18.11.09

Guruism a spurious pseudo-tradition

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:13 pm by

It is useful to study the basic history of Buddhism at its onset: the ‘path’ was described, the individual (not a disciple) was enjoined to take action, and nowhere in that context was any great emphasis placed on gurus. The idea that gurus are indispensable to a group asram, and have a monarchial status is the most spurious corruption of the whole question.
In part it is a semi-potical form of class warfare designed for the age of Aryanized social domination.

Still the place of teachers in Jain tradition shows that before guruism there was a primordial association of exemplars and their followers, something quite different from silly New Age associations we have seen over and over again in the past twenty to thirty years.

Gurus can be dangerous indeed, and the absolute worst case, because of hidden malevolence, is E.J. Gold (after the fashion of Gurdjieff and his devil’s tricks)

It just isn’t worth it. I think that when someone like Andrew Cohen ceases to be transparent, and we see this ambiguity and debate over trivia then the ‘devil’ has entered into it, and it is time to be off.

Remember: you have only yourself to blame of falling the guru trap.

We see the confusion and the dangers beginning with Blavatsky who set up the basic situation for the occult exploitation of suckers in political fascism.
Hitler was the last fart end of an exploited diciple, be forewarned!

The ‘beyond enlighenment’ phenomenon

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:41 pm by

Rajneesh and ‘Beyond Enlightenment’

Another factor visible in Andrew Cohen is the ‘beyond enlighenment’ phenomenon, or else a fake version of that on Cohen’s part.

Rajneesh described an aspect of the tradition that many are unaware of.

We can see the clear deterioration in Andrew Cohen.
Students should not have to put up with this nonsense.

(Since I doubt that Mr. Cohen is enlightened, this analysis might be slightly off. But, in my experience, beside Rajneesh’s important observation, those who undergo the ‘beyond enlighenment’ phenomenon in a parodistic fashion are often considerably less than enlightened to begin with, but trying to play the game. They are ‘before enlightenment’ getting thrown out of whack by the confusions of spiritual history).

One of the problems so many have is the environment of ‘dead gurus’ who are definitely in some way related to this, note the way so many ‘second comers’ as gurus are totally coucou, like the second Sai Baba.

We need something different here, beyond the guru game, which is a morass so confusing, even to gurus, that the result can only be a madhouse.

Deception, the lie and the false esotericism of lies

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:38 pm by

MBFM’s remarks about the psychology of disciples and gurus are very valuable, but we are dealing with more than just neurotics.
People who lie, and who promote religion and are behind that front evil people (in the sense that Gurdjieff or Crowley were ‘deliberate evil-doers’) create something still more atrocious than BDSM.

We need some decent histories of the phenomenon of guruism, in India, and also in the context of Islamic/Sufi culture.
We have presented some of that with an expose of some aspects of Indian tradition, and of Gurdjieffianity.
Some aspects of these traditions have metathetized into something deadly and entirely evil. As indeed Gurdjieff’s avowal of his self-demonic character makes obvious.
Another angle:
Silly Kitty, who used to post here, made the obvious comparison to intelligence agents and their world: a world of lies, deceptions, and occulted operations. The point can be misunderstood, or exaggerated, but the issue is clearl. We are seeing nothing but public deceptions with these gurus.

Gurdjieff was the obvious case, an actual spy. My point: Front creation, deceptions, hidden occult tacticsa, the loss of the demand for truth, etc,… has corrupted guruism. Why on earth is there something called the esoteric?
It arises as traditions become corrupt, or politcally conspiratorial.

People need simple truthtellers to present the classic paths of something like (early!) Buddhism (where shark gurus were not welcome, at least in the beginning), respecting the autonomy and freedom of those who imbibe from these sources.

That seems obvious, but the traditions of Hinduism and Sufism are corrupt beyond repair, and the results can be a deadly set of traps for the unwary.

Comment on Guru exploitation

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:20 pm by

MBFM comment, Allowing yourself to be exploited…

mybrainisafleamarket said,
18.11.09 at 12:21 pm ·
Nemo, it is more than a particular guru, though abusive gurus do need to be held accountable for the harm they do.

What I think is the trouble is an entire sick and toxic social milieu that is not itself *a* cult, but that is cultic. Indeed, a sociologist has come up with the term ‘cultic milieu’

The toxic portion of this ’seekers circuit’ is the pond that abusive gurus go fishing in, for fresh prey. And its the pond in which enablers of abusive gurus, hang out at the fringes, recommending these gurus, and shouting down any attempt to give warning to the unwary.

The toxic portion of the cultic milieu seems to be unconscious enactments of BDSM type power imabalance, what is termed kink, but that is enacted unconsciously via portions of the personality that have been *split off* due to earlier trauma. Messing with abusive gurus perpetuates the trauma and keeps it unconscious rather than providing conscious awareness and actual
emancipation.

By contrast, conscious kink practioners know what they desire and can sit down, communicate beforehand with each other, work out a system of signals and safewords and then, having negotiated boundaries, the terms of a scene, its entry point and exit point, can at least play with power exchange in a conscious manner, and one that ensures 1) all parties finish feeling satisfied and 2) all parties feel challenged but *not* traumatized.

This is very much superior to the unconscious power games that take such a destructive form in the toxic areas of cultic milieu/seekers scene.

So, it isnt only abusive gurus that have to be identified and held to account–its the whole social domain in which they are marketed, endorsed, who endorses and defends them, and how very often those trying to bear witness are shamed and shouted down.

Which magazines and retreat centers publish ads for those folks and allow their space to be used for ‘retreats’?

This too is part of cultic milieu.

And…one need not be a bruised survivor in order to feel concerned. Many of these types operate as tax exempt units. This means that citizens who
do pay taxes are indirectly subsizing a social scene that is hurtful and darkens the human mind, rather than awakening it–a scene in which compassion and simple kindness are re-framed as weakness.

17.11.09

Allowing yourself to be exploited hurts others

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:04 pm by

I am reading much of this material on Cohen in some disbelief, although I have been aware of this situation since 2004.

I reiterate (for what it is worth) my call for Mr. Cohen to step down as a ‘guru’, something he he is not

Such a call is perhaps pointless, since this fraud has already become self-sustaing, but it is a reminder that standing up to these so-called gurus is a simple step, a step that must be taken. Remember, your stupidity to submit to the guru game allows this false tradition to take root, to the future harm of many. Cease and desist.

Let me point out that the path beyond gurus, with some variations, is ancient, and well attested, Rajneesh being a good example.
He made it clear, even as he accepted students, that he had never had a guru.
I recommend people associated with Cohen take this path, AT ONCE, without fear, and don’t look back.

Mr. Cohen and Wilber are failures at this point. What on earth is the teaching they are referring to? They have had two decades to get their act together, but the results are a mess of pottage.
Mr. Cohen is so second-rate as to not worth anyone’s time at this point. Ship him back to India for some retreads.
As to Wilber, his spiritual psychology is worse than useless. Paper airplane stuff.

A Jacobite’s Epitaph

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:14 pm by

MBFM:comment on Cohen post

mybrainisafleamarket said,
17.11.09 at 12:19 pm

http://www.bartleby.com/101/657.html

[b]A Jacobite’s Epitaph [/b]

Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lord Macaulay. 1800–1859

TO my true king I offer’d free from stain
Courage and faith; vain faith, and courage vain.

For him I threw lands, honours, wealth, away,
And one dear hope, that was more prized than they.

For him I languish’d in a foreign clime,
Gray-hair’d with sorrow in my manhood’s prime;

Heard on Lavernia Scargill’s whispering trees,
And pined by Arno for my lovelier Tees;

Beheld each night my home in fever’d sleep,
Each morning started from the dream to weep;

Till God, who saw me tried too sorely, gave
The resting-place I ask’d, an early grave.

O thou, whom chance leads to this nameless stone,
From that proud country which was once mine own,

By those white cliffs I never more must see,
By that dear language which I spake like thee,

Forget all feuds, and shed one English tear
O’er English dust. A broken heart lies here.

————————————

There is all the more point to this, as persons in disfavor with Cohen are
reportedly sent off to serve at Cohen centers in distant locations, such as Australia. Andre van der Braak heard that a friend of his, in disfavor with the guru, was sent off in disgrace to pump up recruitment for Cohen in Australia and Andre thought, ‘Wasnt Australia where they sent convicts?’

In terms of throwing honor away, go read on the What Enlightement blog of people admitting in regret how they abused friends on orders from Cohen, and in terms of throwing land and wealth away, William Yenner and Jane O’Neil both give descriptions of doing exactly that–in service to this guru.

(Enlightenment Blues by Andre van der Braak)

This was written to comment on a sitaution that happened 250 to 300 years ago. The Jacobites were those who insisted that the heirs of James 11, king of Great Britain, deposed by Parliament in 1688, were the rightful heirs to the throne, and refused to accept the sovreignty of William of Orange and Mary Stuart.

But this poem, though old fashioned, could apply to many a follower of an ungrateful guru or political leader today.

More from/on William Yenner, author of American Guru

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:12 pm by

MBFM: 3 comments on Cohen post

mybrainisafleamarket said,

17.11.09 at 11:42 am

There is a thoughtful new public response by William Yenner, author of American Guru, given here.

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2009/11/william-yenner-reflects-on-responses-to.html

and it seems a former student of Cohens, Chris Hamilton, is now starting to teach.

You may read here, what kind of treatment Hamilton went through while trying to gain Cohen’s favor:

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:_WrLkruCSzgJ:http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html+%22i+am+an+asshole%22+andrew+cohen+what+enlighenment&hl=en&ct=clnk

“On another occasion it fell to me to report to Andrew on the progress of a similar ritual recounted elsewhere in this blog, that of an editorial colleague (since departed) who’d been required to submerge himself in the frozen lake one hundred times while yelling repeatedly, “I am an asshole!” Entering his office I encountered Andrew with several of his committed students, who laughed derisively at my secondhand account of this student’s ordeal (e.g., having to relocate to less conspicuous waterfront and start over), congratulating Andrew when he asserted proudly that “things like this happen only around me,” and enthusiastically affirming his insistence that no other contemporary teacher had the “outrageous integrity” to prescribe such ruthless austerities.

Read “Shame Guilt and the Guru’s Blood” Thursday, March 24, 2005
Breaking The Code Of Silence–Part III by Hal Blacker

Read the entire thing. This is the man Ken Wilber associates with.

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2005/03/shame-guilt-and-gurus-blood.html

Another person pondered the lake-penance situation:

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 Part 2 – A Response To Andrew Cohen’s “Declaration of Integrity” Some Personal Recollections
by Simeon Alev

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

Why am I reporting these incidents? For two reasons: First, I am tired of hearing it said that people should simply “get over” the effects of such experiences and carry on with their lives as if nothing had happened. Second and more importantly, both the confusion produced by such incidents, and their legitimacy as facilitators of spiritual development, are crucial topics for discussion.”

————————————–

mybrainisafleamarket

Further history to supplement the above two URLs

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2005/12/wie-editor-craig-hamilton-leaves.html

“Wednesday, December 14, 2005
WIE EDITOR CRAIG HAMILTON LEAVES MAGAZINE, COHEN GROUP
What Enlightenment??! has learned that What Is Enlightenment? magazine editor Craig Hamilton has left his position as Managing Editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, his home at Cohen’s Foxhollow Lenox, Massachusetts compound, and his membership in Andrew Cohen’s group.

Hamilton recently explained in a letter to other Cohen students that he decided to part ways with Cohen and WIE due to his desire to continue what he is doing on his own, and that the door is open to his return. But we are informed that other Cohen students are rejecting this attempt to put a nice face on the split, and that Cohen and others in the group have been heaping the same kind of abuse, shame, guilt and accusations of betrayal on Hamilton that they usually place on individuals who leave the sect.”

With this in mind, re-read Mr Yenner’s reflections.

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2009/11/william-yenner-reflects-on-responses-to.html

The scary thing is that Cohen has demonstrated that if one targets the right group of persons and knows the techniques needed to win trust, elicit loyality, obtain escalating commitments, colonize followers inner lives, then artifully massage their shame triggers, one can have a lengthy career of brutal behavior and actually be adored and defended by the oh-so-sick
kinksters who glamorize abusive power imbalance so long as it is tarted up in the same of guruism, integralism, evolution, or whatever set of words is fasionable these days.

I think Walt Whitman or someone else said that there is nothing sadder than to see multitudes of men who believe in a leader who does not believe in men.

Further history to supplement the above two URLs

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2005/12/wie-editor-craig-hamilton-leaves.html

“Wednesday, December 14, 2005
WIE EDITOR CRAIG HAMILTON LEAVES MAGAZINE, COHEN GROUP
What Enlightenment??! has learned that What Is Enlightenment? magazine editor Craig Hamilton has left his position as Managing Editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, his home at Cohen’s Foxhollow Lenox, Massachusetts compound, and his membership in Andrew Cohen’s group.

Hamilton recently explained in a letter to other Cohen students that he decided to part ways with Cohen and WIE due to his desire to continue what he is doing on his own, and that the door is open to his return. But we are informed that other Cohen students are rejecting this attempt to put a nice face on the split, and that Cohen and others in the group have been heaping the same kind of abuse, shame, guilt and accusations of betrayal on Hamilton that they usually place on individuals who leave the sect.”

With this in mind, re-read Mr Yenner’s reflections.

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2009/11/william-yenner-reflects-on-responses-to.html

The scary thing is that Cohen has demonstrated that if one targets the right group of persons and knows the techniques needed to win trust, elicit loyality, obtain escalating commitments, colonize followers inner lives, then artifully massage their shame triggers, one can have a lengthy career of brutal behavior and actually be adored and defended by the oh-so-sick
kinksters who glamorize abusive power imbalance so long as it is tarted up in the same of guruism, integralism, evolution, or whatever set of words is fasionable these days.

I think Walt Whitman or someone else said that there is nothing sadder than to see multitudes of men who believe in a leader who does not believe in men.

———————————–

mybrainisafleamarket said,

17.11.09 at 12:08 pm

Craig Hamiltons sacrifices met with this result:

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2005/12/wie-editor-craig-hamilton-leaves.html

Wednesday, December 14, 2005
WIE EDITOR CRAIG HAMILTON LEAVES MAGAZINE, COHEN GROUP

This in mind, read again Mr Yenners reflections.

http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/2009/11/william-yenner-reflects-on-responses-to.html

Response to James on Pali tradition

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:09 pm by

MBFM comments on Pali Tradition and Axial Age

mybrainisafleamarket said,

16.11.09 at 8:53 pm ·

Here is some material that James may be able to help us with. Am glad nemo gave us James information as an article in its own right. It lead me to a very interesting website giving information about Abhidamma—which is part of the Pali tradition James speaks of. (MBTF)

http://www.vipassana.info/nina-abhi-22.htm

Chapter 22 JHANACITTAS Read the rest of this entry »

16.11.09

Pali tradition and Axial India

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:26 pm by

Comment on Hinduism in quotation marks

James said,
16.11.09 at 11:49 am

I guess my discussion of these topics is a bit unusual (from the average Westerner who delves in here) in that I have never had any interest (outside of historical interest) in the medieval to modern (beginning in the 19th century) Indian “spiritual” scene or any of the teachers that came out of it. It was probably because I was first introduced to the Pali tradition and its rather low opinion of Upanishadic/Tantric/Hindu doctrines and mysticism. While I don’t consider myself a part of that tradition, I am glad that I encountered it first as it has given me a reference point to guage the level of these gurus. After getting well versed in it, for instance, I could tell (maybe it is unfair to compare traditions) that Ramana Maharshi, who was arguably the greatest religious teacher that India produced in the modern period, got stuck in an arupa jhana by his description of his “enlightenment.”

Your wariness of ‘late Hinduism’ is well-taken, and we have seen that the Pali tradition is one of the classic ‘resurfacings’ of the primordial Indian tradition, one that managed to invoke its Jain predecessor and bypass the crystallizing horrors of Hinduism, that great phantom of the Aryan entry into India.

It may be that Ramana Maharsi was the greatest of the great. But he was also a bit reserved, and never did or said anything much that might have demonstrated who he was. I think that he is not exception to the narrow perspective of culture that has overtaken Hindu culture, with its niggardly view of non-Hindus. Keep in mind that figures like Da Free John are part of the Ramana legacy also.
So the Pali tradition, as you say, is something in principle beyond all that.

15.11.09

Compassion, and Gurdjieff’s dialectic

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:56 pm by

Armstrong’s Compassion theme
I have already been somewhat critical of Armstrong’s compassion theme. It is important to consider Gurdjieff’s attack on the idea, and the viciousness promoted by his brand of sufi.
The hypocrisy of compassion talk is well-criticized, but Gurdjieff’s extreme approach to the question is, as usual, a distortion.

11.11.09

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons …

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:06 pm by

I overlooked one of MBFM’s comments on Rajneesh again:

mybrainisafleamarket
Submitted on 2009/11/10 at 11:20am
Nemo wrote:

“Moral: don’t presume to play guru until you know the territory”

There is a bumper sticker proverb that may apply:

“Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and good with hot sauce”

Most of us lack the humility to imagine that to some quite dangerous people and very charming people, we are not unique and loveable persons, we are just one more chunk of snackfood in a large sack of other nuggets waiting to be devoured.

The best way is to face that there is a foil lined bag that looks very spiritual on the outside, but that if we are lured inside, it will be zipped shut, and our screams will not escape.

The best con artists trick us into believing that anyone who warns us we are exploitable is someone who doesnt want us to have fun, someone who thinks we are so pathetic and childish and stupid that we need to be warned, and that the con artist is actually our only true friend and only true agent of empowerment.

The best con artists get us to hate our real friends trying to warn us away from that zip lock trap. They con us into thinking that being warned is not a gift from a friend, but an insult to be resented.

Its a very haunting thing to face that in some eyes, we are food, waiting to be trapped and devoured. Its a real come down to live with this.

(Frankly we are all gonna die at some point and become food anyway. And right now we have bacteria and viruses and mites living in our eyebrows. And if we live in some parts of the world, add in some fungi, worms and protozoa.)

Face it that we are already snack food for various cooties.

Then, figure out which fake spiritual teachers consider us snack food and avoid the bastards. Knowing you are potentially someones dinner is the best way to avoid becoming that persons dinner.

However…not everyone is like this. Just a few creeps. But it is important to avoid those few creeps. Nemo and others give us some good travel advisories on where many creeps are likely to go fishing; those are the ponds to avoid swimming in.

Burton’s Personal Narrative of the Pilgrimage to Meccah online

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:01 pm by

Comment on Sindhus…

mybrainisafleamarket said,
11.11.09 at 9:51 am ·
Yo, Nemo, Googlebooks put Burton’s Personal Narrative of the Pilgrimage Journey to Medina and Meccah online.

And..take a look at the footnote reference to caste on page 36

http://books.google.com/books?id=G5HzgGiA44cC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=burton+jangli+hind+talk+oneself+to+sleep&source=bl&ots=3yadI_Tuer&sig=2-WthobMbf2Bg8Fv8563-t3ef9U&hl=en&ei=Zdj6Sv2kN5GBnQfo9en5DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA4Q6AEwAA

Here is the quote. To get the full context read from pages 35 to 38.

Burton was in disguise as an Afghan en route to Meccah. He was on a boat
in Egypt and was offered lodgings in Cairo by a rich merchant from Lahore
who, not aware that Burton was British, proceeded to trash talk the Brits.

Burton describes all this happening in 1853.

and here Read the rest of this entry »

10.11.09

Enough’s enough. Andrew Cohen and degenerates as gurus

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:09 pm by

Just finished reading Yenner’s American Guru about former students of Andrew Cohen. I will comment later on this, but it is such an extreme portrait of a degenerate that I think a public call for his resignation should be mounted, and a warning to Ken Wilber to stop being such an asshole in his promotion of these people.

What is needed is a critical history of guruism, and a realization that the phenomenon is a degeneration of something genuine that barely exits now. The figure of the guru is simply not the key to a spiritual life. Its devolution into this kind of extreme behavior in the name of ‘crazy wisdom’ needs people to stand up to it.
The phenomenon is fed by the idiocy of so-called disciples. A ‘guru’ should be no more significant than a doctor, with no special status or licence to abuse those he interacts with. Instead we have this grotesque transmogrification of the status of a guide into that of a demigod with some kind of spurious status in a spiritual hierarchy, the echos of the monarchical power game, inherited from antiquity.

Burton’s testimony of sufism

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:59 pm by

http://www.gurdjieff-con.net/2009/11/10/burton-book-online/f
It’s funny, I just received my own copy of Burton’s book, second hand from Amazon. I may scan the chapter referred to for this blog.
MBFM’s citation of this book was one of the first comments on this blog, and has been an important keynote for what we are doing, which is trying to warn naive Westerners about the quagmire of sufism.

It is important to do this work, and MBFM’s contribution has been a bolt from the blue.

Burton book online

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:52 pm by

Comment on Hinduism in quotation marks

mybrainisafleamarket said,
10.11.09 at 10:47 am ·
Dear Nemo and friends:
I found some study material that might be of use:
First.. Googlebooks has scanned Burton’s book, Sindh and the Races that Inhabit the Valley of the Indus (first published in the mid 19th century)
Read the rest of this entry »