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karam-mudra
That is tibetan superstition. I prefer other diagnoses.

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karam-mudra
He was one of the most important teacher of Nydahl, he and Tenga gave him introduction into the Tantras. They intuitivly saw how he can be made addict to TB. By the sexual promises of the Tantras. That is the core of his connection to them.

How is someone recognised as liberated in TB? Only by an also liberated person (what you and me are saying does not count, not for Sharmapa, not for Karmapa). And that happened between Kalu and Nydahl. Here is to say the state of liberation is communicated between teacher and student in a very special way, which has to do with their altered state of mind in liberation.

I want to come to my point: liberation is just annother state of mind. It has nothing to do with an ethical behavier. It is just a state of mind and neither to be adored nor to be worth striving for. That´s my result of demystification TB. I cannot and do not want to say something about the concept of liberation in other forms of Buddhism here.

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Europe |

1) loonwatch.com... of the grassroots groups in Germany are often called 'autonomous nationalists',
...... The organisation is called Diamond Way and is headed by a Dane named ...
[www.loonwatch.com] - 681k - Cached - Similar pages


2) BROWN BOOK 2010Buddhist leader of the Diamond Way (Karma Kagyu), advertising a meditation .....
of Poland (NOP), Autonomous Nationalists, White Eagles and. Nationalist ...
ksiega.nigdywiecej.org/BROWN_BOOK_2010.pdf - - Cached - Similar pages


3) INFORMATION ON THE ISSUE OF EXTREMISM IN THE CZECH ...... to a demonstration carried out by the Autonomous Nationalists of Central ......
Diamond Way – Kagjü line, Vishva Nirmala Dharma, the Russian Orthodox ...
www.mvcr.cz/.../information-on-the-issue-of-extremism-in-the-czech- republic-in-2007-pdf.aspx - - Cached - Similar pages

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Brown Book 2010 is a register of racist and xenophobic incidents as
well as neo-fascist crimes.

This monitoring project has been carried
out by the East Europe Monitoring Centre and the anti-fascist “NEVER
AGAIN” magazine suppotred by the “Remembrance, Responsibility, Future”
Foundation (Stiftung “Erinnerung,, Verantwortung und Zukunft”) within the
scheme of the “Monitoring Hate Crimes in Poland” project.

Coordinator of the East Europe Monitoring Centre:Rafa³ Pankowski, PhD

Coordinator of the “Monitoring Hate Crimes in Poland” project:Marcin Kornak, Krzysztof Jarymowicz (cooperation)

Editor:
Anna Tatar

Translated by:
Anna Gutk
owska, Katarzyna Kasprzyk, Andrzej
Michalak, Pawe³ Wiewióra, Marcin Starnawski
--
WARSZAWA. On March 28th, Al Jazeera’s Polish correspondent, Adam Khan, was attacked by several persons – opponents of the construction of a mosque and Muslim Cultural Centre, located near Zes³añców Syberyjskich roundabout.

The journalist was attacked while taking pictures. “I am a Polish citizen and a Mus-
lim”, shouted the assaulted journalist. “I am also against terrorism but this protest leads to hatred only”.

About two hundred people, mobilized by the demonstration organizer, the Future Europe
Association (Stowarzyszenie Europa Przysz³oœci), protested against the construction of the mosque. Jan Wójcik, the representative of the association, suggested that the Muslim League in Poland, the main construction developer, should sign the Charter of Agree-ment with Muslim People, which would establish the authenti-city of loyalty declarations.

The Muslims would declare that they respect “all civilizations, cultures, and traditions of other nations”, they would fight with terrorism, but recognize some Koran verses
as being “unislamic”, and they would allow “sermons preached in the mosque to be observed and monitored”.

Around March 21st, the Future Europe Association distributed posters throughout
the city, which called for an anti-mosque demonstration and included a slogan “Stop! To building radicals’ mosque in War-saw”.

Next to them, there hung posters with lama Oleg Nydahl, Buddhist leader of the Diamond Way (Karma Kagyu), advertising a meditation course titled “Lama, Jidam, Guardians”.

It was not a coincidence – Jan Wójcik was a member of Karma Kagyu Buddhist Association Board, and Nydahl himself was notorious for his racist beliefs, especially islamophobic ones.

He once claimed that “Muslims are filthy and terrifying”. During the ant-mosque
rally, apart from the Future Europe Association, there were also protesters from All-Polish Youth.

A few dozen of anti-racists gathered on the site to show their counter-protest under the slogan “No for islamophobia”. After the nationalist rally, on the fence
around the construction site some racist slogans were sprayed:

“Islams [sic!] to Iceland”, “Stop islamisation”, “Polonia Ante-murale Christianitas” (Latin: Poland is a bulwark of Chistianity)

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Indeed, the Polish journalist Robert Stefanicki reportsreports that Europe of the Future is headed by the former president of of Nydahl's organisation in Poland. Stefanicki adds: "Other supporters of Europe of the Future are Mlodziez Wszechpolska (All-Polish Youths) – ultra right group with hardly hidden fascist attraction, as well as other islamophobic right wingers. Weird coalition, isn't it?"

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where there Today in Warsaw we had a pocket-size demonstration against construction of a new mosque, only 2nd in capital and 5th in Poland for our approximately 15,000-30,000 Muslims.

Protests are led by previously unknown group Europe of the Future. It is headed by the former president of Karma Kagyu Buddhist Association – for those readers not familiar with divisions inside Western Buddhism: they are faithful to Ole Nydahl, teacher from Denmark, controversial but very influential in all Europe. Lama Ole is known of his racist views; questioned what would be greatest disaster for him, says:

[www.wweek.com]

“Islam in Europe”, and “Muslims do not behave in civilized way” in his opinion. According to visual artist Joanna Rajkowska, who wrote interesting commentary about it, this view is prevalent among his followers in Poland.

Other supporters of Europe of the Future are Mlodziez Wszechpolska (All-Polish Youths) – ultra right group with hardly hidden fascist attraction, as well as other islamophobic right wingers. Weird coalition, isn’t it? Well, this is Poland. Our right wing parties support Palestinians because they don’t like Israel (and, you know, there are Jews in Israel) and at the same time demonstrate against a mosque.

What is consoling – and somehow surprising – more people in Poland are in favor of the mosque than against. Public opinion poll in today’s “Gazeta Wyborcza” says that 48 % respondents said “yes” to the rough question: “Would you agree to the construction of a mosque with minaret in your neighborhood?”. “No” said 42 %. At least we are not Swiss, yet

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November 25th, 2008 By Matt Graham | News | Posted In: CLEAN UP
Lama Ole Nydahl, Controversial, Unconventional Lama, Speaks Tonight
1 Comments

Tags:
ole_HH_w2243bu_rPC
Have you seen those fliers resting in storefront windows and hanging from light poles all over town with the headline, "Buddhism in the 21st Century"? They are advertising a talk tonight at the Winningstad Theatre by Lama Ole Nydahl , the former drug dealer and street boxer from Denmark who now travels the globe lecturing on his unique, Western brand of Tibetan Buddhism , the "Diamond Way ."

binary code blue energy

As you might expect from somebody with such a rough and tumble past, Nydahl has his share of detractors. Some Buddhists are turned off by his skydiving, openly sexual, rockstar personality, in many ways the opposite of the common image of the Buddhist as a monk who stays above the sins of the world by retreating from them the meditate his life away in a temple. Others can forgive him the sex and motorcycles, but simply find his remarks about Islam to be xenophobic. But it's not like everybody's an enemy: you don't found 600 Diamond Way centers around the world without a devoted following.

Speaking with him, it's easy to understand why people flock to the Lama. He projects a kind of warm equanimity and, even over the phone, there is a palpable charisma . He comes across as a friendly person who does really care for the person he's talking to. Perhaps this makes him the head of a cult of personality . But then, what religious (or secular) leader is there who can avoid that charge? Does anybody remember John McCain's Obama-is-a- Celebrity ad ? It's not like the 67-year-old Nydahl hasn't done the work: he and his deceased wife Hannah studied for years in Tibet under the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpei Dorje .

What follows is a Q&A WW conducted last week with Nydahl, who was in Hawaii working on a new book.

Q: Why Buddhism? What about it called you?

It's all very natural to me. I think this is something I promised to do in the last life... Already as a small child, I was dreaming about protecting civilian populations in parts of the Eastern Himalayas which I saw, my wife and I later saw when we traveled secretly through that part. It was very interesting.

I had all these dreams about men an women in red skirts and protecting them, and painted mountains, which we don't have in Denmark, and all kinds of things... My wife and I, on our honeymoon, met some of the finest Tibetan meditation teachers and spent between three and four years with them in the Himalayas. And the in '72 we were asked to go home and see if our friends wanted to do meditation.

Why has Buddhism seen such an explosion in the West?

Well it's free. It doesn't tell you what to do, it just tells you to develop your potential. Buddha doesn't judge. He's a friend, giving advice, and that makes it easy for a lot of people to accept what he says. And you can experience it, you get methods, you don't just get words, you get methods. You can do meditations and you can feel that you don't just get older, but also wiser, which is also very nice.

And the Christians can't complain. For every five people in the East—in China and Japan and Korea, places like that—who become Christians, there's probably one who really decides to go the Buddhist way in the West. In both cases it's the same, though. [Christianity] got a bit too institutionalized, not so much feeling and experience anymore. And in the East, Buddhism got too stiff and ritualistic and nobody could understand anything in the end. People don't know what's going on. They see some monks and they're shuffling here and there in some very well-kept beautiful old places, but they've got no idea what's going on.

Buddhism has a very big weakness with that, because, when you have a religion that's watertight (and based on direct, mystical experience), and there's nothing there to believe, you just have to study more and you see...if you have something like that, well you meet with a few friends and talk some high spiritual things and enjoy that and wish everybody happiness. But if you have a religion that's a bit like a Swiss cheese, logically, where you have to believe a lot of things because you can't know them, then you try to convince others in order to convince yourself, especially if you have a terrible god like Allah making you do criminal things. Of course you have to make everybody agree, because otherwise you look bad. So that's more or less how it is.

It's difficult to be solid, you know, in philosophy because you forget about the ordinary guys. Actually, Buddhism in India was destroyed through two or three Arab invasions a thousand years ago. They killed all the people who could read or write and the rest became superstitious.

In your view, is there a redeeming value within the Abrahamic religions?

The Abrahamic religions, the ones that follow our constitution, treat women well, don't blow up people, you know, who are not involved in their problems...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. They want you to believe just because it's said, and you should not have any proof.

What other global issues concern you

Overpopulation. It is destroying the variety and multiplicity of different kinds of life which makes our world so rich.

What role can Buddhism play in fixing these problems? A criticism that has been leveled against the religion is that it can be a bit withdrawn.

Navel observing, and nothing else [laughs ]? I think we do have a role. Buddhists are non-political. Any political idea one has, is not because of Buddhism. It's one's responsibility as a citizen. We do not get involved as Buddhists in political things, but we do, as members of society, act as protectors of our constitutions and women's freedom and stuff like that.

How does one divorce those beliefs? Can a person really hold religious and political ideas separately without the one contaminating the other? Can you take a stance as a moral agent, and then claim you're not being political?

I know, it isn't easy, but we always say that. We always say that. Of course, you cannot divide your mind, you know, but it's just...Buddhism has no official politics. But Buddhists, right, they have their own politics. I can tell you for instance that I was asked to give statements about the war in Georgia, right? And I just had to say, even though they were possible donors and several good friends, I just had to say, "I'm sorry, I wasn't there, I didn't see it," you know? And if Buddhism gets involved with Buddhist statements to political things, it just doesn't work.

Even in America also, I think some of our young people were a bit too boisterous [about the presidential election].

What is a typical day like for you? How much time do you spend in meditation?

Actually, I do some practices in the morning where you sort of slide out to your full length and open up to your Buddha Nature. That's one thing I do and then I guide, usually in lectures every night, I guide the meditation also there. But the rest of the time, I sort of am in meditation because my mind doesn't change, because I've meditated 40 years and I've also had all kinds of little things in my head when I was meditating, proving that some unusual things happen there when I meditate. So I would say, actually, the reason I can be so effective, working as much as I am, sleeping as little as I do, is actually that I am sort of in meditation all the time.

What does that mean? Is there a certain awareness that you carry around with you all the time?

It means you are that which is between and behind the thoughts, and which is aware of the thoughts. You are the mirror behind the pictures, the ocean underneath the waves. The awareness which knows and understands what's going on. That is what one is.

What is your goal going forward?

I am doing what my teachers told me to do. I'm not making my own agendas or anything. The 16th Karmapa told me exactly what I should do. When my wife died sitting in meditation in my arms about a year-and-a-half ago, then I continued on by myself. I talked to the 17th Karmapa, and he said "Please, go on. Please, go on." And I continued, because I think I'm youthful.

How many schools do you have?

We have about 600 now, worldwide. Nothing in Africa because...well, they're probably not in an abstract mindset right now. And then also, none in the Muslim countries where people can be killed by leaving Islam, and so on. But except for that, North and South America, Oceania, Eurasia of course, above all, from Scotland through Vladivostok and a little bit in Japan, also.

Doesn't it become hard to have personal relationships with the students when you have so many?

Yes. We have been saved, actually. Science is our best friend, you know. We would not have been able to make Russians and Australians meditate the same way, you know, it we didn't have streaming. I'm on streaming nearly...not quite when I go to the toilet, but everywhere else (laughs ). There's so much happening with streaming. Every lecture, and it's around the world. It's so important, it's so important to keep everybody up and going.

Bonus: Here are some videos of Lama Ole speaking to his students:

First topic: Karma

[youtube lFn-CjT39xA]

The "Mahamudra"

[youtube FCotuy5Y8u8]

And Meditation

[youtube 35W67OwhEck]

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Dear Rebecca,my comment about a "rigid set of rules" I made because of some findings on the Diamond Way-Website (I copied it out this morning to have it in english).

A while back I wrote a long readers letter (in german) to a german buddhist magazine about the practiced style on this Website (because in the german "Lotusblätter" they had also a discussion about Ole and his group).

Quote from "Subscription to DWBN"

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"You can only subscribe with our internal organization when you trust in the 17th Karmapa Thaye Dorje and Lama Ole Nydahl. This will be checked by personal reference. ...

"Notice: We only register people we can trust and take the freedom to reject or cancel a membership without notice.

Which center do you visit:Please name two peoplewho can recommend you:

End of Quote

SB writes:

Why this, I ask. Why is it not simply enough to have genuine respect in buddhist values to be member of a buddhist site?

This sounds as if Diamond Way is not a buddhist organisation but merely a club to support Thaye Dorje Rinpoche and Ole.

Exchange of buddhist nature is second important.And I'm quite sure this is not common style.

For example I'm a member in a Kagyu-Newsgroup related to the Karmapa, Urgyen Thrinley Dorje. There are members also like Henrik Clausen and they can say their opinion without being thrown out without further notice.

Under point 4 ("Limitations") of the rules you have to observe if you are a member of the Online Community you can read the following:Begin of Quote:

4

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. LIMITATIONSForbidden under any circumstances are: advertising and selling of products, slander or criticism of any of our teachers. Also forbidden is spamming with third party information. End of Quote

Its just one more example of the mental attitude towards western values that slander and criticism is obviously on the same level.

And "spamming" with third party information? Man, must they be afraid that their little universe crumbles if people get contact to the outside world.They create a trustmark for people, they tell you the benefit of self-censorship

(Quote: "Why is self-regulation of the spiritual path so important?") and they provide you with a grateful letter of a follower

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(Quote:"As a new Karma Kagyu Buddhist I found it wonderful to have your website for sorting things out and there was everything I wanted to know!").

Rebecca, I ask you earnest (and without any hidden intention behind my words) how it is possible that a western person can support such a system by observing their rules and being a member ot their services?


Date: 2000/04/03
Subject: Re: Lama Ole Nydahl in Nederland
Print | Individual message | Show original | Report this message | Find messages by this author
In article <38E89D3F.76AC7...@myself.com>,
Henrik =?iso-8859-1?Q?R=E6der?= Clausen <henr...@myself.com> wrote:

- Show quoted text -

misinterpretations and
> unfounded speculation.


henrik, i shall go review that debate, as i have yet to have seen
anywhere any real "defense" and clarification from ole or his students
regarding the statements in question. thank you for pointing me to
something that may fit that description.

and thank you for being willing to deal head-on with the issues raised;
we may well maintain different opinions, but your civility and your
openness to discussion is refreshing.

> > no, i have not had the opportunity to meet him in person, so i have
not
> > had an opportunity to ask him to explain.
> He'd probably rather talk Buddhism :)

as would most of us; i take no delight in concluding (absent any
persuasive rebuttal as of yet) that a lama is preaching intolerance.

> > put your reasoning and your "data" and your "homework" where your
mouth
> > is, rebecca, and demonstrate why we are just sooooooooo wrong to
read
> > ole's statements as racist.

> All beings have the Buddha nature. Buddhist can't be racist, but will
wish
> the best for all beings. But somethings people will foresee trouble
in the
> future and look for a remedy - like noone is dealing with
overpopulation, and
> that's badly urgent for us all.

if those were only the things being discussed, of course, there is no
problem. it is the blanket stereotyping and generalising that is so
disturbing, and the repeating of the very nationalist myths that have
led to ethnic strife, and the consistent tone of fear of "the other".
ole appears to place blame for ethnic strife on those from "hot lands"
etc. who move north and "outbreed", rather than on the skinheads and
milosevicites and other hatemongers who act out in violence their
hatred against newcomers. this runs counter to dharma as i have been
taught it, anyway.
should the indians have refused to receive tibetans onto their
territory?!

> > >Your flame button is stuck on, Chino.
> > if that is how you wish to perceive it, i can live with that -- and
> > it's still far better than just keeping my head stuck resolutely
into
> > the sand, as you appear to do, rebecca.
> > >
Henrik's right. This thread has degenerated. I'm done.

> > how very convenient.

> Heh. With friends like these, who'd need enemies?
what would you think about the following project, henrik?:

it has occurred to me to start a website which would post:
(a) the controversial statements by ole, in both the original language and in
german or english translation, as appropriate;

(b) the full text from which each statement came;

(c) a close analysis of the statement by those who view it as racist, explaining why they view it as such; and

(d) the same from those view it as not being racist, explaining why
they view it as such.

(the site would not address the karmapa issue or karma kagyu internal matters, nor would it address issues of ole's authorisation to teach or claim this or that lineage or anything of such nature -- it would focus only on equal-time treatment of the
allegations of racism and such.)

that way, practitioners can decide for themselves, with adequate
information.

what do you think of this idea?
cheers,
chino