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Newsletter Nr. 567
Amsterdam, May 24th, 2015



THE PARADOX OF DA FREE JOHN - DAVID LANE

Reflecting back on Adi Da's life and work (he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 2008 at his Fiji compound), I am convinced that Scott Lowe diagnosed his former teacher perfectly as suffering from the very narcissism he claimed engulfed his followers. Indeed, it may well be that much of Da's deep psychological insight into the human condition didn't stem from his self-proclaimed “enlightenment” but from observing day to day his own neurotic behavior and his own self-centered interactions with those closest to him. In any case, knowing what we do now about his uncouth antics, I would have definitely written a more critical piece on him today than I did thirty years ago. So with that caveat emptor read the following with a discriminating eye.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/lane94.html


ANDREW COHEN'S “APOLOGY” - Truly Sincere, Manipulative, or “Other”? - ELLIOT BENJAMIN

I think both Frank Visser and David Lane have given stimulating, fair, and balanced perspectives on Andrew Cohen's recent “apology” [1]. One can see from the comments to both Visser and Lane's essays the divided responses of Cohen's ex-students in regard to their feelings of whether Cohen was being truly sincere in his apology, or rather manipulative to rebrand himself as a more “user-friendly” guru who is now ready to embrace the agape side of guruship that he had mistakenly lost sight of (cf. [1]). As both Visser and Lane stated, it is certainly rare for a guru to admit to his or her wrongdoings, and at the very least I think Cohen deserves some credit for this admission, even if it was essentially “forced” upon him by his students ousting him from his role of guru.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/benjamin75.html