EDIT - correction, i meant to say, there is a dearth of attractive women in dw, and far too many horny boys!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

...there was a couple in dw who were making their own porn videos. when they split up it was quite acrimonious and the male was thrown out, not because of any right or wrong, but because the women are seen as a resource, and can attract more members. there is already a dearth of horny boys in dw, so it seems that they all sided with the woman because they saw her as a victim and all the men had a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Matt Huddleston - he does seem to have some control, but is not really part of the London sangha - he is based i think in Reading or somewhere provincial - he is a bit strange i will admit. as for Jacek Kaberuk - the last i heard there was a rumour circulating around the DW members that he was heavily into hardcore pornography, and that Dafydd Moriss was quite critcal of him. (Buddhists take a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

i agree with the quote from Kate (from my personal experience) that there are a few power-mad leaders in the London sangha. dafydd moriss, steve james, and maya mueller stuck out to me, i'm wondering who the other two are though. ...but i think that ole is also a problem, even from a quote from a follower tells us that he doesn't have time to eat but still manages to find time for a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Tashi - it seems that Ole is not the only Buddhist teacher to be accused of politicallly incorrect behaviour, but, in my experience, he is the only one who systematically and regularly uses his lectures to promote such ideas, and this has a profound effect on his followers. - even Sogyal Rinpoche, about who there is a seperate thread on this site, has been accused of certain indiscretions, yet
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

on a much lighter note, here is a website i found, made by one of Ole's fans, which seems to promote the mistaken belief that "The Matrix" is in some ways a Buddhist film! i did wonder, as the "buddhism" he refers to is in fact Ole Nydahlism - whether there might be some closer parallel between the film and DWB? Either way, it's yet another precept broken to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotebkalnoky The female journalist, Ole alleges without any proof, "was suffering from big emotional problems, and although she was attractive, she was sufferung from anorexia and was not at all able to understand things that are removed from personal matters." - interesting strategy from Ole - he is the one who conflates personal matters with the real issues (which incidentally se
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

i think that we agree that DWB is not one of the more extreme cults. To give an example, the idea that the cult leader has no tolerance for questions or critical inquiry, in Ole Nydahl's case, there is certainly the appearance that one may ask critical questions, however anyone who has actually tried to do so will find that the question is usually sidestepped in a way that reminds one of a p
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Ole himself is idealistic and so attracts students who are also idealistic. i remember when i first encountered a diamond way buddhist. i was meditating. i had been studying buddhism for around twenty years and had learned different meditation techniques from both buddhism and elsewhere. at that time is was practising a simple breath meditation (samatha) and i was told by this diamond way s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

that would certainly explain the heavy guilt trips from other DW members, eg. if you start to think for yourself it also explains why DW "buddhism" is based on emotional belief, which is a corruption of true Buddhism
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

certainly, part of the DW modelling includes a degree of "anti-intellectualism", if you are confused, angry, disturbed etc. then just pretend you're happy. maybe this explains why DW comes across as a cult. i think that the idea of modelling can help to improve one's method, but in this case it is being used to fake the end product rather than the means to get the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

i remembered something a bit strange from when i was in DWB... it relates to Corboy's question about internalising Ole, but this wasn't through guru yoga. the question was, how do i progress? what is my aim? or maybe, how do i become a boddhisattva? the answer given on more than one occassion was, not study (oh no, no, no, very dangerous!), yes one should meditate, but the real
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

apparently Ole was asked by the Karmapa to stop voicing such views, and he did for a while, although he maintained that he was right. Now he seems to have slipped back into some old habits. i have heard people defend him by saying that he was right, he did after all warn against the dangers before 9.11, but on the one hand he was stating the obvious, we all knew that there was a threat, and we
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The following is an open letter circulated by The Network for Western Buddhist Teachers, based in Tucson, Arizona, On March 16-19, 1993, a meeting was held in Dharamsala, India, between His Holiness the fourteenth Dalai Lama and a group of twenty- two Western dharma teachers from the major Buddhist traditions in Europe and America. Also present were the Tibetan lamas Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

this was, until recently, on the London DW centre website, "Starting in August 2008 Diamond Way Buddhism been subject to an online smear campaign. We are aware of the perpetrator's identity. He has made a number of false, libelous allegations about Diamond Way Buddhism and persistent abusive phone calls to people in our groups, which have been reported to the police. We genuinely ha
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

i think Corboy has made some valid point that is why there is a great deal of importance on knowing the correct criteria for choosing a Vajrayana guru, and of course taking the time to discover before making such commitment one central text on this is Gampopa's "jewel ornament of liberation" where there is extensive information on choosing a "spiritual friend" (ie.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Corboy, we live in a society where idol worship is a multi billion dollar industry based upon a level of deceit. there are so many airbrushed film stars, sports stars, models, porn stars, music stars, etc. if there is a blind spot then it is not exclusive to religious groups i wonder if you met your idol, would you be able to treat them as a real person?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

maybe, i'm just not getting what you mean. there is a limit to how specific i want to get for obvious reasons, but i have tried to be specific, both about my experiences and my knowledge of DWB practices and doctrines. i'm not saying that anything is your fault Dave, you do seem to be more knowledgable on this topic than the rest of us, yet you seem reluctant to disclose this knowled
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteDaveHi This is my first post in this Ole Nydahl and Diamondway forum. After reading all previous post (some i skim through) I thought how to deal with the Diamondway phenomenon? What is it that perturbs us really most? Is it the person as such, or is it because of Ole Nydahl`s tangential superficial Dharma interpretation? I go for the last option. Question for the moderators, is i
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Dave, i am trying to speak from my own experience. i do not pretend to be an expert, but i do have some knowledge i am also limited by language, i cannot transplant my experience directly into your head, so i try to use terms to describe my experience in a way that others might relate to. for example, the difference between mahayana and vajrayana - you get a different story from each sou
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Corboy, i realised that what i was trying to describe to you could be described as what psychotherapists call "transference" if you know about object-relations theory then i guess you might understand it better than me. that's why i'm saying that both the teacher and the students may be caught up in it, and both are responsible for getting out of it.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

it's not surprising given the history of this thread that there may be some degree of suspicion i did ask myself what the purpose of Corboy's long posts were, not everyone who reads this is that knowledgeable on the subject, and if Corboy is just playing devil's advocate then at least that keeps us honest let's not lose our focus
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

on a different tack, when i first heard DW meditations something struck me in the wording it says that the root Lama, the 16th Karmapa, "is needed for our fast development" who is in a hurry, i thought. wasn't patience one of the six paramitas. isn't it just an appeal to grasping and self-centredness? is it the same in other non DWB Kagyu texts?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

the reason i can't quite put my finger on it is not because i am unable to be critical of Lama Ole, it's precisely because i've seen a trend in at least some members of DWB who do show this type of child-parent dynamic. as i asked before, who's responsibility is this? In many real life parenting situations the child grows up while the parent stays at fault. Each new
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

of course, only Lama Ole can answer for himself. what is clear is that there are protective and fierce emotions from DW members, not only towards him, but to the group as a whole. there also seems to be some degree of superstition there, whether this has anything to do with the shamanistic origins of Tibetan Buddhism, and the guru yoga practices that Corboy refers to, or whether it is jus
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

nice links btw, funny. to answer your question, no Ole always defers to the 16th Karmapa in guru yoga meditation. The 16th Karmapa died (or was reincarnated) in 1981, and there is some controversy as to his current incarnation, so DWB does not yet refer to the 17th Karmapa in guru yoga. and yet... someone else has pointed out how there are always pictures of Ole in the gompa (where they
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

maybe a wiki page if we could ensure some security, but i have no idea what form it could take either, maybe someone who has more expertise might help? Corboy, firstly we aren't all in the U.S., and although freedom of speech is a great idea, it does seem to require some judgement, as we have seen from the r.r. moderator needing to step in on occassion. it could be possible to go beyo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

i'd rather not go into too much detail here as it would reveal my identity, but i have experienced what Emma C writes about and far worse. we do value this site and the freedom of speech it offers, so what are we going to do with that, use it to say something constructive and something that might make a difference, or just use it to vent our frustrations? it's my experience that
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

i don't think that Dave was suggesting that we turn this exclusively into a microscopic examination of Dharma at the expense of people's experiences obviously we don't want to get bogged down in anything too specialised, or simply repeat what can be found elsewhere (see my previous post) as this isn't specifically a Buddhist site. I think it could be useful to introduce
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

On the issue of Dharma, I think that Wangdrag has said it perfectly (see pages 12 and 16), but if you want more there is plenty on the E-Sangha, particularly the link where there is a 52 page debate (you have to register). So, there is not only the question of Dharma, but also the question of honesty, and what motivation lies behind this. Personally I feel that the lack of transparency is
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"