James Arthur Ray (Trial, Motivational speaker and guest speaker on the Secret).

DaltheJigsaw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Arthur_Ray
Wow, I didn't know that three people died, due to his spiritual seminar workshop.
Thoughts?
New Age or these Gurus, where many individuals are dying.
Scary stuff.

zenff

The people died in a sweat-lodge ceremony. A sweat-lodge is an extreme sauna.
I remember some years ago someone died in a sauna-competition.

Extreme heat and dehydration are no game.
And they're not "spiritual" really.

Cinorjer

He's not the only example of people being killed or seriously hurt playing around with sweat lodges, but his ignorant misuse of it is a recent extreme one. He seems to be the standard profit motivated guru preaching yet another variation of The Power of Positive Thinking, otherwise known as The Secret or The Law of Attraction. People and businesses pay many thousands of dollars to learn the secret of success that only he and people licensed to use his trademark can teach you. These group events provide a sense of belonging with an emotional kick that gives you the illusion of having accomplished something in the end.

In fact, do you want the exact same experience, with the same emotional workout, without paying thousands of dollars and spending days doing pointless exercises in groupthink? Buy a ticket to an amusement park and go on the roller coaster for the first time. At the end of the ride, you will feel the same way as a devoted follower of this man feels at the end of their retreat: slightly buzzed from the adrenalin high, amazed and proud you had the courage to do such a scary thing, and having learned absolutely nothing useful in life.

Of course, the huge fault is that it attempts to link success in life to happy thoughts. Buddhism recognizes that thoughts, happy or otherwise, are not the answer.

zenff

Being confident and optimistic often helps. Have some trust.
But this common-sense observation is not enough apparently.
People want to have the secret to life and success.
But without wanting to sound negative; simple and all inclusive solutions are bogus.

Buddhism is not the simple solution to everything either.
(All imho and no aimed at yet another pointless discussion between deaf people.)

For me (!) the law of karma is a lot like the secret. There’s a common-sense observation which says that we’re going to reap just what we sow. But for me (!) that’s all there is to it.

Buddhism has some fairly simple and quite effective advice for us; but it is just that.
Zen is (imho, can’t say that too often) fairly simple and I couldn’t imagine my life without it. But ultimately it throws our questions back at us.

We want the answers but we end up with the questions.

DaltheJigsaw

Thank you all for your contribution.