Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
OleNydahlIsAFraud
()
Date: August 13, 2012 03:23AM
Hello everyone!
I am a former member of this 'Diamond Way Buddhism' group. Not that it can really be called Buddhism! It is definitely a cult.
The amazing thing is that Mr. Ole Nydahl, NOT Lama Ole Nydahl, has build this cult around himself completely based on lies. As you say above, he was arrested and spent several months in prison for smuggling marijuana from Nepal and India into Denmark. There is also evidence he may have also smuggled heroin or LSD. He certainly used to take LSD regularly. The biggest lie is that he claims to be a Lama. He never completed the traditional 3 year retreat that Buddhist teachers traditionally take in Tibetan Buddhism before being called a Lama. In fact, he never even started such a retreat. He calls it a 'waste of time'. He also had claimed many times to be 'Ole Nydahl PhD', but he never completed his doctorate. He dropped out and went drug smuggling instead. Then there is the outrageous claims he makes of being a re-incarnation of a soldier and various holy men. The other great lie spread by this group is that of right-wing ideologies; racism, hatred and anti-democracy.
I went to the London group for 2 and a half years. The unelected leaders were Steve James & Daffyd Morriss. The Moriss family also hold a lot of power in the organisation in the UK. Daffyd has a brother and sister who run the Reading centre and another brother who runs the Exeter centre. I forget their names. Because I asked too many questions and didn't swallow the whole nonsense, I was eventually excommunicated by the organisation, and people who I had thought were my friends were told to never talk to me again. All except one of them, who later also left himself, followed this order. He told me after he had also left that e-mails had been circulated to everyone in the London group telling them I was mentally ill and spiritually weak and that nobody should talk to me because they would also catch my mental illness!
This was before they got the Beaufoy centre as their new centre recently.
I heard about the protest there. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, but I have read the articles in this topic and some other articles and they make for very interesting reading to me. Here's a quote from another such article:
I am a former member of this 'Diamond Way Buddhism' group. Not that it can really be called Buddhism! It is definitely a cult.
The amazing thing is that Mr. Ole Nydahl, NOT Lama Ole Nydahl, has build this cult around himself completely based on lies. As you say above, he was arrested and spent several months in prison for smuggling marijuana from Nepal and India into Denmark. There is also evidence he may have also smuggled heroin or LSD. He certainly used to take LSD regularly. The biggest lie is that he claims to be a Lama. He never completed the traditional 3 year retreat that Buddhist teachers traditionally take in Tibetan Buddhism before being called a Lama. In fact, he never even started such a retreat. He calls it a 'waste of time'. He also had claimed many times to be 'Ole Nydahl PhD', but he never completed his doctorate. He dropped out and went drug smuggling instead. Then there is the outrageous claims he makes of being a re-incarnation of a soldier and various holy men. The other great lie spread by this group is that of right-wing ideologies; racism, hatred and anti-democracy.
I went to the London group for 2 and a half years. The unelected leaders were Steve James & Daffyd Morriss. The Moriss family also hold a lot of power in the organisation in the UK. Daffyd has a brother and sister who run the Reading centre and another brother who runs the Exeter centre. I forget their names. Because I asked too many questions and didn't swallow the whole nonsense, I was eventually excommunicated by the organisation, and people who I had thought were my friends were told to never talk to me again. All except one of them, who later also left himself, followed this order. He told me after he had also left that e-mails had been circulated to everyone in the London group telling them I was mentally ill and spiritually weak and that nobody should talk to me because they would also catch my mental illness!
This was before they got the Beaufoy centre as their new centre recently.
I heard about the protest there. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, but I have read the articles in this topic and some other articles and they make for very interesting reading to me. Here's a quote from another such article:
Quote
On Tuesday evening, Lambeth council's planning committee approved the plans for the former Beaufoy Institute, in Black Prince Road, Kennington, to become the Diamond Way Buddhism (DWB) organisation.
However, more than 40 protesters from the Lambeth Muslim Forum and the Lambeth Interfaith Network protested outside Lambeth Town Hall, in Brixton Hill amid claims the organisation is anti-Muslim and anti-Christian. Objections to the new use of the Grade II listed building also came from the Lambeth Against Racism and Islamophobia group and Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey.
Toaha Qureshi, a member of the Lambeth Muslim Forum and trustee of the Stockwell Mosque, in Stockwell Green, believed Lama Nydahl's comments amounted to "hate speech".
He said: "We are not against Buddhists because it is a peaceful religion. We are protesting against this particular faction of Diamond Way because we believe their leader preaches hate.
"We were not allowed into the meeting. We don't feel that the council has consulted with community leaders. If they had done that, we would not be here today."
DWB trustee Steve James is quoted as saying: "While Diamond Way Buddhism is not political, one of our teachers, Lama Ole Nydahl, has made personal statements on world affairs in press interviews. The occasional comments he has made about radical Islam have been grouped together and circulated in order to cause offence."
But Ole Nydahl is the founder and leader of Diamond Way Buddhism – an organisation that functions as a classic cult around Nydahl's personality, if allegations by disillusioned former members are to be believed. So the DWB spokesperson's description of Nydahl as merely "one of our teachers" who has happened to make some "personal statements" on political issues is disingenuous to say the least.
Nor have Nydahl's statements been directed solely against "radical Islam", as the DWB spokesperson claims. In a 2008 interview, asked about his attitude to the Abrahamic faiths, Nydahl replied:
"The Abrahamic religions, the ones that follow our constitution, treat women well, don't blow up people ... Judaism and Christianity are fine. Islam, I warn against. I know the Koran, I know the life story of Mohammad and I think we cannot use that in our society today. People like the Sufis and Bahá'ís are different, right. They are usually being killed as soon as the mainline Muslims come in, they start killing the other guys."
In a 2007 interview with Danish Islamophobe Lars Hedegaard, Nydahl described Islam as "a totalitarian and fascist system" and compared the Prophet Muhammad to Hitler and Stalin. In 2009 Nydahl was quoted by Ned May's Gates of Vienna website as stating: "I see a big attack from Islam, a great, great danger from Islam.... Nobody has ruined as much for us as the Muslims."
A Polish correspondent who attended a lecture by Nydahl in Warsaw a couple of years ago sent us the following account:
"I had heard some comments previously that suggested that Nydahl held Islamophobic views, but I was frankly shocked as to the depth of his anger and hatred against Islam and Muslims, and the way he uses his position to preach much misinformation and factual inaccuracies regarding Islam and Muslims and to incite hatred against Islam amongst his followers."
That report was sent in response to an Islamophobic campaign in which followers of Diamond Way Buddhism co-operated with elements of the far right in opposing the construction of a new mosque in Warsaw.
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
PeterLondon
()
Date: August 13, 2012 06:35AM
Hi Darius, yes that was me. I remember Daffydd getting a bit uncomfortable without a "script" and giving broadly convincing answers that were somehow subtly distorted. It was only after going away, doing some reading, and listening to other lectures that I realised his emphasis was more on the worldly (samsaric) side. He did mention emptiness, but only to then say that it meant that the significance of worldly meaning was made all the more important, which was almost the total opposite to the ideas of renunciation I was hearing elsewhere.Quote
dariusb
I can't deny that some of TT were quite educated in the teachings but most just repeated Ole's words over and over again.
I remember once in " South centre" Daffydd was giving a lecture, i don't remember what was the topic exactly, and he said something about mind, that all there is just play of our mind or something similar and Peter( i think it is the same Peter who contributes on this forum) asked him why mind is like that. i could see that this question made Daffydd cross and confused, his answer was " because it can".
But the answer like that implies some kind of believe that a mind is some independent thing and separate from us?
As you say, "most just repeated Ole's words over and over again", and I wonder if this repetition of things that sound good but are not quite right is one way of subtly planting these ideas in peoples' heads without being questioned too much?
It's only when the result of such thinking leads to the accusation that Adrienn is deliberately making the baby cry to disrupt Karmapa's lecture, it becomes obvious that something is badly wrong there.
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
SteveLpool
()
Date: August 13, 2012 05:02PM
There were some travelling teachers who were both well educated and also appeared to put into practice what they had learned. Unfortunately most travelling teachers just used to turn up and tell 'wonderful' stories about their travels with Nydahl. Very few travelling teachers had any deep understanding of Buddhist teachings.
Travelling teachers would just arrive and talk for 2 hours about how amazing Nydahl is. They told pretty much the same stories which I felt were just designed to re-program you in case you were starting to have doubts about Nydahl or his teaching style. If you hear something often enough you start to believe it's true.
I see there is a news story on the Buddha's of Bamiyan on the BBC. I remember a travelling teacher giving the usual critique of Muslims and their destruction of the statues. Now, I agree that the destruction of the statues was a terrible act of vandalism by Muslims but I remember asking the teacher to try and remember that all things are impermanent and that the Buddha's of Bamiyan had succumbed to impermanence and to try and put away his anger. Of course this 'Buddhist' advice was scorned and I was made to feel like I'd made some blasphemous statement.
Which reminds me of the debate about which Buddhist statue the centre should buy. They wanted to spend around £400 on a stutue (it might have been £600, I can't remember exactly) and I suggested that we just buy a cheap statue, something small, and we could give the money to a worthwhile charity. I received some scornful glances that time too.
There is a lot of talk about Buddhism within DWB but I very rarely saw it put into everyday practice. By practice I don't mean meditation or prostrations but rather actually doing something good, altruistic, for others. Too many people wanted to buy statues, pictures and t-shirts so they could show the world they were 'good Buddhists' when a simple act of kindness, like letting the elderly into the Gompa in Benalmadena first so they weren't getting crushed or baked in the mid-morning sun is Buddhism in action.
Steve
Travelling teachers would just arrive and talk for 2 hours about how amazing Nydahl is. They told pretty much the same stories which I felt were just designed to re-program you in case you were starting to have doubts about Nydahl or his teaching style. If you hear something often enough you start to believe it's true.
I see there is a news story on the Buddha's of Bamiyan on the BBC. I remember a travelling teacher giving the usual critique of Muslims and their destruction of the statues. Now, I agree that the destruction of the statues was a terrible act of vandalism by Muslims but I remember asking the teacher to try and remember that all things are impermanent and that the Buddha's of Bamiyan had succumbed to impermanence and to try and put away his anger. Of course this 'Buddhist' advice was scorned and I was made to feel like I'd made some blasphemous statement.
Which reminds me of the debate about which Buddhist statue the centre should buy. They wanted to spend around £400 on a stutue (it might have been £600, I can't remember exactly) and I suggested that we just buy a cheap statue, something small, and we could give the money to a worthwhile charity. I received some scornful glances that time too.
There is a lot of talk about Buddhism within DWB but I very rarely saw it put into everyday practice. By practice I don't mean meditation or prostrations but rather actually doing something good, altruistic, for others. Too many people wanted to buy statues, pictures and t-shirts so they could show the world they were 'good Buddhists' when a simple act of kindness, like letting the elderly into the Gompa in Benalmadena first so they weren't getting crushed or baked in the mid-morning sun is Buddhism in action.
Steve
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
pS1bY8pG2l
()
Date: August 13, 2012 11:20PM
Hi anonym,
thank you for sharing the links. What they are showing is well known here. Regardless of wether Ole Nydahl is blessed by Karmapa or congratulated by Jigme the facts which are documented on this thread are substantiality as well as the photo or the letter. You may not beeing touched by it in the same way I am not touched by the picture at all.
thank you for sharing the links. What they are showing is well known here. Regardless of wether Ole Nydahl is blessed by Karmapa or congratulated by Jigme the facts which are documented on this thread are substantiality as well as the photo or the letter. You may not beeing touched by it in the same way I am not touched by the picture at all.
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
~*~ k a t e ~*~
()
Date: August 14, 2012 04:18PM
Thanks for posting, OleNydahlIsAFraud, and what a great username!
It's very interesting to hear others had the same experience with the whole head wound nonsense.
I would also agree with Puella - DW does split families up through their disconnection policies. Quite like Scientology in that regard, really.
I have an update on the documentary. I have managed to be in contact with a couple of journalists who are interested in the project. I also have someone who is willing to go inside one of the cult's centres to do some secret filming. I won't disclose which centre as I know cult members are reading this. I would do it myself, but they'd recognise a former member...
It's very interesting to hear others had the same experience with the whole head wound nonsense.
I would also agree with Puella - DW does split families up through their disconnection policies. Quite like Scientology in that regard, really.
I have an update on the documentary. I have managed to be in contact with a couple of journalists who are interested in the project. I also have someone who is willing to go inside one of the cult's centres to do some secret filming. I won't disclose which centre as I know cult members are reading this. I would do it myself, but they'd recognise a former member...
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
dariusb
()
Date: August 14, 2012 04:44PM
@kate
The Phowa practice is tantric practice and tantric practices are not understood well in western cultures so scrap everything as total nonsence would be a little bit unwise. Concerning Ole's Phowa it is difficult to say, I had seen red dots on people's heads ,was it the sign ,I do not know. Little search on Google and you can find some information on it.
The time when I was with DWB some people told me that There was a period when Ole stopped Phowa practice for a while, it would be interesting to find out .
The Phowa practice is tantric practice and tantric practices are not understood well in western cultures so scrap everything as total nonsence would be a little bit unwise. Concerning Ole's Phowa it is difficult to say, I had seen red dots on people's heads ,was it the sign ,I do not know. Little search on Google and you can find some information on it.
The time when I was with DWB some people told me that There was a period when Ole stopped Phowa practice for a while, it would be interesting to find out .
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
~*~ k a t e ~*~
()
Date: August 14, 2012 07:09PM
Quote
dariusb
@kate
The Phowa practice is tantric practice and tantric practices are not understood well in western cultures so scrap everything as total nonsence would be a little bit unwise. Concerning Ole's Phowa it is difficult to say, I had seen red dots on people's heads ,was it the sign ,I do not know. Little search on Google and you can find some information on it.
.
Please can you provide this evidence? I have googled and found no such evidence.
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
pS1bY8pG2l
()
Date: August 14, 2012 07:27PM
Hi Kate,
Phowa is one of the secret six yogas of Naropa. Wikipedia knows a lot about it:
[en.wikipedia.org]
I practised it all so I can say it works. And beneath the psychic effects there are also a lot of physicially effects like the little red drop on one´s head, which is the "lowest" sign. Most people get annother sign too, Nydahl said it is a secret one and only he can see it, what is totally wrong, every one can see it: The complete relaxation in your face, specially around the muscles of the mouth.
Phowa is one of the secret six yogas of Naropa. Wikipedia knows a lot about it:
[en.wikipedia.org]
I practised it all so I can say it works. And beneath the psychic effects there are also a lot of physicially effects like the little red drop on one´s head, which is the "lowest" sign. Most people get annother sign too, Nydahl said it is a secret one and only he can see it, what is totally wrong, every one can see it: The complete relaxation in your face, specially around the muscles of the mouth.
Re: Ole Nydahl and Diamond Way Buddhism
Posted by:
SteveLpool
()
Date: August 14, 2012 08:34PM
Unfortunately the complete relaxation of someones face is not any proof at all that Phowa is effective, in my opinion.
I did Phowa five times and I never saw the red drop on anyones head including my own after I had a friend take several photographs. That's not to say I didn't feel any benefit from doing the Phowa. I always found the experience very rewarding which was why I did it five times. I don't know about Phowa. You'll have to forgive me but inner signs and mysticism just don't work for me. I'm not saying it isn't possible but in the abscence of hard scientific proof from repeatable experiments I remain sceptical.
Many people reported visions and seeing Buddha's over other peoples heads. I never had any such experiences. I can't assert that those people didn't have the experiences they report but I can tell you that from my own personal experience I have never experienced anything 'mystical' and so I must remain open to the possibility but sceptical.
I just think that Nydahl uses people's willingness to believe and plays on that. Then people report these experiences and others who wish to believe then join in the experience. It's a little how spiritualists work. Even when people explain how 'talking to dead relatives' works they still refuse to give up on the hope that it's possible.
But, as I said, this is just my opinion.
Steve
I did Phowa five times and I never saw the red drop on anyones head including my own after I had a friend take several photographs. That's not to say I didn't feel any benefit from doing the Phowa. I always found the experience very rewarding which was why I did it five times. I don't know about Phowa. You'll have to forgive me but inner signs and mysticism just don't work for me. I'm not saying it isn't possible but in the abscence of hard scientific proof from repeatable experiments I remain sceptical.
Many people reported visions and seeing Buddha's over other peoples heads. I never had any such experiences. I can't assert that those people didn't have the experiences they report but I can tell you that from my own personal experience I have never experienced anything 'mystical' and so I must remain open to the possibility but sceptical.
I just think that Nydahl uses people's willingness to believe and plays on that. Then people report these experiences and others who wish to believe then join in the experience. It's a little how spiritualists work. Even when people explain how 'talking to dead relatives' works they still refuse to give up on the hope that it's possible.
But, as I said, this is just my opinion.
Steve
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