One of the wealth builders for Chinmoy were the veggie restaurants run with donated or cheaply paid labor from his followers. The food was and is often excellent and an added attraction are the affordable prices. A cheap labor pool provided by eager disciples made this possible.
It is worth noting that vegetarian and vegan restaurants can be part of what has been termed the cultic milieu and any foodie or person interested in health is invited to research who owns a restaurant and what principles are held or imposed upon employees.
A lot is being said about the need to research whether chocolate or coffee or other items are produced by fair labor or underpaid labor. Make sure the same is true of your local eatery.
Final note: Chinmoy produced a trail of afflictive emotion even before his demise.
One ambitious disciple who defected from Chinmoy and started his own cult was Frederick Lenz aka Zen Master Rama, who also abused money, sex and power--and despite his claim to be Buddhist, died by an overdose of pills, and had persuaded a girlfriend to keep him company in death and OD. She survived.
That is not Buddhist behavior.
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In 1979, Chinmoy apparently decided to teach Lenz a lesson in humility and
obedience by sending him to San Diego to open a Laundromat
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Money left from the estate of this captive of afflictive emotion has since been used to finance a variety of causes, some noble, some controversial--to be polite about it.
I raise the question what the implications can be of accepting grant money that was generated from a tangle of afflictive emotion and whether accepting that kind of dirty money may bring with it chains that bind.
Troubled gurus not only hurt their own followers, but those with ambition may leave a troubled guru and become troubled gurus themselves, passing the hurt and and the tangle of afflictive emotion outward in a widening circle.
This is the opposite of what dharma practice is supposed to accomplish.
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