Quotedariusb Not even the facts can make you to see everyhing as they really are. hmm... I thought seeing the teachers as the all-too-human individuals that they are, prone to the same craving (or worse) as everyone else was seeing things as they really are. Gurus aren't magic, they're just people. That fact may not be exciting enough for some people, though.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteMisstykQuotewalter1963Highly sanitized - symbolic unlike the Aghori that still engage in ritual human sacrifice/cannibalism - when they can steal a child away from village and do you know what to them. Yes there are schools of Taoism that utilize sex in their rituals but most are entirely negative - basically for a form of energy vampirism. Up until 20 years ago there was a invite only c
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotewalter1963Highly sanitized - symbolic unlike the Aghori that still engage in ritual human sacrifice/cannibalism - when they can steal a child away from village and do you know what to them. Yes there are schools of Taoism that utilize sex in their rituals but most are entirely negative - basically for a form of energy vampirism. Up until 20 years ago there was a invite only club in Taiw
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotecorboy In the Greek Scriptures, Jesus states, "Let your 'yes' be 'yes', let your 'no' be 'no'. Anything else is from the Evil One." It sounds like Jesus was aware of esoteric traditions and their practice of using double/triple entendres. I wonder if the Kaballah does this.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quoteleft_of_the_dialBut as a person who was a student of NLP What's NLP? Thank you.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quote20nkt12In the interests of fairness I feel moved to add an update to a few posts I made on this forum in January 2012. Ironically, just a few weeks after posting my views I decided to walk away from the NKT, and I now practice within the Theravada tradition. It's certainly true that the demands and expectations on me piled up noticeably after I had signed on for the Foundation Pro
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Here is an article that updates the information about Kalu Rinpoche, and also discusses the sense of abandonment that another young tulku, Gomo Tulku, felt when his mother left him in a monastery in Europe. Gomo Tulku has given back his robes to become a rapper. In one of his compositions, he speaks movingly about his longing for his mother and the life he knew prior to being taken to the monaste
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteDonShwantzSometimes in life (more often than you would think) horrible things happen and the police literally do not care. I mean, there is a Dr. who is a suspected serial killer or involved in prostitution killings in and around NY/Long Island, racking up like 15 victims thus far, yet the police want to sweep it under the rug and forget about it because "Who cares about hookers right?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Baha'is are the most aggressive proselytizers I've ever encountered. I haven't noticed them doing so in the US, but they do everything they can to gain entrance into other countries. The Baha'is sent Alaska Natives to Siberia after the USSR crashed, and very aggressively proselytized Baha'i among Native people wherever they could gain entrance. They will conceal the fact
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I can only think of Michael Roach, who runs a Tibetan Buddhist center in Sedona, AZ, that has been highly controversial, especially after one retreatant died. I'm in NM, and I don't know of any cults here. But in the Tibetan tradition, it's not unheard of for teachers/lamas to claim to communicate with a devoted follower via telepathy.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Almost anything can be used by a twisted mind in an attempt to justify rape. This guy should be reported, but it may be too late now, as it's too late to gather evidence. Is your friend suffering from Post Traumatic Stress? If so, she should see a therapist who specializes in trauma therapy. You can find those in the phone directory or by Googling online.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteSteveLpool"if you don't regard Ole as you root lama Pardon my ignorance, but could someone explain what this "root lama" thing is all about? What does the term mean? At what point in one's studies does one usually take a "root lama", if there is a "usual"? What's involved in accepting someone as one's root lama? Is this when you take
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotecorboyYou've got a point. Geoffrey Samuels has brought strong evidence from multiple sources that tantra originated from shamanism. I'll have to read the Samuels book. Some of the transformational aspects of tantra may have come from shamanism, but there's no sexual component in Inner Asian shamansim--that comes from India. For an extremely thorough analysis and discussion
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If we chalk young Kalu Rinpoche's abuse up to the transgressions of his predecessor, and accept it as his "karma", then how do we explain the systemic sexual abuse of children in Tibetan monasteries? And Sri Lankan and Taiwan Buddhist monasteries? To blithely ascribe it to karma is letting an awful lot of people off the hook--an entire institutional system, in fact. If we put the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotekaram-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 Sharma
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotekaram-mudraAnd, Suanam, he is a Vajra-Buddhist and even liberated as far someone in Vajra-Buddhism can be, if you like it or not. The old so called Kalu Ringpoche attested him that state of mind. With all due respect to Karam-Mudra--and I mean that; I have the utmost respect for her for having the courage to speak out publicly, and to attempt to prosecute Nydahl, and to persevere in that pr
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quote~*~ k a t e ~*~One last thing I forgot to add: My documentary is now complete, and will be released online and elsewhere at the start of next month, after post-production. Please share the link with us when you have it up.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotejfhI recently came across this valuable website. I was a member of the Dharma Centre of Canada from 1969 until 1972. I was a young man in my early twenties at the time, but looked much younger. Mr. Leslie Dawson was referred to simply as "the Bhikku" at the time. His persona was that of urbane cosmopolite, and his charismatic qualities were undeniable. However, he began to ask me t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotesuenam Nydahl has strongarmed the German Buddhist association This is scary. Entities like this should be objective. Can't they see the damage he's done to their own countrywomen?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

RR team: is it ok to be posting about a pending legal case on a public forum?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Congratulations, Marte, on taking the big step of suing Nydahl! What does your lawyer say about the threat your psychiatrist received? This is illegal, of course, and should be brought to the attention of the court. You are every woman's hero, who has ever suffered from abuse in Diamond Way Buddhism!
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thinkwise23, your description of Tolle's teachings and reactions sound a lot like a warmed-over pseudo-Buddhism. Telling people to abandon the "self", while he very much retains his "self" and gradually replaces the seeker's "self" with his own (Tolle's), countering criticism with accusations of "judgmentalism", these things are straight out
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Karam=mudra, how did Ole know the name and contact info for your therapist? Yes, I think now that they've realized that there is proof of your trauma by Ole and Diamond Way, in the form of your therapist's notes, they are worried. I wonder if you could take this story to a regional newspaper, now that your therapist has received such a threat? You know what the Dalai Lama says--go
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteSceptic Watcherkaram-mudra, you report that the Bardo-state Nydahl pushed you to still effects you negatively today. Have you sought spiritual or psychotherapeutic help to deal with that? Yes, it is important for your defense, to have documentation of mental suffering caused by Ole & Diamond Way Buddhism. Otherwise, the solicitor can say anything he wants. But if you have proof, a psych
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It's nice to see that Karma-mudra is back, though it's sad to hear her story. I understand Ole's team has been threatening her with a libel lawsuit? I'm told by a lawyer who exposes abusive cults that if your posts are "factual", meaning they give time and date, location of incidents, names, and so forth, then it's not considered libel, because it's the t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteAlexander NevskyWhat worries me however in Mary Finnigan's writing is that she criticizes everybody but Ole Nydahl and Karmapa Thaye Dorje. No word of criticism about these two. I'm only aware of Finnigan criticizing Sogyal. She has made Sogyal her "project", and, for better or for worse, keeps her focus on him. I imagine tracking his activities and keeping up with the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteshamelaRe Twilight Language when underneath they have an inner program of introducing their (often nubile and well to do) students to the advanced initiations that might shock them (if they understood it as menstrual blood). In darshan practices and dharma talks that take place in the evening after long hours of meditating or work and in such settings as high mountain camps with thi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteshamelaQuestion the very concept of reincarnation! Perhaps more to the point, question the motives of high lamas appointing certain children as Tulkus. Gedun Chopel, in the early part of the 20th Century, gave back his robes as a tulku, saying he'd been "living a lie". He went on to write the Tibetan version of the Kama Sutra, and joined an organization of revolutionary Tibet
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Grozy's Tibetan friend is splitting the wrong hairs. If a monk's intent was to have sex, then they've broken the vow. Who he intended to have sex with doesn't matter. (eyeroll) It's monks desperately searching for loopholes in the rules who come up with these ridiculous scenarios, and the faulty reasoning to justify their actions. If this is what their minds are on s
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

What "very old Indigenous practice" in Mongolia and Buryatia? There is no tradition of tantric sex in that region, that I know of. Shamans didn't practice tantric sex. Are you saying they borrowed the Hindu practice, when Tibetan Buddhism spread into their region? That would make sense. Just clarifying. (Note--Corboy: analyzing TB in light of tantric history would best go on
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"