stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

280 STRIPPING THE GURUS
The continual buzz of activity throughout a community such as
Findhorn could, of course, easily detract from one’s meditations.
Not one to be thus distracted, Eileen Caddy sought guidance for
herself as to where to find a small, quiet place, away from the
crowded living conditions.
[S]he asked within and the voice, in a joyous piece of guidance,
replied: “Why don’t you go down to the public toilets?
You will find perfect peace there.”
The little toilet block referred to has been preserved and
is now a herbal apothecary and wholefood café (Riddell,
1990).
If such preservation seems to be excessively reverential, note
that traditional Tibetan medicine goes even further, at times containing
small amounts of lama (not llama) ... um....
[Seventeenth-century Austrian Jesuit cleric Johann] Grueber
was particularly repulsed by the custom of the laity’s eating
“curative pills” containing the Dalai Lama’s excrement
(Schell, 2001).
Or, in the vernacular: “holy shit.”
A hundred years ago, rumors that the feces of the Dalai
Lama—the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists—had beneficial
properties prompted the UK’s Surgeon General to analyze
them in the interests of science. They contained nothing
remarkable, he concluded. Just as well: According to a
spokesperson at the UK-based Tibet Foundation, “These
days you can’t even buy the Dalai Lama’s used clothes, never
mind his excrement” (Toscani, 2000).
And they call that progress!
When the doctor [treating David Bohm—the Dalai Lama’s
“physics teacher”—for “thick blood” in Switzerland] indicated
that he would send to Dharamsala for medication, the Dalai
Lama insisted that the treatment should begin immediately.
He took Precious Tablets, wrapped in silk, from a pouch in
his room and instructed Saral [Bohm’s wife] on how they
should be prepared. Bohm found their taste revolting (Peat,
1997).