Eddie Bartok Baratta/Samana
Posted by:
The Tickler
()
Date: May 25, 2011 11:40PM
Does anybody know anything about a Eddie Bartok Baratta aka "Samana"? At present, he and his "attendant" are forming "a religion of us" out of a public housing apartment in Northhampton, MA and have six or seven followers.
Re: Eddie Bartok Baratta/Samana
Posted by:
The Tickler
()
Date: September 23, 2012 03:47AM
[www.gazettenet.com]
Really, I feel bad for the young woman Sarah Albert ("Sacredlittle")...she seems so devoted to Samana, and it looks like her treats her like his slave.
It makes me feel sad inside, reading her story. She deserves better than than to live her life as Samana's "attendant"; she deserves better then the likes of him.
I wonder if she thinks about what else she could be doing with her life?
I wonder if she ever wonders if she might be better off, if she were to leave Eddie?
I wonder if she has anywhere else to go, should she leave him?
Really, I feel bad for the young woman Sarah Albert ("Sacredlittle")...she seems so devoted to Samana, and it looks like her treats her like his slave.
It makes me feel sad inside, reading her story. She deserves better than than to live her life as Samana's "attendant"; she deserves better then the likes of him.
I wonder if she thinks about what else she could be doing with her life?
I wonder if she ever wonders if she might be better off, if she were to leave Eddie?
I wonder if she has anywhere else to go, should she leave him?
Re: Eddie Bartok Baratta/Samana
Posted by:
The Tickler
()
Date: September 24, 2012 12:57AM
Samana's days in McDonald house are (hopefully) numbered!
[www.kirbstone.net]
"Food and God
This business with Samana and his followers made me think of when I was a kid on the road, back in the beatnik- bodhisattva age, in the late fifties. We yearned for enlightenment, read Hesse and Neitzche, and we aspired to be holy wanderers. Samana has taken a vow of permanence; we vowed to wander, looking for wisdom on mountaintops and out in the desert. I remember hitchhiking to San Francisco to see the City Lights bookstore where Kerouac hung out. Living dirt poor, sleeping under hedges. Hitchiking north through Nevada and Idaho. The bigger cities had rescue missions where you'd get a semi-square meal but the price was having to listen to the word of God. Be preached at. Show enough contrition and interest in their message and you might get a place to stay that night.
Christ did the loaves and fishes, Samana and his followers provide rice and healthy organic vegetables, poetry readings and an inclusive gospel that embraces everyone. Religion and food. We ate their dinners, slept on their cots, but most of us went on, unconverted. Man will more often than not bite the hand that feeds him if there is an ulterior motive, a desire to reshape you into someone who follows. I listened to Samana that day, looking to see if there was enlightenment and the spirit of compassion. What I heard was rage at the world.
He stood before me in his Sanctuary, weaving a net of words. He wanted me to watch him, but my eyes kept going down to Sacredlittle, crouched on her cushion, wearing a Burkha-like shawl on her head, listening to her teacher. Say her name, say it three times and what does it say about a monk who gave his first disciple that name? No address for SacredLittle except the streets of Northampton. There are nights she walks the streets. The Church of Us is like most fundamentalist sects. Absolute obedience, absolute subservience, absolute submission.
And liberal progressive Northampton eats this poison brew up and maybe wants more. Samana has some of James Jones in his mentality, who made his followers drink the Koolaid. Read the official minutes of the Housing Authority meeting that triggered all this, read what Elaine Fortier, the Tenant Vice President was calling for. She was calling for reconciliation and for people to go back to living together with respect for each other's rights. Instead, the tenants got a declaration of war under their doors. Tearing up the flowers and discontinuing their program and blaming it on their neighbors. Take a few minutes and read their leaflet.
Ultimately, we have to remember what the MacDonald House is and is not. This is a publicly funded safe sanitary housing for income-eligible people. It cannot have a church operating in its dayroom. Church and State, separate. You have a monk, you have nuns, you accept donations, you proselytize for new members, you got a church. It needs to operate on private property. MacDonald House is a public building, its tenants deserve privacy and corridors need to be clear of shopping carts so that people can get in and out in an emergency.
Massachusetts law promises tenants at MacDonald House tenants, the "right to peaceful enjoyment" of their premises.
Right now they are not getting it. The Housing Authority needs to consult EOCD and its counsel and start laying down the law and enforcing its leases. "
[www.kirbstone.net]
"Food and God
This business with Samana and his followers made me think of when I was a kid on the road, back in the beatnik- bodhisattva age, in the late fifties. We yearned for enlightenment, read Hesse and Neitzche, and we aspired to be holy wanderers. Samana has taken a vow of permanence; we vowed to wander, looking for wisdom on mountaintops and out in the desert. I remember hitchhiking to San Francisco to see the City Lights bookstore where Kerouac hung out. Living dirt poor, sleeping under hedges. Hitchiking north through Nevada and Idaho. The bigger cities had rescue missions where you'd get a semi-square meal but the price was having to listen to the word of God. Be preached at. Show enough contrition and interest in their message and you might get a place to stay that night.
Christ did the loaves and fishes, Samana and his followers provide rice and healthy organic vegetables, poetry readings and an inclusive gospel that embraces everyone. Religion and food. We ate their dinners, slept on their cots, but most of us went on, unconverted. Man will more often than not bite the hand that feeds him if there is an ulterior motive, a desire to reshape you into someone who follows. I listened to Samana that day, looking to see if there was enlightenment and the spirit of compassion. What I heard was rage at the world.
He stood before me in his Sanctuary, weaving a net of words. He wanted me to watch him, but my eyes kept going down to Sacredlittle, crouched on her cushion, wearing a Burkha-like shawl on her head, listening to her teacher. Say her name, say it three times and what does it say about a monk who gave his first disciple that name? No address for SacredLittle except the streets of Northampton. There are nights she walks the streets. The Church of Us is like most fundamentalist sects. Absolute obedience, absolute subservience, absolute submission.
And liberal progressive Northampton eats this poison brew up and maybe wants more. Samana has some of James Jones in his mentality, who made his followers drink the Koolaid. Read the official minutes of the Housing Authority meeting that triggered all this, read what Elaine Fortier, the Tenant Vice President was calling for. She was calling for reconciliation and for people to go back to living together with respect for each other's rights. Instead, the tenants got a declaration of war under their doors. Tearing up the flowers and discontinuing their program and blaming it on their neighbors. Take a few minutes and read their leaflet.
Ultimately, we have to remember what the MacDonald House is and is not. This is a publicly funded safe sanitary housing for income-eligible people. It cannot have a church operating in its dayroom. Church and State, separate. You have a monk, you have nuns, you accept donations, you proselytize for new members, you got a church. It needs to operate on private property. MacDonald House is a public building, its tenants deserve privacy and corridors need to be clear of shopping carts so that people can get in and out in an emergency.
Massachusetts law promises tenants at MacDonald House tenants, the "right to peaceful enjoyment" of their premises.
Right now they are not getting it. The Housing Authority needs to consult EOCD and its counsel and start laying down the law and enforcing its leases. "
Re: Eddie Bartok Baratta/Samana
Posted by:
The Tickler
()
Date: September 25, 2012 06:14AM
Recently I spoke with a few (rather upset) people over Eddie/Samana's latest set of troubles in Northampton, and one of them gave me a flyer that somebody was distributing around town about a year ago. I am trying to learn about how to put a copy of it here, on the Net, and will do so as soon as I get things together.
Also, it recently has come to my attention that Eddie was once involved with Mira Bartok, author of 2011's "The Memory Palace." Were the two of them once married?
[thememorypalace.com]
Eddie Baratta aka "Samana" is the real-life identity of Bartok's shiftless, unemployed, mentally ill "poet" lover who is known as "William" in this book.
It looks like Eddie has not changed much over the years, and in fact has only gotten sicker.
Now he's going on with talking how talks to Gandhi and Christ. And he's got a young woman in his circle who calls herself a "nun" and his "sacred atttendant." What is next?
[books.google.com]
And for another thing: does anybody else notice how lately Eddie is getting his minions in Northampton to defend him, or is it just me?
If he supposed to be the Sacred Elder, if he is such a great leader and teacher, then why is isn't he defending himself and not hiding behind his followers?
Wouldn't it be better for he and his critics to engage in a direct and public dialogue with one another?
And has anybody ever done much research into Eddie's background and history in order to look into the veracity of his story, as he tells it? What is Eddie trying to hide?
Also, it recently has come to my attention that Eddie was once involved with Mira Bartok, author of 2011's "The Memory Palace." Were the two of them once married?
[thememorypalace.com]
Eddie Baratta aka "Samana" is the real-life identity of Bartok's shiftless, unemployed, mentally ill "poet" lover who is known as "William" in this book.
It looks like Eddie has not changed much over the years, and in fact has only gotten sicker.
Now he's going on with talking how talks to Gandhi and Christ. And he's got a young woman in his circle who calls herself a "nun" and his "sacred atttendant." What is next?
[books.google.com]
And for another thing: does anybody else notice how lately Eddie is getting his minions in Northampton to defend him, or is it just me?
If he supposed to be the Sacred Elder, if he is such a great leader and teacher, then why is isn't he defending himself and not hiding behind his followers?
Wouldn't it be better for he and his critics to engage in a direct and public dialogue with one another?
And has anybody ever done much research into Eddie's background and history in order to look into the veracity of his story, as he tells it? What is Eddie trying to hide?
Re: Eddie Bartok Baratta/Samana
Posted by:
The Tickler
()
Date: September 25, 2012 07:11AM
I do not have a machine that will allow me to take a pictue of this flyer and then put the picture here, so I just typed out the text myself and decided to quote all of it. It was easy.
The person who gave me the original paper flyer got it from somebody at an Occupy Northampton rally late last year--it was being circulated throught the crowd there. Here it is:
"Concerned citizens raise questions about the Northampton Group
Recently a local man Samana spoke at our community occupy Wall Street rally, his statement can be viewed at youtube.com. He has been the subject of a Daily Hampshire Gazette article “His own order” on 12/17/2010 and also of a letter to the editor on 12/30/10. Who is this self-proclaimed “monk” named Samana? He was previously known as the flute-playing Bird Man and as the poet Eddie Bartok-Baratta. Why all these aliases?
He purports to be a 99%er. He reportedly resides in low-income housing. Is he a recipient of SSI or other social assistance programs? If so, these resources are provided by tax dollars of the working 99%ers. Doesn’t that make him a .05%er; a person who uses the system and diverts the resources that are designated for those truly in need? Could this well-educated (according to the Gazette he has a Masters Degree from UMASS), well-spoken and well-dressed "monk" be milking the system he so eloquently expressed his objections to in his open letter to his neighbors?
Why does he need a young, female "attendant"? Why does she live as a "mendicant" or beggar and reportedly sleep in several apartments in the city while he lives in the relative comfort of his own home? Who are the six or seven "followers" referred to in the Gazette article and where is Samana leading them?
According to the Gazette article Samana is "bent on establishing a new religion". What is this "religion of us" he refers to? Is this "monk" who claims to be influenced by Hindu, Buddhist, Trappist and Cistercian teachings a recognized teacher on any of these spiritual paths? To whom is he accountable?
Is his Northampton Group a legitimate non-profit organization? How are donations processed and distributed? Do members of this group participate in making the decisions about how things are done? Does the organization have a board of directors and is it independently audited? Who benefits from the donations made and funds generated?
We respectfully request answers to our questions. "
The person who gave me the original paper flyer got it from somebody at an Occupy Northampton rally late last year--it was being circulated throught the crowd there. Here it is:
"Concerned citizens raise questions about the Northampton Group
Recently a local man Samana spoke at our community occupy Wall Street rally, his statement can be viewed at youtube.com. He has been the subject of a Daily Hampshire Gazette article “His own order” on 12/17/2010 and also of a letter to the editor on 12/30/10. Who is this self-proclaimed “monk” named Samana? He was previously known as the flute-playing Bird Man and as the poet Eddie Bartok-Baratta. Why all these aliases?
He purports to be a 99%er. He reportedly resides in low-income housing. Is he a recipient of SSI or other social assistance programs? If so, these resources are provided by tax dollars of the working 99%ers. Doesn’t that make him a .05%er; a person who uses the system and diverts the resources that are designated for those truly in need? Could this well-educated (according to the Gazette he has a Masters Degree from UMASS), well-spoken and well-dressed "monk" be milking the system he so eloquently expressed his objections to in his open letter to his neighbors?
Why does he need a young, female "attendant"? Why does she live as a "mendicant" or beggar and reportedly sleep in several apartments in the city while he lives in the relative comfort of his own home? Who are the six or seven "followers" referred to in the Gazette article and where is Samana leading them?
According to the Gazette article Samana is "bent on establishing a new religion". What is this "religion of us" he refers to? Is this "monk" who claims to be influenced by Hindu, Buddhist, Trappist and Cistercian teachings a recognized teacher on any of these spiritual paths? To whom is he accountable?
Is his Northampton Group a legitimate non-profit organization? How are donations processed and distributed? Do members of this group participate in making the decisions about how things are done? Does the organization have a board of directors and is it independently audited? Who benefits from the donations made and funds generated?
We respectfully request answers to our questions. "
Re: Eddie Bartok Baratta/Samana
Posted by:
malicetowardnone
()
Date: October 09, 2012 10:15PM
have read the posts and feel concerned about the young woman, too. this site has a few topics on its menus that are quite helpful, i found. there is something very odd and potentially dangerous going on here. do you happen to have a date for that "flyer" you copied out? thank you. good luck.
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