Best Guru out of these people

http://www.ugkrishnamurti.org/ug/ug_audio/UG-Smiling.jpg

http://www.avatarmeherbaba.org/erics/behappyb.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41h8YPA%2BGkL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

http://www.kentuckyeckankar.org/Harold_Klemp.jpg

http://www.miinfinito.com/images/maharaji02.jpg

http://www.gurusfeet.com/files/gurus_gallery_pics/neem.jpg

http://fredericklenzfoundation.org/Buddhism/images/RamaSweater.jpg

haha, thank you.

The Viceroy just gave us SRI HAROLD KLEMP's likeness

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mJYS10ASPPk/SJoTdt4UybI/AAAAAAAAAow/iXtghk2o_uQ/s400/Andrew+Cohen.jpg

http://www.sustainedaction.org/Explorations/Oscar_1.jpg

ugh, i forgot this asshole

http://img.youtube.com/vi/VE4oBMnS6OA/0.jpg

u.g. krishnamurti was such a hottie

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRj8xtNaUH7ULBhuCyGMh8pvVOY07WzYRGHT1_uWSEijhIIdMM&t=1&usg=__tU0DvvNH1dAql0dVRR5na4YdG_o=

i mean, rowr

How many tomorrows can you see?

You can call Klemp by his spiritual nickname Harji, or "Z", if Sri is too formal or his real name is too Western for you, btw.

I like the second guy's hat.

xpost i only see tomoROWR

haha

post prompts waterfalls of ilxor's outing their eckankar nicknames and levels

Sri was the name of my Chem 112 lab TA so I just feel like I'm prepping to ask for more litmus papers or something saying that name.

i had this temp assignment for several months where one of my officemates was named "buddha". i dunno, i guess it's a common name in sri lanka? he was a great guy. he traded stocks all day online when he should have been working. and he was really good at it.

http://www.console-dev.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/amiga_guru_meditation.gif

I thought Sri was an honorific. Then again I knew a kid in high school named "Sir"...

This was short for Srikanth.

started this thread on a lark, being goofy. picked out personalities somewhat arbitrarily. there are no women here, i picked out names mostly for lol-value

that said, here are my takes on these ppl.

sai baba- has genuine siddhis, but there are huge problems with him
osho- similar, i guess, was habitual nitrous user according to tell-alls
jiddu krishnamurti- brilliant, but had weird entanglements in his personal life
u.g. krishnamurti- brilliant, yogically active, but too cynical for his own good
meher baba- very interesting dude. went around rescuing "masts" but one of the most astute takes on him that i've read suggested that he himself was a mast
bubba free john- very interesting guy, but ultimately too problematic. someday a film will be made based on his life or a great bio written. gold in those hills. literate ppl, pls research his life and then split the finder's fee-based residuals w/me
prem rawat- no. astrodome thing presents great, telling visual image of seventies culture, though?
neem karoli baba- did he really eat ram dass' acid or just palm it? regardless his american devotees went on to interesting things. search bhagavan das' book it's here now, are you which is a headfuck in itself. or oprah-friendly buddhist lama surya das
frederick lenz- no
andrew cohen- his mom wrote a book about what a jerk he became after becoming "enlightened"
oscar ichazo- i dunno, it was the seventies, man
sri harold klemp- i think the roots of eck have some legitimacy? but probably tap-dancing in the astral is waste of time.

andrew cohen- his mom wrote a book about what a jerk he became after becoming "enlightened"

book title - "Mother of God" LOL

http://www.miqel.com/images_1/random_image/odd/tomato_torture.jpg

i have a relative-by-marriage who is a longtime follower of AC (and a cult's exactly what is, textbook case of 70s - style charismatic group) mr enlightenment is a bullshitter.

my favorite guru is this guy; don't know what he's up to now but he was a staple on US talk radio for many years. totally bonkers and misogynist/racist

http://www.gravitydrivenuniverse.org/images/roy-masters.jpg

hah, that picture

http://www.providingnews.com/wp-content/uploads/new/2010/04/rapper-guru-dies-at-43.jpg

cohen really bugs me. i saw a video of him and ken wilber (don't care for him, either) doing q&a with a roomful of people in boulder i guess. anyhow this obv. intelligent, sweet-seeming young woman is on the verge of tears b/c she is not, "getting it" or whatever, the way she believes that cohen, wilber have. she berates herself for five minutes straight about what a spiritual failure she is. wilber tries to crack a self-effacing joke to lighten the mood, and when the camera next takes in cohen's face his resentment at his buddy getting laughs and attention over him is so transparent. i mean, if you're gonna play guru, it helps if you can at least project an air of authority, wisdom instead of adolescent-style peevishness.

most disturbing, though, is that the woman obviously has so much going for her, yet there she is abdicating her own authority in favor of whatever was coming out of these guys' mouths. and said guys were apparently all too willing to take on her projections.

http://www.ex-premie.org/pix/creem74cov.jpg

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s206727.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9qW3UgFDrw&feature=related

i've been lol'ing my way through this

my mom is super into Andrew Cohen - never seen a picture of him tho (which one is he here...?) I totally don't care as long as a) my mom's not some brainwashed sex-slave forbidden from contact with the outside world and b) I don't have to listen to too much blather about it from her

How about Ram Dass?

His early 70s books are worth a read just to appreciate the hip language alone...and 'grok in its fullness'

http://www.allenginsberg.org/uploads/images/0479.jpg

sri harold klemp- i think the roots of eck have some legitimacy?

no fuckin way. my first girlfriend's family were eckists. The whole thing just seems like an excuse to sell books, like L. Ron Hubbard lite (though eckankar's hippy-dippy belief system is nowhere near as harmful as scientology's)

shakey mo, he is the guy pictured upthread w/moustache, orangey necktie

also

http://i29.tinypic.com/adyv0h.jpg

I saw some PBS thing on Ram Das post-stroke where I was impressed with how forthcoming he was about this near-death experience. Basically boiled down to "I was about to die, and all my spiritual 'training' disappeared, I completely panicked, etc.'" It was interesting to see him be so forthright and open about what he clearly perceived to be a personal failure.

I'm not really into gurus - but the one I thing I like about Ram Dass is that he's pretty open about his failures, and he makes it clear he's not an 'enlightened master' (whatever that its). I guess he's turned down the guru aura a lot since the early 70s when he really did seem to attract a following.

I sense Osho probably had a good sense of humour (and partly inspired the fine John Updike novel - 'S.' )

sri harold klemp- i think the roots of eck have some legitimacy?

no fuckin way. my first girlfriend's family were eckists. The whole thing just seems like an excuse to sell books, like L. Ron Hubbard lite (though eckankar's hippy-dippy belief system is nowhere near as harmful as scientology's)

this anti-cult/academic guy David Lane has written about it

At seventeen Lane, who was raised Catholic in the San Fernando Valley, became interested in Radhasoami, a branch of surat shabd yoga founded in India in the nineteenth century. In 1978, after five years of study, he was initiated into Radhasoami in India by the late Maharaj Charan Singh.

In 1977, noting the similarities between Radhasoami and Eckankar, a religious movement founded in San Diego in 1965 by the late Paul Twitchell, Lane wrote a term paper comparing the two for an undergraduate religious studies class at California State University, Northridge. In the course of his research Lane discovered that Twitchell "plagiarized whole chapters from Radhasoami texts, lied about biographical details, and commenced vast cover-ups concerning the true origin of Eckankar's doctrines.

so my impression is that it was in part based on some legitimate indian yogic tradition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkmOdbJnMGw

to make matters confusing the Maharaji Ji Ram Dass is talking about in that video is the guy I listed in the poll as "Neem Karoli Baba" and not goofy Maharaji/Prem Rawat guy

so my impression is that it was in part based on some legitimate indian yogic tradition

yeah I knew this - I just think plagiarism is sort of the opposite of being "legitimate"

you're right, my post was poorly-worded

I am just going to think of you two spiritual bros working together when I see the name of the Klemp now. BFFs

working * out * together

haha

can you spot me, harji?

you're right, my post was poorly-worded

i thought it was dry wit! itt zingin' yogis

bubba free john made some dope crazy old man art

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Orpheuseurydice.jpg

yeah, i saw that/(those?) pieces recently i guess via gis and was surprised at how much i liked them

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Bubba Free John? what about Bubba Free Joe (on right)

http://www.nyc-plus.com/nyc16/joe5.gif

any particular reason why Srila Prabhupada isn't on the list?

of these - I love to read U.G., learned about him on ilx I think, but as guru I'm not sure how useful spiritually his schtick is - I think the reason I do like him is he reads like a Vedantic Blanchot or something, in pursuit of this self/work-undoing statement. incredible tour van reading though I gotta say - "hey guys, check this out - UG says there's no such thing as listening." But toward what sort of insight or realization does UG's thought lead? Praphupada liked to use the term "word jugglery" to describe the thinking of both his critics & other gurus, and sometimes reading UG conversations, I think, well, that's all very clever, but it's almost like a math proof that's "solve for not x" or something.

I remember reading in a book about cults/new religions that Bubba Free John/Da Free John/Adida's first book was a major work of religious thought, and I'm way jealous of him that he owns his own island, and his daughter makes pretty decent new age music. Sai Baba's a fraud, ok, but he does say some interesting things. So did Rajneesh but I lived in PDX when there were homeless people in orange clothes who'd been shipped up from the commune after he got busted. I think of these probably staid old Jiddu Krishnamurti is the most solid but who wants to vote for the KPFK-approved guy? Might as well vote Alan Watts

can I steal the phrase "Vedantic Blanchot"? why because it look intersting

lol be my guest, after all before I said it the phrase was a jiva floating around waiting to reenter the cycle of birth and death

wonder if blanchot actually was into any uh "non-western thought" -- then again he was of course down with mallarme, who apparently lifted his whole steeze from tao, so who knows, shit's complicated

really blanchot acted in a guru-like way, or at least in a desert father sort of way - he writes a lot, then sort of disappears but reemerges briefly in '68...I had only ever seen one photograph of him until just now, I note his wikipedia page has a shot of young maurice. the writing of the disaster is certainly UG-like, though that may be because of UG's bit about the "calamity" that annihilated self for him.

unfortunately I really don't know enough about this stuff to have a legit conversation; I went thru what I think is the more-or-less standard 'eastern mysticism' phase in my late teens but that was mostly Sufism (I think just to be contrarian?). so uh if anyone wants to start a "best Sufi teacher" thread I will be happy to pop in and vote for Inayat Khan.

(but also: I am happy @ this thread for providing some suggestions/inspiration)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

any particular reason why Srila Prabhupada isn't on the list?

no, the list was pretty drunkenly? arbitrarily conceived, to say the least

of these - I love to read U.G., learned about him on ilx I think, but as guru I'm not sure how useful spiritually his schtick is -

agree with pretty much everything you say upthread about UG, except that i had never heard of Blanchot and had to google him!

i think that UG would be an appropriate guru for ilx, given that he is even more of an anti-guru than J. Krishnamurti

I remember reading in a book about cults/new religions that Bubba Free John/Da Free John/Adida's first book was a major work of religious thought
yeah, DFJ's early books get high praise in some circles

Sai Baba's a fraud, ok
there is a really disturbing bbc documentary about him on the youtubes

http://api.ning.com/files/1xNFJGGgdot9X-DD2oyso8IkmVF*M08EwYfLqDXv-TK88pYs67kQh-lBdXeeJw9TnaBCDKrQ3KhCXMxXrI*vt1eyMERRvaXM/IMG_PlanesECKANKAR.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpIrDJGVdO0

HUuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

HUuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

http://www.eckankar.org/Video/play.php?name=Miracles+in+Your+Life

HUuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Huh?

http://www.eckankar.org/hu.html

An Invitation to Sing HU
You are invited to try this simple spiritual exercise. It has helped people of many different faiths open their hearts more fully to the uplifting presence of God.

To do the exercise, first get comfortable. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Next, gently put your attention on your inner visual screen, where daydreams and images come to you.

With your eyes closed, sing HU (pronounced like the word hue) as a song of love. You may notice a feeling of peace, warmth, and comfort. You may also recognize the presence of the Divine through greater spiritual insights into your daily life. There are many ways to experience the love of God.

When you sing HU and sit in quiet contemplation, you might also perceive the inner Light and Sound. The Light may appear as brightness or colors on your inner visual screen. The Sound may be musical or the sounds of nature, such as the wind or the ocean. However you experience the presence of God, it is bringing you a broader understanding of the life you lead.

HUUUUuuuuuuuuu

yikes, this is terrifying. there are entire books and programs intended to educate children about Eckankar. http://www.eckankar.org/Youth/

Mooji - the Brixton guru...

http://www.mooji.org/resources/frontpage.jpg

Anthony Paul Moo-Young, known as Mooji, was born on 29 January 1954 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. In 1969, he moved to the UK and lived in Brixton, London. Anthony worked in London's 'West End' as a street portrait artist for many years, then as a painter and a stained glass artist, and later as a teacher at Brixton College. For a long time, he was well known as Tony Moo, but is now affectionately known as Mooji by the many seekers and friends who visited him.

~~~single note of a flute~~~

I enjoyed the autobiography of Thaddeus Golas, who wrote the hippie classic 'Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment', which conveys what's it's like to be seriously spaced out, surfing the universe, e.g.

He gets held up by an armed robbery at his San Francisco communal house:

One of the bikers pointed a gun at my forehead and said, "How does it feel to be looking down the barrel of a .44?"

Since I was high on LSD, I thought, "Far out! My horoscope says I'm going to live to 84, but here I go." Aloud, I said, "I dig you, brother."

whoa, that seems like essential reading

man this "hu" business really puts "sympathy for the devil" in a whole new light...

An Eckankar commercial just played before a youtube I just watched.

http://ra-el.org/bannernewer2.jpg

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/10965406/hiding-plain-sight-former-san-diego-state-star-adam-muema-ditches-pro-day-nfl-combine

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2fphoto%2f2014%2f0522%2fmag_muema03_tw_600x1066.jpg