Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Accurate Portrayal, December 2, 2005
This review is from: The Buddha from Brooklyn: A Tale of Spiritual Seduction (Paperback)
Over the past two years I have visited Jetsunma's temple in Poolesville MD many times. I have first-hand experience with it, and I have talked with some of the people who are described in the book. Based on my own experience I can say that Martha Sherrill's book is an accurate portrayal of Jetsunma, her temple, and her followers. Everything I have seen myself is consistent with Sherrill's book.
I first visited the temple because I was looking for expert instruction in Buddhist meditation practices and/or "lo jong" (mind training). I did not find it. I soon found that I was already more knowledgable about such things than even the "ordained" monks. The only meditation training I found was so superficial that you might as well just go buy Herb Benson's book "The Relaxation Response".
At the temple I almost immediately got a gut-level feeling that something was wrong here. Subsequent visits only made that feeling increase.
The people at the temple seemed to avoid me. I found them evasive and difficult to engage in conversation. No one could explain what the 24-hour prayer vigil was about, or even what "prayer" meant to a Buddhist.
I heard Jetsunma speak at one of her visits to Poolesville, and it was like a time-share sales pitch. It was a high-pressure pitch to become one of her students. It was both peculiar and disturbing.
On another occasion I heard an announcement from Jetsunma (delivered by proxy) that the lack of maintenance on the stupa garden had caused her to fall ill. Unpaid landscaping work however would remedy the situation. At that point I finally realized that Jetsunma's followers were crazy.
I thank Martha Sherrill for alerting the world to an organization that looks like a Buddhist temple, but which is really a dangerous cult.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, but too context-free, April 24, 2000
This book was great fun to read, and the author has created a vivid portrait of a spiritual community, with all their strengths, weaknesses, virtues, and flaws layed bare. Most of the time she keeps to telling the story without unnecessary commentary and opinion, and when she does give an opinion, she is very open and honest about her own subjectivity in the matter. The picture formed of Jetsunma is not simplistic, and reveals someone by turns endearing, insightful, arrogant, frightened, funny, manipulative, compassionate and outrageous. The community of people that have gathered around her are also portrayed very directly, and for the most part come across very sympathetically. They seem earnest, caring, and well-meaning. There are disturbing incidents in the book when the community seems harsh and vindictive, but overall they seem like a group of spiritual seekers it would be a pleasure to know (if not necessarily join...) Whether or not they are a 'cult' is wisely left up to the reader to decide. This leads to what I view as the main flaw of the book. If someone is well-versed in Buddhism, then they have a context in which to better understand this community and their leader, and how they are, and are not, typical of other Buddhist communities. We hear people in the book say how different this Dharma center is from others, but nothing more than that. A reader who has not had experiences in other Buddhist centers or communities would be left without a context to place this in. Near the end of the book, when the author does talk to others outside of this community for additional perspective, it is only to briefly quote a rather eclectic bunch, including Tammy Faye Baker(!), Deepak Chopra, and Dr. Laura Schlesinger(! ). (Where are those in other Buddhist traditions on that list! ) A little more explanation of Buddhism itself, and especially of the Vajrayana path would have been of great help to any readers less familiar with the Buddhist 'scene'. The Dharma is taking root in America in many ways, and it would have made this book more 'complete' if there were some more detailed information on how these other communities are both different and similar to those who have gathered around Jetsunma. In the end, I do recommend this book. It's a well-written, enjoyable, and at times very moving portrait of one particular Buddhist community. For those readers familiar with Buddhism in America, this is a 'four-star' book. For those not so familiar, it's lack of background makes it a less effective, though no doubt still very entertaining read!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, Frightening and Very Funny, June 4, 2005
This review is from: The Buddha from Brooklyn: A Tale of Spiritual Seduction (Paperback)
I struggled in composing this review because trying to sum up this book is so difficult. It tells the story of Jetsunma Akhon Ahmo, the highest-ranking female Tibetan Buddhist in America, and her followers. Their story is provacative, sad, and truly stranger than fiction.
Alyce Zeoli started as a New Age guru, giving private psychic readings and channeling spirits (she claimed to have been the ruler of a distant galaxy at one point). She eventually came into contact with a presitigious Tibetan Buddhist lama who declared her the reincarnation of a famous Tibetan Buddhist nun. Thus, Alyce from Brooklyn became Jetsunma, the guru of Poolesvilla, Maryland.
Jetsunma had acquired a coterie of followers prior to being told she was Buddhist, and they duly followed their leader's new direction; some of them even became Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns, though none of them (including Jetsunma) had any formal training in this spiritual discipline. Followers of Jetsunma were required to give their leader uncritical devotion and unconditional love, and were told that that questioning her commands was the result of a deep spiritual flaw that would land them in one of several Tibetan hells.
While Jetsunma's acolytes shaved their heads, donned robes and subsisted in meager jobs (tithing much of their income to the sangha), Jetsunma acquired a taste for expensive clothing and Ab Fab. She also was also partial to Lee Press-On Nails, which her students collected and kept in little boxes as talismans (they also saved her toilet seat).
Jetsunma booted out her first husband and took a string of younger lovers whom she seduced and, in turn, kicked to the curb. She also required her followers to perform back-breaking manual labor, and then blamed them when there wasn't enough money to pay for the materials. She grew even more erratic as the years went on, ostracizing certain members, pressuring others for money, and physically abusing some.
The author's portrait of Jetsunma and the goings on of her sangha are sometimes in infuriating, but they frequently tip over into utter absurdity. The sangha was usually in debt and near foreclosure, but that didn't stop Jetsunma from compulsively mail ordering clothing from stores like Victoria's Secret. Her followers justified her purchases by saying that Jetsunma was actually practicing compassion by shopping, because the order and warehouse clerks would read her name on the packing slips, thus improving their karma.
Jetsuma also has a side business called Ladyworks, and she invented a rubber cap with conditioner in it that makes hair soft and shiny. Jetsunma wanted to star in the infomercial for it. She also started a Buddhist "rock band" called Skywalker, of which she was the lead singer. To quote the author re: Jetsunma, "I felt frustrated by her apparent lack of wisdom...if she was perfect, why did she have such lousy taste?"
I really can't do justice to this book; it's scary, sad, and completely entertaining. I can see why Jetsunma liked Ab Fab; this book reads like an extended Ab Fab episode with Buddhist overtones.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
