UPDATE: Mark Lee passed away and the useless, hopeless Krishnamurti Foundation America (KFA) misrepresented and in fact, lied about Krishnamurti asking Mark Lee to take up a leadership position at the foundation. That did not happen. It's a fiction that Mark himself and the KFA have promoted which is not true, based on very credible sources. Fact is, Mark was not talented for many roles so his role kept changing because they kept wanting to find a proper role for him, and he found his way to power by ways that would not be endorsed by Krishnamurti. Before K died, Scott Forbes, Mary Zimbalist and Erna Lilliefelt asked K what they should do with Mark Lee and K replied, I'm leaving, it's your problem!
KFA became hopeless and useless partly because of Mark Lee's engagement - and much more -- i.e. people like Jaap Sluijter who took the KFA to a new low. See these two articles: link1, link2.
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Mark Lee is a pleasant man socially but has other faces that are pretty brutal when he is criticized or politically challenged. I don't believe he is very smart, and I don't believe he has a clue what Krishnamurti was talking about.
I believe Mark Lee was one of the people Krishnamurti was referring to, in his death bed, when he said he was surrounded by people who hadn't the foggiest idea what he talked about.
Around the same time, reportedly, a couple of very close friends of Krishnamurti asked him what they should do with Mark Lee. K replied that as he's dying, it's their problem to decide what to do with Mark Lee.
"If I knew Mark is the way he is, I would not have brought my family here to Ojai and I would not have been involved with the Foundation." A Former KFA Trustee
After K's death, Mark Lee made himself into a "Mr. Everything Krishnamurti" as a friend of K put it. In reality when K was alive Mark was reportedly in the background. Before K died a small group of his close friends asked what they should do with Mark. K replied that he is leaving and it's their problem.
Mark has said fake juicy sensational stories to seal his popularity as an exotic story teller, though he says the fictional stories as facts. Here's a documentary on it which illustrated Mark's fictional story of K's tapes being flown over and beamed down etc. (LOL) but the facts simply don't add up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBYY55YDhEE
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Someone reported that Mark Lee had said "the Teachings are not for human beings but for aliens" and that some senior people who had worked with K for a long time were nodding their heads.
That's probably because Mark apparently never grasped the depth of what K was talking about -- this is so evident to me for so many reasons which I've illustrated before. The statement above also portrays that: it's not for humans in his view, so he's alleviated form the challenge of understanding it...
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KFA had a huge financial loss on Mark Lee's watch, which was because of its reckless speculation with the Foundation's money against K's express wish. But Mark tried to blame it on "outside circumstances, the national recession". Nice try!
That led to a huge lay off at KFA and supposed repositioning of KFA, in Mark Lee's words to a more business like operation, and to redefine KFA's mission which K already defined very clearly -- but KFA lost millions in speculative investments and ended up redefining its mission, to quote Mark Lee!
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A former Trustee and medical doctor believes Mark Lee employs psychic influences let's say (he used the term "black magic"). I can't investigate or objectively determine if he was involved in black magic but I know he was into energetic persuasion to put it mildly. I had some supernatural experience related to this, in a constellation which made perfect sense it coming from Mark Lee - and the self-centered, self-protective sentence, and use of image making, and even calling out to K - which was entirely in the realm of thought and at best the astral field which is also very limited...
There's clarity about different kinds of perceptions, including in dreams -- and this matter is clear enough that I am mentioning it here as support for what the friend and former Trustee said about Mark Lee.
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Oh did anybody ask Mark Lee in his latest talk Bangalore about his story that in 1966 Krishnamurti talk reels were boarded on B49 bomber and beamed down to American High School psychology and sociology classes. Problems are:
- B49 never flew beyond prototype
- in 1966 there were no such classes in American high schools
- Beaming down K talks from the sky from that non existent bomber to non existent classes was a technological breakthrough that probably did NOT happen. Does Mark have any evidence to back his claim with? The facts just don't add up?
How much of his new book on Krishnamurti, with promotion of Mark with a picture same size as K right next to him, suffers from the same factual inaccuracies? More here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBYY55YDhEE
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I have a hard time believing some of the assessments Mark makes about Krishnamurti.
The marketing material has Mark's picture next to Krishnamurti's. It was kind of funny to see because there's no comparison. Krishnamurti would never do some of the things Mark did. And the title is also funny : "Knocking at the open door" which in my opinion denotes a lack of understanding of some important aspects of Krishnamurti's work which is so obvious when you observe certain behaviors and remarks (let alone the "unexplained mysteries surrounding the man and his teachings"). Some of those remarks are referred to in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBYY55YDhEE
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Mark Lee is under reporting a number by 10 Trillion Times :)
Indian friend: "But after listening to Mark Lee here in Bangalore and meeting him personally, I felt that there is very little contact with the Teachings."
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The book contains some flat out nonsense -- Mark's very limited opinion presented as truth which in fact is utter falsehood. I think the gist of the issue is Mark's inability to grasp the core of what Krishnamurti was talking about. If you take that as a hypothesis then the nonsense he talks about in the book "makes sense". For example, he falsely assumes that millions didn't understand K -- he false assumes that those who do keep it to themselves and don't talk about it.
Apparently K told Mark at some point if you understand one part of it you understand all of it. First, given Mark's record of stating unverifiable stories, I first have a hard time believing this line and whether Mark is reporting it as it was actually said. Secondly, assuming the hypothesis above, K might have seen that Mark wasn't the smartest person on Earth -- and told him, just understand a little bit (LOL) -- don't bother about all of it. Thirdly, K's statement, if in fact was said as such, might have been said from a standpoint of a boxer where all he needs is one good punch -- or a guitarist where all he needs is a good note.
But stepping into a more tangible realm, it's clear to me, having read some 80 books of JK, that it is not enough to understand one part of it -- or rather -- understanding one little part does NOT mean you understand the whole thing. JK's work is tangible, practical -- but then again -- Mark is on record saying all of K is esoteric. Perhaps if he ever absorbed it and more importantly lived it, we wouldn't see some of the stuff he was involved in.
And fourthly, if Mark had lived that he wouldn't go around telling others that nobody had understood K because he himself would have been an exception. Fact is that many have understood K and their lives changed for the better and this myth of nobody got it is just propagated by the clueless.
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According to Michael Krohnen, Mark Lee had a role in provoking me which led to Michael Krohnen assaulting me to my total disbelief as I was peaceful the entire time and did not do anything wrong. I was talking to a friend and her baby when Krohnen called me out and came forward and assaulted me. Details here: https://www.rezamusic.com/writings/on-j-krishnamurtis-work/michael-krohnen-the-vulgar-librarian-at-krishnamurti-foundation-america-kfa
In the same file there are notes about Mark Lee and James Paul's attempt to oust Diane White...
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Mark promoted "Dialogue" like a ritual at the Foundation -- but years later he claimed himself that it was a failure. After K's death the Foundation heavily promoted dialogue, in a way that was more or less useless. Years later, at an introduction to Rajesh Dalal's talk Mark Lee essentially declared dialogue as dead. Don't try to figure it out - that's Mark's thinking. Years earlier, Albion Patterson was criticizing the "dialogues" as KFA with Mark Lee as the head was promoting as all talk no action. And Albion was right on. But Mark chastised him back them. Albion was an intellectual powerhouse and initiator of the K indexing project. I used to visit him regularly, and have written about him in my past circulars available on this website.
The Foundation (KFA) was turning into a circus. And years later Albion and I were proven right again and again. Jaap Sluijter was the straw that broke the camel's back. Jaap's miserable management and dishonest statements. Mark losing foundation's money by putting it into a risky investment against Krishnamurti's express wish. Grohe & Gang's infiltration. The mass firings of people. Grohe's employee Rabindra Singh becoming a Trustee and Secretary of the Board and bringing in Jaap as Executive Director. And so on. These things in my view portrayed that KFA had become more of a circus -- and in my opinion, Jaap Sluijter filled the role of the head clown with his donkey laughs and tragic comedy as documented in some videos, e.g. when Professor Wadhwa Pathik mocked Jaap Sluijter for saying they were close friends.
UPDATE
Mark Lee passed away in April 2024. Someone asked me if KFA will change post Mark Lee. My answer is no, because he was not instrumental, he just went whichever the wind blew, so his absence is immaterial to KFA. I have 100% given up for KFA and consider it a useless, hopeless organization and a disgrace to Krishnamurti and everything he stood for. So I can't even say that Mark's passing is positive for KFA because KFA is useless and hopeless, and just a ploy and toy for Jaap Sluijter and his allies', Rabindra Singh, Frode Steen, Trustee of KFA and member of Friedrich Grohe "Gang", Rabindra Singh, and Trustee Frode Steen (all three have reportedly have a presence in Hawaii...).
The Foundation's increasing assets provides job security and an easy life for Jaap Sluijter who's on record for saying the Trustees do anything he wants. He could never have gained so much power if it weren't for his lineage (Rabindra Singh via Friedrich Grohe who instated Jaap in that role).
KFA is doomed, and everything K dreaded, as long as it's under the control of this group, in my opinion.
See related documents on Jaap and KFA here:
And investigative report on KFT:
https://www.rezamusic.com/writings/on-j-krishnamurtis-work/KFT-Mismanagement
And lots of other related documents about Grohe Gang, etc.: https://www.rezamusic.com/writings/on-j-krishnamurtis-work
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Supremely Stupid people around the Supremely Intelligent Krishnamurti are finally dying one after another.
One of KFA's former Trustees said Mark was involved in esoteric power games, trying to manipulate others energetically etc. -- and that Trustee was actually afraid of Mark harming him.
I can't say if it's true or false but it's believable that Mark engaged in let's say energetic manipulation.
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KFA will make a song and dance and then forget about him. I haven't seen an obituary scheduled yet.
In fact I believe Jaap Sluijter is probably happy Mark has passed away. Though Mark went along with Jaap -- and I assume was overpowered by Japp and his lineage of power influence (Rabindra Singh via Friedrich Grohe & his Gang), Mark had been around much longer than Jaap and had the reins of power before Jaap, and had engaged in all kinds of power games and politics, and Mark considered and promoted himself as Mr. Everything Krishnamurti. So, with him out of the picture, the field is wide open for Jaap's grip on KFA -- in my opinion.
Mark was as useless and delusional as a second coat of paint, so I doubt his absence will make any difference. The vicious movement of Jaap and his buddies on the Board, empowered by Grohe implicitly, will go on.
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I met Mark briefly at the Doshi Bridgebuilder Award to Dr. Rupert Sheldrake. I made a video of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC3nlmv81Rc
I also held a conversation with Mr. Navin Doshi and Dr. Chris Chapple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvIvD-nAKgg
Dr. Chapel told me he asked Mark what he had gotten out of K's teachings, and said his answer was most unconvincing and weak.
During the even when Mark saw me he was so nice and kind as though nothing had happened - after so much backstabbing of me in relationship to the politics of KFA. It made me think Mark like perhaps a few other people took K the wrong way - that it's not about dying to the past if the past is disorderly. You can't backstab someone and then be nice in their face because you died to the past. It doesn't work like that. You will turn around and backstab the person again, so there's instability in such a person's character, in my view.
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"What I do remember, is that James Paul got in some trouble with Mark and worked with other board members to remove Mark as Executive Director."
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Related, in the news (Spring 2024):
Paul Herder is projected to get 6 years in prison. Oak Grove School and, KFA are on the hook in an associated civil case.
https://www.rezamusic.com/writings/law-ethics/paul-herder-criminal-case-oak-grove-school-krishnamurti-foundation-kfa
Fact Check & Critique of Mark Lee's Talks at KFI, KFA about Krishnamurti -- Proof that Mark Lee fabricated delusional lies about Krishnamurti.
Critique of Ravi Ravindra (& Mark Lee, Jaap Sluijter. KFA Krishnamurti Foundation America Hypocrisy)