--- In [email protected], wrote: > > Turq, > > How did it go in the Rama group in the longer Aftermath of Rama doing himself in?
I honestly don't know, except for the few people I remained in contact with, primarily over the Internet. For some of them, even though I knew they shared my doubts about the whole thing, the "Don't you dare say anything negative about a previous spiritual teacher" or "Don't say anything bad about somebody who is...uh...dead" thang kicked in, and they just swung back into line parroting the dogma. For some it seemed to be truly devastating, in the same way that MMY's death probably was for TBs who had wrapped their whole lives around him. For others, it seemed to be an event that "set them free," and enabled them to look further for their satisfactions in life, be they material or spiritual. Before he died, they were pretty much tied by the cult mindset into believing that he was the only possible source of such satisfactions. In other words, different strokes for different folks. > Proly lots of immediate shock and trauma but there was existent a form of organization before he died and is there any vestige of a group afterward? As far as I can tell, being as far away from it as I am, there is. There are a few hardcore TBs who still like to pretend that they are "Rama's tradition," even though he clearly didn't intend to leave one. I have never had anything to do with them, other than to attend one event they staged in Phoenix that I wrote about in the last story of Road Trip Mind. It was fun, but not the kind of fun I felt like hanging around. > Before he died there were some who spoke for the group of Rama as to his teachings and and running the group. Did any of them come forward afterward with the teachings or an organization in some form? Succession was not planned for or necessarily indicated? Anybody go forward with it anyway in some form? Where did any of the key spiritual insiders tend to end up? Gravitate to be with whom? How did it transpire for the followers and some of the tru-believers in particular? I am just wondering by comparison. All good questions. I'll answer as best I can, *not* being part of it all, and thus having picked up only what I've picked up from afar, over the Net. He left *NO* successors. He left *NO* successor organization, except a foundation to distribute the wealth he had accumulated to further the study of what he called "American Buddhism." They have -- to their credit -- spread this money around to a number of well-meaning and in many cases well-acting organizations to help do just that. There are a few people who have "set up shop" as spiritual teacher furthering his tradition. I know them all, and recommend none of them. I went out of my way to not be placed into the position of "speaking for Rama," and I personally think his "tradition" would be better served if more had done so. Some -- who IMO had become dependent on always having a guru or teacher available to "lead" them -- felt his absence strongly, and flocked to other teachers. Not surprisingly, some flocked to people I considered charlatans, because IMO *their* charlatan energy was similar to Rama's (Sathya Sai Baba and Adi Da, for example). Some were IMO wiser, and went for more traditional Tibetan teachers who I occasionally met and respected, just never felt any "pull" to study with. Me, I just went my own Way. In other words, it probably went similarly to what happened after MMY kicked the bucket, except that he didn't kick the bucket out from underneath himself. :-) It's always *amazing* to me to see how many of the ones who tried to continue on "teaching in Rama's name" don't even *mention* his suicide on their websites, or if they do, use the hideous euphemism "his Mahasamadhi." Give me a fuckin' break. Guy croaked himself. I'm *sure* he felt he had reasons for doing so. Anyone with as established a history of NPD as Rama had could have easily come up with such reasons. But still, he had a choice, and in my opinion he made a bad one, heavily influenced by a drug called Valium that he foolishly tried to "kick" his dependence on "cold turkey," even though it says right on the label never to do this, *because of the risk of suicide*. At this point, I really am not the person you should ask as to whether there is much of a lingering "tradition" in his name. I'm sure there is, but I'm SO not part of it. Even if I wanted to be, I doubt I'd be allowed to be, because Road Trip Mind was not exactly what those who run such a tradition consider the "party line." I was -- and am still -- considered somewhat of a pariah and an apostate for having written it the way that I did. Go figure. All I was trying to do was be honest.
