I remember my teacher was very chill and not a feverish Guru-hungry person.You can also find Indians who are disenchanted with Art of Living and its approach.
For some, paying to learn common pranayama practices seems an abuse. An evangelical Christian might take offense at some of these gestures. ![]() Devotion to a personal teacher or guru (or swami or other term) is particularly prevalent in Hindu culture. The size of his or her following, ashram or donor pool is just another manifestation of grace but you could say that about televangelists here in the States. Art of Living has a huge following in India, and that gives Ravi Shankar a lot of political sway, which I have not seen him use conspicuously. Theres little doubt that his charities and non-profits do a lot of good. His organization has worked hard to associate with other world spiritual leaders and public figures to show that Art of Living is acknowledged as a non-threatening institutions. This kind of multi-pronged institution is not easy to run, and relying on volunteers can be a formula for disaster so it needs professional managers. Its transnational nature means that it may be hard to detect financial abuses or siphoning of funds into private purses in one country or chapter. But India is producing a generation of managers who are capable of handling an organization the size of the Art of Living Foundation. That can be another formula for disaster because criticizing a relatives poor management skills might be seen as an attack on the guru. There is now a Nation Center in Washington, a major center in Southern California and an ashram in North Carolina (The Boone Center International Center for Meditation and Well-being), to name just a few now in the United States. This trend can create the kind of hot-house environments that can become prone to abuses. I cant provide confirmation one way or the other since I have not been to a meeting in several years, but during my early association I never felt that I was being cornered into participating in the introductory classes or in the group practices. Any one can do a web search and find links to sites that are critical of AoL business practices. A person deals with the Art of Living Foundation on an individual basis and may eventually integrate into a community (university campus, ethnic groups, charity work, etc.), which is still a partial vision of the whole organization. Sudarshan Kriya Hoax Series The VowIts been a long time since Ive thought about the Art of Living but recently, I started watching the HBO series The Vow about the NXIVM cult. I noticed some similarities between NXIVM and Art of Living in terms of the method of indoctrination of its followers. I googled Is Art of Living a cult and came across the blogs of Klim, Skywalker, and Obi Wan. Reading through them made me think that at least I should share my story to maybe help others. I wasnt in the Art of Living inner circle and I didnt experience some of more severe abuses that others in the blog have, but I was particularly attached to the organization and the Guru and it took some time to detach myself, this is how it happened. I learned about the Basic Course from a friends roommate when I was going through a particularly vulnerable time dealing with the death of a closed loved one.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |