what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

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ShineeSeoul
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what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by ShineeSeoul »

Hi everyone

I have found this article and it is interesting, so I thought of sharing it here and see what others think of it

https://alannak.com/the-dangers-of-budd ... ernatives/
PeterC
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by PeterC »

ShineeSeoul wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:36 pm Hi everyone

I have found this article and it is interesting, so I thought of sharing it here and see what others think of it

https://alannak.com/the-dangers-of-budd ... ernatives/
The same website has an online “alchemical astrology logical certification program” that allows you to “become an astrologer in eight weeks!”. I suspect the writer knows as much about astrology as she does about vajrayana.
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conebeckham
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by conebeckham »

Geshe Roach story is old news, and I'd never trust anyone who calls him or herself a "yoga doctor."

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དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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Drenpa
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Drenpa »

It's not even a thinly veiled attempt to use very selective sources and reasoning to denigrate Buddhism and the student/teacher relationship in order for the writer to win students of her own.

Yet another self-appointed, self-styled "modern" teacher who is putting forth the ridiculous proposition that she is in a position to teach and guide people based on her own eclectic and self-serving appropriation of the very teachings she cribbing from and calling into question.

She touts working with chakras, yoga, psychic body, through a "Modern Mystery School" which is obviously of her own creation, and will sell you a nice neat package, with books and all (that she wrote) in order to "develop a new spiritual skill set to add to your thriving spiritual business". All for the unbelievably low price of $150/month - cancel anytime! Not a bad gig if you can scrape together 50-100 dedicated followers to fork that over monthly. Thus, the motivation for the criticism is as plain as day. Rip-on, ripoff. Rip-on, Ripoff. Repeat, Daniel-san.

So yeah - I think that pretty much sums it up. She's ripping on people's faith, practice and religion by combing through over a thousand years of history in search of the most salacious and challenging examples she can find with google and just a bit of reading, lumping all of the extreme examples together with an air of erudition (she cites some sources and is a PhD according to her site) and doing this not even tongue in cheek, but straight up in order to set herself up as a spiritual teacher that will help you make yourself in her image by following her ad hoc system.

Caveat Emptor to say the least.
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Josef
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Josef »

The first line states that Padmasambhava founded Vajrayana buddhism.
That was enough to stop reading.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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cyril
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by cyril »

ShineeSeoul wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:36 pm Hi everyone

I have found this article and it is interesting, so I thought of sharing it here and see what others think of it

https://alannak.com/the-dangers-of-budd ... ernatives/
And just when you think the Trimondis were stupid....
"You have to make the good out of the bad because that is all you have got to make it out of."
- Robert Penn Warren -
PeterC
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by PeterC »

To be fair to the writers of articles like this, it’s not as if the Tibetans ever wrote texts warning of the dangers of vajrayana in general, the importance of a genuine qualified guru, and the dangers of a false guru. No, don’t recall ever seeing any of that, not at all. And there were definitely never any gurus behaving badly in tibet or India. That’s clearly a modern problem.
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Grigoris
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Grigoris »

PeterC wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:39 am To be fair to the writers of articles like this, it’s not as if the Tibetans ever wrote texts warning of the dangers of vajrayana in general, the importance of a genuine qualified guru, and the dangers of a false guru. No, don’t recall ever seeing any of that, not at all. And there were definitely never any gurus behaving badly in tibet or India. That’s clearly a modern problem.
I am guessing this is tongue-in-cheek, because if it is not then it is severely deluded.
"My religion is not deceiving myself."
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Johnny Dangerous »

Drenpa wrote: Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:20 pm It's not even a thinly veiled attempt to use very selective sources and reasoning to denigrate Buddhism and the student/teacher relationship in order for the writer to win students of her own.

Yet another self-appointed, self-styled "modern" teacher who is putting forth the ridiculous proposition that she is in a position to teach and guide people based on her own eclectic and self-serving appropriation of the very teachings she cribbing from and calling into question.

She touts working with chakras, yoga, psychic body, through a "Modern Mystery School" which is obviously of her own creation, and will sell you a nice neat package, with books and all (that she wrote) in order to "develop a new spiritual skill set to add to your thriving spiritual business". All for the unbelievably low price of $150/month - cancel anytime! Not a bad gig if you can scrape together 50-100 dedicated followers to fork that over monthly. Thus, the motivation for the criticism is as plain as day. Rip-on, ripoff. Rip-on, Ripoff. Repeat, Daniel-san.

So yeah - I think that pretty much sums it up. She's ripping on people's faith, practice and religion by combing through over a thousand years of history in search of the most salacious and challenging examples she can find with google and just a bit of reading, lumping all of the extreme examples together with an air of erudition (she cites some sources and is a PhD according to her site) and doing this not even tongue in cheek, but straight up in order to set herself up as a spiritual teacher that will help you make yourself in her image by following her ad hoc system.

Caveat Emptor to say the least.
Yep, this sums it up, babbling nonsense with thin veneer of authority.
Meditate upon Bodhicitta when afflicted by disease

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when sad

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when suffering occurs

Meditate upon Bodhicitta when you are scared

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PeterC
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by PeterC »

Grigoris wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:35 am
PeterC wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:39 am To be fair to the writers of articles like this, it’s not as if the Tibetans ever wrote texts warning of the dangers of vajrayana in general, the importance of a genuine qualified guru, and the dangers of a false guru. No, don’t recall ever seeing any of that, not at all. And there were definitely never any gurus behaving badly in tibet or India. That’s clearly a modern problem.
I am guessing this is tongue-in-cheek, because if it is not then it is severely deluded.
Sorry, forgot the “/sarcasm”

It is just a bit tedious the way that the media periodically recycles the trungpa/roach/etc examples to make a point that is, well, obvious and extensively discussed for the past thousand years at least. They also omit to list the considerable numbers of the qualified gurus out there of impeccable reputation without the slightest hint of scandal. It’s a bit like saying - look, here are two car crashes, are cars dangerous? - without mentioning how many cars do *not* crash
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ShineeSeoul
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by ShineeSeoul »

Josef wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:39 am The first line states that Padmasambhava founded Vajrayana buddhism.
That was enough to stop reading.
I also think that,isn't Padmasambhava who found it? I am not Vajrayana, so I don't know if there is something wrong with this
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ShineeSeoul
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by ShineeSeoul »

PeterC wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:39 am To be fair to the writers of articles like this, it’s not as if the Tibetans ever wrote texts warning of the dangers of vajrayana in general, the importance of a genuine qualified guru, and the dangers of a false guru. No, don’t recall ever seeing any of that, not at all. And there were definitely never any gurus behaving badly in tibet or India. That’s clearly a modern problem.
really? there is no guru behaving bad in india? I don't think so, there is many cases of abuses happen there
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Aryjna
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Aryjna »

ShineeSeoul wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:20 pm
Josef wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:39 am The first line states that Padmasambhava founded Vajrayana buddhism.
That was enough to stop reading.
I also think that,isn't Padmasambhava who found it? I am not Vajrayana, so I don't know if there is something wrong with this
As everyone else has said so far, this article is total garbage. So this answers the question I suppose.
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Lobsang Chojor
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Lobsang Chojor »

ShineeSeoul wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:22 pm really? there is no guru behaving bad in india? I don't think so, there is many cases of abuses happen there
He was being sarcastic
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conebeckham
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by conebeckham »

Throughout history, back in India, Tibet, not to speak of Western countries and the internet, there have been scammers.

Vajrayana comes from India: Padmasambhava was instrumental in bringing Vajrayana to Tibet, but he brought a tradition from the Indian Mahasiddhas.

And this article is a thinly veiled hit piece and self-promotion at the same time.

And yes, many of you need to fine tune your irony/sarcasm meters, as well as your BS detectors, i’m Afraid..
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
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Josef
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Re: what do you think of this article on Tibetan Buddhism?

Post by Josef »

ShineeSeoul wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 8:20 pm
Josef wrote: Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:39 am The first line states that Padmasambhava founded Vajrayana buddhism.
That was enough to stop reading.
I also think that,isn't Padmasambhava who found it? I am not Vajrayana, so I don't know if there is something wrong with this
Padmasambhava transmitted Varjayana teachings to Tibet. He was by no means the "founder" of Vajrayana.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
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