It really doesn’t matter to me whether a person has a lot of money or a little bit of money.
What matters is that they are curious about life, energy, truth, and themselves and that they haven’t sold out to the establishment powers that tell us what to think, what to wear, how to behave, what to believe in and what goes beyond the line of rational and irrational thought.
I don’t engage in brainwashing, I don’t dictate forms of lifestyle, I don’t perform mass marriages or even singular marriages. I don’t tell people what to believe.
I don’t dictate particular styles of dress. I do teach classes in self discovery.
We have a spiritual community but everyone lives where they want to. I recommend certain areas to live because of their power.
People get together and go to the movies or on hikes, but everyone maintains their own independent domicile.
Some people harbor the idea or belief that all teachers should teach for free. Obviously these people have never been teachers, particularly in the twentieth century. Teaching meditation is a very expensive hobby.
I try to teach people to continually search and question the meaning of everything they are taught and everything they believe in. My job is not so much to impart a philosophy but to train people in the methods of self-discovery.
I show people the techniques for gaining knowledge, and this inspires them in their search for truth, freedom and happiness. I also try to show people that truth exists as much in this world as it does in any other world.
Everything that I teach as an enlightened Buddhist teacher is towards directing an individual to happiness, a balanced wisdom and knowledge that is sometimes just bubbly and euphoric or just very still and profound.
There is no best teacher. Life itself is the teacher. There is no best method. All that matters is that it works.
My teaching – of what is perceived to be a complex and foreign sounding religious philosophy – has become the target for people’s prejudice and religious intolerance.
Many people who help me encounter a lot of resistance from other people and from forces.
Certainly, I am aware that there have been a number of articles written about me and television shows in which I have been featured and referred to as a “cult leader.”
I don’t think there is anyone in public life today who can escape the inevitable onslaught of the media. It seeks to pry into and often grossly distort aspects of one’s personal and professional life. I guess it just comes with the territory.
When you combine a media – bent on exploiting tabloid-type stories to boost ratings and circulation by innuendo and titillation – with unhappy or opportunistic individuals who have nothing going for them in their own lives, you get a bitter brew.
I find it ironic to read stories about myself which have never occurred and are simply so absurd that they are comical. At other times, it is very painful to be so misinterpreted and vilified.
All I can say is that these cult stories are totally untrue, are without any foundation, and trade on a deep bias against Westerners who dare to embrace an Eastern belief-system.
Unfortunately, in self-discovery, you get the culty types who want the father figure or mother figure to tell them everything to do. They don’t want to do any work. They want to hang on your energy and try to drain it.
The source of their motivation ranges from what you might expect – from the seeking of money and publicity, to those who genuinely suffer from chronic personal problems and have fixated on me as the cause of their frustrations and failures.