Typical of a White American, Alpert “sold” the spiritual teachings that are “free” in the genuine lineages. As a consequence, there were generations of individuals from around the world who fell under his spell. His teachings were seductive as he wanted to be liked. He was a homosexual who apparently sired a child with a woman. He was once a world-denying (celibate) yogi – but when he returned to the West he soon returned to his privileged (bourgeois) identity. I wrote to him to explain that he was wrong about Socialism and Chinese Buddhism. He had said that religion was suppressed in the Communist Bloc and that his texts were “outlawed” and illegally copied and passed around. None of this is true – but it is a common mythos in the US. The truth is that nobody cared what a rich Zionist had to say – who was busy co-opting the spiritual culture of a deeply impoverished country (India) – whilst denying that country the opportunity of breaking-out of this ignorance through the adoption of Socialism.
