watch out for the people that say they are something but don't have support from teachers. These self-proclaimed people take other Teachers Teachings, re-write them or sometimes even directly link to them and try to make them their own so they seem authentic.
They say things like you don't need an empowerment/ or permission from Legitimate Teachers for Deity Practices and Prayers. They take small pieces of information and bend them into something they are not. they prey but the wrong kind of preying, on those that don't know or haven't studied Buddhism or on how to make good choices.
We have enough work to do and the potential to accomplish in this life with the Foundational Teachings of Buddhism that secret and special practices are not necessary. Pray with devotion and good intention, make choices and perform actions in accordance with the Basic Teachings and one will find what we've been looking for all along.
And lastly, part of meditation is to let all the talking, thoughts and sights before our minds and eyes pass like clouds in the sky, we remain aware and see but let them pass. please don't listen to all the talkers and fakers or invest in people you have not fully checked out.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Buddhist Ponzi Scam Alleged in L.A.
By TIM HULLLOS ANGELES (CN) - A self-proclaimed Buddhist monk collected $7 million in phony land investments from Vietnamese-Americans who thought they were helping build religious shrines and charities, the 15 recent immigrants claim in Superior Court.
The plaintiffs, some of them elderly and all followers of Buddhism, which eschews worldly wealth and ambition, say they contributed more than $800,000 to a Ponzi scheme run by Tuan Nguyen, Kiet Nguyen, Robert E. O'Leary and others.
The 15 say that the Nguyens and O'Leary claimed to be devout Buddhists was central to the scheme. They say Tuan Nguyen sold himself to groups of "unsophisticated émigrés" as a Buddhist monk whose followers were "spiritually advanced practitioners of the creed."
"A Buddhist monk is presumed to be one who has progressed far along the path towards total liberation from selfish sentiments and cravings," the complaint states, adding that the plaintiffs "relied on the defendants to act in an ethical, spiritual manner that would accord with their common Buddhist teachings."
Though Nguyen said he would use the money to build "Buddhist shrines, temples and community centers," the more than $7 million he collected over two years went to pay other investors who had been promised unrealistic returns, and into the defendants' own pockets, according to the complaint.
The 15 plaintiffs, many of whom invested more than $50,000 in the scheme, want a jury trial and their money back. They are represented by William Markham of Maldonado & Markham.
courtesy of the Buddhist Channel
Posts
