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You too, John, have very little first hand experience as your communications and involvement has been primarily through the online group and at a few retreats. I, on the other hand, had consistent and contintual interaction via the groups, phone calls, Skype sessions, emails and retreats. Not to mention I did her "counseling".
In this you are mistaken, Holly. I had extensive Skyping with Guru too, you just don't know it, and I also had counseling, and I have probably met her in person nearly as many times as you have (you were not at the first birthday retreat) including most recently in March.
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As a matter of FACT, you DO have to take it as belief. Prove to me, John, her "realization". Her "realization", too, is a subjective matter in as much as your belief is subjective. While it's a convienient and comforting belief, it is still only a belief.
You are mistaken here too. It would not be possible for any teacher to show me more, for myself, about realization than this teacher already has. I have read your accounts, too. Are you telling me you wrote them in a state of delusion?
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I am not alone. Alone, perhaps, in the sense that I am not allowing someone with claims of something I cannot prove to dictate my life while their very own life is in shambles. Then, yes, I am not following any such person any longer. But "being alone" is a rather naive statement, as if the people that leave then wander aimlessly without any support, direction or cause.
That is not what I meant. I meant left alone without being bothered.
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You, too, John are wished well. All of those that remain are wished well. Even your teacher herself is wished well. What is no longer wished for is "wishful thinking" or denying the obvious contradictions, concerns, quite valid questionable behavior that has and remains to be a very serious happening with said teacher. Contrary to what you might believe and wish to assume, people have been hurt by her in ways you aren't able to fully grasp or comprehend right now simply because, if you were to do so, it would mean the very person you are following could no longer be followed. I know that desire (to see her as untouchable) and fear (to question her behavior). I lived it long and well.
Well, Holly, nobody really has any concrete things to say here. Most of what I see with people are a lot of hurt feelings, and I have seen her clean house on people who were truly inclining towards the abusive. I don't see the abuse. I don't see anything unethical. I was just with her a few months ago and nobody was running around in fear. . . yes there are times when things get really challenging and there were times when your mind is like "omg this is just NOT RIGHT." On closer inspection, on actually confronting and addressing the concerns, this is never the case, at least in my experience.
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Have you stopped to wonder why your teacher can't clean up her own mess, but relies upon the fears of her students to do so for her?) and which fail even the loosest maesurement of "acceptable behavior".
She's not relying on me. I'm doing this on my own. Guru does not seem too concerned with what is going on over here.
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John, you are using her speech and justification. How do I know? Becuase I've heard the very thing from the horse's mouth. Please, I beg of you (sincerely, from my knees, John), to use your reason, logic and judgement. I know you are capable, John! You are intelligent, successful in business and such a sincere man. I've know and have long known this about you. And I KNOW the temptation to sweep the horrible displays of contradictions, inconsistencies, moral and ethical violations under the rug. I have lived them, so please know that I understand. I don't want to insult you, John. Not now and not ever. If I ever did, please accept my sincerest of apologies. But, I am here to simply speak what I know, first hand, to be true and am no longer afraid to allow the good public (including all her students past and present) to see. And I know you want the truth; you are earnestly seeking it! To find the truth, you must be willing and able to criticize even the "most high" or "most holy". Why? To ensure that you aren't under some delluded fantasy, chasing ghosts or hiding behind mirages of spiritual hopes and ideals. Please, John, please ... be willing. Just be willing
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That is very kind of you Holly, to be so concerned, and when I was with you I learned so much. In the end though I think somehow your mind created an Ogre that simply does not exist. I have read where you went on the journey of consciousness. I have seen all the email exchanges over the year or so you spent . . . I just cannot believe you made that up or were in a state of delusion at the time.
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That's quite convienient and still does not warrant a) her belittling, mocking, condeming and/or mocking those that are on / have been on / are seeking to be on something of similar kind for similiar or even various reasons, and b) for acting as doctor, psychiatrist, nurse, psychologist, therapist WITHOUT a license, with NO training and NO education (for not only persuading others to get off or not take said medications, but also "treating" in home a student and taking him off them herself). Reason, John. Logic. Common sense. USE THEM!
Could you be exaggerating here? What were the consequences of this alleged malpractice?
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Has she acted unethically in every single circumstance? No. But, even serial killers have good qualities.
Has she acted unethically in even one circumstance? Can you provide concrete details?
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John, she acts that way to everyone, not just her students. Is she a "crazy wisdom guru" to the waitor, the clerk, the server? Nope, but she treats them as horribly and in the same way she treats her students; rudely, with contempt, bitterness and irritation.
This I have personally not seen, not once. I do remember she was OUTRAGED when one of us (no one knows who it was) disrespected a priest at the Catholic retreat center by stealing food that was personally marked as his private property. I also seem to recall her spending time there to take in and tend to a wounded bird that could not fly there. I have also seen her take verbal mockery with equanimity at a drag show when the MC was making fun of her tattoos. . . she insisted we go there in the first place to make sure none of her students were disrespecting or judging people because they were transvestites. I have seen her openly stand up for homosexuals, gay marriage, and I have seen her publicly defend victims of rape and abuse, even offering them a platform and encouragement for stepping forward.
You might want to ask yourself if there was so much unethical activity if the staff and owners of the various retreat centers we used over the years noticed anything. . . you know she would pounce like a lioness instantly and fearlessly at anything that lacked integrity.
As for the rest
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1. Does she have PTSD? Does she get funds under the pretense of a phsychological condition?
2. If she is not disabled, why is she taking monies under a false pretense and not working?
3. If "guru-ing" is her job, why is she still taking disability monies (considering, by her activities / acquisitions, she has plenty of money to survive without it)?
She has publicly stated the nature of this in her interview on Buddha at the Gas Pump. I simply offer the further information that the trauma received was due to abuse. I ask you why she would render this information when it is so easy, as you allege, to put two and two together that she is defrauding the government.
The simple answer is that she is not, actually, defrauding the government.
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4. Who pays for her housing, her bills, her day to day expenses?
5. Who pays for her expensive (she spent a few grand on a violin late last year ... one instrument among many) instruments, jewelry, the Rolex, the business ventures, the motorcycles, the cars?
6. What does she claim or file for taxes? Does she claim on the funds she receives (as stated above) in her taxes?
(Shrugs) All I can tell you it ain't me and there ain't no way she could afford to live even at the poverty level from the amounts she gets from us. You seem to be fixated on the idea that one person is being financially enslaved somehow. What's your experience with the teacher's financial demands? How many times did she milk you for more and more cash? I remember once reading you said you had little to give and she said she understood and that was fine--that just the little amount was appreciated. I know for a fact that she worked extensively with many for NO compensation at all.
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7. Does she have a license, edcuation and training to practice medicine? Is she licensed to treat someone to get off of their meds?
8. Does she have a license, education and training to counsel, treat addiction, treat pscyhological disorders?
All of her services and credentials (or lack thereof) are for anyone to see for themselves on her website. Is there any evidence that the Guru is claiming to have credentials she does not possess?
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9. She treats addiction, yet herself is addicted to food. Her health problems, not to mention her admitted inability to stop eating (which is called "addiction") actually required gastric bypass surgery, bought and paid for by a former student.
(Shrugs) -- she told us everything. Everything. She also had oral surgery in Mexico paid for by contributions made at the birthday retreat a year ago. So what? The kind of teacher you have to watch out for are the ones that hide stuff. She could have disappeared for 2 months and reappeared all thin and pretended to have gone on a diet. If I recall it was a matter of life-threatening diabetes.
--JL