Looks like What Enlightenment, the blog exposing the control tactics of Andrew Cohen, is signing off.

I can fully understand this, as at some point, you simply deal with - as much as possible - any abusive tactics thrown at you by an abusive guru, step away from the PAST, and then continue on into the now.

Still, lots of gratitude for the exposure, to Hal and friends.  A quote:

Three former editors of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, including myself, spoke out strongly here about the abuses in Andrew Cohen's community. Other close students have also put their names on the line to attest to what went wrong with the community's beautiful dream of creating heaven on earth. The woman who financed Cohen's Foxhollow EnlightenNext world center wrote about how he unfairly took advantage of her vulnerability and largesse. Numerous other students have also contributed here, both named and anonymous, shedding light on the authoritarian abuses around Cohen, their causes and their harmful effects. In contrast, not one specific or credible factual denial has emerged from Andrew or anyone associated with him about what has been reported here in great detail and depth. Instead, we have only heard the refrain that we have failed to include the "context," as if any overarching purpose could justify the abuses described here and the pain they caused. No cry of "context" could obscure the devastating truth that the participants in this blog have had the courage to reveal.

The number of individuals alone, involved for many many years, high up in the organization, speak the tale, not to mention previous exposes, such as Mother of God, and Enlightenment Blues.   That much smoke, over more than a decade, it speaks for itself. (When your mother outs you as an abusive control freak, while at one time an enthusiastic supporter, that is really strong evidence.)

Hal hopes for a final exposure, but this isn't usually how this happens.  Most of the time, there is no "final exposure" for a guru.  The guru or other followers, modulate their tactics a bit  (which has happened with Cohen in this case, after the outing by WhatEnlightenment, and that is to the good), but the charisma, speaking ability, writing skills, etc, that initially attracted people, still operates, and still continues to attract people.  How many older cult leaders, and their cults, still exist?  Quite a lot, even after exposure.

And so it goes.

My own interest remains is to not have Cohen's spirit and energy contaminate Integral Institute, or Zaadz, but clearly both these organizations have taken a neutral "I see nothing!  I know nothing!"  mentality regarding Cohen, and do the branding thing together.  Luckily, Cohen is fairly easy to avoid on Zaadz. 

It's been demonstrated to my satisfaction that What Is Enlightenment magazine, doesn't have independence from Cohen.  No "I disagree with what you say but will defend your right to WRITE it to the death" at What Is Enlightenment.  As long as you know that, you are good to go.

Actually, a link to another group which has cooperated with Al-Queda, but a lot of these  Pakistan/Afghanistan Islamic groups exchange people, information and resources.

Here is the article. Notable quote:

A three-tier security ring has been thrown around the 72-year-old Buddhist head, who lives at Dharamsala, in the Himalayan foothills, Indian police spokesman Prem Lal said.

All those approaching the exiled Tibetan chief will be closely watched by highly trained Tibetan security guards as well as heavily armed deployments of Indian police.

Visitors are being body-searched before being allowed to approach him.

This makes me incredibly sad, but it's part and parcel of the age.  

And then it brings up, of course, how non-violence may be an inappropriate response, to determined aggression.   We knew this of course, simply from China's extermination of the Tibetans as a separate people, over the last 50 years.

Thanks to Matthew Dallman for the link.

The National Review article, throughout, conflates priests practices Buddhism, with people who are primarily Buddhist, but acting out of nationalism - but the main point still remains that in certain situations, even practicing buddhist priets have responded to force, with force.

Since I have a comment by a reader, in a previous post, I will go ahead and point to a new article up at What Enlightenment, by a major contributor (millions of dollars) to Andrew Cohen's work. 

She details out, from her perspective, the process that Cohen went through to secure a 2 million dollar donation from her. 

Now, individual posts like this, you have to be cautious of - but given that, in this post, she details some of her own personal issues honestly, as well as gets some corroboration from other NAMED individuals in the comments, the post is worth paying attention to.

I'm not sure what it will take for Integral Institute and Ken Wilber, to STOP giving any oxygen to this guy, but hopefully it will happen soon.  After a year of exposure, from various sources, it can't come soon enough.  (I vote, with my Sponsor Plus membership in Integral Institute, to drop this guy).  When will Ken wake up about this particular issue?  Anyone at I-I ever do a Q&A with Ken on this particular issue?

(Note - don't do a Q&A NOW - Ken's had a marvelous and inspiring recovery, as detailed in this blogpost, but at some point maybe someone can find out Ken's stance.)

Video from David Johnson - know NOTHING about this guy, but interesting video - a dry discussion - let me know what you think.

Per has a good article on "inner and outer integrations".

Specifically regarding recognizing non-dual Self, Big Mind, etc - there are a variety of methods which shift a person's selfhood, and yet do so in different ways.

I've been enjoying going through the ILP Kit, and listening to the Dvd's.

One of the things I am pleased about, is the "Integral Inquiry" long form.  This is your basic eastern meditation practice - and actually, is the variation that I adopted for "ease in a busy life", over 10 years ago.

the basic practice is a quick centering, and then breath counting - and then I use the same thing, in that the breath counting stops after awhile, and the breath is simply paid attention to.

So that is simply good to know.  This basic practice in various traditions can get a lot of refinements, such as breathing in one notril, then the other.  Breathing in energy, breathing it out, etc.  But the basic practice of counting breaths and resting in awareness, is the ground.

For me, when this practice is very deep, therre is a subtle dissolving of the inner and outer awareness, into just awareness meeting what is arising - in and out.

This is a fundamentally different practice - and a different viewpoint - than say, Big Mind, or Advaita pointing out instructions.   In that type of embracing the "view" - there is a fundamental shift of identity - somewhat separate from awareness arising.  In this "seeing" is different, in that the identity shifts to this subtle quietly joyful identity, that arises moment by moment, breath by breath.

the two have not met, for me - which eventually is supposed to happen.  

People like Brad Warner (assuming he is being honest and on the level) look at Big Mind, Advaita Vedanta, and says they are B.S.  Just sit, until all the contents of consciousness are met, and the clarity of what is will shine through. 

However, there is a profound awakening that happens through BigMind, Advaita Vedanta, Course in Miracles, Tibetan Buddhism, etc. 

Because that understanding is so profound -and yet can also fall away (in my experience) - it's still an open question whether "the view" - which is open for anybody to shift into, and experience the profoundness of - is some type of final end.

Saw this article about Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales thinking of establishing a reputation system, and again, made me think about using some of the established  reputation and review systems to rate various practices.

Here's a couple of examples -

1. Question:  What is the mechanism, right NOW, to rate the I-WET weekend, or any of the Integral Universities weekly seminars?

2. David Deida - I've read his books, and met the man, having picked him up at the airport once (many years ago), and he was a great guy.  But, where would you go to find ratings of David Deida's seminars, and their experiences?

A friend of mine went to a three day workship of Deida's a few years ago, and in his opinion, he pretty much covered what he covered in the books, and not much more. 

And that makes some sense, actually.  Various PARTICULAR psychosexual and partner situations, are just that - particular and invididualized.  It would seem to me the most help one could get from Deida-type work, is working with a counselor trained in some of the Deida "techniques", for lack of a better word.

I don't mean this to detract from Deida, as he was a great guy in my experience.  But again, what is the best way to apply his insights to individuals and groups - and is the way he is applying those insights the best?  Open reviews by those with good reputations (to prevent gaming of the system) would help quite a lot, wouldn't you agree?

Saw this article on the New York Times, about LIME, "Healthy Living With a Twist".

Called a "New Age" channel - and it does have Deepak Chopra - what I notice is the full multi-media platform.  Like Integral Naked, or like Noetic Institute's Shift In Action, the platform includes video, audio - and in the case of LIME, blogging.   Probably some other stuff I haven't run across...

Also, from a simple marketing perspective - I notice that there will be a radio channel on Sirius, for LIME. 

Given the amount of material at Integral Naked now, I wonder if anyone over there has thought of arranging alternative distributions of some of the multimedia content on Integral Naked?

Lastly - given the explosion of content - video, audio, text, blogging, that now inundates anyone who is "connected", the last remaining puzzle which isn't present is community programs and participation.

First this one at Indistinct Union. 

It's pretty hard to bring a holistic and spiritually informed view to subjects like "outsourceing", but CJ has a go of it.

Second, the Human Bean points me to the Ken Wilber's Towards A Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energies.

What I like about this article are the diagrams.  But I really wish that Wilber would get better at sourcing some of the major work that has been done in this area.  

For example, as "new-agey" as it may be, there's quite a lot of work on subtle energies done by Barbara Brennan.  As a former NASA physicist, she is very aware of the the empirical methodology as well.

Please feel free to correct me, but at this moment I can't think of anytime Wilber has referenced this.

(By the by, does Wilber employ a stable of research assistants?  Even if he would "outsource" this to India, I would think the comprehensive nature of "The Theory of Everything" would require fact-checkers and research assistants...)

A funny thing happened to me last month. I went to the September San Francisco Ken Wilber Meet-Up, and as it happened, the organizer was stepping down. He put it open for others to volunteer to become the organizer of the Ken Wilber Meet-Ups. No one was stepping up immediately, so Amy (my fiance, who was at the meeting as well) started nudging me in the ribs, and whispering (Go! You! You're always on that computer on your blog, integral this, integral that, you do this!). (On another note, I'll have a post about the September MeetUp, and what was discussed there later). Long story short, I am now the Ken Wilber Meetup Organizer - at least until they kick me out for causing a scene, or some such...   more »

In an earlier post, I said I would give an analysis of the recent Integral Naked dialogue between Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen. As an experiment, I’ve decided to do a form of “liveblogging”. I remember this first being done during the presidential debates – and I have decided to use this format, for commenting on this dialogue. NOTE: This isn’t really “liveblogging” since I’m not that fast a typer (or thinker). This is more listening, stopping when something is interesting, and then even playing the interesting segment back again, to make sure I get it correctly. My commentary will be in italics. At the end, will be my analysis. At any rate, with that introduction, let’s go:   more »

I've just listened to the most recent "what's new" dialogue up at Integral Naked. 

I'll post a real analysis tonight, but I wanted to mention that, it's worthwhile listening to it.  (Let me know if I should post the MP3 file to OurMedia, and provide the link, for anyone who isn't a subscriber to Integral Naked. Or simply email me, that way it stays private.)

It's worth listening to.

Again, more later, but 1st thoughts. 

1. Cognitively, most of the points being talked about are clear - a person's "center of gravity" doesn't shift, even if one understands the spiritual vision intellectually.  To move the center of gravity up takes work, and at times will involve confrontation.
2. Ken is very, very nicely nicely, almost excruciatingly nicely, hinting around some of the controversy surrounding Andrew Cohen.  It's a public forum, and so I understand the feather touch - it makes sense.
3. Emotionally, Cohen sounds incredibly defensive, using valid points about spiritual authority and spiritual growth, but the emotional defensiveness seems is there..  There is no doubting this.
4. Andrew Cohen is a "Right Man", in terms of always believing, he, or his vision, is right.  I'll attempt to find the link to a pathological description of "Right Man" later. There's a very good description of this is some work of psychology, but it has slipped my mind at the moment.

 Being "Right" with a capital R, and being a "Rude Boy" to boot, is very problematic, in my view.

NOTE:  Cross-posted at Integral Naked Forum

This particular post is important, but since I am posting it as I think it (real-time posting), it will also be a bit confused. Humor me, if you would, and read this to the end... Given a lot of the various messes that can occur with spiritual teachers, I have been contemplating: 1. the relationship between seeing/being spiritual truth, and the limits of these particular insights - a. judging the VALIDITY of a particular insight b. judging the LIMIT or BOUNDEDNESS of a particular spiritual insight 2. Beyond this, however, there is also additional judgements that need to be made by a teacher - c. The path/practice necessary to realize the spiritual insight d. The recognition of what a particular person/student, needs to "do" or "work on", in order for the spiritual insight to manifest itself most strongly. Ken Wilber states "Each valid mode of knowing consists of an injunction, an apprehension, and a confirmation."   more »

Stuart Davis had a quick post,on WhatEnlightenment  without commentary, today.

I had thought of posting on this, but hadn't gotten around to it - or was pretty reluctant, for a variety of reasons, the main one being that a "bad" spiritual authority/student relationship breakup, resembles nothing more than the worst sort of divorces - with all the deepest emotional layers of betrayal, abuse, accusations, etc, exposed.

You can get a fuller sense of the controversy either at What Enlightenment? or at a couple of excellent forums on the controversy at Integral Naked.  I highly recommend, if you have any interest in this topic, to read through these threads.

There are a couple of thoughts that occur to me, that I haven't seen brought up at the above places. So, I'll make these thoughts explicit here.

1.  Like it or not, this is one of the things that blogs excel at - the takedown (justified or not, make your own decision).  From Dan Rather, to Trent Lott, etc, every sets of eyes, ears, feelings, can now be a potential and enduring broadcaster to any of the teeming millions on the internet who wish to read, and listen. 

These type of controversies, and any teacher abuses (and probably some false claims) will get aired far, wide, and efficiently.

Expect more of this, in the future - like anything, this ability will be used for good and bad.

2.  Changing nature of expertise - where goes the hidden knowledge? 

I'm not sure that there is, or can be an "open source spirituality" (should I register this domain?), but it is important to remember that the essential claim of spiritual knowledge, is that the holder of such knowedge HAS it - and by definition the seeker doesn't. 

This "knowledge gap", or perhaps "being gap", depending - will get more and more separated from the corresponding "power gap" that traditionally is associated with the knowledge gap.  This is, simply, inevitable.  (This may not be a universally good thing.  One aspect of surrendering to universal truth, from a place deep in the gut, is to COMPLETELY SURRENDER.  Without challenge by an other, this is very difficult.)  The point is that the tension between modern power relationships and differently defined spiritual power relationships will be exposed. This exposure will be by the people IN their spiritual communities, who feel this tension in themselves, and their relationship to the power structures in their spiritual community.

4.  The nature of profound awakenings, and a note of caution.

Profound awakenings are, really, overwhelming to the ego.  From my own experience, there is a sense of KNOWING what is so - and you can see it, like seeing the red of an apple in your hand.  It is OBVIOUS. 

If the revelation you are seeing is at odds with "what is expected" in society, so what?  You see the truth.  Your vision is clear.  You are "doing the right thing". 

While I've heard stories of Andrew Cohen over the years, I've never met the man.  But even given the stories on What Enlightenment and other places, I don't get a sense that he isn't being true to his vision.   But how does a person "temper" in some sense, the spiritual visions that fill him, and what those visions ask one to do?

It would be useful to have some type of epistemology for REVEALED TRUTHS, but of course, there isn't.  There are individuals, attempting to put the truths they know and see, into practice.  Heroically, even.  Even if the world doesn't understand, and they hurt other people in the process.

I was reading over at Numinous Non-Sense, and I see that Vince has started ordering stuff about Ramana Maharshi. 

And then, being practical, coolmel points out that most of Ramana's teachings are available at his site, without cost.

I have a special place in my heart for Ramana. I spent two weeks at Tiruvanamallai, and both the visit and the place played a role in a two month "enlightenment" experience for me.

I'll be linking to Ramana's site in the "Spiritual" category, but I highly recommend, to any who may read this, to check out some of the materials.