. And the most unspoken group the myloyaltylieswiththeyagyaandnottheinstitutionbks.

with peace and respect to all
Om Shanti
chai

[john morgan]

Hello Chai Bhai,

I support your ms orange perspective. She at one point requested a ms orange smiley.

Perhaps ex-I's recent comment should be slightly tempered in the light of the "bring back the smilies campaign" which can be found in the all and everything forum.

ms orange is a creative individual, she is no puppet.

Your connections are good.

[chai bhai]

hello there john,

I read everything in the bring back the smilies section: VERY good idea! A picture says a thousand words after all. And it is good to use them if you say something, and then you want to give it a slightly different feel. I think they are handy and definitely the more the merrier. I would really like to have some more of them. I did not know that there were more in the beginning. I am all for bringing them back. Let's hear it for the smilies! :D :| :-? ;) :shock: ;) :shock: :| :-? :D :D :D

[fluffy bunny]

I have heard that every time someone mentions ms orange ... another smiley dies.

At this moment, BK Tamasin Ramsay is being given Australian government finance to, basically, do Brahma Kumari PR. She even stated on this forum that was so. A perfect example of where this is going is, her piece co-written with Wendy Smith, here. Another bit of BK "YAH-YAH" ... (Yet Another Hagiography - Yet Another Hallucination). I just wish more folks in the BK world knew what a hagiography was, never mind recognised one when it hit the press.

I know some of her story and I can tell you she is no 'vanilla BK' as you said it. No, not at all. I know that she really supported this site in the beginning too - she was telling everyone to go on it and look. I thought that her postings were honest. She answered your questions and if she did not know something she just said that she did not know it.

So do I, chai. Which is why I said without any fear of contradiction that she is someone that has benefited from a privilege experience within the Brahma Kumari system not on the basis of her own innate spirituality ... or adherence to the Maryadas ... but on the basis of her family's money and her Father's social status and talents. Money, fame ... the BKs just love it. On the basis of that, her loyalty and judgment are suspect. Anyone with any integrity would not have accepted such privileges ... but that appears to be the BKWSU and BKs these days.

• The baseline in academia is the sharing of the commonwealth of knowledge ... especially within public funded academics. I offered her all the assistance I could and to share my source - on the basis that she would share her's. I asked if she would get some other stuff from Madhuban ... she did not even have the respect to acknowledge my question. And, in my opinion, she made the fatal error of speaking to us as if we were stupid and could not see through her.
  
  Whereas she was excited by all the history stuff. In my opinion, she was willing to take but not to give. She is in a position to get but was not going to share. I asked for details such as about the Tsunami Aid ... nothing. Why was she here?
  
  Tamasin told me she had a grant to go do the BK United Nation VIP service but according the public records, she did not get the Endeavour grant until the year after ... I am still waiting for clarification.

Do you honestly think she does not know more than she said, or could not have easily found out? Of course she does and could. I mean ... who talks about their own Father as "The Producers" like she is some Hollywood starlet? :D. There is such a thing as "willful ignorance" you know.

In truth, I found her a little arrogant, and much more to the point, academically I find her lazy and dishonest. That article is pretty much a copy and paste of 10,000 other BK Public Relations shots (note the Taoist reference there folks). If Wendy Smith is NOT a BK, then I can only presume the co-opting of her as "co-author" (to an article that could have been written by Neville Hodgkinson out of Global Co-Operation House) is just another typical BK guise of adopting a non-BK as a front person to their service ventures.

Ethically, Tamasin Ramsay SHOULD HAVE publicly indicated in her article that she has a privileged personal interest in the new religious movement she was reporting on. I wonder if she will in her thesis? Ethically, she has a problem with her responsibility to the general public of Australia who are funding her Brahma Kumaris escapade. On the level of personal integrity, any academic would have thought long and hard about choosing a topic so they were personally involved with. If nothing else, it is just too easy.

• Deception, deflection and subterfuge ... all typical BK service methods.

For the record, the reference to "vanilla" came from private correspondence and the making public of private correspondence was a very low trick because others could not see or know the context in which it was said. It was neither labeled at her nor was it negative. Vanilla is sweet. If she agrees, I am perfectly willing to make all of our correspondence public so that other can judge themselves what passed.

[chai bhai]

oops ... sorry ... :sad:.

[paulkershaw]

From my personal perspective, there's nothing to be sorry about here, we are all part of this forum, some us choose to stay, some choose to go, some choose to only be involved on the level we feel comfortable at. Most will post here according to their perspective.

We all need to challenge each other now and again but also not let it become a personal war, after all we all understand the "independent discussion' aspects that this forum offers (and advertises). Rise to the occassion.

I can see that the entire forums energy is moving towards a point of important critical reference and after that something huge will happen on a world-wide level, and we need to personally decide how involved we wish to be, according to our own perspective. After all its perspective that's power - not 'knowledge' any longer. The 'knowledge' of the past that's uncovered by people such as ex-l and other forum members (if there is actually such a thing as a 'forum member' ... just the same as the question "is there such a thing as a member of the BKWSU' ... !), and amongst many others behind the scenes too, will change many perspectives, thereby empowering many.

In the meantime, I'd advise (if that's the correct term...) for us to look deeply within (on an internalised level) as to why people have left this forum in the past. IMHO they're simply not getting sufficent resolution from the needs of their own perspectives, in other words they are not able to make an inner adjustment to their inner belief systems and may possibly be unconsciously refusing to see a 'bigger picture', and this includes people from within and without the BK/PBK/ex-BK stables.

I am not 'backing ex-l here. But in my experience, ex-l is the one who challenges us to see deeper inside the self and find the answers there-in and this is not always a comfortable experience for many people's own subconscious and often unknown (to them) 'agendas'. ex-l is not asking whats wrong - often the questions brought up are not about right or wrong but about a perspective that is ruining lives and not even permitting some people to even have their own perspective (or life). As long as one is not able to change one's perspective, unhappiness will continue to exist within.

To summarise;

"What you must dare is to be yourself."

So let's say "How can I change today?" And also ask yourself, "How does this make you feel?" Have you heard it all before? ... Go change your perspective of it and look again and it will be different for you.

[fluffy bunny]

Thanks Paul. Frankly, I do not have any pretensions of always being "right". Life is far to colorful for it to be a simple 'black' or 'white'. But, yes, at times I will accept being guided to question "why?" and "what is this?". Mostly it even surprises me how accurate those intuitions are. They come out of "nowhere".

There is a short clip of the latest BKWSU service venture, The Tao of the Traveller in the downloads section, here.

I found it on some website where it was free to download having distributed by some film company/association/club or something for play on an iPod etc. I cannot remember where though. It is still being premiered at Brahma Kumaris centers worldwide ... is Robin still traveling the world doing questions and answers with it? Ah ... the joys of being a trust fund hippie. I known them well from the '60s.

Can anyone tell me, has the Australia website just recently dropped the title University? Its just says "Brahma Kumaris" with a new domain name http://www.BKs.com.au leading to the main one. Their public discussion forum, the only BKWSU one, is still offline. I wonder why?

[chai bhai]

Hello everyone. I sent an email via the taotraveller.com website because I also had a couple of questions about the film. And I did get a reply, within two days. So it looks like communication is open if anyone would like to know anything about the film.

[fluffy bunny]

Questions;

a) is it true that BapDada signalled his approval of it before it was even made?
b) what is the exact proportion of money going to Brahma Kumari charities via sales, i.e. is it ... ALL proceeds, net profits after costs, do centers make a profit on sales or what?

[chai bhai]

Here is the link http://www.taotraveller.com/contactus.htm. I got the answer quickly. Good luck with it.

[fluffy bunny]

What was your question and what was the answer?

[chai bhai]

it was not very interesting i am afraid - i mean not in relation to the topics discussed on the forum. but here it is anyway.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 11:20 PM, <bk*****[email protected]> wrote:

Name: Brother *****
Comments: hello. Om Shanti. i am a bk brother and i saw your film. i really liked it, but i had a question. how did you get the animals to be cooperative - the seal and the ducks and also the kangaroo. did you have someone to help you? did you train them before you started to film them? i was just wondering because it really added nicely to the story. are you going to make another one like this do you think? i know that you were an actor. have you made films before too? it was very nicely done i thought. congratulations.

On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 09:45 AM <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Brother *****/Chaibhai,

Greetings and we are so glad you enjoyed Tao of the Traveller. You asked about the animals in the film, none of which were trained. The baby seals swim and clamber up a creek every morning, from the sea where there mothers are, to play in the freshwater pool, where we filmed them, then they rejoin there mothers at night. The wallaby and her joey wandered into shot and then down to a little river to drink. So Tamasin joined them and our cameraman quietly followed, to get the wonderful shot you referred to. The ducks, actually geese, made quite a fuss about us being there, and they were such wonderful natural performers who kept wandering in front of the camera. The buffalo in the village was waiting to be milked, and you see her giving Tamasin a nudge as she walks by.

Tamasin has a natural affinity and love for animals, and I think they returned the favour.

About your other queries ... Robin previously made a documentary called 'Wombattery', exposing questionable forestry practices in the Wombat Forest in Victoria, Australia. He is now working on a screenplay for a film about Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize winning Indian poet.

We hope this is helpful, and thanks again for your interest.

Kind regards

Travellers

[fluffy bunny]

He is now working on a screenplay for a film about Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize winning Indian poet.

Chai, honestly now, do you think that on the basis of all the publicity gain by the BKWSU and its followers for the multi-BK starring 'Tao of the Traveller' movie, and for having a good showreel in the forum of TTOTT to present, that Robin might be in a better position to have the Rabindranath Tagore production financed and shown ... or is it going to be another "independent production" for BK consumption? Are these film festivals events for "Baba's movie" business or service?

I just hope Borderlands is not going to be another BK stealth project. As much as it has done the rounds of BK service programmes wordwide. Tagore is one of humanity's giants upon whose shoulders we midgets stand. Entirely contrary to the early Brahma Kumaris he support Indian independence movement and renounced his British given knighthood. I recommend his short story, "The Parrot's Training" where a soul, ahem, bird is caged by tutors and force-fed pages torn from books until it ultimately dies.

May be ... if he is actually ready to surrender ... the BKWSU could just give Robin a job teaching literature, drama and presentation skills at Shantivan, or somewhere else on one of their "University" campuses? It amazes me how the Brahma Kumaris pump money into chasing banal and corrupt VIPs and yet do not empower their own talent nor educate their own followers.

How many sevadharis honestly think that the "high end of culture" is handing over photocopied pictures of Lakshmi & Narayan in gold frames to harassed local politicians and having your picture taken with them?

Let's face, a good service yukti but ...not very Taoist if you ask me.

The King wished to see for himself the lightening speed at which education was proceeding. So one day he came to the education center with his entire entourage of friends, companions and courtiers. As soon as he reached the entrance, there arose a chorus of bells and drums and harps and flutes and lyres and lutes and cellos and violins and cymbals and mandolins and trombones and bassoons and harpsichords and clavichords. The pundits swung their pig-tails and started chanting hymns at the top of their voices. The repairmen and the laborers and the goldsmith and the scribes and the supervisors and the cousins greeted the King with a huge uproar.

The Nephew said, "Your Majesty! What do you think?'' The King said, "Amazing! This is a non-trivial amount of sound!'' The Nephew said, "It's not just the sound Your Majesty, there is also a non-trivial amount of money behind it.''

Many people were employed and to supervise them, many more people were employed. Each of them got a handful of coins every month and filled their chests with them. They, their Brothers, Sisters and cousins began to live in great luxury and happiness.

The King was extremely pleased. He started back. He came out of the front door and was about to ride his elephant, when a fault-finder, who had been hiding in a bush, yelled, "Your Majesty! Have you looked at the bird?''

It reminds me of Nirwair's letter elsewhere ... "everything is being done for the comfort of the Brahmin family". The king could be Janak.