My name is Stan and i`m the recently `unendorsed` shiningworld teacher who has been expected to post here for some time now.
I`ve hesitated to do so for several reasons. the first being that James and his wife Sundari no longer figure in my life. they are old news and I have moved on.
Secondly, I don`t much care what they say about me . they have said their worst and the thought of going over my 10 years of close communication with them seemed a dauntingly tedious and unrewarding task.

Thirdly, they`re not going to change anyway. they believe themselves to be perfect and beyond reproach. nobody ever comes up to their perfect standards in their eyes. furthermore, there will be a shiningworld legacy when James has gone as he by and large popularised vedanta in the west and made it accessible.
The traditional Indian teaching lines were unable to do this in an effective and transformative way. why ? because they wrongly assumed that westerners would be as qualified and ready as easterners to assimilate the vedanta teachings.
Unfortunately, western society is desire based with a strong underlay of entitlement. Indian culture was an additional obstacle to western seekers and the time was ripe for the teaching to be adapted to the west. enter James and Shiningworld. my posting here will not alter the shiningworld legacy although it may throw more light on it`s main teacher.

I`ve also not posted here before because the main purpose of this forum is to out James as a rapist in his early years. It`s something I know nothing about and am unable to verify for myself. I `chose` to not believe it at face value because of the anonymity issues and I have not heard of similar accusations since the time of the original one. add to that my gratitude for the vedanta teachings themselves, and it seemed unlikely that the allegations were true.

I still feel that I owe a debt of gratitude that i`ll never be able to fully repay for the vedanta teachings. and by extension, I have always given this same gratitude to the teacher, James, as he is the stand-in for the teaching. it has been largely unquestioning faith in the teacher although fortunately, not total. nevertheless, I have indeed been James` staunch defender and had been considered by some people to even be his most blind and faithful follower, ever ready to do any of his biddings. there is some truth in this whilst I had no doubt in his character. That slowly changed over time. in the meantime though, I had always defended James` reputation whenever the Cult Ed site accusations were brought up.

So why the change of mind ? It`s certainly not because I was removed from being a teacher on shiningworld. it`s the way it was done with so many false accusations against me with no right of reply. there were seven satsangs posted on shiningworld by James and Sundari with the sole intention of discrediting me. it was a pre-emptive attack on me as a damage limitation device. I have 10 years worth of intimate emails on file and was privy to many private conversations with them. They were afraid that I had `the dirt` on them so I needed to be sidelined into insignificance.

The funny thing is that I never even had such an intention ! I was removed because I had a difference of political opinions with James. He has a long standing anti - Trump disturbance of mind which causes him to lose his discrimination. there are good reasons why I say this but i`ll elaborate later. It`s not really about Trump of course. it`s the usual story ...denial and projection. I really didn`t care about politics and thought for the most part that we were just sharing a political joke. I hadn`t realised that he wasn`t. How ridiculous to be `cancelled` over a difference of political opinion ! I thought he was politically illiterate but it didn`t bother me at all. I didn`t care what he thought about which cars were best or which diet is the best. it`s not in his remit as a teacher. even so, I was still struggling with whether to bother about writing up my experiences with James and Sundari. I have other things to be getting on with.

So what really made me decide to get off my ass and post my piece in the end ? it`s the simple fact that they both continued to attack and gaslight me after the whole episode of my being cancelled had been concluded. why would they want to do that ? I can only conclude from direct experience that they can both be spiteful and vindictive . their sheer hypocricy is a stain on shiningworld itself.
Here`s an excerpt from a correspondence Sundari forwarded to me recently ...

"As for Stan, I did not lie. I posted a satsang about how he is now trying to ruin James reputation as revenge for us removing him as a teacher because he lost all discrimination and fallen down the conspiracy rabbit hole. It was online for precisely one hour with his name on it.

James requested that I change it and I did because he felt compassion for Stan, and still does, even though he betrayed us. He was a close friend and we once trusted him. But if I had my way, I would have left his name on my satsang. Make what you will of that. I see it as Isvara giving Stan a dose of his own medicine, pure karma blowback ".

She thought I was posting here because let`s face it, I couldn`t post on shiningworld, could I ? I`ll say my piece now after all. as i told Sundari, I may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb ! let`s see how she copes with a dose of `her` own medicine.

Here was a nice little recent message from James ...

" Here's a rich one: our guy, now fallen from grace, thought it was totally unfair that the libs treated Trump badly when he was elected, yet they gave Obama accolades! A grave injustice. He seems to have unlearned the law of karma, but there you are, everyone forgets once in a while. ( I didn`t say that. I pointed out that Obama was given the Nobel peace prize before he had even taken office ! ) Pray for him. A less lofty mind than mine might be tempted to see a bit of racism there but, hey, he's enlightened, sees everything equally".

He even implies a bit of "racism" there. Playing the racist card just like he does with Trump. that`s pretty low by anyone`s standards of `smearing` a person. i`m wondering whether his medications are having an adverse effect on his mind. seriously. he admitted to me that they have a disturbing effect on him.

But here`s my favourite recent little message from James ...

" I have access to your thinking. I know all that you know and all that you don`t know". Is that the theme music to the `Twilight zone` I can hear in the background Lol ...

The most interesting things about that statement for me are ....why would any normal person send it ? who does he think he is ?

I`d like to say more of my 10 years with James and Sundari and will do so in the form of a diary of events. It`s not designed to be a hatchet job like the one they worked on me. It will consist of a short introduction and history of my day to day dealings, close up and personal with James and Sundari whilst working for shiningworld.... the good, bad and the ugly. I will keep to the truth and refer back to my 10 years worth of recorded emails with them. people can make up their own minds about what i`ve got to say. that`s the intention. This is my initial introduction. Thanks for giving me a platform to speak from.

Stan, could you Clarify something, please?

Plus, "Thank You!"

Welcome, Stan.

May I ask for a clarification?
In the eight sentences or so that follow "Thirdly," in your post just above, I understood that you were repeating the claims of JS and Sundari regarding the impact of ShiningWorld and of their supposed "Great Legacy."
Conversely, another reader told me that she thought that you were repeating your own current beliefs in that section.

To me, my friend was wrong. I said, "Stan now sees James, Sundari, and ShiningWorld for what they really are. He certainly doesn't buy that crap any more."
To prove my point regarding Swartz's "legacy" really being insignificant, I went on to list a few Advaita Vedanta teachers who are reputable and who have exponentially more views on-line than Swartz and SW (even while keeping Jame's beloved Mooji off of the list).

Still, if you would, please do clarify which of us is correct.

****

I must admit that I smiled as I realized that you were probably the same gent who responded with fire and brimstone-filled defenses of James Swartz back in the early days... The days when the group of "Heather friends" first started publicly sharing her accusations, and then wrote of the damning results of their research into Swartz's spiritual bona fides and behaviors.

As mentioned before, I totally "get" the instinctive strong defense a person has for his or her spiritual teacher. Had I been in your shoes, I likely would have responded the same way.

Sad to say, at least one of the teachers I would have defended so strongly turned out to be almost as bad as Swartz. (Since then, I've joined no groups...)

We've both come from a hard place. May all of us who've experienced such things move forward smoothly and with healing. And, as you hinted, the biggest reason to look back is to warn others-- to keep others from getting bitten by the same sweet-smelling poison that fake teachers offer.

Some I've heard from have realized the foulness of Swartz and done nothing but leave ShiningWorld. They send me a Private Message acknowledging that the points made on this website are (mostly or totally, based on their experience) correct, and wanting to be free of Swartz--to forget, to heal, and to move on. They ask me to keep their message and information private, and I do.

I totally understand that, but without a few like you and EQ who take the time to share the Truth, newcomers will continue to be ensnared by the dark fraudulence that is at the heart of the ironically named "Shining World."

So, for taking the time to share this post and the ones to follow, and for having the courage to do so, Thanks!

Hi Traveller. thanks for the welcome.

In your opening question, you asked me to clarify something for you. in effect, a question that is a choice between two different things. I think I can see a misconception of your`s which gives the impression of a simple choice.

As a reader told you, I was stating my current belief that there will indeed be `a` shiningworld legacy. There is a great and varied amount of vedanta material on that site. this of course includes the books, videos, articles,translations and youtube vids etc.not all of this material is original to James or Sundari.

I was in charge of the sales of the ebooks and videos for some years and can testify there is/was a large demand for the material. So yes, there will i`m sure be a legacy following the passing of James and Sundari. that is my considered opinion.

However, I didn`t use the term "great Legacy" as you implied though. I just said `legacy`. The way you used the term "great" implies that the Swartzes hold a grandiose view of their achievements and legacy which is incompatible with it`s real worth. I wasn`t refering to this. so really this aforementioned choice is misleading.

I do however now see James, Sundari and Shiningworld for what they are.
That is correct. There is a "crap aspect"to them which I don`t buy into any more.
To uncover and reveal what that "crap aspect" is, is the whole point of my coming onto this forum.

Although I have been a staunch defender of James, I can assure you that I am not the `gent` you are refering to. I have never posted on this forum before, whether using my real or assumed name. nor have I ever asked anyone to post on my behalf. I don`t know who that person would have been and havn`t as yet read all the early posts.

I`m fortunate as I don`t feel hurt by my experiences with the Swartzes. i`ve been there, done that when I was a zen monk in my early days. the head monk could teach like the Buddha but one day he was caught molesting and abusing the female monks. he was thrown out but many of the monks still couldn`t accept that he behaved as he did. he caused much hurt to many people and i`ve slept with one eye open ever since.

I can understand that certain people may want to keep their experiences private. That`s understandable. there will no doubt be those that will castigate me for being unfaithful to the teacher and being vindictive. To the second category I would say .. when you`ve given 100% devoted service to shiningworld for 10 years, day and night,you might have some idea what you are talking about.even that is understandable though.

The teaching is beautiful and liberating so it`s easy to want to project those attributes to the teacher. a good teacher will not allow this to happen and a real test of a teacher is whether you are more free of him/her as time goes on...rather than more dependent. the more dependent, the greater the pain when things go wrong.

I`ve got much more to say so tell me when to stop. Lol ... thanks.

Now, time for me (Trav) to Clarify...


This bit of info I almost sent to Stan in a PM (Private Message), but just so there's no thought that I agreed with James Swartz on Stan's previous activities, let it be clear:

I never meant to infer that Stan had written on this site previously, as "TheSpare" or under any other moniker. That thought, in fact, had not even occurred to me.

The "fire and brimstone protective messages" I mentioned came two years or so before this Thread on this Site was even opened. These ("vehement" is one way to describe them) messages were by direct reply to my early e-mail messages to Swartz supporters whose names and addresses I found on the Shining World website.

As should not have surprised me, Stan and others who were Swartz's core staff and meeting organizers at the time didn't respond especially warmly to a message from a stranger that said,

"Hey, just got word your teacher is a drugging, hypnotizing rapist of at least one underage girl. What do you think?"

Subsequent messages reporting Swartz's killing of his neighbor's pet dog, serial shagging of widowed sewer cleaners in southern India, bullying and abuse of young, vulnerable seekers, lying about his spiritual path and attainments, deliberate distortion of sacred texts to better fit his half-assed teachings, and similar matters, of course (at least for a while) received a similar response.

***

Also, just to be clear, I also agree with Stan on the fact that the sharing of (unadulterated) sacred texts in the west can only be a good thing. This corresponds to my many past assertions that could be summarized as, "Swartz himself is a foul liar, a fraud and a criminal. However, just mentioning the names of Gaudapada, Shankara, or Ramana Maharshi to people is a good thing for anybody to do."

Likely almost unwillingly, even Swartz, by mentioning those unsurpassable Sages and by sharing (unadulterated by Swartz's deliberate mis-translations and omissions) sacred texts, does a service to those who haven't heard of them before.

In other words, it's my firm belief that, no matter the source, any information that leads a person to Gaudapada, Shankara, and Ramana Maharshi has a great value. (It's just that in the case of Swartz and Sundari, there is the question of how "messed up" the person is by the other aspects of Shining World in the process... Few escape totally unscathed, but, happily, reports are that more and more are healing and moving on successfully.)

Hello Stan, welcome and thank you for sharing openly your testimonal and experience as a now ex-shiningworld endorsed teacher.

I see they have added more "endorsed teachers" on their list of teachers on their website.

I wonder: why do not more of those "endorsed" teachers come forward like you do or do they look the other side when they hear the way seekers/ex-students of the shiningworld group have been treated in disrespectless unethical manner?

Does it not matter to them? Are they more attached to keeping their role of "teacher" than putting highest priority to being transparent and honest as a teacher or do they believe everything JS says is true and never mind his misconduct, they don't care as long as they can remain "endorsed teachers"? In other words: what is their allegiance to? To the Truth and facts no matter the cost or to their human teacher (whether saint or villain)?

As for the Heather's case, i have good reasons to trust what Heather shared here as well as in her "fictional story". I guess unless you have been in a similar situation of abuse by a spiritual teacher, if you haven't met her, it will be hard to detect the authenticity or not of such as what she describes. Just to say, if i would feel to defend anyone or any philosophy or teaching here, it would be Heather's case. Good thing for her, she said what she had to say and moved on. A movie made of her story would have made it more "real" for many, but that would have put Heather into too much of reliving a horrible nightmare. That is that.

As for Advaita Vedanta,i experienced a lot of confusion reading and listening to the teachings through JS and his wife. What a change it was to listen to a much clearer articulate, kind, humble and well-versed teacher in Sanskrit texts.

However, as per now i feel Truth is far more universal, all-encompassing living a Reality to be contained, fixed or limited in only one "the best" system/philosophy or way to our connection with Reality.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2021 01:27AM by Valma.

James & Isabella SWartz Continue to Lie to Shiningworld Members & the World

Life rolls dice in a myriad of ways for everyone. At times there can be mistakes made. Sometimes great ones. One only has to look back on a recent post of mine in which I intimated my own background to get a glimpse, that I, will have made many great mistakes. It cannot be changed, but what can be done by any person is learning from those mistakes. The first part of which is to admit that they were made, without excuses.

Besides the email evidence I have from James & Isabella Swartz that they have posted lies about me on Shiningworld, some of you might remember that a few months ago I was also locked into debate with a Shiningworld account on here, one that assumed female, and had recently wrote to Isabella Swartz about the forum member, 'TheSpare' - when they were just cancelled as a teacher in Shinignworld. I won't be so tedious as to go back and date the exact post, suffice to say the account came on here singing the praises of the SWartz'.


With all that has been said about me, I've always told my students privately and I've made a public point of it here, catch me out on a lie, and I am a liar, full stop. And although my grammar has left a lot to be desired, the words used have always been precise. With this mindset I explained to that Swartzophile profile that her teacher, Isabella Swartz has just posted an e-satsang telling lies about a former ex-teacher ( now we know as Stan aka TheSpare).

(TheSpare is my former mentor in Shiningworld. He is a person of impeccable character with a long background in spiritual matters. He keeps things very grounded, with no airs and graces. We're here speaking for ourselves though, and not together. A lot we agree on, some things we've a different take. And that is the difference here on this forum and indeed the normal world. People are allow to both agree and disagree. It means nothing, and certainly isn't cause for this 'cancel culture'. I'm digressing slightly, but I feel this is a valid point also - Shiningworld do not allow for a disagreement of ideas, spiritually, politically, or anything else with the teachers. In the real world it is normal to have different perspectives. Good god, it's what makes life interesting!)


So yes, back to my tale. The Swartzophile that came on here is actually the person who Isaabella SWartz was posting to in the e-satsang (https://www.shiningworld.com/dharma-and-conspiracy-theorists/). This came out in the conversation between the profile and I. That profile came on here challenging what was being said, and supporting the Swartz', including her teacher, Isabella. As I said, I havn't bothered to wade through my 124 posts, but I remmeber telling the student on here, that Isabella Swartz, her own teacher, has just posted more lies about TheSpare, the ex-teacher on Shiningworld. Just to remind you, here is what Isabella Swartz said:

Quote
Sundari
: We have not exposed the name of the teacher whom we
recently unendorsed as it is not relevant, and to do so would be
following the same adharmic route he took, which is not who we are.

I told her student on here that Isabella has just told lies. That myself and others saw the persons names live. 'TheSpare' has now revealed an excerpt from a relatively recent email from Isabella Swartz herself, in which she is directly referring to this:

Quote
Sundari Email
"As for Stan, I did not lie. I posted a satsang about how he is now trying to ruin James reputation as revenge for us removing him as a teacher because he lost all discrimination and fallen down the conspiracy rabbit hole. It was online for precisely one hour with his name on it.

James requested that I change it and I did because he felt compassion for Stan, and still does, even though he betrayed us. He was a close friend and we once trusted him. But if I had my way, I would have left his name on my satsang. Make what you will of that. I see it as Isvara giving Stan a dose of his own medicine, pure karma blowback ".

There are a few things with this (besides it being on not for an hour as she claims, but at least a day or two, not that that matters, a lie is a lie). The first is that i've timed this post so that Isabella and James will see my post. I'm speaking to them more than anyone.

The second thing is, Isabella, you don't seem to know what a lie actually is. You have been caught out once again, proof positive, that you lie to your students, and to the entire Shiningworld, and to the rest of the world. You say; "As for Stan, I did not lie... It was online for precisely one hour with his name on it" is a lie about the lie! You are lieing that you did not lie. Incredulous that you even lie about lieing. Your own words in those two sentences invalidate each sentence.

The truth is actual, factual & contextual. Maybe I shouldn't reveal this, I don't know. It has long been the opinion of myself and others that you both, James & Isabella Swartz are your own worst enemies. You cannot seem to stop positing these half-baked glorification posts of you by 'students'. You also cannot seem to stop taking people out of context and injecting lies into what was actually said. Although it has been tedious for some to read, it's a great thing to see those accounts come on here and make utter fools of yourselves with the amateur lies that you try to fool people with. Everytime you come on here, every single time you post your lies you are being scraped by search engines. What is being said to any member here is being listed in search results and informing the world. These accounts that come on here trying to smear and lie, you don't like it that there is a right to reply here, and you're offered evidence of your lies that is your own words, which is always ignored. The world isn't as foolish as you think, and the to and fro in posts here between concerned people and Shiningworld, paints a more truthful picture than your one-sided no right to reply on your Shiningworld site.

Not only has Isabella Swartz been caught out in a lie again, both her and James Swartz are guilty of allowing published lies to make themselves look good spiritually:

Quote
Isabella Swartz/Above Satsang
and to do so would be
following the same adharmic route he took, which is not who we are."

The cat is out of the bag, and you are a self-proven liar. Both you and James Swartz have allowed this self-awarded spiritual glorification that is lies itself and based on lies to remain published. The cherry on top is that you have done this standing on the back of one of the most loyal people you ever had. And now, by the sounds of what he is going to reveal, you have unleashed the Kraken. Can you imagine my face James & Isabella? Lmao. Both of you speak to me, and from the posts here, have spoke about him, in regard to karma. Yes, karma.

The title of the satsang includes the word 'dharma'. And the Swartz' then went on to teach zoom classes on dharma in which they backstabbed TheSpare, as everyone knew they would. Shiningworld members, you attend zoom classes with teachers speaking about dharma, when they are caught out posting lies to students, and to Shiningworld. Putting down one of the kindest and most loyal people there is. Using Vedanta teachings about politics that don't even exist. That is the character of James & Isabella Swartz, nasty & vindictive. Isabella posted a comment to me in one of those recent satsangs about me, saying shame of me. No Isabella SWartz, shame on you. It is you and James Swartz that is wrecking Shiningworld, and you are going to bring those other teachers and students down with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Special Powers of James Swartz & His Hold Over Students


Another highly salient recent quote from James Swartz to TheSpare is:

Quote
James Swartz Email
" I have access to your thinking. I know all that you know and all that you don`t know".

If you recall, I quoted how James Swartz clearly showed in his own words in his autobiography a god-complex in front of his teacher. Fast-forward decades later and we can see that James Swartz seems to think he has special powers, such as mind-reading. Though why does he say this to his former student? Why email him and say such a thing? What is he hoping to achieve by this? I will suggest answers...

Control.
Subservience.
Acceptance of who is superior.


For a spiritual teacher to try to manipulate control over a student by claiming to have special powers is the bread and butter of this forum.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2021 12:03PM by earthquake.

"Black Magic Ram"
James Swartz the Necromancer...
(According to him)
He can read your thoughts,
Always knows where you are,
And can Appear at any time.

"Don't you dare defy me, or else!"

This is what he drilled into 14-16 Year-old Heather--
And he's still at it.

Hard days for Swartz. Another ex-SW teacher is "coming out" with the truth regarding his and Sundari's dark doings. He's responded by showing his true colors.

And Swartz's true colors are Black for the magic he has studied and tried to use, and Yellow for Coward, which is what he and most other Bullies are beneath their bluster.

Now, with the gent here called "TheSpare" he has reverted to the same type of "Black Magic" threatening that he (much more successfully, as helped by drugs) used against Heather when she was an underage teen. Fortunately, TheSpare is not a vulnerable teenager.

Yes, here he goes again. Despite making countless mistakes in his misreadings of the thoughts and intentions of others over his decades as a fraudulent teacher, he still tries to scare TheSpare into subservient silence with e-mail messages that include:

Quote

James Swartz Email to "TheSpare"

" I have access to your thinking. I know all that you know and all that you don`t know".

Right...

You told me the same thing a few times, James. You claimed to know me, to fully understand my feelings, thoughts, and motives. You asserted this knowledge while displaying with your next words that you didn't have a clue. (Swartz's threats and mis-thinking are included in the book "Guru? The Story of Heather.")

Swartz is truly pathetic at the deepest level, but unfortunately presents a better front to those who are new to him and to "spiritual seeking." Hence, the need to keep this site going, so others can be warned of the sad truths regarding him, his wife, and their organization.

At least I don't have any evidence that Swartz has tried to hypnotize any women into bed for the last ten years or so. It might have happened, but Sundari might not approve, eh?

But, the main point here--

Swartz's threat against "TheSpare" is again more proof that Heather has told the Truth.

His darkness, habits, and techniques have not changed.

It's only, sadly, that she experienced them first.

Hi, in order to continue my history of service with shiningworld, i`d like to describe what my duties were. Also what my relationship to James and Sundari was like for the sake of providing context for my following post, still to be written up.

Some ten years ago, after a period of concentrated self inquiry lasting an unbroken 6 months or so, I came to understand that I was not the doer or person, but rather the knower of the person and all things. it was a switch of identity that never got `switched back` again.

I had realised without doubt that there is the self many years ago when I was a Buddhist. it was a transformative experience but I couldn`t put it into context of my real identity. I didn`t understand that I was the self and there is nothing but the self. the split in my identity caused much anguish and searching for many years.

After I understood that I am the self alone, I experienced years of happy and blissful living but eventually noticed a subtle boredom with constant happiness. I knew there was something still to understand. As per the usual "accident" , I came across vedanta in the form of an article about James Swartz who was writing about `vedanta advaita` and the difference between knowledge and experience. I instantly knew that vedanta would hold the last of the missing pieces of understanding for me and bought his newly released book called " How to attain enlightenment".
To this day his best work in my opinion as it covered the full panorama of non duality and how to remove our ignorance of it. most importantly it was written in an impersonal way with the teacher keeping out of the way of the teaching.

I immediately set to and studied the book in the recommended way. no skipping without previously assimilating the preceding order of logic. vedanta has to be studied in a particular order of logic or it can`t work it`s liberating effect otherwise.
I had the time to study day and night which I did do without interruption. I not only didn`t skip chapters, I didn`t skip paragraphs. nor sentences nor even two following words. I didn`t let one word go by that I didn`t investigate until I understood the meaning it held.

Often during my concentrated studies, spontaneous samadhis would try to dominate my mind. I brushed them off impatiently as I was desperate to move on to the next topic at hand. in the old days, I was a samadhi junkie and prized the samadhi states. now I saw them as an attractive dead end.
Eventually, when all was clear, I knew that all that had to be done was done and my gratitude knew no bounds. it`s a debt to vedanta/ ishwara I knew I could ever fully repay and by extension, I felt the same gratitude to the teacher, James Swartz, for leading me through the vedanta methodology. I vowed to do everything I can to serve the teaching.

I wrote to James and described my journey out of ignorance and expressed my deep gratitude. I never asked for formal teaching from him and he confirmed that I had assimilated the knowledge from what I had told him over the period of a few letters. that was ten years ago and this is an excerpt out of what he wrote back to me at the time ...

" James: Sorry, Stan, but I have had a nasty cold since I got here, and we are going to buy these houses, so I haven’t had time to reply properly to your great email. Here is what I have to say.

Stan: “Can you make some sense out of this James? I’d appreciate a few of your wise words here.”

James: It’s a bit confusing but I will try to make sense of it. The first thing that doesn’t make sense is your statement that you are being reeled in for some cause by Isvara. On the level of Isvara there is always something new coming up but the point is that what it is we can never know, what is going to happen, so we just leave it to Isvara to do Its bit and “reel” us in, and when we get reeled in we take it as prasad.
Maybe you are wondering if you are “supposed to be” a teacher. The answer is, what does “teaching” mean to you? You answer that question yourself when you say “you teach in all that you say,” meaning that you and your life is the teaching. No need to be a Vedanta computer like me.

Whether you are thinking or teaching or not the mind will purify naturally if the knowledge is firm, which it seems to be because you say that it is laughable that you can forget the knowledge. If you know that “the knowledge” means you – awareness – then knowledge has nothing to do with
it. It sets you free, and once you are free it goes away.
The “dynamo hum” statement is a bit strange because you are always speaking to the self if you know who you are. But you have bhakti for us, so when we communicate there is an extra buzz.

But basically, the wonderful last part of the letter about love shows that you have assimilated the knowledge, because the knowledge works out experientially as love. And yes, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I left you attached to Ramji. Ramji is just a name for the love you feel.
So you are good to go, Stan. At the same time feel free to write to me anytime. I will have more time now to reply as the big India teaching is over and the house-hunting is settled.
~ Much love, James "

As I knew that James and Sundari were searching for a house in Spain, I offered to do their searching and dealing with queries via agents for them. they readily agreed as it would take a load off their backs and I was happy to give something back in return for the teaching and to help promote the shiningworld project.
This is how my relationship with them started. I`m writing this so as to better contrast and compare my earlier relationship with them as opposed to the relationship after the political `argument` which got me fired.

At first, pretty much all of my correspondence was via Sundari but she conferred with James regarding any points of mutual interest. It was a pleasant relationship of mutual respect . I would talk vedanta with her and raise occasional vedanta questions and she would be open and warm in return with me. we talked about family and over time, I felt like we were family rather than friends.

Eventually, I found out that James had been doing the sales of the books, videos etc in the shiningworld shop. not to mention answering purchaser`s questions which could be quite tedious. the previous helper had left and sales were booming. James was getting bogged down with spending too much time in the shop as opposed to teaching so, I offered to step in and take over those duties. James very gladly agreed to my offer of help and taught me the technical ropes of how to process the orders. This led me to direct daily access to James and each evening I would send him a sales report and each following morning i`d get a `thank you` from him or we`d discuss some new developments in the shop.
Over time, i`d have many discussions with purchasers who often asked for technical advice re the books and vids. I was also often asked for teaching advice as it was assumed by some, that since I `work` for shiningworld, I must be a fully experienced and knowledgeable teacher or some equivalent of ! Lol ...

It certainly kept me on my toes and I didn`t mind doing the work and had time for it. it was always understood that I wasn`t asking to be paid but was performing a devoted service.

At one point James contacted me in a state of agitation. He was trying to clear his old original Facebook list and you had to do this by deleting `friends`. he`d been at it for 2 days and worked out that at that rate, he`d got six months work still to go ! I informed him that the only practical thing to do was to get rid of the page altogether. the problem was that he `friended` virtually everyone who asked him. He has got another personal facebook page that is archived and `read only`.
He also lent his name to another Shiningworld affiliated Facebook group but that too had grown out of hand as it wasn`t moderated thoroughly. it ended up with James answering the most extraordinary of inquirers who had nothing to do with vedanta. many were followers and believers in angels, people who just wanted to argue or show off their great spiritual credentials, Trolls, you name it. I got him to remove his name from it altogether.

Because James thought there was some value in having a facebook presence, A new group was formed. it was to be moderated by a german person who was very much in favour with James at the time. I was roped in to help with the moderating and the German person went on to help James make a series of short youtube Q & A type of videos.
As we`d had bad experiences with facebook...Sundari in particular hated it and wanted nothing to do with it, I suggested we should start up a shiningworld forum where we can keep things clean and on point with the teaching. To my consternation, James said "Go right ahead. i`ll arrange for our web guy to set it up. I won`t have much time to participate though " ! I knew none of the technicalities of running a forum and quickly got a book and began to self teach myself.

It was at this time that I first came in touch with `earthquake`. Sundari told me all about his history and how she and James had been teaching him. he had a criminal past but needed something dharmic to go forward with. I really liked the idea and said send him over ! apart from anything else, he`d run his own Forum and was more media savvy than I was.
The Forum`s main topics were built around the main shiningworld book and the idea was that people could form a sangha around the teaching and not fall foul of the trolls and assorted idiots.

It didn`t become very successful because there were not enough serious inquirers. there were plenty of lookers but not enough active people.
It`s about this time that the allegations appeared on the Cult Education site and a previous one where the allegations against James were put on hold by the owner, as I understand.
This caused something akin to panic in the minds of James and Sundari who insisted that they shut down all of their social media sites. The reason being given by James was that they were unnecessary now and had become victims of their own success ; in fact sales were booming thanks to the publicity raised by the Cult Ed site`s allegations. This was nonsense of course and was a damage limitation exercise. I should know because I was active in fighting off the allegations. I wrote to the previous website owner who carried the rape allegations and also Rick at the ` Buddha at the gas pumps` site. Rick had removed James from his list of interviewees on moral grounds. that is still the case if i`m not mistaken.

I must say I was a bit peeved that James had the official Forum removed but not the facebook group. I felt that if he had supported the forum instead of facebook, there was every likelihood of it`s being a success and help in spreading the word of vedanta. I couldn`t understand his thinking there at all.

Strange to relate, another problem for shiningworld raised it`s head now. The German person who James was mentoring and had him staying at his home experienced a major crisis of confidence . He had helped me moderate the forum, he was the chief moderator for the facebook group and obviously a supporter of James and shiningworld. James had high hopes and plans for him in the future. The only trouble was that when he stayed with James and Sundari, he saw that James` lifestyle was not at all in keeping what he professed it to be. he was extremely agitated about what he saw and experienced and wrote to me in near desperation.

I couldn`t see how I could resolve this as things had come to a head. James had always professed a liking and respect for this person and called him very spiritual. I wrote to James and told him what our German friend had told me hoping he would take a fatherly approach to him and try to resolve the situation.
Mistake ... James took a harder line and sent him on his way. This person was badly hurt by the whole experience and I wouldn`t be surprised if he feels some resentment towards me. I wouldn`t blame him either but the pressure had built up and very much needed releasing. I believe that over the last year or two they have met and come to terms somewhat. It didn`t help that Sundari didn`t really take to him.

This episode led to the facebook group being shut down yet again but it was to be resurrected yet again. I was to start a new group provided It was to be kept scrupulously clean and `earthquake` would be chief moderator with myself. Sundari didn`t like the idea but she told James and myself that it`s up to us but she wants nothing whatsoever to do with it.
I`d never set up a facebook group from scratch but I knew a man who had ..`earthquake` to the rescue. I asked him could he do it and within a day or so we had a fully functioning facebook group again...articles, fotos, previous posts all included. up and running. thanks `earthquake`.
It just needs to be mentioned that when James and Sundari had their falling out with `earthquake`, I shut the group down. I always told James that i`d get involved with facebook by special request only.

By this time since my joining Shiningworld, I had seen three teachers unendorsed, the German protege leave and `earthquake` get removed with a long satsang by Sundari denouncing him. Supportive as I was to shiningworld, I couldn`t not see a definite pattern re teachers emerging.
I was going to have an experience of it sooner than I thought and it came right out of the blue.

I just woke up at 5am, to read this. Excellent piece, a solid setting of the background.

I'm sensing though, this could begin to have a wikileaks feel, haha. I got to say, for those looking to find the truth, this is exactly what is needed.