Master Nome & Russell Smith: The Dark Side
MB
Someone just told me about your website, so I looked it up, and
laughed and loved it. I saw your page speculating on the dark side of
Nome and Russell Smith of SAT based in Santa Cruz, and I just had to
comment, as I had been involved with these guys and their group long
ago. They have had a HUGE dark side in the past.
When I first came across Nome and Russ, Nome was known as Bhagavan
I.M. Nome, and Russell was just Russ. I had never met an strict
Advaita/non-dual teacher before, and Nome blew me away starting from
the first satsang. They were both said to be Enlightened, and although
Nome was the star, Russ was both very clear and funny as well -- the
two of them together could play off of and into each other
brilliantly, and so many ideas I had about myself and spiritual life,
enlightenment, etc., were joyfully demolished, and the world, mind,
thought, time and space itself, would all fall away. I would go every
week to his satsangs, and I started studying the books by Ramana
Maharshi, Nisargadatta, the old Chinese Zen (Ch'an) Masters, even
Meister Eckhart, all of whom Nome and Russ recomended.
They taught that no practice, method, lifestyle, diet, posture, or
mental manipulation could bring you to Realization, what one always
IS. It was so refreshing. Satsangs were free, there was a donation box
inconspicuously placed in the back. I remember some of the
advertisements for the satsangs said at that time, "satsangs are free,
truth is free, you are free."
There was very little talk about Nome and Russ's past. They would say
it doesn't matter -- like talking about who one was in a dream before
one woke up. If one was eating a hamburger at McDonald's, and Woke Up,
then everybody would think that Enlightenment was contingent upon
that. So all that was revealed was that Nome discovered Ramana
Maharshi's teachings when he was about 15 -- he found a book, and it
set him on fire, and he did what Ramana said, mainly practicing
self-inquiry, at at about 19, he Realized the Self. About a year
later, Russ (whom I didn't know back then was his brother) 'got it',
through contact with Nome. They were living in New Jersey at the time.
At first Nome was giving satsangs in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
He would wear blue jeans, and had long hair. Someone told me way back
that Nome's real name was Jeffrey. They didn't know that Russ was his
brother, which I heard years later from various sources. I can't
remember if Russ was supposed to be teaching with him back in the
park. The satsangs would go on for hours, and of course, were free.
Later on, the story goes, someone gave gave Jeffrey the name Bhagavan.
He somehow chose the name I.M. Nome, which came from the phrase that
was used in their old advertisements that was attributed to Nome, "I
am, but there is no me" -- Nome. This is exactly how it was printed in
the Common Ground advertisements of the time. Everybody would call
Nome 'Bhagavan'.
The group at the time was officially called 'The Avadhut'. Nome didn't
allow pictures of himself or Russ to be distributed, or put up
anywhere. Even his devotees would not have photos of Nome or Russ. The
ads for his satsangs at that time would have a photo of Ramana
Maharshi on them (which led many people to think that Nome was
Ramana). Soon Nome and Russ moved to the Santa Cruz area, along with
many of the devotees. A large percentage of the devotees, perhaps most
of the serious ones (if not all), were living in communal houses. Soon
there were more and more rules, when before rules were made fun of.
Where before it was emphasized that it didn't matter how you dressed
or ate, everybody was strongly encouraged to dress in white, and go on
a raw food diet. There started to be levels of involvement in the
group. If one became a committed disciple, which meant one would
commit to Nome as their Master, for LIFE,(and not going to see any
other teacher), one could go to special events.
They started putting down all other living teachers, with the
exception of Anandamayi Ma in India (who passed away in late 1982, so
then they recognized nobody outside their group.) They liked
Nisargadatta, who died in 1981. They had a special 'spiritual
discrimination' class, under Russ's auspices, which would go through
the books of various teachers, and underline all the 'dualistic' or
'unenlightened' parts to them, and this would show that these teachers
were not really Enlightened. So teachers like Ramesh Balsekar, Jean
Klein from France was dismissed in this way, as well as J.
Krishnamurti, Vimala Thakar, and others.
They even sent 'dharma police' to other teachers' satsangs, including
Ramesh Balsekar, Andrew Cohen, and some more obscure teachers. What
they would do would be to have a bunch of high-up disciples to
someone's satsangs, primed beforehand by Russ on what embarassing
things they could say (if they were really out to get the teacher), or
if they thought that the teacher MIGHT be legitimate, they would be
primed with tricky advaitic questions, to see if the teacher would
answer in the 'correct' way. It was blatantly deceitful.
The most famous attack by Nome's Inquisition was on Ramesh Balsekar,
when he was speaking in Marin County, California. This was around
1989, back when Ramesh used to come to California. Nome and Russ were
big, big fans of Wei Wu Wei, the European author who wrote many books
of non-dual teachings, using his own brilliantly original language.
They considered his books among the best writings on non-dual
Realization of anybody around. At the time, in one or more of Ramesh's
books, he was using the same language as Wei Wu Wei, talking about the
'noumenon' and 'phenomenon'.
Nome and Russ decided that Ramesh was a plagarist. They must have felt
threatened by Ramesh, that he would cut into their business. I know
from talking to Nome's students that they didn't consider Ramesh to be
Enlightened, so they came to his satsangs blatantly to expose him as a
fraud. They were really out to get Ramesh. So they came to Ramesh's
programs in Marin and challenged Ramesh in front of everybody, calling
him a fake, a fraud, unenlightened, and a plagarist. They were very
aggressive, and even threatening.
Now Ramesh has responded to this plagiarism charge, saying that he was
friends with Wei Wu Wei (who has been deceased for many years now), he
was deeply influenced by the way WWW uses language, and that he and
WWW have had extensive correspondence. So it's not surprising that he
would write in such a way. (Ramesh doesn't use this language much
anymore, thank goodness -- back then I found his books almost
impossible to read, unlike nowadays.) What was interesting is that
someone who was there checked out Wei Wu Wei's books and Ramesh's
books to see if there was any truth to this. What they found was that
in the book Posthumous Pieces by Wei Wu Wei, there was a chapter
titled 'I Am but There Is No Me'! This book was written in either the
1950's or '60's, way, way before Nome had his 'enlightenment'.. Nome,
as I said, was an avid admirer and student of his books. So he MUST
have gotten that quote from Wei Wu Wei, but in his ads, it was
attributed to Nome. AND, obviously that was where Nome got inspired to
call himself 'I.M. Nome'. So who was the real plagarist? Nome
plagarized his own name from Wei Wu Wei, and he had the gall to call
Ramesh a plagarist.
Nome and his group got such a bad reputation from these attacks on
other teachers, that they stopped doing them -- it made them look like
a cult (which they had turned into by now.) By the mid 1980's, high
fees were being demanded if one wanted to attend Nome and Russ's
satsangs. One could attend the first few satsangs for free, after
being invited (only special people were invited, and they would be
screened beforehand). Then one had to decide if one wanted to join.
Joining meant paying a minimum of $200 a month, and then it would get
higher. There was this intense pressure to pay more and more. There
were levels of involvement, the most committed were called
'renunciates', who would give their whole salary to the organization,
and would be given back just enough to pay the room and board in the
communal homes they lived in. The Avadhut changed their name to SAT.
They used very heavy-handed tactics to raise money. Some of the ex-SAT
people I've met have used the word 'extortion' to describe how SAT
would raise money.
There were stories of abusiveness and various power trips as well.
Many started to leave. (Russ, incidentally, had a girlfriend named
Lane, whom he declared Enlightened, she ended up sitting up front with
Nome and Russ, Russ married her, and she changed her name to Zero, and
then she was found to have leukemia, and died. Later he got together
with Helga, who also was declared Enlightened, and they too got
married.)
Over the years, virtually everybody I knew who was a hard-core Nome
follower left, and all who had been seriously involved had horror
stories to tell. A few were so hurt that they cannot look at a photo
of Ramana Maharshi anymore, and many said that they want nothing to do
with any spiritual teacher or teaching, thinking it's all bullshit,
and going into therapy, or even becoming therapists. One guy ended up
joining a Jewish Seminary and becoming a Rabbi. Some got incredibly
depressed. Some found teachers of great purity, either Westerners like
Gangaji, Robert Adams, or Indians like Ramesh, Ranjit Maharaj, or
Papaji.
There wasn't much I've heard concerning sexual misconduct, other than
a few years ago, Nome took a fancy to one of his female students, who
just happened to be married -- he somehow manipulated the couple to
believe that their being together wasn't in their best interest i f
they wanted Enlightenment, and then he got the woman to move in with
him. At least he never preached celibacy, and while he used to wear
orange, like a renunciate, now he wears white. Also, photos of Nome
and Russ are displayed, even on the website, and satsangs are open
once again, and have been for years. I noticed on their website that
satsangs are $15 donation a shot, and that to become a member, it's
$100 a month -- which is still very high, but one doesn't have to
become a member to attend satsang. But knowing of the extreme cultic
nature of the group, and that there are so many other teachers who
don't have all these trips or shady pasts, why would anyone want to
join?
I know that a lot of ex-Nome people go see Mokshananda, who lives in
Santa Cruz and gives regular satsangs, and they go see Mokshananda's
teacher Adyashanti as well. And one can find some of them at the
satsangs of the Papaji spin-offs. Back when Gangaji was first giving
satsangs in California after returning from Papaji, she announced that
she was going to hold a special satsang for people who had been hurt
in the past by a spiritual teacher, any spiritual teacher. At that
special satsang, most of the people were ex-Nome disciples. Gangaji
wrote to Papaji about it, and about Nome, and the horrendous things
that were reported to her, and Papaji wrote back saying he was crying
reading her letter, about the abuses this man Nome had committed in
the name of Ramana Maharshi.
A lot of people who were burned by Nome and Russ want to put this way
behind them. I feel this way too, although I was never that involved
or close that I felt hurt. I was outraged by the stories that my
friends have told me, but as I only attended satsangs, and didn't
join, I never got burned, but I know people whose lives were
shattered.
But please keep my identity confidential. I'm just sharing this with
you so you know there is a lot more that meets the eye to SAT's public
image. They do do good work in terms of distributing various Advaitic
books and literature, publishing 2 translations of the complete Ribhu
Gita, presenting great concerts in Santa Cruz, etc. I haven't been to
any satsangs for a long time, and would never again -- I know too
much. MAYBE they really have cleaned up their act -- I hope so, and
that is also why I would like this all to be confidential about my
identity and the details I revealed. Also, frankly, I am a more than a
little scared. People have been threatened in the past. And from what
I hear, some of the threats were followed up on.
In the old days at Nome's satsangs, at the beginning of satsang, an
audio tape would be played of Anandamayi Ma singing the chant 'Jaya
Bhagavan' with her haunting voice. And at the end, the parting
greeting was 'Jai Bhagavan', which we would one by one say to Nome
with our hands in the pranam greeting position, and he would pranam
back 'Jai Bhagavan', looking us in the e yes. It was sweet, and
everybody got to have at least that contact with him. I heard they
stopped both playing the chant and the closing greeting a long time
ago -- too bad, it was my favorite parts of the
satsang.
Jai Bhagavan,
xxx xxxxxxxx
Michael
Jai Bhagavan... is it the same as He Bhagavan? I loved that song soo much, I played it everyday for 4 years
"MB" <mbran...@yahoo.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:6289dbae.02020...@posting.google.com...
: Originally posted by xxx xxxxxxxx at xxxxxxxxx.xxx
:
: In the old days at Nome's satsangs, at the beginning of satsang, an
Fairfield_Mountain_Coffee
from Cali but LA part and left at seventeen to never really return so this
is ALL news to me. Thanks so much for the very thorough 'satsang'. It
parellels many TMO aspects. Thanks again and stop by always.
"MB" <mbran...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:6289dbae.02020...@posting.google.com...
Fairfield_Mountain_Coffee
fucking freaks who I would never have anything to do with. Moreover, any
pundit can spout vedanta so who cares? I don't really go for the guru chela
thing and would never follow some western self styled guru. So you're right
fuck them. Who needs em. They lost their roots in dharma when they started
charging for satsang.
"Fairfield_Mountain_Coffee" <.@.> wrote in message
news:mfH88.52041$dG.21...@news1.rdc1.sdca.home.com...