L ron gardner

[TaTa]

Who is this guy who is posting about his new dzogchem book on facebook and seems disrespectful to acomplished dzogchen teachers? Anyone knows his background?

[conebeckham]

LOL, I tried to engage him. Useless. Took Malcolm's cue and just blocked him. This life is too short......already.

I do wonder if he's trolling....with a name like that.

[Thomas Amundsen]

No idea who he is really. The only background I know is that he used to be a major Amazon review troll for Dharma books.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Oh man this guy..author of "Electric Spirituality"..look it up. Wait..http://www.electricalspirituality.com/

I've read a number of his Amazon reviews, they are amusing to read, but the dude seems unhinged.

[Norwegian]

He has what we can call, "a condition", because that's the only way to explain all the nonsense he cooks up. Just ignore.

[Sādhaka]

The guy is seriously deluded.

Not even because of his shall we say unique views necessarily (although I'd guess that there are some strange ideas to be found there too); but deluded because he thinks he knows Dzogchen, when he quite obviously does not.

[dzogchungpa]

I believe he actually started a thread here a while back, but it seems to have been disappeared. If I recall correctly, he likes the word 'grok'.

[M.G.]

Here’s a recent public FB quote by Mr Gardner:

“...I'm the consummate expert in all the Great Spiritual Traditions -- Pali Buddhism, Yogacara, Zen, Dzogchen/Mahamudra, Advaita Vedanta, the Yoga Sutras, Kashmir Shaivism, Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Daism, and Electrical Spirituality -- and I'll begin work on a Dzogchen text in a few weeks. Anyone who doubts my unrivaled expertise in esoteric spirituality should check out my 300 + Amazon book reviews.”

That’s about all you need to know about the guy. Sheesh.

[DGA]

Here’s a recent public FB quote by Mr Gardner:

“...I'm the consummate expert in all the Great Spiritual Traditions -- Pali Buddhism, Yogacara, Zen, Dzogchen/Mahamudra, Advaita Vedanta, the Yoga Sutras, Kashmir Shaivism, Christian Hermeticism, Kabbalah, Daism, and Electrical Spirituality -- and I'll begin work on a Dzogchen text in a few weeks. Anyone who doubts my unrivaled expertise in esoteric spirituality should check out my 300 + Amazon book reviews.”

That’s about all you need to know about the guy. Sheesh.

Haha

Related discussion in a different thread here:

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=26626&start=280#p409540

[treehuggingoctopus]

The poor sod is an Ayn Rand fan, too. As if the nonsense he spouts on Dzogchen were not enough...

[dzogchungpa]

You can see the man in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2vIicJrZQQ

[krodha]

This Facebook quote was the best one though:

• I say I have "cracked the code" and understand Dharma, including Buddhadharma and Dzogchen, on a level above anyone else writing on this stuff.
  -- L Ron Gardner

Like Cone said: you can't make this up!

[Johnny Dangerous]

This Facebook quote was the best one though:

• I say I have "cracked the code" and understand Dharma, including Buddhadharma and Dzogchen, on a level above anyone else writing on this stuff.
  -- L Ron Gardner

Like Cone said: you can't make this up!

I actually thought some of his amazon reviews were satire at first.

[M.G.]

This Facebook quote was the best one though:

• I say I have "cracked the code" and understand Dharma, including Buddhadharma and Dzogchen, on a level above anyone else writing on this stuff.
  -- L Ron Gardner

Like Cone said: you can't make this up!

I actually thought some of his amazon reviews were satire at first.

I actually have no problem with someone claiming a personal understanding of Dzogchen which differs from how it’s normally taught (although how seriously they’ll be taken without serious scholarly and yogic credentials is an interesting question) or for that matter, disagreeing with the Dzogchen teachings, so long as such disagreement is expressed honestly and without rancor.

That said, this guy’s an obvious buffoon.

[krodha]

I actually have no problem with someone claiming a personal understanding of Dzogchen which differs from how it’s normally taught (although how seriously they’ll be taken without serious scholarly and yogic credentials is an interesting question) or for that matter, disagreeing with the Dzogchen teachings, so long as such disagreement is expressed honestly and without rancor.

That said, this guy’s an obvious buffoon.

When these "personal understandings" differ from the traditional view it is usually because they haven't had a genuine recognition of the nature of mind, and as a result they mistake coarse non-dual states, formless absorptions etc., which all pertain to the afflicted ālaya, as the authentic knowledge of their nature. Which it isn't.

What results is this type quasi-Buddhist crypto-Advaita that L Ron Gardner is promulgating.

Honestly though I think even that is giving him too much credit... in my opinion he is just an intellectual who reads books in English and spots words that are similar across various traditions and just assumes they all are discussing the same thing.

I'm sure he's received teachings from so-and-so guru like Adi Da Samraj, and has had some meditative experiences, but it doesn't appear to go any deeper than that.

[crazy-man]

Witness the new messiah - L. Ron Gardner - a right wing libertarian with somewhat errr ... patriarchal views. According to this creepy Paul Simon look-a-like, "women aren't geniuses" - they don't have a balanced brain chemistry and are not driven by any of the testosterone which brings about change. So any great advancements in society or great New Age is going to be driven by men, not by women, and the role of women is just to fit into the social matrix! He also argues that Jesus' 12 disciples were all male and none of them were women ... Obviously he's never read the Gnostic Gospels and has deleted Mary Magdalene from the mainframe, just like the women-hating Early Church Fathers. Strangely, this self-proclaimed polymath has never heard of Rosa Luxemburg, Hypathia of Alexandria, Joan of Arc or Elizabeth I of England and others too numerous to mention. Then he quotes Meister Eckhart - "I penetrate God and God penetrates me" - proudly proclaiming that we have to be the penis that enters the divine and the vagina that receives it. So ... he's an autoerotic self-fertilising egomaniac who's got it all worked out ... in other words, a bit of a wanker! Ironically, the fatal flaw in L. Ron Gardner's grand thesis is that he is a disciple of the very FEMALE, very fascist, very testosterone-driven nightmare guru - Ayn Rand - who provided the ideological clothing for the neoliberal horror story that changed the world!

www.facebook.com/ChiTingApocalypse/post ... 6360825801

L. Ron Gardner is a mystic-philosopher and devotes his life to living and communicating the Truth. In addition to elaborating on his own Dharma, he enjoys analyzing other ones and presenting his unique and penetrating insights in a clear and engaging manner. Prior to launching his writing career at the age of sixty, he was self-employed in various capacities, including astrologer-counselor, computer consultant, and sportsbetting arbitrager. He has a B.A in sociology from the University of California, San Diego, and studied Marxism under the iconic Herbert Marcuse at UCSD. He is an unabashed Ron Paul Revolution fan and quasi-Objectivist/libertarian, and delights in intellectually carving up statists and “integral” globalists.

http://www.integralworld.net/gardner1.html

[dzogchungpa]

Well, at least he makes a good Aunt Sally.

[TaTa]

Oh. Now i feel bad for him, he mist be creating some serius obstacles for his liberation

[Grigoris]

You can see the man in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2vIicJrZQQ

[jkarlins]