If you remain the bud of the rose
you will risk a dispirited trap
more painful
than the risk of unfolding
to release the fragrance
of the blossom. 
allen aslan heart

I've had a wonderful chance to see the inner workings of a cult of personality and to see how it is established and maintained, even to the point of physical and emotional harm.  I was introduced to a group that gathered in the apartment of a woman who had a classic case of "Narcissistic Personality Disorder."  She had convinced several adherants to wait upon her every need and whim in exchange for the promise of spiritual advancement that she claimed could not be received anywhere else.  She had convinced one of them, a wealthy businessman, to build a secret underground teaching facility on his isolated farm in northern Minnesota, complete with sewer, water, kitchen, showers, and electric generator.  Access was limited to workshop participants who would pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars. It also served as a storehouse for foodstuffs in the event of earth changes that were supposedly just around the corner.  And, of course, only those in good standing with the leader would be allowed safe haven at such a time. 

She claimed to be "transmitting" spiritual entities from beyond the physical world.  These entities she called "The Blessed Ones."  She would go into a trance-like state and "emerge" talking with a strange accent and authoritarian demeanor.  She sounded and behaved in a manner similar to Ramtha in whose workshops she had participated.  The content of her teaching was based largely on Tibetan Buddhism which she had studied, and on Touch for Life healing which she appropriated as her own. 

I first met the "The Blessed Ones" when I picked up a friend from the airport after she had returned from a 40-day journey with the group in Australia.  Later she invited me to a Native American conference and powwow with the group in northern Minnesota.  Obviously, the topic was of great interest to me.  Later, I began to attend evening meetings and then a weekend workshop with my friend.  They resembled the ancient mystery schools that I had read about and I found much that seemed true.   

If you remain the bud of the rose... 

I was open to new experiences and was ready to enter this realm finding that a door had been opened to me.  I had asked the grandfathers and grandmothers to make it obvious when a door opens to me and to close all doors that are inappropriate to my path.  It was a stunning revelation to note the slamming of doors and the "coincidences"  that showed me the open doors.  I don't believe in coincidence, although it is a reasonable explanation.  I believe the universe has purpose and meaning and that the Source expresses power and wisdom through the material world with intention, design, and love.   

...you will risk... 

Later I chose to live on the farm at the invitation of the owners who wanted someone to help them run the farm organically.  I had been a landscape designer for 15 years, an organic gardner for over 25 years and had grown up on a farm using very little, if any, chemicals or artificial fertilizer.  They promised to help set up and promote classes, seminars, and workshops that I would teach.  And I could keep learning from "The Blessed Ones."  Given a house on the lake and an opportunity to do something so fulfilling, I jumped at the chance.  But there was a flaw hidden in this "paradise." 

...a dispirited trap... 

I noticed how "The Blessed Ones" praised her for the "great sacrifice" in allowing her body and mind to be used so that "they" could teach through her.  "The Blessed Ones" sought our promises to contribute to her emotional and financial well-being, and encouraged fawning behavior.   

There were several other clues along the way.  One of the techniques of so-called "brainwashing" is to place people in situations that deprive them of food, water, warmth, or comfort.  Then when the necessary or the comfortable is once again returned there is a deep sense of gratitude expressed toward the one who had taken it away in the first instance.  We were expected to remain outside in very inclement weather—snow , rain, wind, cold, heat.  We could only eat the food or drink the water that we could carry.  Then when a thin, warm soup was provided we were very grateful.  Expecting to spend another night in the cold and snow, we were most grateful to "The Blessed Ones" to be inside the house or underground in the secret chambers. 

...more painful... 

Sometimes the lie or inconsistency was something seemingly inconsequential such as the mispronunciation of the chant, the mantra of the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokitashvara--OM MANI PADME HUM.  "The Blessed Ones" taught us to say ohm-mah-nee-pahd-meh-hoom.  According to Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, the Tibetans pronounce the syllables ohm-mah-nee-peh-meh-hung.  This mantra is recited repeatedly to purify completely the "six poisonous negative emotions...pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and anger..." that trap us in suffering and rebirth in any of the six realms.1  Kalu Rinpoche writes, "The body, speech, and mind of all the buddhas and bodhisatvas are inherent in the sound of this mantra."2  In the Surangama Sutra it is said, "How sweetly mysterious is the transcendental sound of Avalokiteshvara.  It is the primordial sound of the universe...Its mysterious sound brings peace and liberation to all sentient beings who are calling out for help...."3  As vital as is this sound, why would these "master teachers of the universe," as "The Blessed Ones" claimed to be, teach the use of a different sound?   

And the name of Avalokiteshvara.  When the Tibetan chanters from Gyoto University in Dharmsala, India visited the farm for several days, I had an opportunity to talk to Chen Ye and others.  He told me that the name was not pronounced Av-a-lo-kit-ASH-var-ah, as we were taught, but A-wa-lo-kit-Ee-sher-ee.  Perhaps it's a small difference, yet I expected that advanced spiritual beings, such as "The Blessed Ones" claimed to be, would at least correctly pronounce the Sanskrit name of the Buddha of Compassion.  If such simple things could be in error how many other errors were hidden in the teaching?  These discrepancies were noted and filed for future reference.  The Gyoto monks also expressed their concern for what we were doing. 

Then there was the newly erupted "spring," described by "The Blessed Ones" as "healing water" that they had brought forth with the use of powerful energies. They encouraged participants in the Easter workshop to drink from the "healing waters" and to take a container home with them.  Several did so.  As part of my contribution on the farm, I dug a five-foot wide trail to the site with stone terraces planted with wildflowers, perennials and flowering annuals.  We were preparing to receive visitors from all over the planet, many of whom would be in wheelchairs.  The trails had to be wide enough to accomodate them. 

By June, the flow had slowed to a mere trickle. Since I was investing a lot of my energy in this project, I was concerned about the permanence of the "spring."  Others had attempted to isolate the healing water from contaminating surface water.  They had failed and I wondered if somehow they had interfered with the underground channel of the spring.  I knelt at the edge and dragged handfuls of sand from the opening.  Finally, my arm submerged to the shoulder, I discovered a small arch that was certainly not a natural artifact.  I grasped it and pulled.  It was a piece of concrete field drain tile that had broken 18 inches below the surface.  The line of tile had been carrying water from a marsh to the lake.  They had encouraged people to drink it!  I told the woman who owned the farm what I had discovered.  She said that she would tell the leader.  As I was preparing to leave the farm that fall I found that she had not yet told her husband.  Probably none of the others had been told either.  "The Blessed Ones" would not have wanted their followers to know that they had not been told the truth. 

...than the risk of unfolding... 

"Useful fiction" they called it, and they used amateurish gimmickery to persuade workshop participants of great and amazing skills.  I learned much from "The Blessed Ones," and most of all to NOT give away my power to discern what is true to anyone or anything.  Anyone or any group that asks me to give up my power to choose what is truly wisdom and what is folly is asking a risky sacrifice.   

Self-proclaimed gatekeepers of power and wisdom have been part of the human experience since the beginning of time.  Today they might be television evangelists, priests, ministers, gurus, politicians, or medicine men.  A few years ago I heard of a program about Dream Catchers on public television in which some Native Americans were claiming that only 13 people knew how to properly weave a dreamcatcher.  A Denver merchant told me that he only bought Dream Catchers from one source because the council of tribes had certified nine people for this year and awarded them the right to make Dream Catchers.  They were not even weaving the original Ojibwe spider web.  Probably they were not Ojibwe?   There are more than 400 tribes of Native American people in the United States alone.  Do these "certified" weavers know the story of the Dream Spiral?  Do they make the Dream Catcher only of natural wood, stones, and feathers to honor the first three orders of being?  Do they weave the Dream of the Earth into the Dream Catcher?   I could proclaim that only those who take my classes have the right to make Dream Catchers.  And that, too, would be limited truth, an attempt to restrict access to the Great Spirit.  Great Spirit is available directly to all.  Better to open doors than to close them and trust that the Grandfathers, Grandmothers, and Spirit Keepers will guide our journey. 

...to release the fragrance... 

Gatekeepers try to regulate and control access to spirit.  Many people will give up their own capacity for wisdom and power to follow someone or some group who claims to have more power, or better ideas, or more wisdom.  We are each capable of amazing power and wisdom and we do not need to look up to anyone else who seems better than ourSelves.  We are each to walk our own path of power and wisdom in Truth and Beauty.  It is our right and heritage. 

...of the blossom.

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