Resources/discussions for 2012 incident at Diamond Mtn Retreat Center

May 23, 2013 9:33 AM

Last summer, chaos erupted during a three-year long silent meditation retreat at the Diamond Mountain Buddhist University and Retreat Center, see this FPP for the background. The retreat was scheduled to end right around now, and presumably the silence around the incident would be then broken, but I can't find any further discussion about the event itself or the aftermath. Can anyone point me to online discussions or resources where I might find more information? I have seen this update on the Diamond Mountain website. Thank you.
posted by lakersfan1222 to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

Best answer: According to the NYT: article: The retreat is set to end on April 3, 2014.
posted by munyeca at 9:41 AM on May 23, 2013

Response by poster: Brilliant! Thanks for the info. At the time, I had read it as 2013. Carry on, then. We'll talk next year.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 9:43 AM on May 23, 2013

Response by poster: In the meantime, if anyone knows of any current discussions or resources......
posted by lakersfan1222 at 9:44 AM on May 23, 2013

Best answer: Did you see this article? "Case closed":

http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/news/article_9a724b6c-b4da-11e1-8c99-001a4bcf887a.html
posted by feets at 2:17 PM on May 23, 2013

Best answer: The most interesting thing I found was a link to "Death and Madness at Diamond Mountain," an investigative piece that was in Playboy in March 2013, but it is behind a paywall. You can see a picture of the graphics associated with the article here, or click here to hear a radio interview with the writer. If you can go to the library and get March's Playboy, this might be the most complete source of information on the subject to date.

[And as a corrollary related-but-not-related bonus, "Death on the Path to Enlightenment: Rise of the India Syndrome," by the same Scott Carney who wrote "Death and Madness" for Playboy]

Also interesting, though they begin to get repetitive after a while:

1. "The Michael Roach Bubble," written by the same guy who wrote the first two Elephant Journal articles linked back in the original FPP, circa June 2012:
(I think there will be discussion in the Elephant Forums but I already went there a couple times today so have a paywall; you should be able to get there by clicking the link on the top of the page)

2. "A Death in the Desert" circa Nov. 2012, Psychology Today

3. "Buddha in the Desert," circa Sept 2012, Tucson Weekly
posted by feets at 3:36 PM on May 23, 2013

Response by poster: Recent David Chapman blog post with more background and discussion about Roach and McNally...
posted by lakersfan1222 at 9:21 AM on September 4, 2013

Response by poster: The link above is the second post by David Chapman, here is the first
posted by lakersfan1222 at 9:23 AM on September 4, 2013

Best answer: The Rolling Stone article (just posted on longform.org)
posted by blue suede stockings at 10:10 PM on January 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: The retreat is over!, from the Diamond Mtn website

A recent article/blog post related to the incident:
The Dangers of Buddhist Tantra: Power Struggles, Faulty Gurus and Alternatives
posted by lakersfan1222 at 10:47 AM on May 14, 2014

Response by poster: My Brief Rendezvous with the Guru , it looks like there may be a Dateline piece in the works.
posted by lakersfan1222 at 11:12 AM on May 14, 2014