Comment: I
read some of your Web site and I'm wondering if your problems are not due
to your insistence on "no money making."
BeiYin: The
principle problem is that people are just not capable to grow beyond their
personality. If there are a few, then the number is extremely low.
When people come here, interested in community life, then they are full
of expectations and are looking for confirmation of their ideas and for
that what they believe they are. If they don't get this, then they react
and are not able and willing to look at it and at the problems caused by
it. They cling on their identification with beliefs and concepts, they
hold on their properties not even being able to realize their identification
games. They are so used to giving the fault for all difficulties to the
outside and other people that they always find a good reason to go on with
this. We try to filter out those people before they come by having an intense
email exchange and people must fill out an info form. But this works only
in parts, because people are lying and pretending and in this they are
very clever. Some do this intentionally, but often people are not conscious
about it and believe it even themselves. We now have some experience and
know about it but some of the people who want to come still trick us out
and when they are here then this shows pretty fast. Just now we have a
couple here from Germany. In this case we didn't have a long email exchange.
They are both 'healers' and obviously it was a mistake to let them come.
The day after they arrived they gave me a book he had written and he said:
"We are wonderful healers..." The technique they are using and the book
he wrote about it, I had learned twenty eight years ago and I had practiced
it for two years. I had dropped this technique because I don't agree to
favor the dependency of the client from the therapist, I prefer techniques
the patients can use by themselves. I didn't say anything, but it was obvious
that they were looking for confirmation for their personality. When they
didn't get this, then immediately they reacted by closing themselves up,
looking the next day for a flight back... Now they spend a kind of
vacation here until they leave. They haven't said yet anything about it
and probably I will not confront them. They didn't ask any questions, they
are not interested in what we are doing, there is no communication at all.
Just small talk. So you can say: 'Why you don't do the first step towards
them and try to open them up?' Because it is clear that they are not happy
here if they don't get what they want. In other words: Finding confirmation
for their personality. And probably it won't help to rub their nose in
their own shit...
This was an example.
Comment: To
me it sounds like you are making yourself comfortable by running a slave
labor camp on your property. You only provide the minimum of food and shelter
and then have us slaves around to do all the necessary work.
BeiYin: Is this
your critical attitude, putting an 'intention' into the most negative aspect
possible? What is your concept of an 'Intentional Community'? From where
you are receiving this 'sound'? Or is it just your personal interpretation?
What have you read of our Web site? You say: 'Some of it'. Obviously only
that what you need to build up your opinion and to find confirmation for
it. And this is what you are seeking now by provoking me?
Do you have any experience
in community living? What are the conditions in a normal lifestyle? Are
you not a slave? Working eight hours a day for your room, food, car, insurance,
clothing, consuming habits, etc. Most people are not able to save any money.
How many people are happy with their work and the working conditions? So
who is the slave? We are doing what we want and what feels necessary and
what makes sense, but never with the goal to make money, of course there
is the daily work, which is not always creative and artistic, like
washing the dishes, feeding the animals, watering the plants, etc. But
do you think you will feel like a slave if you are doing this? Probably
you will have this attitude if you come here feeling like an artist or
a healer and then somebody is telling you what needs to be done because
you have no idea and you are not aware enough to see what is needed and
you have not enough motivation and initiative to do things by yourself.
Then you will be resistant and react angry, etc. Oh gosh, this happens
so often... Talk with people from other places, don't put all the fault
on me.
Comment: Do
you buy me new pants if the old ones wear out? Do I have to beg you
for some pocket money to go to the disco club or to watch a movie? If I
spend some years there and then things fail in our relationship, then do
I leave with no savings from all the time that I was there, with nothing
invested for my future to live on?
BeiYin: Here
nobody needs to buy clothes, we have everything in abundance. If you need
the newest fashion to be happy then you would be at the wrong place anyway.
There is also plenty of money for all our needs at the moment and would
be also for the future, but these are eggs which are not yet laid and there
is no need to talk about future aspects . For the people living here since
years this is organized but not for someone who is coming here with blown
up ideas and might stay just for a limited time.
Comment: I don't
feel secure unless I know I have some money or a means to get it but maybe
I have this attitude because I live in the US and this is what I grew up
with and I feel comfortable with.
BeiYin: Not
necessarily, although the US is probably the most materialistic place
in this world and the majority are not able to get out of this.
Comment: But
I don't know of anyone who would accept complete dependence on someone
else, accepting the condition that no income could be obtained for personal
use. For sure I wouldn't. Many are uncomfortable doing that even with the
person they marry.
BeiYin: For
sure it wouldn't be a good idea that we would get married. I wouldn't even
accept you as a member of FalconBlanco. You are depending totally on your
concept of money and your existence and security is based on this.
But,
there are other aspects and from there comes the answer: one only has to
step out of worn out tracks to be able to experience abundance, not needing
to fight for one's living conditions. This is not a concept, this comes
out of a personal growing process and yes, the first step might be to step
out of old dependencies and with this not entering in new ones because
a new view opens up. A new kind of relationship with each other and with
this real communication might happen. But as I said before, these are unlaid
eggs and you are right that there are very few people ready for it, extremely
few. Although there is a growing urge and longing to go beyond those personal
limitations, so then people jump ahead and want to realize this longing
but then they are clinging on old patterns of their personality. This is
the reason why things don't work. There wouldn't be any problem if we would
offer conditions like in a business for example, or conditions like in
an ashram, that's what people know. That's not what we offer, so that's
why we have the difficulty to find the right people who are ready to take
the risk...
Comment: Wanting
to use other people so that you can realize your 'vision' is nothing other
than exploiting people, keeping them in dependency making them into slaves
so that you can easily manipulate them...
BeiYin: People
have called me many things, 'slave driver' is not the strongest word and
I prefer that they say it before they come here. Whatever you read in my
writings is your interpretation, you see only what you want and what serves
you to reject me or to put me in a box of your limited opinions. It has
very little to do with me or my intention, but I can't change how you see
it. Probably all my further explanations will not change your mind. You
might also call me a complete idiot and from your standpoint you would
be absolutely right. What label can you give to someone who has been working
for thirty years for a vision which has nothing to do with money aspects
and then in the end it turns out to be illusion? To stay in your pictures:
Just by renting out this place I could have made at least half a million
dollars in the last twenty years, but this never was my intention, so it
is very clear that I must be an idiot... So what am I doing? Isn't an 'IC'
the intention to do something for this world and for it's people? Why do
you think I am doing all this? To find confirmation for my 'precious personality'?
For sure not, otherwise I would have been dead since a long time ago. To
change the conditions of the cruelty and incredible mess of the world?
Obviously this is hardly possible and for sure I don't want to take on
the role of David fighting against Goliath.
If you believe your
lifestyle is the best and you (the US) are privileged to distribute it
all over the world with all means, then why are you even interested in
an 'Intentional Community'?
I could have ignored
your comments, but still I have the misty thought that this thread might
be read by other people who are capable to interpret less and understand
more because they have some self-knowledge and their own experiences with
people and communities. And then maybe we might be able to have a creative
discussion and come to a conclusion which helps to go on...
BeiYin |