Eternal Cheesecake

Ever get blindsided by a friend or person, blink a couple times, and think, “what the bleep just happened here?!?” after they’re gone?

A once revered friend came over to drop something off, but it turned quickly into Cult Recruitment 101 for an upscale “health drink” multi-level marketing scheme. She wanted me to join, and out came the bully tactics of insults, comparisons, and speculative judgment. It was a rapid one-two-three punch.

Oof!

Wasn’t expecting that from someone I trusted. But since I’ve done a similar type of recruitment when I was in my spiritual cult, I could see the identification with the group, the lack of listening without an agenda, the threat that questioning creates. In my instance, it was an escapism-based agenda. In her instance it’s a greed-based agenda. Doesn’t matter the root cause. Same dirty playbook.

There’s nothing that can be said to someone who’s in a cult. Nothing. Don’t even bother. Why? Because they get too much out of it. They think you’re the loser for not being in it, and the longer they’re in their cult, the the more they absorb clever positions to counter anything that questions The Way Things Are.

Now my job is to not get sucked into the abusive verbal recruitment drive should I meet this friend again and just love her where she’s at. I now admire the few remaining friends who did that for me when I was in my cult and waited me out. It’s a little sticky as she’s a sometimes client of mine, but we’ll see. Wish me luck.

Someone recently commented to me their concept of monk-dom:

Any monkhood takes dedication & discipline.

It’s such a common perception, that I had to share this with you:

Not all monks are dedicated & disciplined. Actually, it wasn’t until I left the monkhood that I became more dedicated & disciplined. There’s always the tendency to want to place responsibility for one’s growth on the teacher or on the motions of the path. Monkhood can just be another badge of self-importance & avoiding one’s responsibility, even the “mundane” responsibility of LIFE which can be a bigger teacher than living in an artificial bubble. Really, monkhood is what I chose to get out of it, a uniquely personal thing. When I see people posturing in front of and making monks to be important or special, I know better now 🙂