Robert Thurman Encourages Killing for Recreation

[dsnowlion]

This is so disgusting! I knew it, this so-called Professor Robert Thurman is nothing but a fake Buddhist expert. Why didn't he consider fishes to be his mothers too in a previous life? What kind of Buddhist promotes fishing and what more he has his boy Justin actually asking someone to actually go do some compassionate fishing? My gosh, wonder what kind of Buddhism they are teaching there!

Robert Thurman Encourages Killing for Recreation

There is one prominent characteristic of genuine spirituality, which is ‘consistency’ and this is especially true in Tibetan Buddhism with its focus on lineage. All authentic masters of Tibetan Buddhism and indeed all religions and spiritual paths will tell you that at the very minimum, a person must be kind, compassionate, honest and practice right livelihood which is not to make a living based on deception and dishonesty. And it is precisely this that makes Professor Robert (Bob) Thurman and his Menla Dewa Spa business very disturbing.

Bob Thurman is regarded as somewhat of an expert in the knowledge and practice of Tibetan Buddhism and regards the Dalai Lama as his teacher. The Dalai Lama on his part is supposed to be the embodiment and personification of compassion. Bob Thurman has written quite a few books on Buddhism, all of which ultimately advocate kindness and the generation of an inner wisdom that regards all phenomena and life in a fair and non-dualistic way.

Menla Dewa Spa is Bob Thurman’s business built on an image of wellness and healing based on Tibetan Buddhist principles. Menla itself refers to the Medicine Buddha and Bob Thurman presents Menla Dewa Spa as “Tibet in the Catskills” which is how Thurman takes advantage of the Hollywood image of Tibet as Shangrila, or heaven. According to Bob, at Menla you heal your mind and body, you become one with your environment, you sharpen your awareness and you study under ‘world class teachers’ (namely Thurman himself as his picture accompanies the caption on Menla’s promotional materials).

Great taglines and buzzwords, but are any of these real? The problem with fake spirituality is eventually you slip and expose yourself and this is precisely Bob Thurman’s problem – he cannot keep up with his own rhetoric.

While Bob Thurman preaches great kindness and tolerance in his classes, his Menla spa has been inviting Menla participants to extend their search for healing into activities such as killing other sentient beings for pleasure. Continue full article: http://www.dorjeshugden.com/all-articles/robert-thurman-encourages-killing-for-recreation/

[Rowntree]

Can you imagine Thurman do this for the commission from Esopus Creel? He is so greedy that he didn't mind to promote killing on Menla Dewa Spa's official site. The more you expose him, the more you see how much he used dharma for money.

[Pema8]

It looks like he doesn't read his own books.
Does he really write these books?
I mean, he should now that Buddhists do not kill??

[Rowntree]

You should know all his books manage to sell because he got the Dalai Lama to write the foreword for all of them. Since he is loaded (we will not discuss where he gets his money from now), he can easily hire ghostwriters for him, just like how Sogyal did it. When you have money, you can do anything.

[Jushri]

It looks like he doesn't read his own books.
Does he really write these books?
I mean, he should now that Buddhists do not kill??

Old Bob just writes the books for $$$. He doesn't practise what he writes or podcasts. He is taking photos with Dalai Lama to make himself look like a legit prof and Buddhist author. Pity the many people out there that he has scammed with his Buddhist alter ego.

[dsnowlion]

What do you expect from someone who disrobed and got married again?

In all honesty no one would say anything to this nasty old man if only he was actually kind and practice real Buddhism instead of judging others and condemning Dorje Shugden. It is very sad to see this being done by a so-called well-educated professor supposedly Buddhist scholar. I guess everything is just another marketing tool to look good and make money! Nevermind about how many fishes gets killed or how many people he helped give pain towards. Pain when he supports the division of students with their teachers, people with their family and friends. All this karma will surely come back to him making him a very bitter old man.

At his age, he should be gracious, honourable and have some real dignity and never talk negatively about other people's religion. He should be meditating, teaching or taking people on holy pilgrimages like Glenn Mulin and never take sides in such sensitive issues. Spirituality is something sacred and people's own personal choice. He also forgot America practices religious freedom, so why must he criticise Shugden, it was WRONG for him to do that?

He should realise he is NOT the Dalai Lama. Maybe the Dalai Lama is doing this for a higher motivation and is a Bodhisattva who can control his rebirth, as for Thurman... I fear at the time of his death, all the nasty things he did and say is gonna come get him. I guess he thought just cause he is close to the Dalai Lama he is exempted from karma 

[Rowntree]

Justin Stone-Diaz is Robert Thurman's podcast manager on the surface but troll on social media. He would defend his 'guru' when he thought Thurman is being attacked. In one of the attachments below, you can see he uses Menla's internet to attack others on the day Robert Thurman selling dharma there. His reply to Indy Hack on Google was not surprising but it shows clearly that they are cyber bullies who attack others based on their religious choice.

Mr. Stone-Diaz represented Menla to regard others' religion as a cult and judge them based on that, indirectly saying Menla ban Shugden people to their center. Not like Shugden people would be so silly to pay Thurman with his anti-Shugden campaign but America is supposed to support religious freedom so others religion is none of their business. The very basis of wellness is equilibrium and connection with everyone and the environment and to look for what keeps people together and not what separates people.

In addition, Mr. Stone-Diaz also lied about the fly fishing tweet that Menla has posted to promote killing for recreation. He insisted it was a retweet and what we see is a tweet. He is so used to lying that he ignored the truth and evidence. This is a result of constant lying about the Shugden truth and Thurman's true nature - sell Dalai Lama for fame, money and power.

[dsnowlion]

And when you are stupid and angry, you become a dingbat, because he just Exposé and  CONFIRMED that his boss Mr Thurman and him are fake Buddhist and they run a business not for healing but for monetary gains. Look at what he replied to Indy Hack by asking him to try "compassionate fishing". Like WHAT?! Is he stupid or is he stoned? I think both!

[Drolma]

So, you go to this Menla Dewa Spa trying to get healed and generate compassion. After the program, you can extend your stay to do fishing? So what do you get from going to Menla? Becoming someone more compassionate or someone more violent? This doesn't make any sense. I would think the extended program should be something like visiting an orphanage, old folks home or animal shelter, or even feeding the homeless! There are so many good deeds we can do, why kill the fishes?

[Celia]

So distasteful that he is able to capitalise on Dharma and Dalai Lama so blatantly yet many are still "blind" to this. All because people irresponsibly do not seek out the truth but work with fixed conclusion as stated by others. To make things worse, they then perpetuate the wrong by blindly reacting and even coming up with questionable reasons to conveniently support such tainted conclusion.
 
Seriously, why give so much credibility to a self-proclaimed first Western Buddhist monk who actually disrobed to get married? And he abandoned his initial family to explore spirituality and then get the vows only to subsequently give them up and get married again. More so when his actions, from his personal inability to take vows and his Dharma practice seriously; to his not so covert hate campaigns against Dorje Shugden practitioners (even with illegal means of soliciting hackers) reflect how illogical to consider this as someone who is an expert in Tibetan Buddhism.

[Pema8]

I hope that the Dalai Lama disassociates with Robert Thurman who obviously is not a Buddhist that you would like to be connected with. I mean no disrespect but someone who has such a long career in Buddhism should know better and not killing animals and encourage his friends to do so.

Thurman has a really strange approach to Buddhism!

[dsnowlion]

I hope that the Dalai Lama disassociates with Robert Thurman who obviously is not a Buddhist that you would like to be connected with. I mean no disrespect but someone who has such a long career in Buddhism should know better and not killing animals and encourage his friends to do so.

Thurman has a really strange approach to Buddhism!

What do you expect from someone who grovels over Dorje Shugden because he was rejected? I guess Domo Geshe Rinpoche knew he was off from the beginning. That is why many are calling him a fake Buddhist scholar. Just compare him with his other peers, for example, someone like Glen Mulin, who although does not practice Dorje Shugden, but he has some Buddhist principles and is ethical enough not to speak negatively about Dorje Shugden. Instead, he remains neutral. This is how a true Buddhist scholar/teacher should behave.

[michaela]

It is difficult for me to understand how a 'so-called' Buddhist professor can encourage the killing of fishes for recreation purposes. Actually, many of Robert Thurman's actions are not in accordance with Buddhism:

> He is known to call Shugden Buddhists as Taliban
> He solicited hacking from the anonymous group
> Now, he encouragesw the killing of fishes.

For him to be regarded as "The Dalai Lama's Man in America," is a disaster for the good name of His Holiness.

[Tracy]

Robert Thurman is one of the famous so-called Tibetan Buddhism experts in the west. He started his learning journey in the 60's and got to know the Dalai Lama. He was once an ordained monk but later disrobed and got married.

An expert like him should be very familiar with Buddhist philosophy. He should know a Buddhist have to refrain from killing. But yet, his retreat center is encouraging people to kill fishes. He should be promoting compassion for all sentient beings but why he is he doing the opposite?

I guess he does not have the compassion for all sentient beings because he discriminates Dorje Shugden followers too. He uses his twitter account to spread negative news about Dorje Shugden followers and criticises Dorje Shugden lamas. His compassion is not for all sentient beings, it is limited to people who can bring him money and fame. How sad...

[Alex]

Such a fake Buddhist professor. He should stop being identified as being a Buddhist professor because it makes him look bad. Where on earth a Buddhist professor will encourage fishing? The action itself creates so much of suffering no matter you will release it back to the river or not. There is no such thing as compassionate fishing.
Fishing IS already creating more suffering.

What makes it worst is that he promotes fishing at his Buddhist spa in Catskills. Why is a Buddhist meditation centre that promotes love, peace and healing promoting a killing act? Isn't that against what they are doing? Where is their compassion for the fishes? So they will be learning about compassionate and meditate in kindness and end their sessions with torturing of fishes?

That does not make any sense. He is supposed to be Dalai Lama's man in America. He should know that that one of the refuge vows is do not kill. Why is he promoting such activity ? He must be doing it to promote his spa business. How bad is it that he had to resort to such activity to promote his spa? That is why he is the biggest hypocrite on the Buddhist scene now.