Back to topic!

When I was started to be used as a secret consort in 2005, without any idea, what happened to me, there was only a mail from another victim, she was abused by Sogyal Ringpoche in the same way, I found on the website of the Trimondis -"The Shadow of the Dalai Lama"- with a commentary from them which saved my mind, saved my live. That was in the middle of 2005. I broke at once with Nydahl. A time of deep suffering began because I still was in the state of an opened kundalini or, how the Tibetan say, in the Bardo-state with its powerful physical and psychic emanations. The result was a Posttraumatic-Stress-Syndrom.

From Nydahls view he lost his face because he cannot control me anymore like he could for about a half year. You should know that the lamas have to conquer their secret consorts in a way that those should be Dharma protectors after beeing ritual misabused. I am definitly not.

I would like to introduce you in a discussion I had on a blog, B is me:

A.
What Nydahl found in Tantric Buddhism was not only license to freely indulge his sexual addiction, but as a bonus, a fancy sex technique, courtesy of the 16th Karmapa who provided him and his wife with private instruction! Shamar Rinpoche, who was in his teens and in the Karmapa's company when the Nydahl couple were in Sikkim, says the tradition is not about sex, it has been misrepresented in the West, there's a strong spiritual component that has been ignored. Shamar should address his concerns to his own colleagues, if that's the case. Many of the women students of Tibetan Buddhism who have been used, abused, even raped, and discarded by their lamas testify that it's about sex. Nydahl doesn't only brainwash his followers; according to reports of former followers, he uses hypnosis. Former disciples of Tibetan lamas also report the use of hypnosis against them. As can be ascertained elsewhere on this blog, some of the Hindu yogis used hypnosis to gain sexual access to disciples, and to keep disgruntled sheep in the fold. Sex between gurus and students, as the journalist quoted in this post says in the full article, is predatory. Telling students they must revere the guru as the Buddha's representative, that if they're good students, they'll be privy to special secrets and will be privileged to participate in secret sacred rituals is a form of grooming the intended victim for sex. Such a breach of power and trust is also illegal. If Sogyal could be taken to court and forced to pay a hefty settlement to one victim (or possibly more: details of the case are sealed), Nydahl and many other lechers and sex addicts masquerading as gurus can also be brought to justice. It's high time that justice be served, and these predators be put out of commission.
September 15, 2011 12:40 PM


B.
Tantric Masters

I was a devotee of Nydahl and Karmapa Trinley Taye Dorje from 2002 to 2005 and all it`s written in the article above is right, only the followers avoid the elephant in the room. But what is said in the comment, only some black sheep like Ole Nydahl and Sogyal are acting sexual abuse is terribly wrong, the abuse of women`s sexual-and energetic qualities is an inherent phanomenon of tantric-tibetan Lamaism and the main source of the tantric master`s power. And of course the main component is not sex like we suggest, but the absorption of female secrets in which the energies of women are suspected, by sexual- and other rituals. Nydahl practices exactly that. Very spiritual, indeed! Did Sharmapa ever said something about? No.

Here one quote from a hidden Tantra by Tsongkhapa,said in the Extended Treatise on the Progression of the Esoteric Path, Vol. 13: “Someone who ask the teacher for empowerment should make offerings first. A curtain is used as a screen. The disciple understands very well that the teacher is vajrasattva. Wisdom mothers with complete samaya, whose genitals are healthy and who are virgins over the age of 12 etc., are offered to the teacher. Just like the statement in the second chapter of Sutra on Great-Seals: “One should choose females who are most wise, virtuous, with slender eyes, having a wondrous dignified face, and aged from 12 to 16, or 20 if difficult to obtain. Females over 20 are used in other seals (mudra) because it will make all the stages of practice impossible to attain. One’s sisters, daughters, or wife are offered to the teacher.” (Tsongkhapa, Extended Treatise on the Progression of the Esoteric Path)

I am such a woman who was abused as consort in the kalachakra-tantra through Ole Nydahl and Karmapa Trinle Thaye Dorje. You ask for moral? There is none. Women are just material for reaching the so called enlightment. No relationship, no love, no friendship counts. They are psychopaths, without empathy. With a warm heart and a human ethic you are not able to practice these tantras. Therefore it is important - so it is written in the ninth chapter of the Kalashakra- Tantra - to open the kundalini of the consorts, in which state you loose your warm feelings, your empathy for yourselfe and others as well as your former personality . And the whole guru-yoga brainwashing attends the rest.

When I saw Nydahl in Poland 2005 after he had opened my kundalini, he offered me to his teacher by making the offering-mudra while he was looking at me, crying many tears and counting his teacher`s blessings, what he was saying.
Later, at home, I had such strong visions in which I had to have sex with the young karmapa! I was crying and saying: I cannot do that. The imagination was so strong! It felt like to be raped. Even when I am writing about I am unable to breath.

So what can we find in the hidden and secret life of a tantric master like Nydahl is?
First is to say that he has like all other tantric masters an opened kundalini and an altered state of consciousness which shows a lack of core-personality and dissociations in his mind. That makes him behave freakishly as yogis do. That is what the devotees adore as spontanous behavier.

His motivation of sexual intercourses is not individual passion, love or personal affectations, but the fulfilment of the tantric samays he did. He is
OBLIGATED hence to have sex every day. Through that his siddhis are growing up because of the suction of female secretion. This is the real abuse! Even if women would be in love with Nydahl, he is never. Where should his love grow from? There is no path to his personality anymore!

The whole is called the left-handed tantra were the adept get the promise being able to have sex with every person he wants to. So you cannot say "No" to a tantric master like I did without being cursed and charmed in special rituals, the source of black magic and voodoo in Tibetan Buddhism.

As I wrote a few days ago: In my case Ole Nydahl and his Karmapa have a photo, they have my hair and they have pieces of my clothes. But they cannot harm me anymore because I do not believe in black magic, I do not believe in any method of voodoo. This is nothing else than self-hypnosis, it works only in your soul. And there it works. In my lecture about the emerging of a multiple personality by the abuse of trance-and hypnosis-methods in Tibetan Buddhism I analysed the way how phenomena are growing up in ones mind. They have nothing to do with ghosts, they are just mental phenomena in your own mind which can harm you very badly. That is my result. I think that view very helpful and full of freedom, which is one of my highest value.

They made me their consort. They made me equal to them. And now I know all their secrets from inside. And I speak out!

Today my mind is strong and I can mercifully balance the phenomena of an opened kundalini and got my life back. That was a hard work!



A:
We need more personal testimony from people who have been harmed by Tantric practices and teachers. Thank you, Marte Riepe, for sharing your experience. The public, and students of Tibetan Buddhism need to understand that the abuse problem is not a matter of a few unethical or ego-driven teachers; Nydahl, Sogyal, Trungpa and the many others like them are not exceptional cases. As Ms. Riepe said, abuse of women and girls (and abuse of boys in the monasteries) is systemic. Abuse of women and girls is inherent in the fundamental nature of Tantric Buddhism. The Tantric rituals, in fact, require it, and give instructions on how to make an unwilling "consort" compliant with alcohol. If the alcohol doesn't have the desired effect, rape is recommended. This is in the instructions for the Kalachakra, the Hevajra, and other tantras.

P.S. Marte--Shamar Rinpoche used to have letters on his website that he wrote denouncing Ole Nydahl and the way he turned the Kagyu tradition into a sex cult. He was forced to remove those letters when Nydahl threatened him with legal action. Shamar has founded a network of Bodhi Path Centers around the world that teach basic Buddhism and the bodhisattva way, without Vajrayana (tantra). He believes teaching tantra was a mistake, and states on his website that tantra is not appropriate for the current era and conditions in the world. (see www.shamarpa.org in the "Statements" section, under "Why Bodhi Path Centers don't teach Vajrayana")

You find the letter here:
[marte-micaela-riepe.blogspot.com]


B:
Dear Anonymous, thank you for your reply, I am delighted at your view which substantiates my experiences.
Just two things to say:
1. Shouldn`t we communicate accessible? With our names or given names? My read is you to be a buddhist and follower of Sharmapa.
2. I noticed those two positions of Sharmapa according to Ole Nydahl and the tantra teachings on his website. It is a great pity that the first one has been removed by being threatened with legal action through honeybaby Ole Nydahl. We should never allow to be susceptible to blackmail. I respect Sharmapas recurrence to Buddhas teachings as well as his actions in the Bodhi Path Centers. But how can he work together with Karmapa and his brother Jigme Ringpoche, who are real tantric masters? And why is he not beside the victims, why does he not speak out pudency about the abuse of so many, in the past and now? Why does he not ask all these for forgiveness? Because of he is Sharmapa. Because he is just living in his tradition of a so called high incarnation. And there is no way out. My best wishes to you!

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“One should choose females who are most wise, virtuous, with slender eyes, having a wondrous dignified face, and aged from 12 to 16, or 20 if difficult to obtain. Females over 20 are used in other seals (mudra) because it will make all the stages of practice impossible to attain. One’s sisters, daughters, or wife are offered to the teacher.” (Tsongkhapa, Extended Treatise on the Progression of the Esoteric Path)

For purposes of comparison, here is what Sarah Caldwell, a scholar of Sanskrit learned when studying a tantric treatise written by Abvinagupta, a medieval Hindu tantrist.

Caldwell had been in the Siddha Yoga ashram led by Baba Muktananda, another guru who pretended to teach celibacy and hatha yoga, but who secretly taught taught and used sexual tantra. Caldwell learned in her later studies that this dissimulation was part of the old tradition.

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Since joining the ashram tour in 1978 in Oakland, California, at the ripe age of 21, I had completely and enthusiastically abandoned such pleasures, as Baba had instructed us to do. Baba’s book, Ashram Dharma, which was distributed to every newcomer to the Ganeshpuri ashram, clearly described what was proscribed: sex, drugs, meat, liquor, gossip. I had been celibate for five years, living in separate quarters from my husband in the ashram, a major factor in the eventual dissolution of my marriage (performed by Baba in 1979 in South Fallsburg). In my understanding and Baba’s unequivocal teaching, sex had no place whatsoever in spiritual life

and

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In his book, The Perfect Relationship, Baba had stated unequivocally: “

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The Guru should possess every virtue…. He cannot be a true Guru if he engages in business, in different material pursuits or therapies…or if he indulges in sense pleasures. A disciple who discovers such behavior in a guru can only benefit by considering him a worm of bad conduct and rejecting him.”

Then, some years later, Muktananda advised students to read a treatise by Abvinagupta and Caldwell was confused that this book recommended by the guru contained details about rites and rituals which ran opposite to what the Ashram Dharma manual stated.

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But as I started to read further in the thick red volume about Abhinavagupta and the Kaula practices, I was taken aback. Sitting in my dorm room in the Ganeshpuri ashram in India, in the hour of sultry afternoon stillness between morning and afternoon work sessions chopping vegetables in the kitchen, I eagerly fingered page after page describing in detail the secret sexual rites of the Kaula Tantra, the drinking of wine, eating of meat, and sexual intercourse.

What then was this mystico-erotic ritual, in which the genitals of a girl were worshipped, touched, and honored, her menstrual fluids ingested, along with wine, fish, grain, and meat? I was utterly confounded.

Now, compare the Tsongkapa passage quoted above with Abvinagupta's description of the perfect Duti or consort.

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One passage that especially caught my eye was Abhinavagupta’s description of the perfect Duti (literally, “Messenger”), the ideal sexual partner for the Tantric rites: A D¨ti, necessary in the performance of the secret ritual, is to be a woman who can personify Çakti;

has the eyes, rolling with intoxication;
lips red like the ripe fruit of Bimba;
beautiful teeth; face with well knit eyebrows;
eyes, beautiful like those of a fawn in fear; (Corboy--how about 'eyes splendid like a leaping Tiger? Eyes like a fawn in fear--thats a woman who can be easily dominated by the male)
charming smile;
hair, dark like a multitude of glittering black bees;
eye-brows, bent like the bow of cupid;
complexion similar to that of melted gold;
ears, decked with earornaments, beautifully engraved….

The passage went on to enumerate the beauty of such a Duti’s neck, rising breasts, arms, fingers, thighs, abdomen, hips, ankles, voice, and face, in the
“head to foot” praise genre found in such poems as the Saundaryalahari (Ocean of Beauty, a hymn of praise to the goddess Tripurasundari).

However, I had at that time never heard of such a genre, nor had I ever read anything quite like this erotic wish-list.

The passage went on to mention that the mind of such a partner should be fully enlightened, “continually experiencing the pure bliss of identification with [God].”

While her physical attributes are desirable, the “exponents of Kaulism had realised that such a woman is extremely difficult to find,”and thus had placed their emphasis on the woman’s mental qualities and capacities for enlightenment by means of the secret Kaula ritual

(Corboy--this is a description of a young woman in a state of emotional arousal--the 'eyes rolling in intoxication' -- that runs counter to the equanimity which Buddhism understands as one of the Four Foundations of Wisdom.

A young lady is very unlikely to have had the years needed to learn and study texts, the intricacies of Sanskrit and its complex philosophies and dialectics, whether Mahayana or Hindu.

What are the odds of a lady having the intellect of a scholar, the attainments of a meditation master and being young and stunningly gorgeous--and blissed out?

If mental attainments are so important, why give the Playboy Bunny qualifications at all?

Why not just list the mental and scholastic attainments of the woman who is to be one's practice partner? More would be available.

Rumors began about Muktananda's violations of his own stated rules. Caldwell then describes an attempt at damage control.

Readers are invited to see the similarities between Hindu guilt tripping and devotional denial and Tibetan Buddhist rhetoric of devotional denial.

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Then, one afternoon, a trustee of the ashram, Mr. Pratap Yande, who had been Baba’s devotee for twenty years, gave a remarkable talk at Baba’s request, as Baba sat listening with a bemused smile on his face.

Mr. Yande told us that Baba had given him a great teaching about our tendency to find fault everywhere: “And today Baba said to us, ‘All of you live with that duality in your eyes. You have the tendency of fault-finding, and then when you go to great saints you start finding faults in them also.’ You start seeing your own faults in them.”

Then, as Caldwell read further she learned there were different levels of practice.

Readers are invited to see the similarities to the different levels of Tibetan practices culminating in Vajrayana. At the beginning when Caldwell had joined the ashram (and she tells us she had suffered a background of abuse at home and had dropped out of Yale University and found a welcome purity at the ashram, she and others were told via the Ashram Manual that the practice was about Hatha Yoga and celibacy and purity.

But that was in the years before Muktananda mentioned Abvinagupta and his book. Here is what Caldwell learned from the book

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I happened upon an important passage which outlined the qualifications necessary for its performance:

Only those great souls—who have grasped the Ultimate…who have attained such a perfection in the Råjayoga…that they can detach their minds, at any stage, from the most stimulating sensuous situation and can, by sheer force of will…be at one with the Highest Subject—are recognised to be qualified for the performance of the secret Kaula ritual….

The text clearly delineates three different sadhanas (spiritual paths) for different seekers, suitable to their natures and spiritual maturity, and proscribes the esoteric Kaula rituals to all but heroic masters of yoga.

The three paths that are delineated, each matching the innate spiritual personalities of different types of seekers, seemed to me to correspond to three distinct periods of Baba’s teaching.

1)First, in the early to mid1970s Baba had emphasized a Vedantic sadhana, identified by Abhinavagupta as suitable for those of tamasic, or impure, nature and dull mind. This included the routines of self-discipline, celibacy, vegetarianism, daily chanting, hard physical labor, service, and meditation, that characterized the ashram schedule.

2)In the late 1970s to 1980, Baba introduced Kashmir Shaivism as his major teaching, encouraging his serious disciples to study such scriptures as the Shiva Sutras, Vijnanabhairava, and Pratyabhinahridayam, and including these in ashram teacher training courses. This was the sadhana identified by Abhinavagupta as suitable to those of elevated mind and pure, sattvic nature.

The large numbers of renunciants (given the title swami, lord) whom Baba initiated into the Saraswati order of sannyasa were the ostensible leaders of this group, lecturing on different Kashmir Shaiva scriptures in courses and public programs.

3)But now, in his final months, Baba seemed to be pulling off the veil and revealing an inner core of pure Shaktism. Abhinavagupta identified this form of practice as suitable only for viras, hero-warriors who had complete mastery of their senses and bodies.

4)A fourth category, the Paramahamsa Siddha, the perfected master, was said to have risen above the other three categories.

**He was therefore free to engage in any form of practice he chose, since none of them could have any effect on his completely liberated consciousness

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Do note the proximity of Kashmir to Tibet. Ditto for Swat/Chitra/Uddiyana where Padmasambhava came from.

And, Caldwell tells us Muktananda seemed to like warrior toys and behaviors.

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On reading this passage, I assumed that Baba was in the latter category, but that due to karmic impressions of former lives, he was attracted to the vira practice of the Shakta rituals.

After all, he had always liked strong, heroic, passionate people, and seemed to relish working with violent, difficult devotees.

At times, Baba claimed he had been a warrior and a king in his past lives, and that this explained the regal splendor in which he now lived as a guru. It was said that he advised his closest devotees to study Kautilya’s Artha Shastra to learn the proper way to manage people. He kept rottweilers and pit bulls as guard dogs, trained to attack by the more aggressive male devotees in the ashram. (I very narrowly escaped injury by Baba’s rottweiler one day while doing some gardening in his backyard.) He said he had karma with such people and animals; they needed to be very close to him to stay under control.

Pictures of Baba and stories from his earlier days portrayed the guru with a heavy stick in his hand, which he readily used to correct the errors of ashramites. At the core, Baba was not a gentle guru. My picture of Muktananda as a Tantric hero was rounding out

and

(warning this can be disturbing reading)

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Perhaps Baba had begun his sexual practices as a means of revivifying himself. This is the interpretation, at any rate, of at least one devotee who attended another extraordinary ritual during the summer of 1982 in Ganeshpuri: the nighttime shaktipat performed by Baba in the small meditation hall adjoining his house. As Karen Schaefer, who had been initiated by Baba as a swami, recalls: [Baba] was also almost obsessed with giving shaktipat every evening to the people (mostly women) who gathered in the meditation room. He was dallying with the young girls during those sessions. I went in there once, and felt it was not appropriate for me to be there, as Baba had given me so much during my years with him, it seemed indecent to want 23 Nova Religio anything more from him. The longing for shaktipat—liberation, mumukshutva, was palpable in the room, and I believe that was what Baba was responding to. I always saw that he wanted to give shaktipat to as many people as possible, to liberate them from their suffering, and the compulsion to draw the energy from the young girls to sustain that activity came from that motivation. The energy of the girls was the means he could use to fulfill his dharma, to those people who were asking for initiation.23 Such a theory complements the aims of Kaula sexual rites, in which males empower themselves through absorption of divine power located in the sexual fluids of human females: “In Kaulism, it was via this flow of the ‘clan fluid’ (kuladravya) through the wombs of Yogin⁄s that the male practitioner was empowered to return to and identify himself with the godhead.”24 The means for absorbing this magical fluid was through drinking the emissions via the mouth or absorbing them back through the head of the penis in vajroli mudra, urethral suction, as described by Mr. Yande. We believed that Baba had already attained jivanmukta, a fully enlightened state of consciousness. Was this act for pleasure? From the published descriptions of these encounters, which described rather matter-of-fact penetration of supine girls without erection or ejaculation, it certainly did not sound that way.25 It was for extracting power from these young women so that he could live. He was living off their energy, sucking them dry. Although I never attended these nighttime ecstatic meditations and was unaware of the goings-on during them, I recently interviewed one of the women who did participate (I will call her Shraddha, a pseudonym, at her request). Shraddha described in detail to me the feeling of utterly overwhelming and ecstatic love she experienced during those sessions, which did translate into physical expression between herself and Baba. He frequently took her into his house during the sessions to engage in lovemaking, which she experienced as “completely beyond the body” and having “absolutely nothing to do with sex” as we understand it. Baba also tried to explain to Shraddha the Tantric meaning of their activities, animatedly pulling books off the shelves of his library, but she could not understand his broken English.26 Not all the young women involved in secret sexual encounters with Muktananda report such ecstatic experiences. A few years ago, I spoke with one of the girls closest to Baba, who was initiated into his sexual rituals as a virgin at the age of 16. She described it as not very exciting or interesting, and as being very strange. He had no erection. His eyes turned up in his head during the act, in seeming ecstasy, but with little passion. What was he doing? He claimed to be bestowing Tantric initiation, although he did not explain any further what that consisted of, only rewarded her with gifts and trinkets and swore her to secrecy. She 24 Caldwell: The Heart of the Secret didn’t seem to get much out of it, nor did it disturb her greatly. But she shared that many of the other girls involved in Baba’s nightly sexual practices seemed to have been deeply addicted to the attention and excitement of being singled out; others were horrified by what seemed to them to be cold, clinical sexual encounters devoid of emotional or spiritual meaning; and some, as reported by Rodarmor, were deeply and permanently traumatized by their experiences.

Despite their diversity, these accounts bear little resemblance to the ecstatic Kaula rituals described by Abhinavagupta in his Tantraloka, and lack their most essential component, a fully aware, consenting female partner or yogini. Whatever Baba was doing, claiming it to be a form of Tantric initiation, seemed rather to retain only the bodily shell of a Tantric practice that once held out the promise of profound enlightenment experience for both the man and woman.

Caldwell described Muktananda as being anxious in the months before his death to pass intiation to as many as possible and suspected he was trying to vitalise himself.

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When Baba really needed to draw on the most powerful source he could find, to transmit the essence of his lineage power, it was to the Goddess that he turned. In fact, his Shaktism was the real core of power behind all of the Shaiva, Vedantic, and bhakti practices we otherwise learned and rehearsed so laboriously. This path was a direct shortcut for those who were ready.

Caldwell tells us here that many gurus who imported their varieties of Hinduism to the United States had tantric backgrounds and kept quiet about it.

This may mirror the secrecy surrounding such practices amongst Tibetan Buddhists gettng so much sympathetic media attention today.

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The Tantric core of so many of the last century’s imported Hindu traditions has successfully been painted over with a more acceptable Shaiva or Vedantic veneer.

The storehouse of power that is the Devi, the tortured fantasies of Ramakrishna’s dreams, and the erotic generatrix of the universe that Baba sought in the bodies of real women, the coiled Kundalini Shakti herself, is not unleashed, not acknowledged, not known.

This denial fuels an unhealthy form of hypocrisy.

...Such “Tantric dissembling” by groups such as the Ramakrishna Order and Siddha Yoga is, then, part of a hoary tradition.

Abhinavagupta himself was the pivotal figure in the shift from medieval Kaula practices, openly celebrated by kings and courtesans, to a disguised, encoded, secret practice hidden within an outer, more socially acceptable form.

Such dissembling set a precedent that has lasted well into the present day. White describes the Abbé Dubois’ vivid eighteenth-century account of “left-handed” practices in India as another example of poorly maintained secrets; of public hypocrisy, or more politely, “dissimulation” by those engaging privately in practices they publicly abhor:

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Persons from every walk of life and every part of the social spectrum are participating in a nocturnal rite. What happens on the following day? Everyone dissembles, going about their day-to-day life as if nothing had happened the night before. Yet everyone knows where they were the night before, and…everyone in the village, town, or neighborhood would also have been privy to the fact that something was going on in the cremation ground or forest grove out on the edge of town on the last new moon night, or some other temporal conjuncture. So in the end there is very little secret about these secret nocturnal tantric rites: it’s as if half the town were Freemasons, with the other half knowing the former had a lodge and regular meetings, and pretty much everyone knowing who was who and what was what, but saying they were not telling

Caldwell now examines Campbell's decriptions via Traveller in Space.

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June Campbell, an academic who faced similar, though more severe problems in her own life as a long-time intimate devotee of the late Tibetan guru Kalu Rinpoche, has written in depth about the psychological and moral issues raised by Tantric practices of Asian gurus in Western contexts.

Campbell speaks candidly about her secret sexual affair with her guru in an interview published by Tricycle magazine.

Campbell’s comments make clear that the unequal, compulsory, and secret qualities of the relationship were not beneficial to her spiritual progress, nor did they fulfill the ideals of left-handed Tantric practice.

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I was not an equal in our relationship. As I understand it, the ideals of tantra are that two people come together in ritualistic exchange of equally valued and distinct energies. Ideally, the relationship should be reciprocal, mutual…. My relationship with Kalu Rinpoche was not a partnership.

When it started, I was in my late twenties. He was almost seventy. He controlled the relationship. I was sworn to secrecy. What I am saying is that it was not a formal ritualistic relationship, nor was it the “tantric” relationship that people might like to imagine."

Abvinagupta vs Muktananda

Caldwell writes:

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The open circles of female adepts surrounding the aspiring male Siddha at their center, merging together under the gaze of stars and sky, and Abhinavagupta’s pairs of ecstatic tantrikas lost in the merged inner space of bliss, seem to contrast sharply with the covert nocturnal shufflings of pubescent girls, sworn to secrecy and shamed into silence, to the bedroom of their aging guru.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to see those young women as entering freely into conscious, informed, contractual relations directed at their own enlightenment

and

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I feel it necessary to speak out in the face of this wrongdoing and voice my anger about it. I accept that ultimately it was my own karma that led to the difficult experiences of my youth. But does that mean that I should not act to prevent similar suffering for my own daughter?

I am not ready to say that all the harm we know can accrue to a young child abused by an older, trusted authority figure, at least on this material plane of reality in which we all dwell, is irrelevant and forgiven by greater spiritual concerns. T

he movement of Asian forms of religious practice into America and Europe provides a unique historical opportunity for revisioning those original forms, and raises a whole series of new moral, ethical, and legal questions.

Social forms that tolerate secrecy, hierarchy, and corruption can and should, I contend, be eradicated as the tradition moves to the West. I know from my field studies in Kerala that women in India suffer, and that their suffering increases when they cannot voice it or express it through meaningful spiritual outlets. There is something in the way that left-handed Tantra evolved that stinks of such oppression to me.

This is Google's cache of [www.scribd.com]

It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Sep 25, 2011 22:24:00 GMT.

Very eye-opening literature you quoted here!

The tantric Buddhism is based on that hinduistic tradition of the left handed Tantra. You look at all the high Tulkus as there are Ringpoches, Karmapas, Dalai Lamas etc. and all of them have practiced that on the way of their enauguration. And you listen to them as a devotee and expect ethical guiding!

What Caldwell at least found out for herself, that all she was suffering from was her karma I do not agree. Karma is only a conception like heaven and hell. It exists because people are willing to feel guilty.

When I speak about Nydahl and the other teachers like above, there is no doubt: They all are liberated or enlightenend. But that does not mean they would behave in a ethical manner, quite the opposite. For the enlightenend every behavier is pure, wether they kill or lie or misabuse women, that is their ethical standard.

And of course, you may feel in the near of such enlightened bliss or other sensensation. That is normal. But what does ist mean? In my eyes nothing, except you are a junkie hanging on to those sensations.

And when you are greedy for sensations, you should take your way to enlightenment as it is described at the following, and believe me, this is the only one. Good luck!



Stage 1. Knowledge of the distinction between mental and physical states and

stage 2. (Knowledge of the cause-effect relationship between mental and physical states) involve deepening concentration and increasing mindfulness. Hallucinations, feelings of disturbance, and involuntary movements can occur. Many mental images may arise and disappear slowly and one can feel confused and distracted.

In Stage 3 (Knowledge of mental and physical processes as impermanent, unsatisfactory and not-self) as samadhi is achieved, pseudo-nirvana phenomena may occur. These can induce attachment of the experience of a particular phase and include different experiences of light and color and feelings of rapture, tranquility, and bliss. Frightening images may also occur. Tears and body sensations, such as stiffness, heaviness, heat or energy pulsations, and twitching or itching, can arise. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea as well as body movements can accompany some forms of rapture. Tranquility can be signified by clarity and feelings of lightness and smoothness. Bliss may involve desire to meditate a long time, gratitude, and pride. Confidence and zeal can occur with bliss and lead to over-exertion. With strong mindfulness, one may notice phenomena melted into the past and become concerned with the past and able to recall past lives. One may falsely believe hat insight-wisdom is attained and think excessively. Then equanimity can arise. When too strong, it can lead to absent-mindedness and inattention to bodily needs. Finally, one can be delighted and satisfied with the various signs of progress. After overcoming these imperfections of insight, genuine insight practice can begin. Concentration and mindfulness are balanced rather than fluctuating, and mindfulness is precise and constant.

Stage 4 (Knowledge of arising and passing away) is entered. Mental images disappear quickly with acknowledgement and a non-hallucinatory clear bright light may appear. Abdominal movements may cease and one may feel as though falling into an abyss.
Stage 5 (Knowledge of dissolution of formations) is entered. Sadness and irritability may occur when the passing away of phenomena is seen clearly. In addition to form disappearing, the mind of the knower seems to disappear and then acknowledges its disappearance. At times, only the rising and passing away of phenomena occurs while the self seems to disappear. Then both form and consciousness disappear. These may cease briefly or for several days until boredom occurs. One may also see object vibrating.

Stage 6 (Knowledge of the fearful nature of mental and physical states) involves fear, and one can be afraid of everything, even harmless objects. This is related to losing ones self. Pain in the body can be experience. One may feel utterly alone and weep at the thought of loved ones. One cannot find enjoyment in anything.

Stage 7 (Knowledge of mental and physical states as unsatisfactory) involves further misery and disgust. Life seems bad and tiresome, and one can feel bored and uneasy. A deep sense of the insipid nature of life prevails.

Stage 8 (Knowledge of disenchantment) involves intensification of the sense of unsatisfactoriness. One realizes the interdependence of events (dependent origination) and their dissolution. One only wishes to escape from the world, realizing that nothing is lasting.

Stage 9 (Knowledge of the desire for deliverance) is the rolling the mat phase as one may desire to leave practice as restlessness increases and mindfulness is low. The body may itch as though being bitten by ants.

Stage 10 (Knowledge which investigates the path to deliverance and instills a decision to practice to completion) may involve the sensation of being slashed with a knife and other distracting disturbances. Drowsiness, stiffness, heaviness, and heat may occur.

Stage 11 (Knowledge which regards mental and physical states with dispassion) involves equanimity. Mindfulness and clarity are present and natural. Practice is smooth, and one may lose track of time and sit for hours. Certain psychosomatic diseases may be cured.

Stage 12-16, insight knowledge occurs. Nirvana is approached by way of one of the three marks of existence: impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), or emptiness of self (anatta), and everything drops away (cessation).

The path is entered and the fruit of the path attained. One experiences deep peace and stillness, the supreme silence. Defilements are abandoned and destroyed. When first experienced, this moment of realization does not last for even a second. Then comes contemplation of the basis for deliverance, the path, and the fruit and review of defilements remaining.

'For the enlightenend every behavier is pure, wether they kill or lie or misabuse women, that is their ethical standard.'

Then we probably need to define how the 'E' word is to be used in this context, for what you are describing here is closer to a behavioural state of psychopathology, sociopathy or malignant narcissism than what is usually meant by the common usage of 'enlighten'

[www.merriam-webster.com]

Accurate, agreed upon definitions and labelling are quite important in any attempt to understand and communicate an abstract concept. (thought)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2011 09:54PM by Stoic.

No, Stoic,

there is no doubt that in the context of tantric Buddhism every behavier of an enlightened person is pure. I invite you to my blog for reading "How to kill a person", a lecture held in Washington by a "Living Buddha", a friend of the Dalai Lama.

[marte-micaela-riepe.blogspot.com]

If you want to define the state of enlightennemt on the base of the values in our society, it is ok, you can do it, but don`t ignore the facts.
The Mahayana-and Theravada Buddhists do not agree with the tantric practices and describe enlightenment in another way.
Ole Nydahl does not.

Yes, you are right:

" What you are describing here is closer to a behavioural state of psychopathology, sociopathy or malignant narcissism."

'there is no doubt that in the context of tantric Buddhism every behavier of an enlightened person is pure.'

--a bit like the divine right of kings then, or the infallibility of popes, a context and belief system that we westerners have already (with much turmoil and bloodshed by our forefathers) rejected in favour of our own collective progress through the Age of Reason and Enlightenment.

[en.wikipedia.org]

I don't see any reason in reversing such hard-won progress based on two differing understandings of what one word signifies.

Nydahl clearly loves to see himself as the infallible medieval leader of a band of serfs, slavishly doing his bidding.

I wouldn't describe that as a pure view either, immature fantasy maybe, but certainly not pure and no longer viable for long in the reality of today's global village.


So we can say that Nydahl and his fellow 'enlightened' types have liberated themselves from any commonly accepted standards of human conduct, restraint and decency, perhaps?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2011 11:23PM by Stoic.

... a context and belief system that we westerners have already (with much turmoil and bloodshed by our forefathers) rejected in favour of our own collective progress through the Age of Reason and Enlightenment.

I agrree with you, but to understand why people betake in this magic, brutal system, in a chain of authority it is essential to understand, why they are so attracted. In my own case there was a deep longing for transcendency and rituals like meditation and singing the pujas. The secret teachings and rituals are not accessible in the group and you trust your teacher telling you to practice step by step, as I did.

If you are interested to read an analysis of the attraction of Tantra, you may read the article about "Tantra-Induced Delusional Syndrome":

[www.american-buddha.com]