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Practice communities or spiritual communities and Gurus to avoid like the plague…..

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This is a list of groups and Gurus to stay far far away from, compiled for aspiring practitioners newly exposed to the array of potential practice communities and Gurus.  This is a list that will be developed over time and of course is based on my knowledge, and opinions, related to the Gurus and Groups identified herein. In all cases, a voluminous amount of documentation (demonstrating problematic things) exists surrounding each person and group on this list. The list does NOT include many, many small scale operations and directs attention to the more well known operations that the new practitioners may be most vulnerable to. There will also be a developing list for recommended communities and teachers, posted soon. On that list, you will see names like Thich Nhat Hahn, Ramana Maharshi, Joseph Goldstein, Lama Surya Das, Lama Marut, Jack Kornfeld, Namkhai Norbu, Lama Pema Chodron and so many others!!!

Developiing list (with clarifying information to be added to each person and group listed):

1)  Ammachi

Wedded closely to the imagery and practices of south India bhakti/devotional traditions, Ammachi presents herself as the Mother of her disciples, called “children”, thus nurturing and sustaining a state of dependency in practitioners. Documented misconduct is now beginning to surface from various sources, a major one recently being the publication of memoirs by a woman who served Ammachi as her personal attendant and senior Swamini. As this note is being written, Gail Tredwell, the author of Holy Hell: Devotion, Faith, and Pure Madness, is experiencing a venomous online/internet assault on her character by ardent Amma supporters as well as individuals that former members have identified as being closely tied to Amma herself and the ashram in Kerala, India.

2)  Shree Shree Ravi Shankar, the Art of Living

Shree Shree Ravi Shankar has taken long established pranayama exercises and repackaged them under the seal of a trademark and holds large scale (mass meetings) to teach these practices at some cost. The breathing exercises, expecially the central one that’s akin to hyperventilating, should be practiced with greater caution than is evident in teaching settings of the Art of Living. More details here: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

3) Adidam; the late Adi Da Samraj

The central practice in this community entails “the search less beholding” of Adi Da Samraj as the way to full realization. (Da died in 2008 so that meditation practice now uses photos, videos.) Adi Da is represented as the necessary means for complete Realization, which had not occured in the “Cosmic Domain” prior to Da’s life and work. He is the First Last and Only Seventh Stage Avatar, so sayeth Adidam, to ever incarnate and, as a result of his birth and work here, the realization of “sahaj samadhi” now becomes possible for all beings in the “cosmic domain”.

Extensive documentation of misconduct on several fronts by Adi Da during his lifetime. Adidam represents all of that as the Crazy Wise behavior of the adept or Avatar, designed to undermine the ego of devotees and disrupt their rigid patterns of living.

For more background and examination, here is some material contributed and compiled by Tim Conway:

On Adi Da Samraj

4) the late Yogi Bhajan; 3HO

5) Gurumayi; Siddha Yoga

6) Andrew Cohen

The basis for this warning label applied to Andrew Cohen is explained in this previous article by me:

Andrew Cohen takes break from GURU role

7) Sogyal Rinpoche; Rigpa

Past accusations of sexual misconduct by teacher; court cases intiated with settlements sealed in confidence. Sogyal Rinpoche’s best selling book is a valuable introduction to Dzogchen yet there is the documented background suggesting at the least serious caution by practitioners wishing to approach this scene.

Mary Finnigan of the British newspaper The Guardian wrote this background article in July 2011:

Lama Sex Abuse

8) Geshe Kelsang Gyatso; New Kadampa Tradition

9) Geshe Michael Roach; THOUGH, the Asian Classics Institute (originally founded by Geshe Roach during times when he was still in the good graces of the Dalai Lama) is a valuable resource with courses and literature free and available online and some of the teachers coming out of that Institute are very good (like Lama Marut).

Michael Roach adopted and presented idealistic and mythological imagery related to his former wife and former senior Lama in the ACI community that set the stage, I think, for the latter tragedy that struck the ACI community during a long retreat in the Arizona desert in 2012. Also, commentators of his scene warn of past unskillful application of esoteric Tantric practices. The Asian Classic Institute itself has many valuable teaching resources (free online) and centers and teachers doing very good work with responsibility and maturity.

10) the late Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi; Sahaja Yoga Meditation

Appears to be scandal free and sincere; no money exploitation apparent; warning label related to the mythological framework for the practices and my concerns over the focus on powerful energetic based practices, leading to a fixation on expansive states of bliss (which is a major obstacle in practice). Wikipedia summary: “Nirmala Srivastava is said to have opened the primordial Sahasrara and thereby cleared the path for the kundalini to rise effortlessly in all who desire self-realization.[43] She has said that when the kundalini reaches the top of the head, the Sahasrara chakra opens and enlightenment (samadhi) takes place. One “may feel a powerful sensation in the crown of the head, followed by a melting sensation and a flow of cool vibrations from the fontanelle area”. She says this is the true second birth.[44]
The ability to grant en-masse Self-Realization is held to be proof that Nirmala Srivastava is the ‘Avatar of our times’.[45] Nirmala Srivastava has claimed to be the complete[46] incarnation of the Holy Ghost or Adi (Primordial) Shakti.[47] The incarnation of the Adi (Primordial) Shakti was prophesied in the Markandeya Purana and the Nadi Grantha 2000 years ago.[48]
Practices

According to followers, the practice of Sahaja Yoga results in spontaneous Self-realization[49] which, according to the official Sahaja Yoga website, can even be obtained online as one sits in front of one’s computer,[50] although it is usually experienced at a Sahaja Yoga program.
Practitioners are encouraged to regularly practise techniques which can strengthen the experience of self-realization. These include meditation and chakra cleansing techniques, as well as rituals found in other religious traditions such as prayer[51][52] and havan.[53] Practices by Sahaja Yogis, rather than being just rituals, produce an actual experience of spiritual vibrations through the body.[54] Sahaja Yogis emerge from these experiences in a pleasurable state, reporting feelings like increased mental clarity, being “blissed out” or filled with overwhelming love. Relief from pain or tiredness are also noted.[54]“

For more background, and examination of this scene:

“The Sahaja Cult”

11) Sathya Sai Baba Organization

12) ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) aka Hare Krsna

13) Transcendental Meditation; the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

14) Sri Amma and Bhagavan: World Oneness Community

15) Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev; Isha Foundation

16) Swami Nithyananda; current Mahamandeshwar (a spiritual leadership title) of Mahanirvani Peeth, one of the original monastic/study settings established by Shankara back in the 9th Century.

This young man was elected head of a traditional ashram earlier this year despite facing in the past serious criminal charges and now facing a criminal charge of sexual misconduct. His website posts an American doctor’s detailed report showing that Nithyananda is cursed with low hormonal levels and that physical tests established his low sexual potency (measuring night time signs while asleep). In any event, this is a drama facing a young man promoted as an Avatar (that right there puts him on this list) who, it is claimed, is followed by millions. He is immensely popular on You Tube and many, many people seemed hooked on his “blessings”.

His slick website claims that they are at the “cutting edge of research in yogic sciences, including matter related to “kundalini, teleporation, levitation, and materializations”.

Observation: show business exploitation of ancient practices. Appears to be lots of soap operatic distractions and, given countless reports posted at Guruphiliac and elsewhere by many, many people in long comments threads discussing this young superstar, there seem to be plenty of reasons to apply a warning label here also.

For more background:

Years of Nithyananda coverage and discussion at Guruphiliac blog

{this list is being updated regularly}
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READING LIST

1) A discussion by Brad Warner of Hard Core Zen:

The Spiritual Teacher as Role Model

2) Jody Radzik’s Guruphiliac blog (in depth documentation):

Guruphiliac

3) Steven Hassan’s Freedom of Mind Center:

Freedom of Mind Center

4) Sarlo’s longstanding “Guru Ratings”:

Sarlo’s Guru Rating Service

5) Jack Kornfeld’s book “After the Ecstasy, the Laundry”:

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry

6) Gail Tredwell’s memoirs of her 20 years as Ammachi’s personal attendant and senior Swamini in Amma’s community:

Holy Hell: A Memoir of Devotion, Faith, and Pure Madness

7) Philip Goldberg’s recent book American Veda is a very comprehensive review of the history of “Hindu” movements being adopted in the west:

American Veda

8) Dr. Suzanne Newcombe’s 2009 pre-publication paper (appearing in Religion Compass 3-6) “The Development of Modern Yoga: A Survey of the Field:

The Development of Modern Yoga

9) Upcoming (December 2013) from Oxford University Press:

Gurus of Modern Yoga
Edited by Mark Singleton and Edited by Ellen Goldberg
OUP USA
400 pages | 235x156mm
978-0-19-993870-4 | Hardback | December 2013 (estimated)
Also available as: Paperback
Price: £70.00
This item is not yet published.
Introduction – Mark Singleton and Ellen Goldberg
Part One: Key Figures in Early Twentieth-Century Yoga
Chapter 1: Manufacturing Yogis: Swami Vivekananda as a Yoga Teacher – Dermot Killingley
Chapter 2: Remembering Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: The Forgotten Lineage of Integral Yoga – Ann Gleig and Charles I. Flores
Chapter 3: Shri Yogendra: Magic, Modernity and the Burden of the Middle-Class Yogi – Joseph S. Alter
Part Two: The Lineages of T. Krishnamacharya
Chapter 4: T. Krishnamacharya, ”Father of Modern Yoga” – Mark Singleton and Tara Fraser
Chapter 5: ”Authorized by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois”: The Role of Parampara and Lineage in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga – Jean Byrne
Chapter 6: B.K.S. Iyengar as a Yoga Teacher and Yoga Guru – Frederick M. Smith and Joan White
Chapter 7: The Institutionalization of the Yoga Tradition: ”Gurus” B. K. S. Iyengar and Yogini Sunita in Britain – Suzanne Newcombe
Part Three: Tantra Based Gurus
Chapter 8: Swami Krpalvananda: The Man Behind Kripalu Yoga – Ellen Goldberg
Chapter 9: Muktananda: Entrepreneurial Godman, Tantric Hero – Andrea R. Jain
Chapter 10: Stretching toward the Sacred: John Friend and Anusara Yoga – Lola Williamson
Part Four: Bhaktiyoga
Chapter 11: Svaminarayana: Bhaktiyoga and the Aksarabhraman Guru – Hanna H. Kim
Chapter 12: Sathya Sai Baba and the Repertoire of Yoga – Smriti Srinivas
Part Five: Technology
Chapter 13: Engineering an Artful Practice: On Jaggi Vasudev’s ISHA Yoga and Sri Sri Ravi Shakar’s Art of Living – Joanne Punzo Waghorne
Chapter 14: Online Bhakti in a Modern Guru Organization – Maya Warrier
Part Six: Nation-Builders
Chapter 15: Eknath Ranade, Gurus and Jivanvratis (life-workers): Vivekananda Kendra’s Promotion of the ”Yoga Way of Life” – Gwilym Beckerlegge
Chapter 16: Swami Ramdev: Modern Yoga Revolutionary – Stuart Sarbacker
Index



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