The abusers were likely abused the same way as children and thus didn't know how to discipline young children other than the way he had experienced it! It is bad what you went through…but all of India and many other countries around the world face the same fate. Its not something unique to the 3HO movement…sorry to burst your bubble.

–satgurschnrub @ gmail.com

Beginning to understand what you don’t believe in and would like to continue. In my previous post, I was introducing a framework or a context for our discussion. Get it that religious edicts, mystical belief systems or the supernatural is not the context. Cool.

How about the framework of the current science? Would you acknowledge that we have awareness or experience consciousness? Or maybe we could just say that we think and feel? And would you subscribe to an idea that as that thinking and feeling observer that we are experiencing ourselves in a physical body and in a time and space continuum? And that we are also experiencing ourselves in relation to others, or what appears to be in relation to others? Or that the observer observes itself and others. (Wow – that’s a mouthful! LOL!)

If not that, would you care to share what you do believe in so we will have a framework for our conversation? If not, that’s okay too.

I’m open to discussing what you’re referring to as the muddy waters of 3HO. Obviously, I have my experiences of 3HO, and you have your experiences – and my intention is that together we can have a discussion where clarity can ensue.

Gosh, that all sounds so wordy! LOL! Yet isn’t that what much of the 3HO discord or the Dharma disconnects were all about? Lots of assumptions. Lots of folks interpreting things from undiscussed or not fully discussed and thought-out notions, and so most did not go a little further together to discover what they were really talking about and what they were really doing.

Any ideas or thoughts?

Francine

My belief system? I do not subscribe, nor do I respond to religious edicts, mystical belief systems, or the supernatural.

If all that meditation and chanting kept people so high in the clouds — that they could not see that the lack of decision making on their part had great and negative impact on another’s life, especially those who were in their care — it doesn’t matter how “pure” the intentions were!

Crackheads have pure intentions too…

I was a first generation American Sikh for several years during the 80s. I never married and did not have children. And I was surprised to read your stories, for I did not know of the abuses you were experiencing in India.

And I have to say that I was also surprised because it seemed that many of the things that were going on in 3HO that were not what was preached, those things that were very much in the shadows of the sea of white….well, many of those things God allowed me to see during the time I was participating in the group. I have to trust that for some good reason I did not know of the abuses you suffered in India until last night.

I am not here to defend or discredit 3HO. As in almost all groups in this world at this time, the words and actions don’t match; the outer presentation and the inner workings conflict. And in all honesty, this is also true of me – some of my actions do not match my words…and the conflict that arises within me…. Oh, mine might be “smaller”, yet I say I’m loving myself more and more and then can be very surprised at how I treat myself at times! Ahh, an aspect of physical reality at this time….

Every time people gather together and allow one, or a few, to lead from the point of view that they know better than the others, the inherent nature of who we all are is distorted and so much distortion results.

And although I was unaware of the difficulties you as 3HO children endured, I am here now to open a conversation with you and to offer my assistance and love in the way that I can. I know I can not heal what has happened to you, just as you can not heal the abuses that existed in my childhood; nor is it our responsibility to do so for each other.

When I was old enough to move away from home, I did. And when I decided that 3HO wasn’t the expression for me anymore, I left. Both those choices were difficult because there was also much love in those lives. Yet moving forward and continuing to love is the beauty of life.

That said, I can respond to what I have read and what you have said, and share with you what I have come to know – the empowerment I have discovered from my experience – and together we can share and create a new expression of the love we all are and allow grace to expand if you are so inclined.

And as tears fill my eyes as I type this, first I would share with you my truths so you’ll know where I’m coming from.

My Belief: We are all Infinite Beings. As Infinite Beings we can extend ourselves into the physical realms to experience the creative process over time — and here we’re just called people. People = Infinite Beings in physical form. That may be hard for some of us to grok, yet all is God, all is Guru, all is Universe, Infinite Intelligence, The Field, or whatever you want to call it. I like just calling it Love or God and then that part of God’s consciousness that’s playing in the human form, that’s just called people — simple.

And as some of you might have been burdened with having to be a great Gurusikh who was here to save the world…well, imagine being born in the world of the early 20th century and having to be a youngster and lead your village out of Pakistan. Imagine having been schooled by nuns. Imagine the limitations and the pressures put on such a young child. Think you catch my drift.

When I think of who you all are to incarnate into such an incredibly powerful childhood, filled with such beauty the Guru brings and yet such difficulty with those who were just doing their best to create something better, just pressured people trying to do something better – ahh, well, you all have first hand experience of what works and what doesn’t in an incredibly profound and powerful way. Wow!

And so I think I will stop here. If any of this resonates with you, I am so looking forward to continuing this conversation. If not, please just move on, and enjoy the beauty of life. Yet I will say, many of us did not know what was happening to you – and for that I am truly sorry.

My love I extend to you all,
Francine

email: fm_pvb@yahoo.com

That was at the same time that my hair had turned into one big lice infested series of dreadlocks held together by a rubber band that I couldn’t get out, and after a while didn’t even bother trying to, because, after all, that was easier to deal with than trying to brush the hair out of a dreadlock “rishi knot” I’m told that long before this, when I was a little girl, I hated to be dirty and would cry if they didn’t put something clean on me. How times changed.

I still have nightmares about the bathrooms with finger painted poop smear across the walls. When I can’t wake myself to go pee in the middle of a dream, I start dreaming about those bathrooms, and that I can’t find a toilet to sit on because of the poop that’s all over and around them. Now I know that means– WAKE UP!! GOTTA PEE!!