Krishnamurti Foundation American KFA Presentation By Reza Ganjavi

28 YEARS LATER - PRESENTATION BY REZA GANJAVI (text version follows the images below)

Also see: Why Executive Director of KFA Jaap Sluijter Is A Disgrace To Krishnamurti 

PRESENTATION: 28 YEARS LATER

28 YEARS LATER

A Talk By Reza Ganjavi

May 2014 [COPY/PASTED FROM POWERPOINT SO IT'S NOT FORMATTED -- SEE BELOW FOR JPG VERSION

Related Document: Commentary on Mark Lee & Ravi Ravindra’s Talks

Introduction

Philosophy & Psychology are among my favorite areas of study. 

Have studied great philosophers, psychologists, mystics, and religions of East & West and been influenced by many great thinkers including a contemporary philosopher, J. Krishnamurti (“K”) & whom I met and studied his work deeply. He handed me a red rose. I don’t believe in him I don’t follow him. See my talk in Sweden: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgQ7Xp7tngk

I find K’s insights to profound and very practical – it’s helped me in many areas of life. I have seen lives change and literally saved through insights he points to. He should be required reading for psych/phil. students and golden in an age when suicide has been on a rise and confusion/sorrow is the norm.

“We need more understanding of human nature because the only real danger that exists is man himself. He is the great danger and we are pitifully unaware of it - we know nothing of man - far too little - his psyche should be studied” Carl Jung

K was a public figure and what happens to his organizations after his death is a matter of public interest. 

Prelude: Questions For Jaap

Japp: In your short term you’ve been at KFA you’ve done things which I find to be VERY contradictory to the place’s founder. You have a responsibility to K, to what he stood for, and to people who are inspired by that. I believe you’re failing that responsibility Jaap based on several concrete examples. And these are facts, these are not hearsay. There’s proof for these. Unlike you, I’m interested in truth and unlike you, I don’t put anything above it. 

How many people were ever banned from attending over a thousand talks K gave? I haven’t heard of one and he got all kinds of wackos attending it. How many people were ever kicked out? How many times the police called? The answers as far as I know, is none. B/c unlike you and your pal Mark Lee, K wasn’t a dictator.. 

How many bodyguards did K have? Zilch

YOU have a responsibility to K, and you’re failing it. It’s time to say goodbye and resign.

You kicked out a person out of K’s property for no reason – it took you months and lawyers and discussion and deliberations to figure out how to justify your wrong action. That was a violation of your responsibility to treat public with respect. 

You know ahead of time who’s coming to stay at Peppertree Retreat yet you wait till last minute in order to coarse them to accept your BS or else get a refund. This is terrible management. This is management by bullying. 

How many of the type of stupid rules you’ve set up like this is a military compound, did K place have during his lifetime? 

Since when are the people who attend the public gatherings can get banned from the place for 2 years if they take a short video? What’s behind it is YOUR signature and YOU being important. This is about YOU Jaap. You even talk about your job insecurity in your talk. A K place is not a place to come to seek job security. Stop depending on it. Otherwise as you’re apparently doing it’s about power and position and we’ve seen what that does in these circules. TRUTH goes out the window. 

How many Vedic chant sessions did K organize during his 64 years in Ojai? Why are you doing it? Is it to water-down K to attract more people? Is it to build an empire – a bigger empire means a bigger dictator means more job security. Is it because of a self fulfilling prophecy Mark Lee made years ago? Do you realize the cost of pushing K down the path of tradition, mediocrity? 

Do you have any respect for the values K stood for? Did you not know what Ravi Ravindra stands for who came there and promoted mediocre bankrupt traditional ideas K spent years discarding? 

How is it that average manager I know receives 10’s if not 100’s of emails per day and they can handle it but you complain that dealing with 3 emails a month for 3 or 4 months is too much and you require paper communication. Do you know that we’re living in 21st century Jaap? 

Do you know anything about law or do you have to spend money on lawyers for every little thing?

You had to get lawyers involved to help you rationalize / explain after the fact, make up a story, cover up, rationlize your wrong action. How much did that cost the foundation? 

Did you read anything about K doing yoga for the body alone and that you can’t find liberation or anything else though yoga? When will be the Kali Puja at KFA Jaap? I’m sure it will attract lots of people! 

How many professional organizations do you know who take action against people before they really know why and based  on some dogmatic egotistic idea, and then try to figure out why later after failing. How many organizations ignore a serious subject assuming it will just go away? Do you know that things can get escalated as much as dictatorships hate it? Do you approve of resorting to dirty tricks in order to quash peaceful criticism as it’s happened at KFA? 

Why do you need to control access to your staff’s email accounts? What’s the point of censoring their emails as you’ve done by placing filters on the entire foundation’s email servers? Don’t you think people can communicate anyway and such actions might say something about your paranoia than anything? Are you paranoid about free flow of information? I know dictators are. 

Introduction / Disclaimer

Document Post-K State of his American Foundation for the sake of History and to bring it to the attention of some international trustees ahead of upcoming ITM since it’s my understanding that K said they’re all responsible for all the foundations, and KFA’s state of affairs is pathetic. 

Document my response to two talks given by Mark Lee and R.Ravindra -- both talks contain a number of inaccuracies which I attempt to address. 

Document why after being concerned my sentiments towards KFA has turned to one of indignation and disgust. It’s not easy for me to demonstrate how awful an organization has become which I’ve cared about for a long time and highly respect their founder. I don’t do well with injustice and being bullied. -- Certain people at KFA has a problem with my freedom of speech and has tried to retaliate in most crude ways. 

This is not an attempt to bring any change, although some constructive suggestions are offered.

This is not an attempt to try to defend or protect K. 

I don’t escalate issues unless I have to. 

I am not friends with conflict – some people thrive on conflict.

I believe publicly addressed subjects need to be responded to on similar platform.

My interest is not short term developments. This document has a long term historical perspective. Those who studied history of philosophy understand that pointing out hypocrisies is not cynicism.

There is no slander or libel here – nobody is put in a false light – there is no invasion of privacy. 

George Bernard Shaw: "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who don't have it“. Years ago M. Lee told me: “You tell it like it is”. Phil=love of wisdom.

KFA is a public charity – 23-7018406

Speaker Background (1)

Character attacks to discredit a messenger in order to discard the message is an old cunning dirty trick, and due to precedence in these circles, presenting a snapshot of my background. My credibility and integrity are very important to me and I don’t tolerate frivolous character attacks. Some people do this to K too: instead of meeting a challenge they attack him over things like RS, hair, work, myths, etc. (foolish). 

Three university degrees -- MBA, BSCS, BAPhil, magna cum laude (high honors). GPA 3.95 in Phil (all courses “A”). Have also studied other subjects extensively, such as music and law. 

Looooog list of excellent professional, academic, and personal references.

Credit history (2014): “Excellent creditworthiness”. “Your credit rating ranks higher than 97.87% of U.S. consumers.” ”Credit Category: Excellent”. 

Speaker Background (2)

Decades of highly successful career in Management Consulting, Project Management, Business Analysis, Software Engineering, etc.

Clients include world-class private and public companies, government, international, and non-profit organizations. 

Two Best Selling Classical Guitar CD’s with hundreds of pages of positive listener response.

Traveled and played music in about 80 countries.


Numerous investigative journalism publications.

Speaker Background (3)

Published many articles on variety of topics incl. philosophy & biotechnology. Published several K-related circulars. See the writings section of www.rezamusic.com

Activist in anti-smoking education.

Have taught variety of subject; given philosophy/psychology talks.

Site: www.rezamusic.com 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/reza.ganjavi.mba

AGENDA

SEPARATE PRESENTATION/FILE:

COMMENTARY ON MARK LEE’S TALK 

Mark Lee, Trustee of KFA, KFI spoke at KFI school earlier this year.

COMMENTARY ON RAVI RAVINDRA’S TALK 

Ravi Ravindra, Speaker at KFA.

ISSUES WITH K’s AMERICAN FOUNDATION (KFA)

SUGGESTIONS

SHORT NOTE ON OTHER FOUNDATIONS

Respect for Freedom of Speech

I am exercising my Freedom of Speech and expressing facts and/or genuine, sincere, well-researched opinions. 

I do not make up stories or lie. Truthfulness, even in small matters of life, is very important to me. I have nothing to protect in terms of need for power, position, etc.

I will fiercely defend my freedom of speech as protected under Federal and State constitutions and anti-slapp statutes. I will also not tolerate any harm to my reputation via slander and libel. 

Ignorance & Stupidity Pandemic

IGNORANCE: “A National Science Foundation (NSF) study found that 25 percent of Americans believe the sun orbits the Earth (Data released Feb 2014).” 

FEW OF MANY GOOD STUPIDITY QUOTES 

“A fool may throw a stone into a well which a hundred wise men cannot pull out.” 

“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”  Bertrand Russell

"The earth has its boundaries, but human stupidity is infinite!" Gustav Flaubert (and quoted by Einstein)

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." Harlan Ellison

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. Frank Leahy

ISSUES WITH KFA

State of KFA 28 Years After K

KFA is one of 4 Foundations set up globally to preserve & disseminate K’s work. 

K dreaded organizations in general but had to set these up out of practical necessity – almost closed KFI, called KFA idiotic at some [if it wasn’t then it is now]. He dissolved a huge powerful rich organization early on in life & went solo.

KFA does some good work but itself or some of its people have also engaged in: 

Dangerous dilution of K’s work

Vulgar actions which have deterred members of public

Unintelligent acts which have wasted resources

FACTS & OPINIONS (1)

KFA and/or some of its people have wasted so much of my time the last few years by their unintelligent actions which I will explain below. Dealing with stupidities of the world is no fun. Stupidity combined with viciousness is even worse. 

I died to these time and again (ended them in my mind) but they kept on with their viciousness which has forced me once and for all, to tell the story of what I have experienced dealing with this organization and some of its people. 

I have respect for some of the Trustees and staff of KFA. 

Some of the trustees’ exposure to K’s teachings is very light. It’s obvious when you listen to them talk. 

I don’t believe KFA lives K’s teachings. K said their long term leader, Mark Lee, hadn’t understood him after all those years, and I still sense, despite his lessoned role, the culture of the place still has some issues. 

Promotion of dialogue by KFA is a joke when they’ve resorted to “bombshells” in several cases where dialogue would have been the intelligent, peaceful approach.

FACTS & OPINIONS (2)

Unfortunately, Jaap has simply inherited and sustained Mark’s heavy-handed attitude, and inherited some images. New kid on block offending old timer coming there for 30 years without a problem.

I helped them over the years (volunteer, fund raising, donor, events, etc.) but after pointing out their shortcomings they showed how unintelligent they are. 

I have seen enough things to believe Mark Lee is behind the mess I witnessed. They totally abused my sympathy, consideration, gentleness, humanity, tolerance, lenity and respect. Enough is enough. 

KFA was reckless with the foundation’s money and lost millions in the stock market. This is not a secret. They publicly blamed it on the stock market. I have heard from a credible source that K did not want the Foundation’s money put into speculative instruments. 

FACTS & OPINIONS (3)

IMHO, KFA does not seem to always have a learning mind and it gets stuck in its institutional ego, image making, and knows not psychological ending. Other places listen to criticism and even welcome it. Here, I get a feeling there’s immediate defensiveness, desire to protect something that seem so silly – an ego – and response in some cases has been unintelligent, crude and vulgar. 

Here’s a hint: K had no body guards. Compare that to people who seem to be far more similar to your stiff attitude, like Sri Chinmoy.

I believe KFA thinks people must be rally stupid to buy some of the kind of arguments they’ve posed. If there is such a thing as an organizational IQ, I don’t believe KFA would rate very high! Perhaps not much has changed since K called it idiotic! 

“The Dark Ages is in full swing at KFA. “

Unintelligent Behavior (1)

Case of being bullied at the KFA Library by KFA staff member, while on duty. The provocation was reportedly approval by Mark Lee and James Paul as per the Librarian’s statement to the Board. The provocative action included use of profanity and illegal assault & battery (which I did not report to the police or take legal action against, out of the goodness of my heart and respect for K – I should have!). Witness called them a fascist. 

Background is “ancient history” and has to do with some trustees wanting to oust another trustee and the political ramifications of it which I got sucked into by James Paul. I absolutely did nothing wrong and refused to be a scapegoat.

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. — Goethe

INTELLIGENT ACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN: 

Respect that members of public have a right to hold and express views which the Foundation may not agree with. 

Unintelligent Behavior (1a)

Realize this is not an old boys’ club and such actions can’t be taken against members of public without Board’s approval! 

Know that, Violence is NOT an option. Bullying is wrong. Provoking people to set them up to do something against your rules, in order to get rid of them is nasty (the only rational explanation for your aim). 

The librarian eventually apologized. 

Unintelligent Behavior (2)

Case of Jaap rudely interrupting my pre-arranged meeting with Tom Heggestad. Even after a couple of months Secretary of the Board had no idea why it happened! It took KFA months to try to rationalize it (with a lame excuse).

Thanks to M.Mendizza who shook KFA to pay attention & stop ignoring it. Maybe KFA thought can just brush it aside.  

Funny how publicly available trustee meeting minutes had no mention of the lawyer job (edited out?)

INTELLIGENT ACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN: 

Respect. That people who work there have the right to invite a visitor to chat with them during their break and not be rudely interrupted, and then get scorned – Tom, a cancer patient and long term staff member cried that day for having been scorned for having a visitor for 10 minutes! Talk about dictatorship!  

Unintelligent Behavior (2a)

AN APOLOGY instead of months of running around wasting time and money trying to figure out how to justify the wrong action – and then blaming me for their wrong action!! 

Reminds me of school bully who not only takes another kid’s ball and kicks it out, he claims it’s his ball and the kid is at fault! In Farsi we call this “laat” which in English means something like a thug mentality. Not only I hadn’t done anything wrong, but being assaulted by them made me a bad guy. Ever an apology? At least the librarian on his own accord apologized. But the organization, in Jaap’s Tom H. case? Zero remorse after wasting so much of my time over their wrong management decision.  

Unintelligent Behavior (3)

Case of using weak arguments and blowing up a tiny subject way out of proportion and taking a totally unjust action over a totally peaceful matter that did not harm anything or anyone and was done in good intentions, with full approval of people involved.

Long list of stiff rules of the retreat / study center apply to visitors of the Public Gathering but they are not informed so public could step into a painful trap and get severely punished by not knowing the entire body of rules by heart during the Gathering and make a simple innocent mistake of taking a photo! 

Refusal to provide specifics on a frivolous charge. 

Violation of perceived right to meet with people who come to Ojai for this event – I believe KFA is abusing its ownership of the land in order to disallow a person who has always acted civilly and peacefully, over simply not good enough of reasons. 

Unintelligent Behavior (3a)

INTELLIGENT ACTION WOULD HAVE BEEN: 

Stop trying to build a weak case in order to reach a goal rooted in an egotistic, unintelligent, baseless image. 

Stop cunningly fabricating a case out of a tiny issue – Jaap and Karen confirmed following Francesca’s lie that there was no issue. There was no disturbance. The person acted completely civilly, respectfully, peacefully at all times. 

On the subject of disturbance, realize that you are running a K foundation not a esoteric order which can’t stand any challenges. K after all was disruptive. And think of how he handled so-called disruption at his events!

Tell anybody who might have complained about being on a mailing list that this is not the foundation’s business and to pick it up with the mailing list owner (I’ve never heard such a case and can imagine it’s by the same person who made up, which is probably a management issue as well because she was fed images. Image making is contagious and proliferates. 

Unintelligent Behavior (3b)

Only a dictatorship tries to control the communications of people who come to its gatherings. It’s not part of your charter!

Lack of obtaining Jaap’s written approval for making a few minute of video with two adults who happily gave their permission is not a crime! Nobody and nothing was hurt. The offer to give you the video or delete it, together with an apology for forgetting the need for signature which didn’t seem necessary and unintuitive, should be more than enough of a remedy (vs. the wrong, dictatorial, outrageous, unintelligent, unjust, unfair, inappropriate, vicious action of KFA). 

INTERVIEWEE REMARKS : 

“Your video work and interviewing skill is admirable and I think it is worth your pursuing it further… I can understand your wanting to do your independent documentary projects on <> and from the other interviews I saw on your site, am certain that you have only the best of intentions.”

Unintelligent Behavior (3c)

About the video maker, the subject said: “seemed like a highly intelligent person, asked good questions, and had good intentions”. 

“was all very good energy” 

She confirmed nothing was ever said about affiliation with KFA in any shape or form. 

Nobody agrees to go in front of camera without knowing what it’s for and in this case it was stated it was for a personal effort.

“I felt they [other videos produced by same person] were great”.

She told Jaap that she had given permission to make the video and didn’t mind it at all. She trusted the video maker enough based on their contact to know he would not abuse it (and no abuse ever occurred). 

She said in the process she felt respected by the video maker. She told Jaap that she had no ill feeling at all and felt the video maker’s quality of work was up-and-up (meaning honest and respectable, and on the good side). 

Other Cases

I don’t have a full list as my job as it’s not part of my job to collect such comments, nevertheless, off the top of my head, I can think of a number of cases I’ve heard from credible sources about where members of public had been alienated away from the foundation. 

These cases include persons whom despite long term, very close association with K, don’t want to put their foot in the place.

Case of rich visitor who vowed never to go back because of the unprofessional attitude he encountered there. 

A man I met who stood there cussing at them, calling them fascists, over the way he was treated. 

A lady I met who had ended up crying there because of remarks made which she felt were inappropriate and more details which I prefer not to go into here. She never wants to go back there.

Another lady, formal student of K’s work who was very upset after her visit there. 

Taking a step back, first, I hope, they learned something from these incidents – I personally don’t believe any deep learning happened because of the dominance of a long term attitude that led to all this. 

KFA’S RULES

I respect every organization’s rules – if you want to be somewhere you have to follow their rules. 

I’ve always respected their rules and was never in violation of any of them without even thinking about them because I’m a civil, peaceful, respectful person. 

Their rules are sad to read – what’s become of this organization to need such rules. Having known and heard of several people they’ve alienated it may be a “people skills” and value issue. 

Talking about values, like many “charities” KFA probably gauges its friends by how much money they give it. 

I believe their rules may be preferential and have an example where if X did something and it was allowed, if Y does it, Y would get convicted triple ban for life (LOL). 

Apparently, the long list of stiff rules also applies to KFA Gathering but the participants are not informed of these rules – for example, if a public Gathering participant takes a video they could get punished. 

Dictatorial Attitude

A study of dictatorships shows some resemblances to what I’ve seen in KFA’s culture at certain points in time.

For example, case of KFA’s staff member saying: “Nobody from outside the foundation can comment on the work of the foundation” – I don’t believe this was a remark isolated from the culture. Reminds me subtly of K’s statement that the inner and outer movements are the same – an intelligent entity utilizes all feedback.

Control access / information flow to people.

Trying to quash dissent through force instead of exercising respect. 

Results in “lack of understanding of what they are”.

Dictatorial Attitude / Alienation / Hunter is the Hunted

Deliberate attempt to try to ban person that has criticized them in the most civil way. 

Insider said to a person, good job being here despite they trying to ban you. 

Have met a number of people: ex-trustees, staff, teachers, visitors, who have been alienated by the KFA. 

Some long term friends of K who don’t want to have anything to do with the place.

Their rules are sad to read – says a lot about the mindset. Does the place really attract so many wackos? Is it because they make so many enemies? Is it bad management? Poor relating skills? Look at how K treated “disturbance” at his talks.

The Appeal Process is a joke. Basically the appeal ends up on Jaap’s desk. X decided to give it a shot for the fun of it but obviously, as expected, it was denied. Mark & Jaap wouldn’t let go of this entrapment not knowing the hunter is the real entrapped / hunted!

SUGGESTIONS (1)

Study K. Look up discussions around fragmented action and how it leads to more fragmentation. 

Deal with problems instead of suppressing, avoiding, ignoring them! Nothing goes away by just ignoring it. This is K-101! 

Shake up the whole place including resignation of a number of trustees (Mark, Rabindra, Leone, etc.), and resignation of Jaap. In terms of who and how to replenish the void, I have a number of suggestions, if ever solicited.

The issue is “change” as K spent years talking about – at heart of it is seeing what one is. What prevents that seeing is “ego”, and its identification, protection, sustenance through polarization, etc, etc.  And that’s been too strong at KFA so I’m not optimistic any change will happen as long as some of the people are round, unless they change, which usually doesn’t happen. 

SUGGESTIONS (2)

Stop diluting K’s work. 

Realize that dissemination starts with living it.

Shifting allocation of resources away from Far East (there’s already a Foundation in Asia) with greater focus on the foundation’s own territory (US). Jaap has personally left for Asia for long time while when he is in Ojai he’s complained about being too busy to deal with receiving average 3 emails a month (some of which he was only copied on and required no action) during a few months which he ignored a subject which he had asked to receive email as follow up! I think this is purely bad management. Management by avoidance! What about concern for public whose time is getting wasted by getting ignored. Where’s K’s teachings and all that great discourse about attention, dealing with things, and not pushing them under the carpet? 

SUGGESTIONS (3)

This is 21st century. Requesting paper mail as the only accepted communication in some cases is a bankrupt, backward idea. Move with the times!  

Strengthening the college outreach program.

Doing a far better job of identifying friends from foes, and collaborating instead of fighting! Every marketer knows it costs a lot less to keep an existing customer than to find a new one! 

Find a way to cooperate with people like use Tuljo Randmaa who already have a heavy K web presence and states he gets 40k more visits than the KFA and JK sites combined.

Have more respect and consideration for public. 

Don’t forget that you do not own K.

There are many more ideas but KFA seems too stuck in image making like most minds on the planet are. 

Other Foundations

I am somewhat familiar with KFT as I have friends who work there and have visited the place many times. 

KFT has a much smaller board than KFA but far deeper in terms of exposure to K’s work, in my opinion overall. 

KFT has a first class Administrator, and has a careful policy regarding both treatment of K’s work and finances which I believe is prudent.

KFI I’m not that familiar with but have heard various stories. I know they have some people genuinely and deeply interested in K’s work and also some very good managers. In terms of politics etc., I can’t comment. 

KFL, I don’t know anything about them except to know their leader is a great man. A “great” person can think for one self (vs. others, public opinion, assistants, etc. thinking for one).

KLI, I respect Friedrich Grohe a lot as one of the few K scholars I know -- except for his optimistic bias which I believe it can feed the status quo. We’ve talked about it.

“Commonwealths fall and perish when good citizens cannot be distinguished from bad." 

Antisthenes (pupil of Socrates)

"KFA will perish. It's not a question of if but when."
 Said recently by a person who was close to K