Tibetan Buddhism & Other Derivitive Cults

There is a lot of difference between a religion and a cult at their polar opposites, but the differences are on a sliding scale & just to confuse things further there are clearly cults within certain religions.

Here are the factors at play in a cult.

Cults almost always have a living charismatic leader, or have had one at the outset.

These leaders create the rules & creedo of the cult as they go along but they themselves are always exempt from these rules, various reasons are given for what is usually outrageous behavior, the most common being that they are enlightened & “you just don’t understand”, but you must follow the rules because you aren’t enlightened.

Enlightenment sound great, but is not demonstrable or measurable, but it gives the guru a lot of leverage over his devotees, because after all if they aren’t getting there it’s because they are failing in their work or dharma.

Dharma & karma are fantastic tools of control for any guru (and his “teachers”) they are the ultimate in “magical thinking” because they alter the perception of the devotees in such a way as to make them ever more obedient the more they take these concepts on board. The causes of karma & what needs to be done to earn dharma are of course completely at the discretion of the guru !

These things arrived in the west mainly via “Theosophy” and have become the backbone of the “new age” movement, & various cults you wouldn’t normally think related to Buddhism at all such as est, some people who would sue if I mentioned them lol and even a lot of “management culture” (training courses etc), and of course online groups via youtube, social media etc etc.

The psychology of people drawn to cults is a large part of why they even exist at all, and in the main these people are above average intelligence, are well educated & are quite sensitive people.

They often are at a crisis point or have serious nagging questions about life, death, the mind, the soul & consciousness that no one seems to not only not have answers to, but won’t even discuss them.

So one day something happens & they find themselves at a lecture or “meditation practice” and suddenly people are talking about these things and that’s it, they start to be reeled in.

The word “compassion” is used and seems to have quite a strong effect on some individuals, which is curios because compassion is fairly everyday in the west, it’s in the east it is not a natural part of the culture, look at their human rights records & what the Japanese did in Machuria & to POWs in the 30’s & 40’s.

The curious thing is that the information presented to people & the meditation practices actually make them feel worse about them selves, but because “answers” to these newly discovered “problems” are promised the poor unsuspecting “student” is drawn in, and the more the student does “practices” the further & further they are drawn in.

There are two main avenues that the above operates down, the first is by “self observation” & the student is guided to find endless faults in themselves, of course the solutions to these problems comes at a price…..

The second is by practices such as meditation, techniques taught for this are largely nonsense, but some incense and other props give it all an air of seriousness, the student who has never thought to observe their own thought or try to stop thinking is suddenly faced with some thing that sounds ridiculously simple yet they find impossible, no one wants to quit over some thing that sounds so simple as stopping thinking, and anyway isn’t it supposed to improve you & lead to enlightenment ?

This backed by a philosophy that dictates that the person should strive to “be nothing” and that their lives are “worthless”, that they should strive to be free of “ego” and desires, esp desires that are hardwired into all mammalian organisms and are as such impossible to shut off, sexual repression being key to total control, because now the guru controls the students endocrine system & has total control.

Tibetan buddhism has a few bizarre aspects to it, one is that for anything anyone tells you about it there  are a bunch of people who will refute it, which leaves everything open to deception & lies.    

The western view of TB is that there is a lot of meditation involved, this is not the case it’s mainly rituals, the purpose of which are to worship “entities” some of which are clearly demons, shugden being a case in point.

TB has some very dark aspects to it, the obsession with dharma that binds the devotee to the guru not only in this life by afterwards is especially sinister, the threats for going against the dictats of the guru are usually to do with this aspect of TB, and often involve huge periods of time in hell.

It all sounds very much like deception rules at every level.

At last the Lerab Ling cult has been exposed for what it is, a total sham run by a little fat pervert, who for some reason has been mooned over by a long list of 'clebs, from John Cleese to Clara Bruni, and of course super faker the dali lama himself.....

PDF >>> https://www.lionsroar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Letter-to-Sogyal-Lakar-14-06-2017-.pdf

Hmm, yes there are institutions and cults that take advantage of lost people.even nations could fall victoms. In Christianity we have the church .That manipulated Europe and after most of all the Americas.

But at the same same token there are so many wonderful christens, dispite the fact of being bread from an institution curupted and manipulated by themselves and politics.

There are many that find themselves with a closeness to to god or jesus without the worshipping cult leaders or institutions. You yourself I would imagine could relate to spiral.

In budism  its the same ,hindu as well . I really disagree with the verses about meditation and its use on people . I have been practising meditation on and off for over 30 years . I have travelled through some villages of Tibetan people and much in Nepal and a little in india . I have meditated to heal my mind, successfully , meditated on mountain tops , waterfalls, inside caves in presence of strangers , in present of monks , in presence of masters like a Rinpoche. there are none that are as powerful and giving as myself . It can only be that way. There is no race , no structural pedigree, those that find those structures import have missed the point and are be-littling themselves.  I have travelled and experimented with it farly thougherly. It is not what is mentioned above . If meditation is an instruction it is under a leader. If it is meditation there are no leaders as such . Only you and all there is . You do not meditate to find the endless faults within yourself in order to be submissive. That would be dumb . You wouldn't have to meditate for that you can just brood and self loathe yourself. That would be a cult practice. Quite the contrary has been my experiences with it.

Never has it been negative . never has it been submissive . It has always been empowering , honest even if it hurts  and tears fall, and with pain stretching through your body as you finally are ready for yourself to let it go and heal . Its love to its coor. Its truth as only you can know your truth. The difference only being what one is prepared to face. It a lonely mission but at the same time with all that there is . Also its the acknowledgment of your greater self , meaning whole self . We are so much more than what we give ourselves credit for . WE are conditioned to the contrary and is tuff at times to get through our programming. I know even with all that I have done, I have much to learn and accept about myself , but that does not mean I am suppressed by it. I'm on my journey , its up to me where , what that journey leds to . It can only go to my greater self .Getting over personal fears and acceptance of your whole great self, although it may sound a simple enough theory in the words . Within, there is a universe that we are a part of . That is what we need to accept. We struggle with it ,but that is who we are . meditation is a healing , journey of greatness or grace , of pleasure or rest . Our journeys are real even when they are confused . Meditation can never be a negative thing.....
Cults maybe , institutions, also But its to say energy is guilty of all wrongs , that cannot be , energy is neutral, it exists. We choose , not energy , we create , not energy , we live , energy exists.

I have read teachings , I have also realised that teachings are not total truths.
The only truth that I can have is the one that I have been able to true with, and usually they are of my own making , that are forever evolving .

Teachings from a lonely plant traveller in time. Me.