Barry Long, the Australian spiritual guru known as the “Tantric Master of the West,” died on Dec. 6 from prostate cancer. He was 77.
Although he worked as a journalist and editor in Sydney, Long abandoned his media career in his 30s to find spiritual enlightenment. He traveled to India where he experienced a “mystic death.” He moved to London where his spiritual quest culminated in a “transcendental realization.”
Long started teaching in 1968, and for 35 years, gave seminars and recorded videos and tapes offering his own brand of meditation and cosmic consciousness. He was particularly noted for his tantric teachings, and offered lessons on how to distinguish love from sex.
The spiritual guide moved back to Australia in 1986 and published a series of books advocating the search for God through self-discovery. Several topped the best-seller list, including “Origins of Man and the Universe,” which described the Big Bang in spiritual terms and contained Long’s description of consciousness — the basis of his teaching.
Barry Long’s teaching is the most radical, all encompassing and practical one I have encountered during my own enquiry into the Truth. Being as transmitten by his presence and the truth of the living word still to be found in his books tapes and videos is a gift of the rarest value. I remain in gratitude.
I went to my first seminar back in 1994 and ever since Barry Long’s penetrating presence and truth he was speaking, pulled me back to his seminars. His teaching changed my life and my ideas of love and relationships espesially. I am deeply grateful to him and glad to have all the books and tapes and videos to read and listen.
By dying, Barry Long demonstrated his true presence as master. While alive, I recognised his deep knowledge of love and truth. To live it, has been my most important purpose ever since. At the moment of his death something quite unbelievable happened. Whatever Barry Long was essentially, has not died but is alive inside me as living presence. It has no past reference to his person but is a magnificent energetic experience. Living what he spoke about has become so much easier. Thank you Barry for dying – that was your last contribution to me as woman on earth.
Since mid-2002 I have immersed myself in the teachings of Barry Long, and have found no other more piercing and compelling guide to the truth of love death and life. A curious thing happened to me too at the time of his death (before I even knew of the event) – his living presence (or immortal love as he writes of it) seemed to enter me at the same time (manifesting as a deep ache in the left side of my brain). It is not as acute now as it was but remains with me. Inner changes have accelerated during this time.
I take this as a measure of the enduring power and clarity of Long’s teachings and presence. I am ever grateful.
On december 8 2003 the teaching of barry long first entered my awareness. I am now exploring his words of truth and finding them in my experience. I just missed the living master.
what a man!
thanks bary. however much i try to resist, my self is fighting a losing battle… if at times painfull. Ha. time will tell
I “accidentally” picked up the “Origins of Man and the Universe” at my university library. The next two days of reading (the time I took to read the book) were the most incredible days of my life. I do not mourn Barry because his truth is now my truth. Indeed is every body’s truth whether they accept it or not.
Love
A great man , An intelligent man. A noble man. He did more to help others to help themselves than any man I have known.
Simply the most intelligent man I have had the honour to know.
Your star has appeared and will simply be there.
God I’m grateful the master came.
Farewell and Hello.
Barry Long spoke of woman and love like no other master I have ever encountered or of whose words I have read. His light shone on me as a woman and this ignited a love within that I had never dreamed possible.
Barry Long’s teaching changed (and keeps on changing) my life for good. I’m eternally grateful. Thank you Barry.
I just found out about Barry’s passing, I have the deepest gratitude for the wisdom and help and love that the short times that I was with him showed me. Barry enabled us to understand what a master really is. deepest thanks, Barry Long.
First elated with Barrys work when 18. Now 36. To date, there is no other work i have found which covers all with such clarity and totality. I would often shrug the suggestions of “guru hoppers” of auras. On the occassions i met him there was indeed a “fresh air” when close. I love.
It’s devine spirit so what tribute shall i pay to that deep pentrating insight into which barry long existed, he is a genius of his chosen endure and he would long be staying in the form of spirit /presence in all of us.
Barry, thank you, thank you, thank you! Since this year I have missed you and started listening to your teachings again after many years of going it alone and moving further away since your visit to Jamaica. It was a shock to learn of your “death” when I decided to make contact again. Your teachings are the only ones that I have found so complete in guiding me to the essence of SELF, and now I listen daily again for their energetic presence. Thank you.
Barry Long lived his teaching. His teaching is practical, livable, authentic.
A great man. A real and true man of God.
The power of his teaching lives on.
It is immediately accessable here and now as the sensation of life within, from which it arose, through which it is empowered, and into which it will dissolve, when the world of selves finally comes to rest.
Barry’s teachings have taught me to serve something greater than myself. His profound love of Woman, which brought me to his teaching, will forever be with me. Thank you to Barry and all who live the Truth.
I love the fact that barry long enabled me to learn to be truly intelligent in the real sense.
I constantly face the pain and loss i threw up when i learnt of barry’s ‘death’ and this helps me to stay true and present. to stay in love.
Barry Long helped me to understand and articulate the spiritual connection that was already building within me and Woman (prior to my knowledge of Barry). This greatly helped me to live in Immanence – and to nurture and polish the mirror of God Immanence after planting the Seed of Truth via my Sufi Guide.
You will forever be thanked.
Barry Long was a rare example of an honest man.
I urge anyone who is not familiar with Barry Long`s teaching to buy one of his books or audio tapes.
1990. I turned my life around 360 degrees upon reading Barry Long’s book ‘Ridding Yourself of Unhappyness’. (Now called ‘Only Fear Dies’).
there just does not seam to be another enlightened person on the planet with his profound penatration into the truth and what a mirror he was. All that is not true in me is reveled daily to me.
Thank you. I love you. Thank you.
Barry Long gave the greatest gift possible to the world. His teaching on life, love, truth, death and God are so utterly straightforward, practical, clear – and cut through all the crap so simply. His books and tapes have the power to transform an ordinary part-dead life into a vital, wonderous, indescribable thing. What greater gift can anyone give to another?
Indeed…Barry Long had a spiritual alignment very much in the path of Immanence – which preaches to live with God in the presence, as opposed to constantly trying to search for it in Transcendence.
He has a down-to-earth and spiritually intelligent presence not dissimilar to the Prophet Adam.
Thank GOD it is time to wake up out of this terrible dream of ignorance of GOD.
Still living in ignorance, Barry is here to guide me. There is no DEATH. I,M most grateful for his teaching, and the hole organisation.
Never met Barry personally. But along the graceful growing perception and mastery of my own self, been meeting Him more and more, and more and more amazed of the transforming power of the right words written and spoken from divine place inside. Unspeakable bliss. Thank you.
thanks barry dont know where id be without your teachings, drifting on a stormy sea perhaps… but they found me and i love all the work that came through you thanks barry now i must be the master…..
I discovered Barry’s incredible teaching at the tender age of 19.I am now 33.Like so many others I am continually amazed by how relevant and profound it remains as a living presence in my life.I have had to absorb many of the “normal ” wordly experiences and pains while “growing up” however the presence of this truth has been so intimate and deeply connected in me it is inconceivable that I could ever lose it ( there is nothing to cling to anyway)I have absorbed his teaching of the love betweeen man and woman as earnestly as I could of course making my mistakes and having to humbly face my karma.I find now the result of this work is a joy with my man (of 14 years) that is such a fresh and true sensation that sometimes I just laugh with the freedom of it.We live a very ordinary life coping with all the rigours of work and family life and yet connected by a love that neither of us own or could attempt to understand.Barry through his uncompromising love showed me this way and demonstrated that there is no failure only the opportunity to be more true.To say I love Barry does not do justice to the deep and lasting legacy thou has left in me.I continue to do my best and give my life to thee.
Bary
search the book “seulement la peur” and “intuition sur l’origine”
best regard
Michel
Barry’s work continues to amaze and change me for the better everyday!My eternal gratitude goes out to Barry and his organisation
I am what I am now that I know what I am Not. I am Love, In being Love I am now responsible for everything I say and do, No more excuses. Existence becomes cleaner and clearer every moment, the burden of the past less and less. As the truth is the same for everyone the man who taught me so much (Barry Long)is actaully me in another form. I work so hard to relearn what I was foolish enough to forget, this place with its trials and tests has certainly served its purpose. Thank you to Life, having appeared in the form of Barry Long to show me the way. I will endeavour to enjoy every moment I am priviliged to be in existence. LOVE Andrew
Barry Long is nothing more and nothing less then an individual expression of truth absolute and so can be everyone here as well. To embrace Barry’s gift to us is to live our inner truth without compromise and stand up with the roar of living truth through us.
Thank you, Barry!
Barry Long was not what he said he was. He was obsessed with sex and with his own self-aggrandisement.
At his seminars, nearly every interaction with a “student” would eventually get round to the question “how’s your love life?”. The subsequent discussion made it clear that by “love life” he actually meant only “sex life”. The idea that love was involved in other areas of family life and friendship didn’t seem to occur to him. He was asked for his definition of love. His answer was “penis in vagina”. After a whole lifetime he still didn’t seem to realise that it takes a lot more than great sex to love someone.
He would talk about the “fiendess” in women. This anger against men was supposed to be a result of modern men’s inability to love women properly physically (by which he simply meant the inability to f**k them properly – again, love was restricted to sex). He ignored the fact that women have a lot more than a few bad bed experiences to be angry about, like thousands of years of oppression! The “fiendess” idea ended up just being a licence for bad behaviour on the part of many of the female students. This ranged from, on the one hand, simple constant ill manners and discourtesy to men to, on the other hand, major tantrums and deeply dishonest and manipulative behaviour. And this was blamed on the man in question. At no point were these women called on to take responsibility for their own behaviour like grown-up human beings.
Barry portrayed himself as the only man who could love (i.e. f**k) women properly and “take on” the “fiendess”. At one point he was “taking on” (i.e. f**king) five women simultaneously. It would have been more but several of his female “students” turned him down. Far from enjoying the experience and becoming happier, these women were fairly constantly angry and moody and used to get together to bitch with others behind his back about Barry. Complaints were on the level of how he would force them to listen to his boring poetry recitations, or how he would make them sit and watch boring old black-and-white TV Westerns. He used to boast about how love was the most important thing to him and he would make love with his partner(s) “morning, noon and night”. What he actually used to do was send them shopping together while he stayed in and watched violent movies. “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” was one of his favourites. Little evidence of even a happy family, far less a loving or spiritual one.
One of the worst pieces of Barry’s behaviour was to do with a boy called Simon. Barry wrote a book called “Raising Children in Love, Truth and Consciousness”. Much of the content was about his life his partner at the time and with her young son (by another man) called Simon. Barry would tell stories about interactions with Simon to illustrate some point about how to bring up children. After some time Barry left Simon’s mother (as he did with most of his women it seems – no long-term or faithful relationships for Barry) and mother and son moved to another part of Australia. After some time, when Barry was now with the five women, Simon tried to get back in touch with Barry to tell him about his life and ask for some advice, because he loved and respected Barry. Barry refused to communicate with Simon because “that was now all in the past”. This deeply upset Simon and, to do them credit, the five women.
Again – Barry was a deeply self and sex obsessed man. He had little consideration for those around him and was not a spiritual master.
Thank you Anthony. Sadly, I agree with you. Although the time and the manner of his death (from prostate cancer) gives us sorrow, he was not a master. Apart from his chequered personal history, his work is contains plenty of statements suggesting he had delusions of grandeur, and was quite a disturbed individual. A true spiritual teacher does not boast he is a master: witness the work, say, of J. Krishnamurti (from which he appears to have borrowed a great deal) or even Eckhart Tolle, for example. Their work is not full of self aggrandisement.
I have ask Anthony how many meetings he actually went to? He has clearly not understood Barry Long’s teaching on love and sex, as the fundamental message was to learn the difference and give oneself only to love. As a woman I heard that I was absolutely responsible for everything in my life. It is an error to base your judgement of Barry on the behaviour of whatever individual women you seem to have associated with.
I’m also rather dubious about any statement says “a true master should behave like this or that”….when have masters ever been stereotypical! This only shows your ignorance. Barry did display alot of self aggrandisement, but that’s not relevent to the truth he spoke regarding life, love, death and God. I am greatly indebted to him for freeing me of much suffering and I don’t give a toss about his personal life. I don’t need a teacher to be perfect to be able to hear the truth if it is spoken.
I am interested in Anthony Conway’s appraisal above. Anthony has taken a particular slant on what Barry Long said and did, presenting facts and reporting opinion in his own way. However what Anthony doesn’t seem to have understood from Barry Long, or any spiritual discipline, is that bitterness or resentment about another is a waste of time. If Andrew wants to dispute what Barry Long said and did, he would be better off doing it at the highest level – by displaying his own unique nobility – rather than at the lowest level – trying to climb up the heap by judgement and slander, which can be argued bitterly and pointlessly from one point of view to another till time is worn dry.
For myself, I leave judgement of Barry Long the man to God. The need to make a God or a devil of another is nothing more than an abdication of my own responsibility for life. I am nothing other than grateful for all the ways in which he showed me a deeper truth about myself.
Lyanne –I went to many meetings over a number of years, right through Barry’s teaching and out the other side. You don’t know me so you don’t know what I have or have not “clearly … understood”. The distinction between love and sex, which Barry said he was the first to teach, was taught me by my mother and by many other adults when I was a child, and is obvious to any experienced adult human being. I don’t know how a “true master should behave”. I only know that Barry made great play of living everything that he taught, whereas he in fact said one thing and did another. I also am grateful for what I learned from him. But I was interested in his dishonesty when I discovered it, and I think that it is worth pointing out to give a balanced view of his life.
Neal – you can’t present facts “in your own way”. Facts are facts, they are either so, or they are not. Opinions are different, of course. Don’t mix the two. Again, like Lyanne, you don’t know me and you don’t know what I have or have not understood. In particular, I am not bitter, and I am not resentful. Why would I be? It would indeed be a waste of time. Any bitterness or resentment that you perceive is your projection, your opinion presented as fact. I am, as you imply, indeed judging Barry, but I am not slandering, if that is what you wish to imply. Slander consists of lies, and I have not lied. I have no idea of what you mean by “trying to climb up the heap”. Which heap is that? I have no interest in arguments: certainly not bitter ones; certainly not pointless ones; and certainly not even for a moment, much less “till time is worn dry”. Do you? As I said above, I am also grateful for what I learned from Barry – partly from what truth and original perception there was in his teaching, and partly from seeing his dishonesty and mistreatment of others and deciding not to do the same. I have no interest in making a God or a devil of Barry. Do you? And my name’s not Andrew!
BARRY LONG… WOW!
I first came across Barry Long’s first edition yellow book called, “Knowing Yourself”. It was given to me by my father, when he was in recovery, from alcoholism. My life has not been the same since. I now have most of his books and know of no other writing like it, I read the same books every day, they are incredible.
I have experienced the Absense of Nothing (as discribed in Knowing Yourself (Edition 2) when I was 18 and this confirmed the real truth of Barry’s teachings.
I wish I had had the opportunity to meet with Barry, which is something I will be more sorry for than words can explain, but it wasn’t to be.
Thank you Barry for your teachings which allows everyone of us, that did not meet you, to understand the Truth.
Thank you also for your suffering, consciously, on this planet, so that the rest of us could see the way… True love.
I have found so much of what Barry said to be an invaluable source of wisdom and extremely profound insight. His words are so clear and direct, as distinct from other spiritual teachers I have read. There are some other things that should be said though.
There are many things Barry exhorts people to do, for example, be grateful, love the good, be still, descend into me, just give up the unhappiness, surrender to the infinite intelligence, die in each moment. Though I have read, listened and watched many of his tapes, books and videos, I am not sure when to do each of these or in what order. I do not think I can do them all at the same moment. And now that he is gone, I cannot ask him and he did not wish others to interpret his teachings for him.
I wished he had explained how his statement works that each of us is totally responsible for all the circumstances of our lives. I have my own theory on it, but would have liked him to spell out why or how this giant statement is exactly true. May be he explained how elsewhere.
Also, doing Barry Long’s astrology chart, even without the exact time of birth, it clearly shows someone with a very, very large and powerful self image (if one wants to be kind) or ego (if one uses the usual interpretation) in terms of mind and spirituality (Jupiter opposes Mercury and Neptune conjunct in Leo with Sun also in Leo). Also, using his life events in a process called rectification, his birth time can be narrowed down quite accurately. It seems very likely Jupiter was in his first house which is usually interpreted as being very much larger than life and with it definitely being it Aquarius, very detached in personal relationships with love as an abstract ideal more than in person. It also gives him a Capricorn ascendant, a generally austere, dour and judgmental persona which I can see come over much of the time.
Lastly, I once saw Barry raise his hand and then lower it to stroke the head of a woman just before a seminar in London. All nice, except she really looked quite scared to me and this really surprised me. Perhaps she was just afraid of the truth or perhaps I misread her emotion, I certainly hope so.
All in all, I am not sure if he was perfect, but then who is? I am not sure if even Jesus was, after all, he lost it in the Temple with the money lenders, did he not?
So I am truly thankful to Barry for his words and inspiration. I once told him I was attracting cold, manipulative women into my life and acknowledged my responsibility in doing so. He told me to “find a woman with whom you can be your sweet self”, so I did! Even after 11 years with her, the love is so utterly sweet and precious!
I write for the benefit of the living. I am eternally grateful for the teachings of Barry Long which I have only known through his media. The grace and authority of his inspiration is overwhelmingly apparent. For your own personal growth and the future of our planet I urge you to explore his teaching. Thank you Barry.
Other than woman and the eternal within himself (the Being, God and Life and so on), could anyone refer me to a place where Barry showed gratitude for anything or anyone else in his life?
This would be of tremendous help to me.
Many thanks.
barry was a master alright. he had it all worked out.I wonder did any of these women he was bringing to “realization” have more than one master or was’nt that allowed .
The teachings of Barry Long have changed my life and it is my life that is the living tribute to those teachings.
Five years ago, I was introduced to them. For the first time in my life – I was then 54 – I found a comprehensive teaching that made sense to me and that was the solution to so many questions that other teachings didn’t answer. I was hooked. I went to work. Life and love provided the opportunities.
Now five years later I am free of unhappiness, I have realised love, I have everything I need and I am in paradise.
I am not special. I am an ordinary, natural woman.
Living proof that Barry Long’s practical teaching on truth and love is alive and real in me, in my life and in the world.
I never had the opportunity to be with him in person. It is through his material that I came to know his teachings.
To me the man is immaterial. It is the power of love and truth that he is able to reflect to me that is the mystery and miracle. That power is in me as it is in everyone whether they can see it or not, whether they are ready for it or not, and I thank God and BL for having been given the grace to rediscover and recognise its presence in every moment of my life.
That is what Barry said – that he was free of unhappiness and lived every moment in love. It is plainly obvious from attending some of his meetings and from the “letters to man in truth” that he still experienced irritation and judgmentalness. A number of letters Barry wrote back to men were not in love. Juliana is not bothered about whether Barry personally lived what he preached and that is her choice. Barry was however very much concerned about whether spiritual teachers lived the truth or not and commented frequently on them.
Perhaps Juliana has achieved what it seems Barry could not, whilst still using only his teachings presumably. If so, then that is a remarkable accomplishment. My partner is free from unhappiness about 90% of the time and she has never read a word of Barry’s teaching. Go figure?
However, I for one shall sincerely contemplate what Juliana says in humility and honesty. After all, she is right in saying each one of us has the power of eternal life and love within us. Barry was not the first to say this, but he put it very clearly. As for his teachings as a whole, they have not after 35 years created for the vast majority of his “students” what it has apparently for Juliana. Either they did not put in enough effort or the teachings are incomplete. If Juliana is to be believed, then the rest should just work that much harder or smarter or something more!
Nevertheless, Barry and Juliana talk of God as if it is something distinct “I thank God”. If one is truly one with God, then there is only joyous union, not the gratitude of a disciple or follower still looking up to God or in this case, down into God in one’s Being. It is very much easier for disciples and followers to be “happy”, just ask any evangelical Christian.
If what Barry said is true that we are all totally responsible for all the circumstances of our lives (e,g, if I am maimed and yet it is my responsibility), then each of us is the very God of our lives. As such, we are grateful only to ourselves and noone else or anything else and there is no need to thank God as if it is separate from our own consciousness.
Have I missed something? I actually hope I have, believe it or not.
It is to be grateful for the very life that is me. The creation of my life from the eternal Being, God, the father and mother, which is the source of my Being and the eternal, limitless source of truth and love within me. I am the birth, the son, yet completely responsible for my life, that is also eternal and holy, from the moment of my creation, since the beginning, through the aeons of time, from ignorance of myself to awareness of myself, through karma.
I retract all the words spoken by the ignorance within me and let go of the ego, the little self as the embodiment of that ignorance. All of you now have my love, not my resentment.
I am eternal yet a single point in existence, so humbled by the infinite source of all, yet realised as one with it. The infinite intelligence that manifests in me and in any man or woman has my eternal gratitude. I am infinite intelligence, we are all infinite intelligence. It is the master with no name, beyond Barry Long or Rap or Juliana, eternal, the source of knowing. It manifests and speaks. There is endless beauty and joy. I understand now. Blessed be.
Goodwill and love to all
Rap
It’s so amazing to read all this, there’s much gratitude and a little confusion. Barry’s authority was undeniable as were the flaws accurately perceived by some (vastly distorted and exaggerated by others on this site!). The only thing to do is check it out for yourself and always return to your own divine authority within you. Barry was the first to say not to believe anything that he said but to check in your own experience. And I heard Barry express much gratitude to the Blessed John whom he called his master and to the people who worked for him.
Fascinating astro insights Rap…although I once saw BL’s chart and he had Leo rising.
Personally, I have experienced some of the states that Barry has discribed. I have experience the point in oneself when in that moment you realise that you know everything you know, and have also seen that it cannot be held in memory – I have also plunged into the nothingness, causing a trauma that lasted over 7 years.
If you have not experienced yourself as Barry discribes, then you do not know, therefore you have to believe. But as soon as you believe, everything is already false because you are following your own way and not the way of truth. The way of truth has been discovered many times, because it is always the same, regardless of the expression.
Read the books, again and again and again and again until you get it… all his talking was not speculative or theorectical, it is physically real to you in the moment of experiencing, like life itself, or any moment you have had.
You are responsible for everything that happens to you because the world you are in is your own, and nobody elses, which is why no matter how hard you try, you cannot tell someone if they are telling the truth. Because that person is the only person who knows whether they are telling the truth. Its so simple, that it is overlooked.
This fact is also dis-satisfying, which is why we accept belief. To believe in one thing or another. But belief has nothing to do with truth. As Barry said himself, in order to believe something, you have to know, but when you truly know, you do not have to believe.
Know also that belief has no end, whereas desire only has an ends.
I now enjoy the reflection when I first heard the words “throw it all out” from the tape “Gnosis Knowledge of God” I was floored by that statement, and an immediate detachment from all past beliefs, intellectual reasoning, concepts from association with science or of any religion, poetry, philosophy, every thing inside me went still….. Like “I” the person had just died, the truth was spoken and thats what happens in the truth, it brings stillness. I had already been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for several years when I had run across Eckhart Tolle on the internet, after being upset with myself for getting “me” involved in a self-improvement course which cost a bit of money. I was curious of his influences and found Barry long, so because I was penetrated by what Tolle had mentioned about “thinking” I discovered Barry Longs “How to stop Thinking” Tape. A new found set of tools to practice daily was now upon me, and what he said would happen in that tape did happen…no one can tell me different….I didn’t get the opportunity to meet Barry in Person, only to see his video’s, read his books, and chat with the folks @ the foundation. its clear to me as was mentioned by another that “I am the only one here” all of the folks here in this blog sharing their gratitude, negativity, and quality of their life now is right and good, Barry called it “Disharmonious Harmony” and God is still in charge of it all….just remember the space between you and me is the stillness of eternity in existence…”now” I thank God for using barry long to penetrate me deeper…
I work in education and would like to say that if any teacher, in a position of authority with students, ever had sexual relations with them, it would be considered an abuse of a privileged position and result in instant dismissal, even if the student was above the age of consent.
All teachers have to recognise that their students are emotionally open and vulnerable to them in that setting. (All the moreso in the subject of spirituality, which is obviously intensely personal and psychological). So to have such relations in educational settings is generally considered as taking advantage of that and highly unethical.
Doubtless Barry would say such ethics do not apply to him, a “tantric master of the West”. What an easy claim and justification to make. Anyone can say that. The justfication for having sex with students as one of being love for them would not wash for a moment in any educational setting, even in an adult one such as University, from a lecturer. Besides, even on this site, people disagree about how much he was love to his cohort of women.
At any rate, spiritual teachers should not put themselves above everyone else, no matter how much they think of themselves. Where would that lead us? There has to be an independent standard and code of conduct, not simply the word and justifications of any one teacher, which is bound to be biased.
Im only responding to you to be of help If I may, and of course you can discard it all….that being said have you read Barry Longs book called Raising Children in love, justice and truth?
I first came across Barry Long back in 1986 and was immediately drawn to his presence and teaching. I attended his seminars for 14 years. The practical, down to earth simplicity of his teaching has helped me immensely. The teaching is now ingrained in me and serves me every moment of my life.
Barry exposed the enemy to me – the believer, the decision maker, the concluder, the worrier and the one who fantasizes. He exposed its every ways to me so I would not be tricked by it. He showed me how to see the fact of life and to give less and less time to my personal impressions. He taught me to only speak from my own experience of life. He taught me how to be in the present, in this body, in these five senses. He taught me how to stop thinking; how to be still. He introduced me to wonderful dimension of stillness in me.
Barry taught me to not compromise in my life. And he taught me to be honest and straight.
He taught me to be true to the situation, not to my feelings; possibly the most effective life-tool I have and use. He taught me to let go of my likes and dislikes. To allow life’s will to take its natural course and to relinquish my own will; my own wanting.
Barry showed me the difference between sex and love. He exposed the selfish nature of sex to me and introduced me to the giving nature of love. Barry taught me to give up thinking and fantasizing about sex. To stop lusting, and wanting what I do not have.
Barry taught me that in many of us there is the potential to turn on the Master after following his teaching for many years. He warned me that this could happen. He taught me that my mind would pick on the 1% that it thinks is bad, and fail to acknowledge the 99% that is good.
Barry taught me to acknowledge the good in my life every moment. To acknowledge the good actions of others. To be grateful to my parents, who did their best under (sometimes) difficult circumstances. To be grateful for my life. To be grateful for what I am given, for what I have, and for what I am.
Barry taught me to let go of my inner prisoners; to let go of anyone I may hold onto as resentment, dislike or hatred.
All these lessons, the living of them as best I can, have contributed to my living life more and more from a place, a body, ’emptied’ of the impediments to being here now, as pure awareness in these senses.
I could go on. But these seem to be the things that stand out in my experience.
Thank you Barry, for teaching me these things. Thank you for helping me to live a life more free of confusion, doubt, fear, worry, regret, craving, emotional discomfort and resentment.
Nice my experience also….
Su (and others) – this is a blog for posting tributes to Barry Long
Definition of tribute:
“something given or done as an expression of esteem”
Do you have a tribute to give to Barry Long – or his teaching?
Juliana, it is actually called a Blog of Death at the top of the page and the main page of whole site. And an excellent site it is too. Please read other blogs on this site as they do contain some negative comment too about others who have died. So this Blog should not be considered an (unconditional) tribute site, no matter how much some people might “need” that.
The tone of your last e-mail is disappointing from someone who makes the claims you do. And you do not have to patronise me, I like most people, do know what a tribute is! 🙂
It is a shame that some of Barry’s followers cannot stand any criticism of him, no matter how reasoned. Still I accept this is a common trait, as there appears to be quite a lot of one sided, blind “devoteeism” here, which often happens amongst followers of masters, despite Barry’s requests to the contrary.
Nevertheless as you request, I freely affirm that Barry’s teaching were a great contribution to the field of spirituality. I did not say this before because it had already been said on this Blog several times before and I realized that his faults were simply being brushed under the carpet.
Please remember – no one is special, not even Barry Long. Yet I repeat, his realizations and teachings are great indeed.
Louise, thank you for saying for me what Barry was grateful for.
Regarding tribute. Earlier, I became aware of a deeper truth and love within me and communicated it. To live the truth and love an individual such as Barry stands for is to give true tribute to that individual. There is no greater honour.
Words of tribute without living truth and love are hollow and without meaning. Truth and love is an unconditional state of living compassion, harmony, respect and unity within me towards others, the Earth and the Universe, all of which I recognize as me, in the depths of infinite being. Conversely, to the extent to which any individual does not live the truth and love he or she professes, is self degradation, not tribute.
I do not speak these words by choice, for the bliss within me, being unconditional, does not require me to be anything nor do anything. But by the calling of infinite being within me, to give living tribute to that infinite being, that Barry so loved. And I give tribute to Barry and all persons, however much truth and love live or lived within them.
Peace and love to all.
Barry was a very, very spiritually perceptive and intelligent man. He combined things like bits of Buddhism, the things it teaches to be not attached to – the world, self, past and future, sex etc, with Gnostic Christian belief that God is inside us as much as all around us and we can know him directly and simply and the Taoist technique of being aware in the stomach to be still. His words had an energy I like.
I do think he made too many books, tapes and videos, a lot to have to get through, and then to practice. It’s also expensive when I add them all up. I don’t begrudge it, but I think it can muddle and confuse the simpleness of his core teachings. But his teachings are definitely worth the effort. They are very inspiring for me. I believe he did his best for us and I am very thankful for it.
I think these attacks against Barry’s character are nothing new in terms of spiritual masters. Nearly every teacher or guide of significance has suffered because of their teachings – in one way or another. This is caused by jealousy, heresay, misinterpretation and an inability to understand the greater wisdom behind an action. My other teacher, who I know to be true, was accused of sleeping with another man’s wife (I know for a fact he didn’t do it) but words breed rumours and rumours convince others and it leads to character assasination. Barry tried not to have an ‘ashram’ for this very reason of rumours and discussions developing…yet, it still somehow managed to seep through.
Barry taught that you should take ONE woman on, with this understanding and receptivity to truth and love. What he may have done at the beginning may have been either a mistake on his part, or a wisdom that may be above your comprehension. But know this….his teaching on the love of man and woman is TRUTH. Because I have personally experienced it. There is even a Sufi master named Ibn Arabi who wrote that the perfect and most intense contemplation of God can POTENTIALLY be in the “conjugal act”.
But Barry Long was not a sexualist or a materialist. He taught that you should stay present and remember the Mystery and Stillness Within. Man and Woman are the perfect reflections of this Mystery – even though it is beyond and above the bodies of both man and woman; we are the best pointers and reminders of this Reality than any other heaven or form in the manifest multi-verse. The Secrets are within us, and we point to them – but yet, they are beyond our comprehension. This is the mystery, and the paradox.
Can you not but love the mystery? I certainly do and I thank Barry Long for helping me to.
Hossein,
To summarily and effortlessly dismiss all the many considered and thoughtful criticisms here of Barry, a spiritual “master” as the result of jealousy, hearsay, rumor, misinterpretation or a failure of comprehension is hardly fair, reasonable or objective.
By itself, this argument is a typical, very easy defense used by autocrats (spiritual, political or otherwise) and their ardent supporters to say a “master” his teachings and his behaviour are all simply beyond criticism altogether. In other words, somehow infallible or perfect.
There is a tendency amongst many aspirants to view spiritual “masters” (only THEIR chosen ones of course and not others do they do not consider “masters”) as living on some elevated plane, incomprehensible to the rest of us, despite the “master’s” all too obvious constant human frailties and faults. Yet some of us can understand and explain his teaching and behaviour very well indeed.
You mention your other teacher. I am glad you have another teacher too, really. But Barry said he did not wish his students to also follow more than one teacher. He called such behaviour “shopping”. He said one “master” should be enough. So either you accept he was wrong on this and that his teachings were incomplete or you drop your other teacher.
Second, yes, he did teach monogamy, but only for his students. I myself heard Barry say that as the “master” he could “take on” several women, as he claimed to have sufficient love for all of them. His frequent judgmentalness towards the human race as a whole and the world – the benefits of which he himself enjoyed, rather than compassion, indicates to me at least, that he may not have had.
Third, Barry asked his students not too discuss or interpret his teachings. So you should not be explaining them as you did, if you accept his statement on it. I am as you can see, willing to do so, as I think he was in error here too as discussion is a major way for a “master’s” limitations to come to light especially as some, like the young and inexperienced, are prey to “masters” claiming “absolute truth”.
Four, he charged quite ample sums for his presence and teachings. Unlike Jesus, Buddha and many others “masters” who freely gave of themselves and their teachings, Barry did not live by what many call the law of providence, on donations and charity. Well, in my humble opinion, if it was good enough for Buddha or Jesus, it should be good enough for everyone else, including Barry. There is no evidence to suggest that Jesus charged an entrance fee for the Sermon on the Mount. So when Barry said he was a “master” of the West, he was certainly right that you had to have western level affluence to be able to afford to be, read or listen to him. Most in the developing world could simply not afford it.
Five, Barry himself said “truth” could not be copyrighted, but he did it anyway, perhaps to stop others taking his ideas. Yet many of the ideas Barry spoke of were clearly not his anyway. And if others were simply abusing his words verbatim as Barry claimed, as the “master” he should actually be pleased they are being reprinted so accurately rather than complain about not being given credit or revenues for them as the true author or “master” of them.
Sixth, Barry’s teaching on man and woman was not the full truth. Yes, one can experience heaven and absolute bliss by pure love making. Like yourself, I too have known it. Yet the heart of man is woman and the heart of woman is man. Merging these two energies can be accomplished internally, fully. So it is also true that such infinite and absolute bliss can and is experienced without any physical act or dependent upon anything at all, whatsoever! I have experienced this accidentally and have witnessed others experience it too, even at will. There are also the accounts, especially from India, witnessing spiritual “masters” spending days in such states of pure and absolute indescribable bliss, joy, love and so on, nothing to do with making love with another person at all.
I still say again, that despite all this, he made a truly wonderful contribution to the understanding of “truth” and love.
Just to say, this post is really meant for those who read this blog and approach Barry with an open and objective perspective, wanting to reasonably and maturely consider both “sides” of the discussion.
Hi Su,
Do you practice Barrys Teaching? daily?
Thanks Barry.
Thank you Anthony Conway!
As I’ve seen countless times in my own experience within the tantric. Coincidences do not exist. The Universe shall provide what you need when you need it. Gratefully, I came upon this blog (and most importantly, your entries) at a time when I needed it the most.
Without going into all the details of the how and why here on a blog, I just wanted to say that for quite some time I have struggled to understand Barry and to align his teachings with my own Truth.
My initial response was a rather strong aversion… particularily to his use of the term “cunt power”, his teachings on the tyrannous emotionality of women, fiendess, etc. I found him to be abrasive and misogynistic.
I’m rather new to tantra and for the longest time thought the “problem” was with me. That I was not understanding”
Your message rang loud and clear with me. I’ve decided to start fresh this new year, associating myself with another teacher (and community)with whom I feel more comfortable.
Thank you!
Barry had deep spiritual experience and was a craftsman with words. He had a gift for stating his spiritual insights in simple English, which was easily translatable into other European languages. He rarely used Sanskrit or other terms unless he couldn’t find a way to express himself in simple English. “Karma” was about the only such term he used regularly. Listening to his tapes, reading his books, watching his videos or being present at one of his meetings, one could be led to experience his perceptions for oneself. Now that’s a real teacher. I owe him a great deal for that and so do many others that I know.
Unfortunately a number of his students, having developed real perceptions through Barry’s teaching, went on to develop a condition that Barry called “guruitis” – presuming to teach before you’re ready, mostly through recycling Barry’s phrases, and before finding out what the real situation is and what your hapless “pupil” actually needs. Lyanne Compton’s and Neal Bowhay’s contributions above are good examples.
There were some things about Barry as a “spiritual master” that I found inexplicable. He was very twitchy about other “masters” and said that masters were always very wary around each other. I could never figure out why. If they’ve seen the truth, it must be the same truth, or it isn’t the truth, so why wouldn’t they just collaborate for the greater good to help others see it?
He had something against scientists for some reason, although he was happy to use their medical, mechanical and electronic products. He seemed to think that the wives or female partners of scientists were bound to be particularly unhappy and unloved, but could never give any reason for this opinion.
One of the great things about Barry’s teaching on sex was that he would talk straightforwardly and explicitly about anatomy and the importance of sensation – but only up to a point. He was asked more than once about the effect of condoms on sensation and therefore on lovemaking, a straightforward and relevant question which he always refused to answer. He also said that the widespread use of contraception had led to the population explosion. Never did understand that one.
Concerning Barry’s teaching on children, when the matter was being discussed at his meetings Barry said more than once that the best thing would be if nobody had any more children and the human race died out, and then nobody would be unhappy any more because there would be nobody to be unhappy. That never struck me as the saying of a man who was free from unhappiness, as he claimed he was.
Along those lines, in the last few years of his life he promulgated the teachings of some of the Gnostics about a male deity called Ialdabaoth. He was supposed to be the result of the rebellion of Sophia (female divine Wisdom) against God because she wanted her own kingdom. The result was the birth of Ialdabaoth, the “demiurge”, the Creator God of the Old Testament who was not actually the “real” God but a kind of Anti-God, who brought the material world into existence but, as Barry put it, as a kind of “aborted foetus” when compared with the “real” world of non-material existence. All a bit weird and not really verifiable in anyone’s experience, but a very poor view of the material world. Again, Barry seemed very unhappy about existing materially.
Concerning Barry’s tantric teaching, if it is to be judged by its results as exemplified by the women that he had relationships with, and if these women are examples of the New Woman that Barry was bringing to Earth, as he claimed they were, then his teaching leaves a lot to be desired. If they read this, I’m sorry to the women concerned to have to say that, because they are well-meaning people. They were left in a dissociated and emotional state by being with Barry, trying to put a positive and spiritual spin on an experience that in unguarded moments they revealed that they had found confusing and angering. The inconsistency between what Barry said and how he actually lived was what angered them most. If Barry was recommending a course of action to his pupils, the efficacy (or otherwise) of which was supposed to be shown, according to him, in his personal life, then his personal life matters as an example of the results of his teaching. I did “give a toss” about it as someone put it above.
After a time, I took Barry’s teaching on families and relationships with a large pinch of salt. Profoundly grateful though I am to Barry for his early teaching, he couldn’t sing in tune and I wouldn’t have considered asking him for singing lessons. By the same token, I wouldn’t take advice on family and relationship matters from someone like Barry with a string of failed relationships and abandoned and unhappy women and children behind him, going back at least half a lifetime. Would you take driving lessons from someone who’s been regularly crashing cars for most of their life, however enlightened they were?
Michael
Thank you for so beautifully and eloquently bringing me further clarity. As an unintentional/unsolicited “student” of a Barry Long follower, I have indeed found myself in a dissociated and emotional state… I was forever trying to put a positive and spiritual spin on what I was experiencing which in unguarded moments with myself revealed much confusion and anger.
How ironic that this “Blog of Death” has become such a source of insight, validation, clarity and comfort for me at a time when I was/am feeling at my most vulnerable and wounded.
“Would you take driving lessons from someone who’s been regularly crashing cars for most of their life, however enlightened they were?” Absolutely BEAUTIFUL!
Namaste,
Lucia
It is fascinating to see the worldviews of some of Barry Long’s followers as demonstrated in their responses to those who fail to accept his teaching unquestioningly.
Neal Bowhay regards the publication of alternative information about Barry and of alternative responses to his teaching, outside the censorship of the Barry Long Foundation, as “climbing up the heap”. Is that why Neal moved his family halfway around the world to work for the Barry Long Foundation? Was that far enough “up the heap” for him? Or am I guilty of Neal’s fault of ascribing motive where I am actually in ignorance and perhaps projecting something of my own motivation onto him? And why does criticism or questioning of Barry entail making him a devil? In the samne way that accepting all his teaching unquestioningly makes him a God? Isn’t he just a man with gifts and flaws like most of us? (In his case unusual and profound gifts and very ordinary flaws which were enlarged by the public stage on which he chose to exhibit them.) Unlike Neal, some of us don’t see the world in terms of competing to get to the top of some heap or of being on the side of God or the devil.
Tim York regards the lack of a suitably unquestioning attitude as “turning on” Barry. Why? Again, he’s just a man with flaws and inconsistencies just like anyone else and with more insight than most. Why is the publication of questions, alternative views, new information and lesser-known facts about Barry regarded as “turning on” him? Why does Tim view these quite normal things in terms of aggression and conflict? Does Tim wish to stifle all of this healthy questioning and promote Barry as a master who must just be believed? That really is totalitarianism writ small and it is something that Barry would never have wanted. As he put it, the Master needs “preening” by being questioned in front of the people. It keeps him straight and clean.
At the risk of adopting the approach of the ‘guruitis’ sufferers above, these people have clearly failed to understand one of the most fundamental parts of Barry’s teaching which he repeated many times. Don’t believe him. Listen and question. Test what he says in your own experience. If you find it to be true, then it’s your discovery. If you don’t, then you don’t. If you’re grateful to Barry for helping you discover something then all well and good, acknowledge him and tell others if you are so moved, but don’t be a follower or a believer or you will really have learned nothing.
Barry never wanted followers and never wanted people to interpret his teaching to others. Everyone can read it, hear it and see it for themselves through the books, tapes and videos. These followers are being presumptuous. At least those who question Barry, whatever their motivation, have the courage to do so from their own experience. If the followers wish to teach, then they should have the courage to do so on THEIR own account and from THEIR own experience and not hide behind Barry’s name. Their behaviour is unworthy of that name and of his teaching.
I’m glad that there is some dissent on this blog from the unrelentingly rosy view of Barry and his teaching promoted by the first few entries.
He was undoubtedly a great and talented teacher with some profound insights to impart. My life is different, and for the better, for having met him and been with him for some years. However, his treatment of women and children was scary. It’s been mentioned above and I can’t really add much. I can, by the way, verify Barry’s treatment of Simon which confused and upset the boy greatly.
Barry’s teaching of the difference between love and sex has been mentioned, and he made a big deal about being the first to teach it. Well, he just wasn’t. It’s obvious to anyone from a teenager upwards. My mum taught it. The Church has been teaching it for a couple of thousand years (not that I’m recommending the Church). The fact that the two are different doesn’t mean that sex is bad and only love is good, either, as Barry taught. The funny thing was that Barry himself seemed to confuse the two. The only form of “love” he seemed to know was sex. Many other things that are claimed to be features of his teaching, such as being responsible for your feelings, are just normal parts of growing up. Many of us may not learn these lessons fully, but they are just ordinary life lessons – nothing unusual, nothing spiritual.
He had a real hang-up on sex – he saw it everywhere and so, eventually, did his students. A King Brown snake striking at the window of a female student from her garden was the sex, from which she was trying to free herself, striking back at her. (Shades of a Christian upbringing? On one occasion when someone disagreed with him in a seminar he pronounced in portentous tones “there is a Judas in the room” – which made him who … ?) The use of irony in conversation by English people, which confused Americans and Australians in the group who didn’t habitually use irony, was discussed very seriously by some of the five women mentioned above and was declared to be sex, and was thereafter studiously avoided.
At the annual Master Sessions, held at a Scout camp in Australia, men were instructed to leave the toilet seat down as a gesture of the “noble man” to women who might use the cubicle afterwards. A lot of the women thought this was just plain funny. Some found it inconvenient as they liked to squat over the bowl without touching it and were now forced to lift the seat.
Several women questioned Barry about his teaching on seminal retention. They actually liked their men ejaculating inside them. Barry never really had a good answer for them.
His view of men just did not square with the facts. Most men that I know like sex, but they’re not selfish and sex-obsessed, far less sex-possessed, in the way that Barry portayed them. I wondered sometimes if his view of other men was his own projected Christian sexual guilt that he couldn’t get over. Perhaps the only way he could have guilt-free sex was to make it “spiritual”. He painted a wonderful word portrait of “the noble man” but my very ordinary, non-“spiritual”, loving husband is far more noble than Barry ever was. It takes a lot more than seminal retention and leaving the toilet seat down to be noble.
His meditation technique was great on forgiving others (“freeing your prisoners” as Barry usefully put it with typical down-to-earth pithiness) but not once in his teaching that I heard did he mention asking forgiveness of others and making amends for one’s own faults.
He divided humanity into three levels: firstly, Barry at the top, sex-free tantric hero, come to rescue womankind; secondly, women in the middle, passive and helpless victims of mens’ sexuality who could only be rescued by the tantric master; thirdly, every other man except Barry at the bottom, possessed by the evil of sex and injecting the evil into women with each ejaculation. (Oh, I forgot, there were ‘other masters’ in there somewhere too, but they had to be men, because women can’t teach, and anyway they weren’t as good as Barry because they were only ordinary masters, not *tantric* masters.) His view of men was not great, which is fairly well known, but his view of women was hardly any better. Given his track record with women and children, I found his view of himself at the top of the tree to be self-serving and deluded in the extreme. Laughable, silly and sad, had it not caused so much damage by so many people taking it seriously, and against the clear evidence.
There is an interesting piece at http://www.maggietapert.com/html_en/ess_ode_fr.html showing a woman’s point of view very different from the unquestioning adulation shown above. And, for good, well-based, consistent suggestions on sex and love, Jolan Chang is a very good writer.
I am so relieved to read some of the criticism of Mr Long and his followers, I got sucked into a lot of similar hogwash by someone with a fundamentalist attitude to the teaching and it drove me nuts. The mixture of genuine insight and gobbledigook given out by Mr Long is a pretty potent mix.
I think there is too much of a temptation to be grateful to Mr Long and thereby attributing your own self knowledge as someone else’s doing. It’s kind of dualistic innit? He can’t hear your thanks, he’s dead, and if you are fantasising about talking to him in gratitude you’re daydreaming.
The guy who leaves judgement of Barry to God may want to consider wether God is judgemental like the one in the monotheistic religions. And is there anyone left to judge?
Barry Long is
long dead and gone.
His truth marches on in me
wherever I be.
Good bye this blog of living;
click!
Lauri Siirala
Laurii
As irresponsible and self-centred as one would expect from one of Barry’s disciples. If you just refuse to acknowledge the damage done, it didn’t happen, eh?
And another thing. If Barry’s “long dead and gone” how come it’s “His” truth? If it’s the truth it’s not “Barry’s” truth, it’s not anyone’s truth in particular, it just “the” truth accessible by everyone. And if it’s not accessible by everyone then it’s not the truth.
Haven’t you realised yet that you can see the truth for yourself? Maybe Barry showed you a thing or two, but that doesn’t make it “His” truth, any more than my giving you directions in the street to a hotel would make them “my” directions or make it “my” street or “my” hotel. And if he did show you a thing or two, it still doesn’t make up for the damage that he did and that his teaching continues to do.
Anthony
How many people at one time are are able to be one with the Earth Spirit of Level 7? If it’s only for a privileged few how are the rest of us going to verify it for ourselves? If only a privileged few are allowed that level of realization, does that mean humanity as a whole will never be free unless there is a drastic population decrease by about 6,000,000,000 or so?
Will the number of Level 7 realized people change after whatever disaster is about to befall us?
In the first edition of ‘origins’ we are supposed to destroy ourselves by war. In the second it’s possible natural causes that spanks us.
Where did the certainty of edition 1 go to?
In ‘the way in’ Mr Long said that after the cataclysm anyone with the sort of self consciousness displayed by humanity now will have the world blown out of them. Does that mean we will have a two tier society, brave new world style?
How will this blowing out be done?
Can it be done now?
Would it be unpleasant?
If I live long enough to witness all this (and I wouldn’t mind) – how do I get to be in the evolved elite group?
Will I get to wear white robes and live in a radiation proof dome?
Or on the moon?
Or in the desert with Mad Max?
Will it be like Zardoz?
Who’s to say Mr Long wasn’t having a bit of a laugh – and why not?
Or did someone show him their plans?
Has anyone realized solar consciousness yet?
How come Level 7 is realized after nothingness?
Anyone know?
At the beginning of the ‘origins’ book, masters are described as taking over the donated bodies of their disciples. If a master is beyond reincarnation and self consciousness and does not return – how is this possible? Is the master not impersonal and in all things anyway?
(N.B. I do not wish to hand over my body to anyone thanks, not even for a loan)
If the Earth spirit is listening to it’s confused offspring, I’d like some loving help thanks.
By the way, in my experience Mr Long was effective at pointing to the finer and more profound aspects of self knowledge, and most enjoyable they are too! He obviously knew what he was talking about first hand for a lot of things.
Or nothings, as I have discovered.
Ho hum.
Su, you take issue with the fact that Barry “charged ample sums for his presence and teachings”. You say that Buddha and Jesus Christ “gave freely of themselves”. Bullshit! Where did Jesus spend his nights? Whose food did he eat? Who washed his feet with her hair and gave him at least one night of carnal pleasure (according to the Da Vinci Code)? And did Barry Long need your charity? No! It was your own charity, it is you who were poor in truth, ignorant, and helpless; that’s why you went to see Barry Long in the first place.
By your reasoning, Barry Long would have been perfect if you didn’t have to sacrifice not even one cent from your fortnightly paycheck to have him reveal hard-won knowledge and experience of life, love, sex, death & god to you. You are right, many in the developing couldn’t see participate in BL’s teaching, not just because they couldn’t afford it, but because they would risk punishment, imprisonment, torture and death (think Falun Gong in China) for hearing the words of such a radical and original mind in such an oppressive political and social climate.
Michael Schiller, you claim that many women who were with Barry “put a positive and spiritual spin” on their experiences with him while secretly complaining of feeling “dissociated and emotional”. I assume we are talking about grown-up, mature and responsible women, and not little girls in need of a father figure? Wasn’t Barry Long’s teaching all about taking responsibility for your own life and getting rid of your emotions that cause unnecessary suffering? Why didn’t these women honestly express how they felt? Why did they keep it a secret? Did Barry have that kind of attitude towards life? No, he didn’t.
And Michael, you say Barry “was very twitchy” when speaking of other spiritual “masters”. Well, I’m twitchy about it doing that too. The last time I mentioned the word “meditation” in the workplace the response I got was like I had carelessly spoken a dirty word. That’s what it’s like in the world isn’t it? Or maybe you live under a rock somewhere? And why should “masters” work together like you suggest? Do social workers move around in groups helping poor and ill people like you?
Finally, Michael, you found Barry’s attitude towards scientists “inexplicable”. Barry wasn’t in close contact with the world like many old and retired people are. He once asked, “Why do they call the US president George W. Bush? Did his father have the same name as him?” I think “scientist”, for Barry, was a loose term that included people who worked with computers or “nerds” as we know them. Nerds and computer geeks have a reputation in our society for being anti-social and generally unwholesome characters in need of development. I’m a nerd and I get this attitude from people all the time, including my parents.
Lucia: Do you think Barry Long used too much cursive language? Have you listened to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s (Osho) joke about “usage of the word fuck”? It’s on “YouTube”. Barry Long was a gentleman by comparison to some popular spiritual teachers of the modern world.
We were so lucky to have a teacher like Barry Long, especially those who lived close to his area of operation in sunny south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, one of the most beautiful regions in the world. Those who are ungrateful for Barry’s contribution to the world are very much confused. Tell me, is ignorance bliss?
I think Jesus did a bit of carpentry on the side, he just kept quiet about it – I mean if the Romans nailed him up for handing out bread and fishes free of charge and going on about his destiny a bit, imagine what they would do for tax evasion.
Hi Tim
I note the obvious resentment of another who defends Barry and would also I assume, claim to be practicing his teachings. This is ironic.
I say in truly genuine disappointment, where is the understanding, compassion, love, grace and humility from those who still practice Barry’s teachings towards those who speak of his limitations? It seems that those who do not agree with the “master” somehow forego all that.
That is most interesting. It may indicate that Barry’s love and that of some of his followers is very conditional, only if one is part of his club or at least not critical in any way. If so, this is very narrow, partisan and nothing new. Most religions have become so.
Yet I shall still respond to your points to me and of course let the others you address respond in their own way, save one to Lucia.
First, there is a big difference in the nature of the relationships, between a dependent, conditional transaction and an unconditional transaction. I am glad you acknowledge that Barry did at least charge ample sums, so we come to the issue as to whether Jesus and Buddha did or did not.
My simple point is noone HAD to give Jesus or Buddha anything to listen to their teachings.
Noone HAD to feed them or put them up if they DID NOT WANT TO or COULD NOT. Yet Jesus and Buddha STILL taught them anyway. It is an obvious world of difference! I am genunilely sorry you do not wish to see this. There are plenty of poorer people who do see and appreciate the difference.
You cite the Da Vinci code. I guess you find this a credible text to cite! Even so, Jesus sleeping with ONE woman some times causes me no issues. Barry could hardly object to that himself!
Yes obviously, as you say, Barry did not need anyone’s charity, his charges meant he did not. That is my point. Those were his conditions. Jesus and Buddha placed no conditions on anyone to put them up or feed them at all!
I do not know what you mean by MY charity, but I fully acknowledge that I have been poor in truth, ignorant, and helpless which is why I went to Barry in the first place! Is that a big revelation? It is not for me! And makes no difference to my points about him! For:
1) I however, do NOT claim to be a spiritual master!
2) My points were addressed as to how Barry exploited his “position” and did not live the truth as fully as he might have given the title “Master”.
3) Your point about freedom of religious expression (in China) is not applicable. For there are hundreds of millions in the developing world who ARE free to follow any teaching they like, except people like Barry’s, whom they could not and cannot afford, as you yourself acknowledge.
I have other teachers now or spiritual guides as they call themselves, who make no charge of me, who DO GIVE of their hard won knowledge FREELY to any and all who wish to listen! I do not have to feed them or put them up! Indeed, they are on different continents from me!
It is purely up to me to give donations and I have done so, freely and willingly, so your point about “sacrificing a cent from my fortnightly pay check”, is not applicable. If I was not in a position to give any donation, I would not have done so and they would still continue to help me with compassion and grace. No sex or money required.
As for Barry’s original mind, as was mentioned earlier on this blog, one could cite plenty of sources for Barry’s ideas. Just one example of many is Ramana Maharshi’s discourse on “Who am I”.
Lastly, your point to Lucia I must quickly respond to. Yes, Bhagwan was worse. So what? I would certainly be foolish to defend Bhagwan’s language, sexual or financuial behaviour. Yet there are spiritual “masters” who behave(d) much better than both of them! I can cite you a list if you like.
Through other means than Barry, I have finally learnt to let go of (most) resentment very quickly, so my best wishes and tidings of peace to you, really.
Su
I never met Barry but his teaching changed my life, through his meditation tape and his book “Stillness is the Way”.
I didn’t understand his book about “The Origin of Man and the Universe”, things like the place of the Great Ear in the creation of the universe and the Draconic Transverse and star signs and a ring of ideas around the Earth near the moon. I couldn’t see what he was saying for myself and I don’t know anyone else who’s found these things. The reason I liked his other books was because I could see for myself. I didn’t like his talk about women needing to be “mastered”. It seemed to send us back hundreds of years.
Re the critics of Barry Long (mostly grateful critics, I think) it would help me if the ‘defenders’ of Barry could say exactly where a critic has said something that is inaccurate about Barry or his teaching or his behaviour, and not just cast aspersions on what they imagine are the critic’s motives. If anyone who knew Barry reads this, could they do that please?
Thanks
“I think Mr Robinson needs to change his job and make love. Go for it Timmy.”
You couldn’t be more correct. Thats pretty much the only thing you’ve contributed so far that makes any sense.
Tim
To respond to some of your comments:
“The Da Vinci Code” is a popular novel, a work of fiction, not a historical source.
You wrote: ‘Michael Schiller, you claim that many women who were with Barry “put a positive and spiritual spin” on their experiences with him while secretly complaining of feeling “dissociated and emotional” ’. Well, no, I don’t claim that. I wrote that they were “were left in a dissociated and emotional state”, not that they complained secretly about feeling that way.
You write that you assume that the women who were with Barry were grown-up, mature and responsible women. Unfortunately your assumption is wrong. I am not going to be so rude as to say that they were “little girls in need of a father figure” as you put it. In fact they were not.
You ask if Barry’s teaching wasn’t all about taking responsibility for your own life and getting rid of your emotions that cause unnecessary suffering. No. Only some of it. The rest was about, among other things, God, nothing, yin, yang, astrology, Gnostic mythology, gender stereotyping, getting your life right (a very important one that is often forgotten), sex, love, work, Kris Kristofferson’s “The Silver Tongued Devil and I”, the penis, the vagina, the solar-plexus, the top half and the bottom half of the body, stillness, presence, absence, make-up, advertising, the media, science, pseudoscience, scientists, the past, talking about the past, life, death, nobility, worthiness, truth, facts, men, women, raising children, justice, flying saucers, the moon, the sun, terrorism, violence, prayer, martial arts, masters, tantric masters, teachers, the constellation of Draco, the symbolism of the physical world, marriage, toilet seats, meditation, being, … . I could go on. It was a multi-dimensional teaching that can’t be reduced to a soundbite.
You ask why these women didn’t honestly express how they felt. Well, I don’t know, I’m not the person to ask. If you really want to know, then you would be better off asking the women themselves than posting a question on an open public forum which they may or may not read. Barry announced their names at a public meeting and they can probably be contacted through the Barry Long Foundation if they wish to speak with you. Apparently you live in the same area so you might even know one or more of them though the coffee circuit there.
You ask why they kept it a secret. Well they didn’t. I wrote that they revealed it in unguarded moments.
When I refer to Barry being “very twitchy” about other masters, I don’t mean it in the way that you have taken it. I don’t mean that he was reluctant to talk about them in public for fear of the response that he might get from other people. He didn’t care much what people thought of what he said and had no fear about saying it. What I mean is that he spoke about other masters as if they were competition and as if they had no option but to compete with each other. At one seminar he even said that this is inevitable. I couldn’t see why.
Since you ask, I live in a house, not under a rock.
You ask why “masters” should work together. Why not, if they can do more good in the world? You ask if social workers move around in groups helping poor and ill people like me. Well first of all, it’s not clear if you are implying that I am poor and ill like the people that social workers might help, or if I go around helping poor and ill people in the same way that a group of social workers might do. I am actually not poor (or rich, for that matter) or ill, neither do I go around helping poor and ill people. The fact is that, where I live at least, social workers do move around in groups helping poor and ill people. That’s the job that the government pays them to do.
About Barry’s criticism of scientists. Firstly, Barry was very precise with words (which was one of the delights of listening to him sometimes) and did not use “scientist”, or any other word, as a “loose term”. Barry’s criticism of scientists was not because of the “nerd factor”, which is in fact an inaccurate stereotype of scientists, or because they were “anti-social and generally unwholesome characters in need of development” as you put it. It was because, according to him, they tried to apply objective methods of study to matters which were purely subjective – see this month’s email from the Barry Long Foundation. In fact most scientists know very well the limits of the experimental method, as well as its value. If they don’t then they’re not good scientists.
As you say, we were lucky to have a teacher like Barry – I would say that we were very lucky – but I (and, apparently, others) learned some things from him and his behaviour which were not in his teaching. It’s often as valuable to see an example of how not to do something as it is to be told how to do it.
You say that those who are ungrateful for Barry’s contribution to the world are very much confused. Well, it makes sense to be grateful for what has helped you, and many, if not most, of Barry’s critics on this blog have expressed gratitude for what they gained from Barry’s teaching. I’m grateful. It also makes sense not to be grateful for what has not helped you or what may have damaged you. Barry’s teaching contained elements which were helpful and elements which were unhelpful or positively damaging. It is those who think that you must be 100% for Barry or 100% against him (make him a God or a devil as someone said above) who are confused.
You ask “Tell me, is ignorance bliss?”. Well, in the case of the committed followers of Barry Long (whom he said he never wanted, by the way) it would appear that ignorance is indeed bliss, or at least they think that it is. It would appear that it also acts as an excuse for not reading what is written, for making unwarranted assumptions about what is going on in other people’s minds and lives, and for ill manners and rudeness. Ironic because Barry was at all times punctilious in his use of words and, in personal conversation away from the stage, courteous to a fault.
Lastly, you write that John Smith’s suggestion that you change your job and make love is pretty much the only thing that he has contributed so far that makes any sense. As far as I can see, nearly all the questions that he has posed in his other posts, and which you state don’t make any sense, are in response to direct assertions made by Barry Long, mostly from his book “The Origins of Man and the Universe: The Myth that Came to Life” but also from “Making Love: Sexual Love the Divine Way” and “Raising Children in Love, Justice and Truth”, and perhaps others. If the questions don’t make any sense to you, do the assertions in the books?
Michael
I apologise for my rude and ill manner. Sorry.
Tim
Thanks. I wasn’t just referring to your posts by the way.
Michael.
I was struck by Elina Haapanen’s post above, although it was over three years ago.
“By dying, Barry Long demonstrated his true presence as master.” Err…, no. By dying, Barry Long demonstrated that he was mortal like the rest of us.
“At the moment of his death something quite unbelievable happened.” Did you know the moment of his death? Were you there when he died? Fair enough if you were. If you weren’t, how do you know that you didn’t imagine it?
“Whatever Barry Long was essentially, has not died but is alive inside me as living presence. It has no past reference to his person but is a magnificent energetic experience.” Absolutely true. You don’t need to believe it. It’s a fact. This is the same magnificent energetic experience which is inside everybody and always has been. Perhaps you had forgotten this and Barry pointed it out to you again. There’s no need for a so-called master. This living presence was there before Barry died, and would still be there whether he had lived or not, but it seems that you attached it to him and he allowed you to do so, along with many other students. What his death has shown you is that you never needed to do that. But Barry was very good at speaking about this presence. And it was nice to listen to him. And he needed to make a living.
“Living what he spoke about has become so much easier. Thank you Barry for dying – that was your last contribution to me as woman on earth.” A true statement indeed. Barry’s endless speechifying and flogging of yet another book or tape or seminar no longer complicates and distracts attention from the simple truth which is inside every body anyway. His ex-students can now get on with just living it, which is all they ever really wanted anyway. This is a contribution to all human beings, not just women, but women in particular can feel easier now that there is one less sexual predator on the public stage encouraging other men to emulate him. The way that many of his male students used to go round at meetings checking out all the women as prospects, and the way that they used to talk about having to bring their new partners “up to speed” with the teaching as if they were idiots was patronising to the degree of being disgusting. The way that some of the single women would put up with this behaviour was very worrying. It really was an abusive mini-culture that Barry created.
It’s a pity, because he benefitted hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people by drawing their attention back to the universal energetic presence inside them, but then he went off on his sex-guru power trip. Oh well. Let’s acknowledge the good, as Barry would have said in his earlier and truer days, be grateful, and not get distracted by his human, though serious, foibles.
In speaking of the male followers of Barry, Grant writes “…way that they used to talk about having to bring their new partners “up to speed” with the teaching as if they were idiots was patronising to the degree of being disgusting.” He writes of Barry’s mini-abusive culture… yes yes yes… that’s how I felt when I allowed myself moments of true clarity. Of course, when I expressed this, I was labeled “unenlightened”. All was continually blamed upon past male imposed trauma…. never was responsibility taken by my teacher/master… the “empty vessel”.
Lucia
I’ve found this interview with two of the five women. http://www.wie.org/j13/sally_jade.asp
Getting free from sex addiction (if you actually had it in the first place) is of course a good thing. But there are some worrying bits in there.
The women were not allowed to talk directly to the press. Only written questions and answers communicated via Barry.
Jade thinks that the depersonalisation of her life will go on, and seems to think it a good thing.
Sally says: “Woman is not a master, not a teacher. If she thinks she is, in that alone, she is not. That would be the sexuality in her — the want to exist as something.”
These women have been brainwashed.
Anthony
Reading earlier entries today, I wondered how I would ever find these “five women” and get some insight as to what their “relationship” was like.
Once again, I must thank you. The interviews with Sally and Jade have given me much to “sit with”.
Lucia
John – you said “Su – what’s a foxy interdimensional being like you doing on a drongo planet like this?” Thanks for the compliment, but I do love this Earth, as Barry referred to it, pure, and pristine. As regards the world and human society, there is much that is wrong, as Barry said, but some things are useful though. After all, if it was not for the world and human society, would we not all have to be hunter gatherers or low tech farmers to survive?
Anthony – many thanks for the “interviews” link. I refer to it in inverted commas as it was through Barry, rather than directly, never mind in person with Sally or Jade. This is rather odd, the fact that Barry refused the magazine’s request to speak to them directly.
It would appear that Barry felt he had to make sure they said things that were acceptable to him. Hardly a sign of a truly intimate and loving relationship. My partner would not dream of imposing that on me, ever, even if I was publicly writing about my relationship with him. Something to do with trust and respect.
If they really did think and feel what was written here, I do not see the reason why it has to go through Barry at all. And if they felt differently, they should still be free to speak directly and freely, on their own terms. They are individuals, like all others in the free world, with freedom of expression, or so I hoped. Once again, Barry’s conditions and behaviour does not inspire me. For censorship, unless it is to protect the young from inappropriate sex or violence or in the national security interest, is generally used by authorities to control and manipulate!
What is strane is that “their” words do seem to have the same style, brevity and insight as Barry’s words! Doubtless some would say it is Barry’s mastery transforming them. In which case, he really should have allowed them to speak directly to the press to genuinely and objectively prove that transformation!
If I wanted to genuinley evaluate someone, say an interviewee, I would take up references DIRECTLY from their previous employers, not just liaise through the interviewee as a go between. That opens up the real possibility of words being edited – as when an editor does so in a newspaper! Wasn’t Barry once an editor?
Also, that it was only two of the five women. What about the other three? What did they feel or think?
Su
Theres something rather sour about the critics here who show up riding on the moral high ground after someone’s died. Right or wrong it’s a bit like the carping saloon hounds in High Noon, all has a carping and sour ring.
Someone above got very excited about Barry’s reference to ‘upright toilet seats’ but dont grasp the humor or irony that was part of his wellspring. The comment was part of a talk on causes of arguments between men and women and was said with a twinkle. I suppose if he’d used the old chestnut about who controls the tv remote the above critics would say Bl had a doctrinne against remote controls because they represent fear of the phallus or some baloney.
Bl advertised himself as the master of the west, if you didn’t fancy that claim at the time of his life then you would have stayed away. So why show up now rehashing out of context side references and sideswipe.
As for censorship well we have a policy in our house of agreeing anything that has to be said and i dont recall me or my wife crying censorship.
Bl always said that after his death they would make a doctrinne of his teaching and judging by the above that’s well underway.
si(mon)
Simon
To your point “theres something rather sour about the critics here who show up riding on the moral high ground after someone’s died.”
Well, if there had been a forum to discuss all this before Barry had died, I certainly would have participated then. And had I come to these conclusions whilst Barry was alive, I also would have said them to his face. The simple fact is, I came to these conclusions over this last few years as I’ve had a slower pace in my life to do so. Is that bad of me? Just to add, when a criticism is made does not in itself change whether it is valid or not!
You refer to the critics “it’s a bit like the carping saloon hounds in High Noon” I do hope you realise that there is more than a ring of sourness to your comments.
I am not sour as you suggest, though I must say it is hard work making points with calm reason in a discussion ridden by the kind of low grade insults you and others engage in. That is wearing, I must say. But I think this whole discussion has revealed much that needed to be explored.
You say “BL advertised himself as the master of the west, if you didn’t fancy that claim at the time of his life then you would have stayed away”
I agree, I did accept BL’s claim at the time, in my naivety. OK, I’m human! You then say:
“So why show up now rehashing out of context side references and sideswipe.”
Because it is perfectly reasonable to evolve or change or refine a view of someone and his teachings in the light of new insights, experiences and information.
Your point is very general so all I can say is that the points made were not side references to me, but rather important, central issues about the very authenticity of a self proclaimed
“master”.
As for “out of context”, in my opinion, the points were made with sufficient context or explanation or simply quite self evident as to then be useful to the discussion.
As for “sideswipes”, well it seems that the points are not sideswipes but direct criticisms with reasons to try to back them up. Though I appreciate that you might have used the term “sideswipes” just to casually lump all the points together and then dismiss them as irrelevant with actually having to address the vast majority of them at all.
You see, I do not mind debate. If you came back with logical counter arguments, I would listen and respond and learn and benefit for having done so.
Lastly, my point on Barry’s censorship over the
“interviews” with Sally and Jade are hardly changed by what happens in your household between you and your wife.
Best wishes Simon, in whatever path you are on.
Su
Simon
Just to add, you say ” Bl always said that after his death they would make a doctrinne of his teaching and judging by the above that’s well underway”
Those who put forward reasoned arguments attemtping to point out the limitations of BL or his teachings can hardly be said to be the ones making his teachings into a doctine. After all, a doctrine is generally held by those who accept teachings with little or no question.
Su
To back up the request of Derek Francis, could the defenders of Barry (or perhaps just one defender, if that’s not too much to ask) please respond to the substance of the critics’ posts (or perhaps just one post, if that’s not too much to ask) rather than complaining about the mere fact that criticisms are made of a “master”, or about when they are made, and without questioning the critics’ motives with no grounds for doing so, and without calling the crtics names.
I would be genuinely interested in hearing from anyone who has derived benefit from Barry’s teaching on sex, love and raising children where that teaching is not plain common sense. Some detailed examples of exactly how the teaching has helped would be helpful.
The critics have been detailed, factual and to-the-point. Defenders – the floor is yours to answer in the same vein.
Simon, perhaps you could start?
Anthony
PS concerning Simon’s point as to why these questions were not asked of Bary when he was alive I, for one, did question his teaching while he was alive. I got branded “unenlightened”, “sexual”, “Judas” and got shunned by the rest of the “student bod”, for wanmt of a better phrase. In the end I had better and more productive things to do with my time.
And concerning Barry’s irony, there wasn’t any. Sue Goddard is right – it was banned as “sex”. Barry was very often a tender and perceptive man, but his humour was crude. Irony and subtlety were not to his liking. In fact after his return to Australia he mentioned his time in England as one which “dried him out” through the level of indirect communication which is part of English culture. Barry ironic? Nah.
I’ve already made an effort to state my case earlier on this blog, Judas, 😉
I guess we can only conclude all the money and time you spent going “through Barry’s teaching and out the other side” was an utter waste.
Sally and Jade… brainwashed? At the very least they were participating in harmless fun, let alone ridding themselves of unhappiness.
Simon
Just to expand my point in response to your point about censorship, you said:
“As for censorship well we have a policy in our house of agreeing anything that has to be said and i dont recall me or my wife crying censorship”
That is my point – we do not know if there was actually free and equal agreement between Barry and Sally / Jade when Barry insists on being the go between and refuses the magazine direct contact with them. My very point is that if there was the agreement that you speak of being necessary, Sally / Jade could / should / would just as easily, have been the ones to speak directly to the magazine, proving it was really, truly their thoughts, feelings and words!
Su
twenty five years ago Barry predicted this.Two thousand years ago another man did the same. Ho Hum there’s nothing like evolution is there? To whoever started this ‘blog’ shut it down now!!! The rest of you, GET A LIFE!,you idiots.
Tim
I’ve scrutinised your posts above but was unable to find any specific detailed statement of any benefit that you have derived from Barry’s teaching on sex, love and raising children where that teaching is not plain common sense.
My time spent with Barry was not any kind of waste, let alone an utter one. Why can you “only conclude” that? More “unwarranted assumptions about what is going on in other people’s minds and lives” as Michael Schiller put it above. And what makes you able to write on behalf of others using the assumptive “we”? Why can’t you speak for yourself? Let others make their own conclusions, if they want to.
I learned things with Barry that I would never have learned anywhere else and I’m very glad that I spent time with him.
Sally and Jade were not “participating in harmless fun” as you put it. That is my point. They were damaged by the experience, as were all those five women, all of whom I knew and two of whom I called friends. They were left able to exist in only two states: a detached, glazed-eyed, wafty, half-dead, “spiritual” state, and temper tantrums. Some of them couldn’t even make it to a tantrum but stayed in state number one which it seems they would have called “self-annihilated” (Sally) or “depersonalised” (Jade). Sally talks about the “sweetness” of her “being” that she endeavoured to communicate. Undoubtedly this sweetness existed but was overlayed by this dynamic of deadness/tantrum that Barry injected into her and into the others over the years.
It was only when I spent time around these women and was forced to compare their state with that of other “unspiritual”, “unenlightened” but bright, happy and alive women that I realised with horror what had been done to them. It was literally as if part of their brain and their intelligence had been removed.
It’s no joke Tim.
And I see that Philip Lindley’s ill-mannered communication style is well up to the “follower” standard that has been established on this blog – not by all followers, but by most.
Is the ability to call people names really all that you derived from Barry’s teaching, Philip? I’m really sorry for you if that’s the case. There was a lot more there than that, in amongst the harmful stuff.
If you derived more than that, if Barry’s teaching was valuable to you, please demonstrate it. How about sharing your experience, talking about any benefit you gained and responding to some specific criticisms?
Before anyone goes shutting down this blog, does Anthony have any more inside information? I’m sure we would all like to know.
I apologise for making jokes about the issue here and making unwarranted assuptions about others.
Thank heavens your back to your old self, John Smith, for a second there I was desperately concerned about your speech impediment.
Oh no! Its seems after going through Barry Long’s teaching and out the other side I’ve become just another brown stain on the mattress. But you have become a smelly, thick turd with a speech impediment!
This is bad. I think I have a solution: blame it on Barry Long, don’t hold yourself accountable. Heed my counsel, O retarded one.
This has been a fantastic read, thankyou to everyone who has taken the time to comment. I have been listening to Barry Longs tapes for a little while now and am finding some of it to make sense, and some of it not, which seems aligned with a lot of people here.
I know this probably isn’t the place for questions, but these are practical and logical things that I have observed from my own point of view that seem to conflict with what Barry has said. I’d love it if someone could shed some light onto these.
1. According to Barry (and many spiritual teachers, I’ve found), the tingling or warmth in the body is supposed to be “life” and I’m using something beyond my five senses to feel it. “Aperception” he says. As far as my logic tells me, isn’t this just me using my good old sense of touch to feel the blood flowing through my veins? I come to this conclusion a few ways. a) The feeling sometimes pulses with my heartbeat. b) If I hang my hands down for a while then lift them above my head, I can feel the feeling drain from my hands, much in the manner blood should in that situation. c) If I cut off my circulation in my arm I get pins and needles, which really just feels like an amplified and painful version of the “Life” feeling. If I have fallen asleep on my arm and it’s fallen asleep completely, I can’t feel the arm at all, no aperception, nothing.
2. That animals run purely on instinct and have no self-awareness. How does he know this? We are animals, why are we so special that we get this “gift”? I have seen documentries on communities of monkeys and their relationships are extremely complex and very human-like. If I didn’t know better I would have thought some of them got depressed, anxious etc. It have heard it stated that dolphins rape. Here, have a reference: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro04/web1/eberdan.html
Also about the fact that monkeys masturbate without feeling guilty, and if they had self-awareness they would automatically feel guilty. What? The only reason I ever felt guilty masturbating is because I was brought up catholic. What does that have to do with self-awareness? I don’t get it.
Is any of this relevant? Am I missing something about the nature of self-awareness? I feel that I am.
3. Barry Long says that when we wake up after a deep sleep, we don’t remember it but we still know it was good somehow anyway and uses this as proof of our continuing consiousness beyond existence. Well my argument is surely we know it was good because we can’t remember being disturbed and are feeling refreshed in the moment?
If anyone does take the time to respond so my queries I would be most grateful.
Stuart,
rather than tackle your points i can only offer the following.
Beyond question there is the truth that we are beyond existence. Try this one question only,
Now. Do you have any problem Now? Is there any ever any problem Now?
If you can see that then without question you have the answer
regards
simon
I acknowledge ALL that has been said on this blog.
Any attachment, be it mental or emotional or both, that any person has for or against Barry or towards others commenting upon Barry either way, is not truth. That is, a state of peace, freedom, oneness, love. Such attachment causes inner disturbance, whether it is communicated or not on this blog.
This attachment is a function of the self, as that self attempts to hijack the spiritual life towards its own illusory ends. The attachment can be dissolved. This brings forth peace, love and truth for all concerned towards all concerned here.
For each person, realising the master within can only come after releasing any master without. In so doing, the illusory distinction of inside and outside may afterwards fall away at that profound level.
With the realisation of nothingness, there is no personal master, there never was. For the realisation that I am nothing is beyond any personal spiritual status or accomplishment. It is unconditional of all these things. In being unconditional, it is perfect freedom and bliss.
Barry and all else are simply facets of the one Absolute existence or God. Put another way, the Absolute is the only master. There is no other, for there is nothing else. No self or ego realises truth. The I AM that I AM is the Absolute itself, indivisible and whole.
Peace and love to you all.
Rap
I keep being drawn back to this ‘blog’, don’t know why ,maybe i just miss the silly old bugger but – – – no wait a minute somethings coming through barry long – good man – dead, osho -good man – dead romana maharshi,krishnamurti,buddha,jesus. Now let me see,who did i put in charge of the guns.Overpopulation,global warming corruption money – i have the answer,i’m the new master yeehaa ,bang! oops.
Its interesting that a man who dedicated himself whether it be good or bad and talked of Love, God, Truth and Life is having his wisdom disgraced.
He did not want a following. He was preaching in the same way as others, like Jiddu Krishnamurti and Eckhart Tolle that there may be another way to look at our lives that does not bring pain and suffering into ours lives. Whether his character, the person that was paraded on the outside, was this or that is almost irrelevant because the truth of which he spoke went way beyond the forms of labelled objects and believed rights and wrongs. It is a shame if some people who were lucky enough to have stumbled across Barry Long’s teachings misunderstood the truth he spoke and could only see as far dancing images on the waters surface – his personal circumstances.
I recommend that anyone who did not understand Barry Long’s teachings should keep hold of his material, because sooner or later no matter what you do, or where you run, you are going to have to face (in Barry Long’s words)… the Awful Truth.
Ben
1) His wisdom is being questioned in detail. Several anomalies have been highlighted, pretty all of which remain unresponded to in this blog. Intelligent inquiry, even with some wit, is not to disgrace. Even critics have acknowledged good things in his teachings.
2) He talked about many other things apart from Love, God, Truth and Life. You have overlooked the post that listed all the others stuff he spoke about. Please be more thorough!
3) None of his critics said he did want a following. Your point about the fact he did not want a following really applies to all the people like you who wish to accept everything about his teachings and his life blindly, WITHOUT question – the definition of a follower some would say! Is that not hypocritical?
4) He was NOT “preaching in the same way as others, like Jiddu Krishnamurti and Eckhart Tolle…” – Barry’s claims about himself were very much more grandiose and larger than life than those others you mention. Plus, Jiddu was disappointed at the end of his life I hear, that so few came to realisation from his teachings!!!
5) You say “Whether his character, the person that was paraded on the outside, was this or that is almost irrelevant because the truth of which he spoke went way beyond the forms of labelled objects and believed rights and wrongs.”
You overlook all those posts which questioned his TEACHINGS, as distinct from his behaviour, which you yourself must be referring to when saying his teachings were being disgraced. Please make up your mind!
Convenient for you (and Barry) that you can so easily separate teachings from personal behaviour. Some, many people actually, think that a good way of really measuring the effectiveness of a teaching is to see if the personal behaviour of those teaching it corresponds to what they preach. Otherwise it’s hyprocisy. Quite a reasonable approach actually, though not for you obviously.
6) You say “It is a shame if some people who were lucky enough to have stumbled across Barry Long’s teachings misunderstood the truth he spoke…”
You really must refresh yourself on what Barry said! The law of karma he spoke of precluded luck – a person is totally responsible for all the circumstances of his / her life he said – thus spiritual teachings one encounters and reads about are not good luck / bad luck.
7) You say “I recommend that anyone who did not understand Barry Long’s teachings should keep hold of his material, because sooner or later no matter what you do, or where you run, you are going to have to face (in Barry Long’s words)… the Awful Truth.”
How sad for you Ben. As it happens, the truth, as many, many masters throughout the ages have said, is beautiful, cleansing, purifying, joyous, loving, inspiring for those of us without too big an ego to live with. Run from it, hardly, one should embrace and surredner to it. Oh wait, some of us do, and the joy flows from it!
Should your or Barry’s truth be awful, then I suggest that it may be a creation or projection of your own reality, fears, ego or negativity?
It would be so nice if the conversation with Barry’s unquestioning defenders could rise above these kinds of misapplied arguments, which are so very simple to respond to.
Pete
I’m starting to feel sick now,I cannot understand the truth I can only know the truth ,or not.If the truth could be understood barry’s meetings would have been full of scientists trying to write down equations for it. They weren’t ,by the way. Any truly fulfilled or enlightened being would not even be reading this, let alone contributing {yes I know}, they’d be out there getting on with it. Why did barry bother to teach, now that’s a question, as he said himself that was his stupidity. The truth is out there, somewhere ‘let us boldly go where no man’ — no no no —- GO FETCH BOY , OR GIRL.
By the way can somebody tell me what ‘tantric’ means ,i keep thinking of tentacles or an octopus.
Hmm.
It seems from this blog that it’s the critics who take Barry’s teaching seriously, seriously enough to listen to it and live it and see if it’s the truth; seriously enough to question it openly, explicitly, politely, and constructively; seriously enough to openly seek responses to their questions and concerns.
It seem’s that it’s the supporters and followers who really don’t take it seriously and are content to have the comfort of “belonging” unquestioningly to a “teaching”, without actually attempting to live that teaching, directly contrary to that teaching itself. One follower has apparently known Barry’s teaching for twenty-five years, but still thinks that calling people “idiots” is a helpful thing to do, and still doesn’t know what the word “tantric” means.
To quote that same follower’s two-thousand-year-old teacher, “by their fruits shall ye know them” and “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” and “not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Pretty old-fashioned in its imagery and cosmology, but to the point, I think. As that follower said in so many words, not much has changed in two thousand years. Presumably the irony with which he demonstrated that fact with that very posting was untintended. And that post is far from the only example.
Group identity still seems to be more important to some people than the truth.
Anthony you presume a lot.For your information this ‘idiot’ left barry long in 1992 and only discovered his death three years after the fact,coincidentally ,to the day{my brain says that means something, shut up you organ you}.On a more serious note, perhaps we could get together and have a fight sometime.I fully intend to enjoy the rest of my life despite anything you might accuse me of.
Could you let me have your address Phase Two ‘cos there ain’t a lot of TRUTH in the bit of the world i’m livin’ in.
Sorry Phase i’m afraid i don’t know the chorus
BL the man is dead The truth is here now
BL the man is dead The truth is here now
BL the man is dead The truth is here now
Barry Long is in the past
Only now is real
Philip
Why would I want a fight? Why do you want a fight? Would you enjoy it, as you claim that you intend to do with the rest of your life? I wouldn’t enjoy it, so the answer’s “no”.
Did you pay attention to anything that Barry said, or that your two thousand-year-old teacher is supposed to have said?
Similarly, to Tim Robinson. This blog is not about “inside information”, as you put it, at least it isn’t for me.
It’s beyond my comprehension why anyone would waste their time making such posts to what is intended to be a serious blog on a serious subject, and why they would expect anyone else to waste their time reading them.
I’ve tried to instigate a serious debate on a serious subject here, but I’ve clearly failed. I give up.
Anthony
I’m satisfied to see that the critics take the teaching seriously and have little regret for being involved in it. If there were medals given out for logical, rational & critical thinking it would be a case of honorable declarations all ‘round. I think that as much as we would like to think differently, we have much in common for one obvious reason.
Oh and there will be purple hearts given out for spirited debate.
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the hills, we shall nevar surrendar!
Anthony , i love thee but i wouldn’t want to live with you. One quote that i have always liked {not sure even if its one of barry’s} ‘life’s {small L} a serious business but its not that serious}. Tim , you have wisdom beyond your years, i’ll bet you’re 80 really aren’t you.
Philip
So why are you offering violence?
Anthony
Today is beautiful. The sky is a wonderful blue colour and the sun is shining. How good it is to be alive.
Yes indeed Tim
The dedicated pursuit and realisation of truth inside and outside, with integrity, honesty, courage, to whatever conclusions it leads to, comfortable or not.
To live the life of truth and love, to be grateful for goodness everywhere that it is. Barry would have been pleased to see people live like this, I am sure.
Su
Without a doubt, Su. Thank you Anthony Conway for initiating this contest of opinion. Others: feel free to continue. Tis’ a sunny day here in Queensland.
I’m interested in what the critics have had to say, a number of good questions have been raised. I’m not sure about the idea that Barry was “only just” talking commonsense. For someone’s whose personal life was messier than a nun’s nasty, his commonsense did me a lot of good. Someone else could have given me that commonsense but that’s not the point, the point is: Barry did. Like someone else’s tribute above, I turned my life around 360 degrees upon reading Barry Long’s book ‘Only Fear Dies’. Through his tapes on mediation I learnt how to get ‘a powerful sense of energy streaming through the energy matrix’ (julianwalkeryoga.com), get a rush up my shushumna or something like that. I don’t know if it’s good for me but it feels groovy. And I don’t see the point that someone else could have taught me that, the point is: Barry did. Also, I was at an afternoon Barry Long seminar when a group of Israelis sitting in the audience questioned Barry in a very antagonistic and belligerent way. Since then I guess I’ve harbored some kind of personal vendetta against those who criticize Barry Long. But I acknowledge the value of debate and critical thinking. Best wishes to you all.
I can hear a little bird singing
Anthony I’afraid what i call a sense of humour seems to have passed you by. I must apologize. Perhaps in the circle of existence we are opposites.
Philip, usually a sense of humour involves, err.., how can I put this? Well, humour. What you call a sense of humour is obviously something different, not involving actual humour.
If you had written anything funny, I would have laughed. Name-calling and offers of violence may seem funny in the kindergarten playground, but most people find that they aren’t and grow out of them.
I apologise for assuming that you were a follower. Given your communication style it was an easy mistake to make.
Perhaps, given that you were “in the teaching” as they say, and that you left, it might be interesting for you to tell your story. What did you get out of the teaching? Why did you leave? What have you seen since?
And if you could do it with a bit of real humour, that would be even better. Go on, see if you can.
Anthony
For the second time, I might add…
Thanks for the advice to my last questions, I really appreciate it.
Anyway I have a more burning issue and I don’t know of a better place to raise it considering the vast experience of those here… last night I was reading the book “I Am That” which I recently bought. In it it said to focus on the feeling of “I Am” and merge with it and you will eventually find yourself. So I tried it. Not too long in to it I felt a kind of chill and a ringing increased in my ears to an almost deafining level. I felt the chill move to my abdomen/chest area and increase in pressure then to my head where it built up to an incredible pressure. I immediately thought of one Barry’s Karma tape where he speaks of dying, as like the high pitched onset of a fever, or the aftermath of a wasp or bee sting. This was the exact way I’d have described it, so I wondered whether I was actually dying. I could have let it go on to see what happened but I chickened out and pulled myself back, but since then whenever I think about the experience the feeling comes back, and I have to make sure I don’t lose control otherwise I can see it totally overwhelming me. I’m wondering if anyone else has had the experience, and if I should let it run its course. Is it just some form of psychosomatic effect from hearing Barry’s description and bringing it upon myself, some form of panic attack, or actually something profound?
It is what it is and you did what you did, Stuart. To try to understand it or take any interest other than pure observation in the moment of both it and your reaction/response to it, will corrupt it’s original nature. It has passed and your thinking about it will not bring you any closer to the truth about it.
But I dare say you’ll be able to find a few therapsists or psychics who’ll offer some nice colourful explanations and take some money from you. But that’ll get you more up in your head about it.
There is only now.
The sensation in this body now. Ever changing. The experiences in these five senses. Ever changing.
The one who sees all this. Never changing.
I am that.
Dear anthony do you take miserable pills every day. Your consistency amazes me ,I truly doubt I could say anything that you would find amusing. I reached a point after about three of ‘following’ barry that I had to go my own way. I could have become a true follower but I knew that I {like you} would just become critical of him , so I left.’Barry’s truth’ was what I had been searching for since my teens. Over the last 15 years I have come to realise that it is the truth and nothing to do with barry apart from the fact that he spoke it. He told me this would happen. I cannot criticise the man ,he was completely ‘straight’ with me. I do not wonder at the fact that at the age of 77 he had 5 troubled women with him . At times i struggle to cope with one and that is a measure of the power difference between he and i. There is little love in this modern world and women more than men suffer under that fact. By the way, is the fight still on?
Hey John Smith, regarding your previous comments, you’ll be happy to know that i got a new job … and the wife came around. 😉 Cheers, buddy! And Stuart: better avoid reading books by Sri Peanut-Butter-Jar (say it fast) if I were you; Barry was da man! By far superior! Just kidding, happy reading.
Hey John.
No it never made any sense to me either. And the thing that makes me suspicious of the experience was that I was pondering it the day before, wondering what the heck he was on about there, why he was mentioning it and trying to figure out what exactly it would feel like. Then I found out exactly what it would feel like the next day. Suspicious.
I generally fine my tinitus a good indicator of how well my meditation is progressing 😛 Actually it can help me become stiller, by listening to and accepting it rather than judging and resisting it. It just rose to a deafining level in this instance, and turned into more of a scream than a ring.
The feeling continues to rise up in me. I thought of another way to describe it. An amplification of the feeling you get when you know you’re going to vomit shortly and you hold on.
Are there any more appropriate forums other than this one where Barry’s stuff is discussed?
I and I alone am responsible for whether or not I am a channel for anything disembodied.
The most commonly channelled entities are:
anger
impatience
jealousy
frustration
etc
There is nothing to discuss about BL’s teaching.
Only living the teaching is real.
Where am I, John?
Stuart I agree that this is inappropriate ,have you any suggestions? Or anyone else for that matter. By the way everyone, I hear the new guy’s on his way.
Stuart
I agree. This is just an experience, not what you are. The experience can be analysed, but that will serve no true purpose ultimately, which you are already onto in contemplating, I AM that.
So I suggest to continue with the central inquiry. Are you this experience? Are you the body, the brain, the flesh that felt those sensations or energy? No.
Then return to the meditation I AM. All the truth or answers you may seek all emanate from I AM.
Barry was an exceptional teacher and I am glad some degree of harmony has developed on this blog. Barry was not the first to speak of inner peace, but he spoke of it very well indeed. The insight that Barry manifested is open to all. It is universal and eternal, I AM, being omnipresent. It begins with that acknowledgement and the progressively deeper realisation of I AM that. It is then a source of specific direction and instruction for that individual for himself or herself. This is true spiritual empowerment and perpetual realisation.
If anyone wants to share or just make spiritual friends, then they are very welcome to e-mail me at: beingnothing00@yahoo.co.uk – though I would NOT wish to discuss Barry’s teachings, in respect of his wishes. We can all speak our own words now!
Peace and love to you all
Rap
It’s good to read your post Rap. Barry was indeed an exceptional teacher. Good to see someone acknowledging that.
Hi John
I am not really sure what you mean by mono-mania land, but if that is your view of me, then I accept it as such and wish you all the best.
Peace and love to you, John.
Rap
They all left when I saw where I am, John.
What a glorious full-moon day!
John, I want to endeavour to explain this to you,if I may. Barry said (and this is my truth), that there is only one ‘I’ in the universe. Can you see that? There is only ‘I.’ That’s all there is, really. There is only my experience here, now. Everything else is a ‘you.’ Any experience of ‘you’ that I have is going to be in ‘my’ experience. If you’ve done any meditation you should be able to see that in your experience.
So it follows that I (Phase Two, John Smith, Rap etc), am totally responsible for whether or not I have any ascended masters in my universe. Not the other way around. The ascended masters can only be there with ‘my’ permission. If I entertain their presence by taking an interest in what they have to say, instead of focussing my attention on the present moment, they’ll happily take up residence in my system. That’s just the way it is. They’re disembodied and they want a body.
I am the guardian of my system. I alone am responsible for my life. No-one else is to blame.
To see this and live it is the beginning of freedom.
I say this with the best possible intent, John. I hope it’s a help to you.
Hi John
I was never emotionally attached to Barry in any devotional sense for him to be “my master”. Many of the things he said simply resonated as true within and for me. That does not mean I consider him correct on everything.
As for ascended masters, frankly, I have no interest in them at all. If Barry did, so be it. For me, ascended masters are irrelevant to my present spiritual life, the current resolution of karma (which makes my lifestyle far from “nice” at present) and the ever deepening realisation of what I AM in the here and now.
There are indeed 101 things that Barry or others teachers may have talked about that simply do not interest me at all and on which I will not be commenting upon, probably forever, no offence to you John.
Peace and love to you
Rap
You initiated this dialogue, John.
That’s right, Phase Two, and so did Mr. Conway. If Mr. Smith is trying to offer ‘exit counseling’ as a kind of ‘cult intervention specialist’ like Rick Ross then I’d recommend he charge more that $25 a session, otherwise he mightn’t be taken seriously. Or anyone could save themselves the financial hassle and head to the nearest video store to hire ‘Holy Smoke’ (leading actress: Kate Winslet). That said; I appreciate all that has been posted on this forum. Have a great day!
With all due respect, I hear nothing but barry long mimics.Unless you have something new to say ,why bother? Can we agree that we are all fairly well versed in Barrylongism and move on.
Yes, I take the guru pills, Philip. Shall I send you some – they’re grrreat!
Hi Tim
Thanks for the appreciation and good wishes.
Hi Phil
I think that a few new things that Barry did not say have appeared on this blog, by some more than others.
Many others, famous or not, can sound like Barry, but I don’t think that necessarily means they’re mimics or into barrylongism. Some classic spiritual perceptions cut across all or nearly all teachers after all. for instance, the phrase I AM (in the spiritual sense) is, as I’m sure you know, thousands of years old.
Besides, this blog is not really a place where anyone can really write any new or original stuff because it’s meant to be a site to discuss or pay tribute to Barry, not a platform for others new, own “teachings” and that’s as it should be too.
But I definitely agree with you about moving on, at least for those of us who have discussed this to the hilt already, as I feel I have! Just my humble opinions.
Anyway, my very best wishes to you
Su
philip – if there’s anyone here who’s miserable, it ain’t me. Thanks for the story.
Tim – I was reading this blog backwards so missed your thanks. Thanks to you too.
Re the sensations that people have found in meditation. I used to get great pains in my intestines during meditation and was told by Barry that it was my fear and unwillingness coming to the surface. It turned out to be long-term salmonella poisoning. I also experienced very serious pains in my neck and shoulders which were supposed to be me suppressing anger – which I was also not supposed to express. The pains went away when I got a new dentist who adjusted my bite by grinding my fillings to the proper height. I wasted hours and days and weeks and months trying to “work” on supposed fear and anger that didn’t exist in the first place. Feel what you feel – it’s delightful. But beware of psychobabble interpreations based on “spiritual” doctrines rather than facts – it may be something a lot simpler.
In other words someone or something else (salmonella and fillings) was to blame for your unhappiness.
If you really are delightful, why are you talking about the ‘wasted’ months of your life?
And, If you were so gullable for so many years, why should anyone believe you are any wiser now?
Cheers, Anthony, appreciate what you have to say.
SU thank you for your comment, I suppose the only question now is ,where who or what is ‘on’ ,as in ‘moving on’.
Anthony permit me to ask you a question then,what ,if anything, have you derived from barry long’s teaching. I have to admit I find you a bit of an enigma. I hope to meet you face to face before I die.
Phase Two I’ll have to decline the ‘pills’, I’m pretty sure I won’t measure up, however, if you’ve got them in strawberry ,weeeelll.
Number two – no, they were to blame for the physical pain in my neck and my guts. As John Smith said, I didn’t mention unhappiness.
I didn’t say I was delightful. I said that feeling what you feel is delightful.
What does that have to do with wasted months? I clearly stated that I “wasted hours and days and weeks and months trying to ‘work’ on supposed fear and anger that didn’t exist in the first place”. The waste was in trying accomplish something which was not achievable by the means that I was using. Nothing do do with delight. There was delight along the way. There always is.
Where did I ask you to believe me?
You need to read what is written, not what you imagine is written.
Re my gullibility, BL’s teaching seemed like a good thing at the time and I learned from my mistakes. Don’t you ever make mistakes?
PL – what have I derived from Barry’s teaching? Many things along the way. The two that seem to come most to mind at the moment are an ability to be profoundly still, and learning that giving sex (what Barry would call “love”) too great a place in your life is as damaging as giving food, the telly or anything else to great a place. It leads to an unbalanced and unhealthy life. Contrary to Barry’s teaching, friendship and kindness are as or more important than sex in a relationship. Seems embarrassing too have been so gullible looking back on it. Still, we live and learn.
The man protests too much, methinks.
There are so many red herrings in your post I think if I keep reading it I’ll get fish poisoning.
Anthony,
“Seems embarrassing too have been so gullible looking back on it. Still, we live and learn.”
Again, you manage to put into words and clearly express what I myself am feeling. Thankfully, since breaking away from my BL following “messy Master”, I’ve been living AND learning… and, perhaps most importantly, have not allowed the experience to turn me away from my own destined path and truth.
There are, of course, some very basic insights and truths to what BL has said… things which held me even when my instinct told me that there were many things which simply not right. I now realize that while the “path” will not be easy, there comes a time when one must take off the devotional blinders and acknowledge the difference between productive spiritual challenge and messy, misguided, manipulation.
Thanks again to you, Su and others for helping me find the strength and conviction to finally open my eyes to what my intuition has been telling me all along… that truly is enlightenment!
Lucia
barry seems to have created a degree of bitterness in those who listened to him in the latter part of his life. having not had any contact with him since 1992 i’m curious to know how he did this. can anybody explain this to me? John Smith, 25 arcturan pibblies ?? As i recall my last spaceship was only 16.— Inflation??
I have just re-read a post from 2006. Please disregard my last post. This ‘blog’ really is starting to go round in circles now. I apologize to those who have been here from the start.
I’ll give it a shot Phillip… I think some expect too much of those who are so-called ‘enlightened’. This is understandable because it seems they have achieved the impossible. However, to call a spade a spade, all human beings have to run their own profitable enterprise or work for someone else who does. The only exception would be if someone were disembodied (i.e.: ascended masters). For me, the financial success of spiritual teachers indicates something tangible about their ‘enlightenment’ and their ability to teach it to others. Take, for example, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Supreme Master Ching Hai, pretty outrageous characters, but for me I recognize something genuine about them. Or maybe I’ve been had?! …PANIC!!
Just to clarify my point above, maybe some are bitter towards Barry because he became highly successful in many areas: popularity, money, women, real estate, etc. No offence to anyone intended, kindest regards to all.
It’s a real question, for all the unenlightened like ourselves, what becoming enlightened really involves.
It seems to me that something of the original personality, its way of expressing itself, must remain, if that enlightenment is to be communicated.
It seems to me me that if someone were completely and utterly purified they’d have nothing to say.
So, following this line of reasoning, which I happily concede is pure speculation, it’s a trade off. A certain level of enlightenment vs an ability to communicate it.
Barry Long seems to have been one of very few teachers to attempt to tell people how to live, rather than to simply tell them how to approach the divine within in their spare time.
As a result, he left an enormous amount of material, much of it spoken in response to individuals at a particular time, which can be picked apart at leisure.
Perhaps I should make my position clear.
I don’t know.
I don’t know if everything he said was perfect at the time and people have just failed to apply it. I don’t know if people have applied it perfectly well, and then been perceived as messed up by those who meet them half way through the process. I don’t know if much, or some, of what he said or did was wrong and unhelpful and messed people up.
And I contend that you don’t know either, whoever you are.
I contend that a great number of people have realised a profound connection with truth through Barry Long and his works.
If he did or said anything wrong or unmasterly, then he’s certainly not doing it any more.
What does it profit you to try and establish that he was at fault? What does it profit you to try and establish that he wasn’t?
Use the teachings if they help you. Leave them if they don’t.
Good points there Ian. It’s true, I don’t profit much my contributing to this blog. I would like to part by saying if anyone thinks they were foolish enough to buy what Barry was selling, it meant he was smart enough to sell it to you. Good on you Barry (yes…I know, he’s dead and buried), and anyone else whose found a need in people and set about filling it.
Thank you Ian I find your answer succinct and cannot argue with any part of it. Tim thank you also but surely people here on this ‘blog’ can’t be jealous of financial success, or not. Also was bhagwan shree rajneesh outrageous? What I find outrageous is that I have to go out to work to pay for my place on this planet, my planet the planet i was born to. I expect to have to work for my food and clothing but to possibly end up in prison if I don’t earn money for rent and taxes is outrageous.Perhaps I am extremely naive or completely mad, I don’t think I am either, does that prove I am mad? Hee hee hee bring on the largactyl, do they still use that stuff?
Thank you barry long thank you very much, there was I thinking all I had to do was make enough money for a four bedroom house and a ferrari and I’d be happy.Blissful ignorance! Now I’ve got to wipe out about 6 billion people to make myself a bit of room ! Funny old life isn’t it?
Phase Two – I’m not protesting against anything. I’m just correcting your misunderstanding. A red herring is something designed to distract attention from the main issue. It would be helpful if you would quote exactly where you imagine me to have done that in my answer. Then perhaps we can clear things up. If you’d like to.
Tim – re bitterness, I think that where Barry has caused bitterness, it is where he lied. He wasn’t actually very successful with money (he was always asking for extra donations despite the income from his books and seminars) or women (unless you are just counting notches on the bedpost) or real estate. He was popular though.
Tim and Ian – re enlightened people, thanks for your posts. I’ll write a longer more considered post when I have more time to do so.
Richard the ‘stage 2’ you speak of ,is death, the end of this shell, this mortal coil. After all emotion is just attachment, attachment to anything ,my life ,my body.Emotion is the glue that holds me in this existence. When that ends I will lose the singularity that is called philip lindley and dissolve into the entirety that is called universe ,a completeness that is the biggest oneness there is.
Thanks for the referral to YouTube. When did you go to Baghdad?
Crikey! :-0
John Smith I am the tantric pensioner that you seek and I am full of disease. I am however ready to share this life experience with you or anybody else for the price of a cup of tea heh heh heh. Eat the rich.
Why would they delay publishing his Autobiography?
Think I’ve figured it out. I got an email from the foundation indicating they were looking for staff. Here’s an excerpt:
“Do you have the marketing expertise to promote Barry Long’s work internationally? Experience with the publishing industry? You will be dealing with publishing, distributors, advertising, and most importantly looking for new opportunities, especially using all the resources of the internet.”
Maybe they stuffed it up in the past and want to make a decent job of promoting the autobiography when its published. I work in marketing and there are $#%&-ups all the time (it wasn’t me, I swear).
Did you read that BL Foundation? Hurry up! Publish the autobiography and make history.
This is classic stuff, but please guys, no more. I can’t take any more!!!!
John, can you post some mp3s of your animal impersonations?
From Talks From Tambourine Mt, tape set 3. Recorded around 1987-8.
Barry Long speaking on the ignorance of former followers:
“I’m going to talk about discipleship – about following a master. This is very important because although I have no followers you are listening to me, and I want you to know what happens in the human psyche where a master is concerned so you will beware of what I’m going to say and be more real.
I have in front of me the American Yoga Journal. It has a review of three books concerning the Indian master Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The one that really created the furor was ‘The God That Failed’ by former bodyguard to Rajneesh, Hugh Milne.
The God That Failed? What is this nonsense? Do you think that I’m failing you? Well, you might one day. You’ll try to put your rubbish onto me. The God that failed? The master never fails, that’s the beauty of the master. He doesn’t live up to your expectations of him. Who failed? Rajneesh hasn’t failed anyone. What’s happened is that the disciple has failed. His expectations have been blunted. He expected a God to save him.
Every master will destroy himself for you. He will not have your expectations put on him. He will not have you make a God of him. He might appear to make a God of himself but I, the only I in the universe which is in that body and everybody; I will allow no-one to be a God. I will disabuse you of that.
And so you will say: ‘The God That Failed.’ After you have taken everything that you can from the master you will then turn on him. This is the way of disciples. Very many disciples, especially those who swear their adherence most to the master turn on him the most viciously. You would be surprised at how many who’ve declared how much I have changed their lives for the better turn and snidely snipe at me. Or disown me. Or say I’ve got a problem.
I don’t have a problem. I won’t take your problems. If you tell me I’ve got a problem it means you’ve got a problem.
Are you going to do that to the master because I tell you the temptation of the self is going to rise in you and in your selfishness, ignorance and pain, because you will not die to your self you are going to have to blame he who gave you the truth. And in a way of getting away from that truth (so you can go and live your own willful life) you will leave not in grace but willfulness and even talk (as one person in this book does) about your ‘misguided youth.’
Well, if you were misguided in your youth why am I to believe that you are not misguided now?
No-one is ever misguided. You are responsible now. But you want to choose the way of attacking the master who gave you the truth.
The truth is that masters don’t care what you say or do. They don’t take anyone’s rubbish on top of them. That’s why they’re liberated. Masters don’t care. Masters are in union with life now and life doesn’t care.
Why does the disciple want to tear down that which helped?
Because when you go to a master you start absorbing his presence. He reveals to you the truth of yourself and for a while you feel enlightened. You feel so wonderful in his presence and you take it in with great self-ishness. And that is what he wants you to do. Take everything from me – be transformed by my energy. And you love it. But by the process of filling, after a while you have absorbed as much as you can. Your resistance is so great that it cannot stand any more of this timeless presence. It has been transformed as much as it can be.
Then what happens?
When the job has been done the disciple has to leave. They have to go and live what they have absorbed, without the master. So the disciple either leaves gracefully, with love and devotion, or he leaves willfully saying ‘oh well he helped me, but but but… he was this, he was that.’
He might have been that, just as you and every man and woman on this earth have been something that they pretended they were not. Because that is the way of things. Nothing is real. Nothing is as it appears. Everything is there to delude you if it can.
If you want to look for perfection in any man, woman or creature you can forget it because that is not life.
Only God is perfect. Only life itself behind the form is perfect.”
I begin to despair of all of you ,this has become a comfort zone for people who have lost their leader . please please please somebody say something new and original. Barry is dead ,lets forget him and move on.
Barry I acknowledge your gift to me, thankyou, goodbye.
Aren’t you clever… you’ve picked out just about every contradiction that Barry made in that speech. Do you want a medal? Do you think anyone, or anything, really cares about the contradictions?
I don’t get why you’re still hanging around here, John. Most people, if they don’t enjoy something just move on and go and find something they do enjoy.
I mean, you can criticise BL until you’re blue in the face but if you’re going to do that, how many other things in life could you be criticising. Millions, really. What’s so special about this that deserves so much (negative) attention?
Personally I get much more pleasure acknowledging the good in my environment. If I’m not into something I just move on.
I LOVE contradictions! 😀
phase two quotes bl:
`i dont have a problem.i wont take your problems.if you tell me you`ve got a problem,it means you`ve got a problem.`
that`s what every bloke in the pub with an ego says!
people pay good money and spend their lives thinking this stuff is wisdom?
life is a mystery
You’re welcome, David.
I transcribed it myself. It’s from ‘Talks From Tambourine Mt’ tape set 3. You can order the tapes from http://barrylong.org/.
Sorry…should be http://www.barrylong.org/
Re the posts on enlightenment above.
Is there such a thing? I used to think so. But from the people I’ve met who have called themselves enlightened, if it does exist, it’s not what I thought. The only thing that they have all had in common is a huge appetite for attention and control.
So why believe in enlightened masters and join their spiritual groups
– Wishful thinking
– “There must be something better than this”
– Knowing that there is a better way of living but not knowing how. Wanting to be told.
– Wanting a substitute family.
– Wanting a parent.
– Wanting people to do it with.
– Wanting a community where you can even talk about such things, whether or not they exist.
– Fantasies of power and control.
One the other hand, there have been people I have met who do not claim to be enlightened but just claim to be trying to do their best and they have something to share. For example, the Quakers and Thich Nhat Hanh. Their dignity and authority and what they have achieved when compared with someone like Barry Long or Andrew Cohen or Osho are in a different league.
The thing that really shocked me about Barry was the potential for profundity that was there, compared with the triviality of what was actually there. He wasn’t as grasping and manipulative as, say, Osho, or on such a large scale. What was actually there was just pretty tawdry.
So that’s where we’re all going wrong! Gee, thanks Anthony.
So what’s the next move, chief?
Phase Two
If that was sarcasm, would you please drop it and communicate straight?
I wasn’t telling anybody where they’re going wrong. I was simply responding to some posts a few weeks ago by Ian and Tim Robinson and philip lindley on the subject of enlightentment and enlightened people. If you don’t find it helpful then ignore it.
Do you have anything constructuve to say?
Anthony
You’re the one who’s not being straight.
It’s a simple question: What’s the next move?
(You can understand english, can’t you?)
I’m being perfectly straight. I don’t have a “next move” in mind. Does that help you?
What is your purpose here, Phase Two?
If you don’t have any alternative suggestions from your own experience (a next move), then you shouldn’t be criticising others.
Anthony, thanks for letting us all know why you “believed in” BL –
– Wishful thinking
– “There must be something better than this”
– Knowing that there is a better way of living but not knowing how. Wanting to be told.
– Wanting a substitute family.
– Wanting a parent.
– Wanting people to do it with.
– Wanting a community where you can even talk about such things, whether or not they exist.
– Fantasies of power and control (huh?)
I think you forgot to mention “a love of God, a thirst for inner knowledge, and wanting to see through the collective ignorant beliefs of humankind and their religions and dogmas”
Phase – no sense arguing with this guy. Thanks again for transcribing the tambourine talk.
The debate on this blog is intriguing when viewed in relation to history. It’s easy for some to overlook the fact that Jesus Christ was convicted, tortured and executed as a dangerous criminal, a menace to society, by the ruling authority of that era. By comparison, Osho was also a convicted criminal according to our current rule of law, with his punishment being far more civilized that the fate suffered by Jesus. Other non-spiritual figures like Ned Kelly, a common thief with a mild shade of integrity, somehow managed to go down in history as a legendary Australian hero. Despite the best of intentions of others in exposing Barry Long as a cheat and a fraud, and I do respect their efforts (someone has to do it, I suppose), I don’t think it really undermines the teaching in any compelling way.
Good point, Tim.
Barry taught people how to love God and live free from unhappiness and that somes up my life.
Thank you God for blessing us with Barry Long
Excellent post Tim.
I have only just found this blog of death dedicated to my father, Barry Long. I have read it through from top to bottom, and feel I would like to add some comments. Some history, some reflections.
As a child, I loved my father very much. He taught me many things. He wrote poems for my school projects (I still know these off-by-heart, even though I do not have them in writing). He helped me with presentations. He offered me what wisdom he had. He showed me that much could be achieved by applying oneself. (He had left school at 14 and then worked his way up from being a copy boy to the editor of the Sunday Mirror and later Bob Askin’s press secretary). He wrote songs, first of all fun ones and later more serious ones – we used to sing these in the car – and these also I remember.
I was devasted when he left my mother when I was 12 and my brother was 9. He told me that he was going to India for 2 years and then would return – he was going to get closer to God. My mother was sympathetic to his journey and even helped prepare the van to send over to India to him. (She did not find out for a long time that he had met his secretary, Ann Lane, over there!)
I did not see my father again until I was 19, but during those years (while he was in India and later in England) I continued to idolise him as a daughter does her father. I wrote to him for help and advice at times – but he refused to be involved with me – telling me to listen to my mother – that I was her responsibility.
It was a shock to meet him again after 7 years – he was a different man – one with whom I could no longer find any point of identity. He connected with my brother by going to the pub for drinks, but that didn’t work with me because I had recently become a Christian and there seemed no point of connection when I had a relationship with Jesus as the True way to God, while my father was claiming to be God!
At this time, he was married to Julie, who had left her 2 sons to follow him, because he did not want any children around him. Later, after Julie’s death from cancer, he married Kathy, Simon’s mother. After divorcing Kathy, there was Josephine (whose name he changed to Jade) and then Sara (who was with him when he died). These are the relationships of which I personally know, and the women whom I met.
He did not come to my wedding in 1975, but did send a telegram. After my daughter was born, he did make the trip to the Sydney’s west to visit us in 1979 – for which I am very grateful. (He was staying with his mother in the Eastern Suburbs at the time.) We next saw him (with Julie) when our second child was 2 months old (and have the photos to prove it). A decade or so later (we had 4 children by then), he and Kathy visited us in Glen Innes – and he brought gifts for all the children. He found it very awkward to be called “Grandpa”, but tolerated it generously. My children referred to him first as “Grandpa in England” and later as “Grandpa in Queensland”.
My very patient and generous mother (whom I only fully appreciated in her latter years) suffered much – when he left, she had no idea he wasn’t returning after the initial 2 years. However, she never said a bad word to me about him and corresponded with him regularly, receiving all his books and tapes from him. I thought it was particulary unkind when he sent the tape to her that said that Ann was the only women he had truly loved. My mother even had him stay with her and my stepfather (who had been the one to first introduce him to the Eastern religions which he “adopted” as his own). He brought his partner of the time (but I cannot now recall whether this was Jade or Sara).
My father and I kept in touch by phone from time to time – and he was very faithful in sending me stamps for my collection – something that we had started together when I was a child. The last time I saw my father was in January 2003, almost a year before he died. He had arranged for me and my brother to visit then (separately) because he thought his death was imminent. He had just become a great grandfather (19 Dec), and my daughter, Rae, and the baby, Sam, accompanied me to support me (at her suggestion). But my father did not want Rae or Sam there, so I left them at a motel and visited him by myself. We talked and had lunch, and I sang all his songs from memory (which astounded him), and showed him pictures of my family, in which he graciously expressed some interest. We walked around the garden, and then I drove off. We kept in regular contact by phone up until he died.
My brother and I attended the memorial service that was held after his death.
But I guess that for me, he really died when he left when I was 12. My brother and I were fatherless as we grew up – and this has had all sorts of ongoing consequences for both our lives and those of our families. My mother was a divorced women (through no fault of her own) at a time when this was seen as a reflection on the woman. I still find it hard to believe that someone who believed that he knew all about truth and love and life, could leave his wife and 2 children.
Nevertheless, I am grateful for all he taught me as a child, and for the genes he passed on to me and his 7 grandchildren (4 mine, 3 my brother’s) and his 6 great-grandchildren (5 mine, 1 my brother’s). He was a very bright intelligent man who came from an extremely poor background and achieved much. He always had plenty of charisma!
My husband and I have been married for nearly 32 years and love each other more than we did in 1975. We rejoice in our relationship and our family, but even more in the ongoing relationship we have with our Saviour and Lord Jesus – the only one who can bring us to God and who can guarantee eternal life.
Thank you Anne for posting that. I met Barry and corresponded with him. I loved and do still love Barry for who he was and for the truth he tried to live. It is good to read your story and to know also of his failings for this gives a balanced view of the man who sometimes got caught up in his own authority and perhaps took himself a bit too seriously at times. I still feel his contribution is invaluable to our times and there is much wisdom and help in his recordings and writings. I wish I knew Jesus as you do, but sadly for me, jesus remains an historical figure, an ideal, a lovely portrait of what is best in man. Jesus is the name of a man who realised godliness within himself. that Godliness or divinity is within each and every one of God’s children. I wish I knew what you mean when you say “Jesus – the only one who can bring us to God and who can guarantee eternal life” what is eternal life to you Anne?
I’m so sorry that he left you and wasn’t there for you. I can imagine how that felt/feels as my father also left, but didn’t disappear. Perhaps you have fogiven your father. I hope so. He must have been sorely impelled to leave and find a way to deal with the inner pain he experienced and to live the Truth he felt. He was not one for comprimise. I don’t agree with that attitude entirely, but that was the truth as it appeared to him at the time.
in peace and love,
Jean-pierre
it just goes to show that anyone can become enlightened.
deadbeat dads are no exception.
Freeloading squatters (Gautama Buddha, Eckhart Tolle), public enemies (Jesus) and bio-terrorists (Osho) aren’t excluded either, it seems.
I guess all in all, the beauty of truth of which Barry Long mostly spoke about, is that regardless of all the negative comments from those who either do not yet understand, or have no will to try, cannot change the permanent truth which is like an undercurrent in Barry Long’s writing. I sometimes wonder if it’s this fact, the permanance which Barry has left behind that some find so hard to accept. I also wonder if these people would rather see all truth vanquished from their lives, so they can live in blissful ignorance to what is.
In a way, a lot of these postings are missing the very essence of what Barry spoke about. Perfectly fitting here is his take on Reaction vs Response. These tributes should be a response to his death, not a reaction to comments others are making. As he said, it is a fact that people are negative. If you can see this fact, then it no longer unconsciously affects you. If someone posts a negative comment, so what.
I don’t care if people like or do not like these comments, its immaterial because they will still stand, regardless. Just like Barry Long’s work. It will still stand, regardless of the comments.
“What will they say and will you believe it?”
I was a member of the audience when Barry Long came to the Netherlands, to teach about Love, Life, Death, God, Truth. I was the young “man” he came down on like a ton of bricks, after a few too many of my “scientific” questions in the audience: “You’re not giving now, not now, are you?! I have been observing you for some time now, you are holding back!”, he exclaimed. Of the 300 people present, 200 ducked to stay clear from the energy that came my way.
Of the 300 present, one elderly Lady – who in my eyes already had come to the teaching as a Goddess on a Mountain top – asked me afterwards “Are you all right?”
I said to her: “Yes, no, I don’t know!”. Each of these statements felt true to the same degree at that moment. Of the 300 present in this particular session, one man stood up for me – later when the session resumed after a break, saying to Barry “You were very aggressive to this man, I felt a disturbance!”. I never got to thank him for that. And Barry – being Barry – had to say to this brave man: “Well I am going to use anything, including my aggression”. All the others remained still and it was quite peaceful for the rest of that afternoon. They were not thinking at the time, I suppose, otherwise it could have been something like “glad that wasn’t me!”.
I must admit, the witness is speculating. I decided to keep my peace at that moment in the audience. Holding back again. Not because I was afraid of “getting a whole Universe against me” as Barry promised those who would kill a Man of Love – I was too inflamed by the treatment I received at the time, I was at the brink of taking positive action – but because I had seen hundreds of people becoming Still and Women in a serene state of Love in his presence, as I had never witnessed before. I could not claim I might have induced the same in so many people at the same time, so what was there to say, what was my point?
‘Space cowboy’ was the name I had in mind for him a couple of years later. There I had been, not being a follower, still not appreciated, it wasn’t fair! Up to today I kind of regret I again held back later on, not asking Neil to play “rawhide” on the speakers during Barry’s next entry in the audience, at several occasions slightly self conscious of his entry as the Master. If I was to be “the only nuisance around here” as he called me. I’d better do the job good and right. But alas: as in the rest of my existence, Ì did not see the point in disturbing the peace more than I could not possibly avoid. Too good to be true? Anyway, thank you Neil, for your effort to build a bridge between myself and Barry. I now understand his “Now is not the time”, you received as a final response from him.
Yet I had now – in the flesh – experienced the edge on a less clear cut boundary that surrounded the Spiritual teachings of Barry Long, than it does the structures of all day living. On the one hand the boundary of allowing imperfection in a student during a period of apprehension in a teaching, combined with a pre-selection of a target group for the training. As is often found in the Western world today in courses and elite training groups. And on the other hand, Man spiritually teaching while actually doing battle with self, not allowing his self at any moment to make a significant imprint on a state of Love, destroying self when it comes in the way of Love. This is what makes the term “seminar” that he gave to his sessions at that time somewhat confusing to the scientists, who amazingly were there too. And kept coming back to be with him in the audience, including myself. I for one, did not expect find the battle that precedes the Peace in a teaching about Love.
In spite of Barry being absolutely vigilant in avoiding any bending of his words – especially during translation of his books or by interpreters afterwards – he did not seem to be aware that he was referred to at that time (it was the early nineties) as a major source in a (virtually) all female teaching in the Netherlands. The basics of which seemed to consist of the realization that “men are not doing it right” and that being with a man (sexually) was something “nice to have on the side”, but not essential to Woman. As the radical feminists at the Dutch Universities in those days used to put it: “a woman without a man, is like a fish without a bicycle!”. Well – dear Ladies – what do we remember of Barry’s comment on -isms? Not reflecting from the past, because that would be emotional? What bliss!
This Dutch variant of “spiritual” teaching was lead by a woman also present in Barry’s audience, whom Barry did not to show to be acqainted with in public, but who already had been present in his teaching for years, before I encountered her all feminist “tribute” in selected circles to the spiritual evolvement of Life on Earth. Several of her “students” were present in the audience, expecting the “holiday of their lives” in “energy beyond mind” as this woman (and the woman who had been one of her “teachers”) had called “Dying for Life” and “The most difficult journey through the senses” that Barry Long passed on to the male part of his audience, as the way of Man. When I saw people refer to Barry having been bewitched by a coven at the time of his last dying, I could not help but smile. Who can tell, but then, aren’t we all under the spell of something or someone during existence, be it in sex or in Love?
Of the said circle of woman I had been “the object of perfection” in the Netherlands before I met Barry as a member of the audience. These women possessed great Powers – or is it vice versa? – that would enable them to transform the Kundalini energies similar to the Presence in Barry Long, but they did so in a less straightforward way. They seemed not at all to take Barry’s observation, that Woman is not a teacher as an obstacle, to sell Death as a large “Holiday to one’s life” to ignorant young women – mostly – and an occasional male idiot that came by like myself. Not knowing at all what I was doing. No need to say, that my close encounter with Barry Long was a rough awakening from the female vision on Death and Dying for Life. There was pleasure all right, but it was not a cruise!
The “teaching” woman later on agreed, that dying for Life is different to man than it is to woman. I have found that to be true. I even expect the fact that men and women were often taught alike in the audience by Barry, to potentially become a major source of confusion. Some of the energies he passed on I now perceive as being exclusively meant for the male, as in “I lay it all on you, Man”, I became aware of this as I later recalled some women in the audience, who sighed under the pressure of discipline, that I now mostly see as a male issue in existence.
Later on. the same woman used the Power she had built up partly through being present in the teachings of Barry, to mutilate me sexually for the rest of my existence. Very much in the spirit of Barry’s observation that a woman may make a man impotent “for she does that too”. I have found this to be disturbing ever since, up to today, especially since she had not been Dead Honest with me about Death from the start. But to be Dead Honest about it now, I must admit she only did so, after I already wasted my state of Love to a sexual, lustful way of looking back at woman, in a secondary response of anger as well as in a flight in panic, This happened when I saw my world crumble down under the influence of energies building up, several weeks after Barry had crossed the line between doing battle with self and teaching to my discomfort. Well, I may have taken some more responsibility for my life since.
As Barry said “Woman can be trouble too, but I will only be speaking about that once sufficient people are reading my books, hearing my tapes, watching my videos.” If there will be any men left, that is, by the time all the “boyish and new” men are to be informed about woman’s potential “wicked, wicked ways”. So I took the liberty to speak about some of this here now, even though it may not be my place to speak about such great matters. Be aware and be awake man, there always is an element of battle between man and woman and you will never know what to expect next! Since my close encounter of the first kind with Barry Long – who endeavoured to live Truth to his best of ability I have no doubt, and I too Thank God for Barry Long – I spent years collecting the bits and pieces of my consciousness from all over Space. I know now in my own experience, why it is very dangerous to a man in the process of realization to look at any sexually explicit material. Very true, I strongly advise against it if you have been in the teachings of Barry. Being blown to pieces on the inside is not a picnic, I can tell. But there is no need to become crazy in a disfunctional way because of it either. At least, no one ever seems to notice much difference about me.
I am slowly learning now not to hold a grudge against anyone and become more responsible in Life. Barry Long as well as the woman I was referring to in this tribute, were strong and to a degree traumatic influences in my existence, but as my self I am my worst enemy, that much I have learned. I have also – since then – realized, that to make a Long story short, I will have to do a lot more dying of my own. Not to argue with or judge others who already see the importance of Dying for Life, but to be there in the flesh without fear. When the going really gets tough and words no longer are enough for really putting my life on the line for another. I expect it Still to be a Long way, before I will truly dare to give unafraid and become an original.
While continuing my dying as fast as I can – oh well, maybe I wish to become a member of the slow food association – I am still endeavouring to solve a small riddle, ever since my encounter with Barry. How can two men, each already on – or moving towards – their mountain top, be good company and pass the jam to one another, without throwing things? To keep the mind peaceful using telecom alone is not at all that simple and this scientific mind keeps asking silly questions, isn’t it annoying?
Are you still here too? What madness!
Now there are critics criticizing the critics for criticizing the critics, who will be the final judge of this bizarre competition?
Perhaps BL has the answer. Here he is speaking about criticism (from Tambourine Mt Tape-set 3, tape1, side A):
“It’s one thing to say ‘you shouldn’t do it that way, do it this way’ and show the person. It’s another thing to carp and criticize and say ‘the government shouldn’t do this or you shouldn’t do that,’ and not do it yourself.
In truth whatever you criticize in another you must do. Did that ever occur to you? Only then are you responsible for your criticism. If you say someone is not doing a good job and don’t do anything about it practically you’re just a critic; a compromise. You’re in that grey area between the black and white of action and no-action. You want to pretend that you’d like to take some action but there’s some reason you can’t.
Giving advice if someone asks for it is another thing. If you’re responsible for getting a job done and someone does not do it rightly, then you say ‘you are not doing your job properly.’ That is why you will usually find a boss has done most of the things he asks others to do.
If you criticize your child for being gloomy and unhappy are you getting rid of your gloom and unhappiness immediately and as often as you tell the child not to be like that?
This is living the truth. It gets rid of back-biting doesn’t it? It gets rid of snide criticism; snide condemnation.
The whole world says ‘I have the right to criticize,’ but truth is you have no right to criticize. Go and do it. Do something about it. Take responsibility for your criticism.
Then your life changes.
You must do what you criticize or shut up!”
Phase Two… I was just about to write something exactly along those lines. I now feel that in order to be justified in criticising someone who calls themselves a master, I must become a better master. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master”. I have realised I cannot answer any questions I have about his teachings until I achieve the same state of mind he was in. I will now not listen to anything anyone else has said about his personal life. I was not there and didn’t experience it so is an injustice to make a judgement, and it is just another distraction away from actually living what he said. I will also not listen to anyone who says “he said this,” or “he said that,” because they could be paraphrasing, misquoting or misunderstanding. I will go straight to the source, his books or recordings, if I want to know what he said.
There’s nothing left to do but live it.
“When I’m dead and they ask ‘What did he say was new?’ tell them this simple truth: The only freedom, liberation or enlightenment is to give up your right to be unhappy – every moment.
And if they say, ‘I am never unhappy,’ then ask them this: ‘Are you living what you want? For if you still want something you are not free.
And if they say they don’t want anything, ask them: ‘Are you telling others something you’re not living? If so you are not free.'”
Correction: ‘What did he say that was new?’
Hello
I have just become aware of this forum. I am mentioned here in a number of posts as Simon – the boy who was ‘left behind’ when Barry divorced my Mum Kathy.
So here I am, to pay tribute and acknowledge the important role Barry has played in my life.
He was my mate, and taught me much. I remember having to be very quiet around the house when Mum was recording “Talks from Tamborine Mountain” and I also had to find stillness at the many meetings I attended.
The divorce was hard for me, but what can you expect? I was mainly upset that I had lost a friend. Some years later I did try to contact Barry, and contrary to a previous post, he did agree to meet me.
We met up at Cabarita Beach one afternoon, at a picnic table in a park. He got straight to the point as usual, “What did you want to see me about, Simon?” he asked. “I don’t know” was all I could say. He continued. “Is there something in particular?”. “I have nothing to say” was my reply. “Then say nothing” he said. I knew he’d say that, and I laughed. We sat together in silence for a while. When our time was over, we gave each other a big hug.
I am 26 now and am happy and well adjusted! I’m still devoted to the truth and self realisation.
As for his teachings, well, you would think I got to see first hand whether or not Barry lived his truth. The truth is – the only one who will ever know is Barry!
The only use for the truth is in the experience of it. You guys can write about truth all you like, if there’s one thing living with Barry has made me want to do, it’s living it!
That’s all, really.
Simon Kuttner
Beautiful post Simon, straight to the point. Thanks.
DC – the fact is that you don’t know what I forgot or what I did intentionally, so why waste time guessing?
I didn’t forget to mention “a love of God” because God, as far as I can make out from His followers, is a rather cruel attention-seeking imaginary man in the sky who, were He to exist, should be locked up for the good of society and given therapy. I don’t love Him.
A “a thirst for inner knowledge, and wanting to see through the collective ignorant beliefs of humankind and their religions and dogmas”, as you articulately put it, is a good description of the very reason why I have written what I have written on this blog. You might profit from considering that.
Phase two – “If you don’t have any alternative suggestions from your own experience (a next move), then you shouldn’t be criticising others.” Why not? Please explain.
I would not characterise a “next move” as “an alternative suggestion from my own experience”. I would take a “next move” to be my own next action, which may or may not be an alternative suggestion. It might be having a cuppa, going on holiday, or not doing anything in particular at all. I couldn’t figure out why my “next move” should be of interest to you. If what you actually wanted was my suggestions, it would have been helpful if you had asked for them.
Simon – thank you for a clear and beautiful post. Clearly either Barry had not decided to see you when Dawn said that he had refused to do so, or she was mistaken, or she was lying. The Barry that you describe is one that I recognise, the sweet and true one. I wish it had been the only one. I would point out, as Barry would have done, there is no such thing as “his truth” (which would imply that everyone has their own truth). It’s either “the” truth or it isn’t. And he clearly didn’t live it. You didn’t have to live with him to see that. The sex-binge that he want on after he divorced your mum, and the unhappy women that resulted, are adequate demonstration of that.
Bob – the permanent truth which was an undercurrent in Barry’s teaching, as you beautifully put it, is not something that he left behind. It is something that was there before he arrived and is there now he’s gone. He simply pointed it out while he was here, in some of his teaching. The majority of this blog has been about the lies that he put on top of that permanent truth in the rest of his teaching and in some of the ways that he lived.
Stuart – you say “I now feel that in order to be justified in criticising someone who calls themselves a master, I must become a better master.” I’m not a great violin player, in fact I’ve never played one, but I know bad violin playing when I hear it and, being a musician and player of other instruments, I can point out in an informed way where I see the faults. Same for ordinary human beings and other human beings who call themselves masters but whose teaching is faulty or who don’t live what they teach. You don’t have to be a master to know the truth, or to point out things which are untrue, or where the “master” is not living what they teach – just an averagely perceptive human being.
“I have realised I cannot answer any questions I have about his teachings until I achieve the same state of mind he was in.” You can’t answer any such questions ever – only Barry can, and he’s dead so it’s too late. You can only try his suggestions, many of which are good, and see the effect in your own life.
“I will now not listen to anything anyone else has said about his personal life.” Hmm… are you sure? His personal life is pretty relevant when it’s supposed to be the demonstration of his teaching and you are proposing to try and follow that teaching. And why believe his stories about his personal life if you won’t believe anyone elses? You’re turning yourself into a “believer” before you start.
“I was not there and didn’t experience it so is an injustice to make a judgement,…” fair statement “…and it is just another distraction away from actually living what he said.” Why don’t you live the truth instead of trying to live what Barry said? It may not be the same thing.
“I will also not listen to anyone who says ‘he said this,’ or ‘he said that,’ because they could be paraphrasing, misquoting or misunderstanding.” Or they might not be, they might be giving accurate information. You don’t know. “I will go straight to the source, his books or recordings, if I want to know what he said.” More correctly, if you want to know an edited selection of what he decided to present for sale to the public. Don’t forget, Barry’s profession in Asutralia was as a political spin doctor, and in England he made his living through his own PR company before the spiritual business took off.
Why close your eyes and make yourself blind? Live your own life, not Barry’s.
Anthony – do not put your notions of God onto me, thanks. Now why don’t you go live your own life and leave this tribute thread alone.
Thanks, Simon, for your post.
Simon,
It was good to read your post. To hear that Barry was your mate, and that you are still devoted to truth.
I was a devoted Tambourine Mt listener in the 80s. Thank you for playing your part in that. Some of your adventures from those tapes still rebound back to me whenever every day circumstances remind me. The story about spilling the orange juice (the truth of apology) was one of my favourites.
I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.
To Richard Osband
Richard, don’t be disappointed that the BL Foundation is holding video screenings. They are well received by the people who attend and continue to have o profound effect on peoples lives. There are no groups. They are advertised publicly and anyhone can attend. By the time Barry came to the end of his teaching life he realized there was a valuable body of work there that evolved from when you were with him. It was his wish that these works be made available to the people. I myself have come forward as a volunteer to respond to the requests from people all over the world who see the value in the screenings and benefit from them. I have been to Barry’s teaching for 20 years and I still love the extraordinary stillness that happens, more so than when I play a tape at home. I hear similar responses from volunteers worldwide, so we are prepared to keep them available for as long as there is the demand.I guess what motivates me is the same thing that motivated you when you first met Barry. I see it as a service to my fellow man and I have always had a sense of appreciation in me for the people who helped Barry in those early years. No master can do it alone,and if you and the good people who helped in those first years had not helped, I may not ever have heard of Barry and my life could not be the richer and more beautiful life that I can now live.
I don’t know what coven you speak of. Barry described his last months with Sara as ‘being in blessed and beautiful company’. He was well cared for and loved and I am so pleased that it was so.
Marie Condon
I think the word “cult” is a derogatory, negative word used to insult others. The more descriptive and relevant term is “religion”. And as anyone would know, its the original source that’s relevant, not whether its a good or bad religion. I wouldn’t advocate a Barry Long religion, but if one arose it wouldn’t matter so long as the original truth is preserved.
A yahoo group is a good idea.
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/barrylong/
What a lovely post Simon, so full of love.
It is true as you say, that only Barry knew if he lived the truth or not.
“I am the only one who knows if I am lying when I say I love you”.
I trust no one objects to me taking up the susgestion to start a Yahoo group as I agree it might be a better place to ‘discuss’ than a tribute page.
Be still and know that I am God.
Thank you God for Barry Long.
Actually there wher six women. One of them was married and did it with her husbands concent but Barry never made this public. A secret from the people. This kind of thing is disturbing.
To endorse what I claimed earlier, “the word “cult” lost its traditional meaning (a system of religious worship) and came to be negatively associated with concepts such as brainwashing, mind control, coercive recruiting tactics and sex abuse.” [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult]
You pundits can continue rolling up with the usual suspects. If you come up with any well-grounded aspersions, let me know.
DC – the only notion of God I have is from those of His followers that I have met. If you have a different notion then, rather than picking up your ball and flouncing off the pitch because you don’t like one of the other players, and telling them to leave you alone, it would be helpful if you would keep playing and tell us what your notion of God is. Isn’t that what God would want – for you to help others to know Him/Her/It better? Or are you just a God-person in word but not deed? And I am living my own life. Whose life did you think I was living?
And I’m amazed to see from Tim Robinson’s post that he is suggesting a Barry Long religion wouldn’t matter. Barry would have hated that! It would go against an important part of his teaching – no priests speaking in his name. Everyone finds the truth in their own experience. Is Tim actually familiar with Barry’s teaching? Incredible. As to “it’s the original source that’s relevant, not whether it’s a good or bad religion”, are you saying that the Inquisition doesn’t matter, because it was part of the Christian religion, which came from a good original source in Christ (assuming for the sake of argument that it did)? Incredible.
Richard – Dictionary definition of “prurient” from Merriam-Webster online: “marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire; especially : marked by, arousing, or appealing to sexual desire “. The interest in Barry’s love life on this blog of death is not to arouse any kind of desire, sexual or otherwise. If it arouses desire in you, sexual or otherwise, that is your affair. Don’t put it on other people. The discussion is around two main issues: (1) Did Barry live what he taught? Answer: No. (2) Despite that, does his teaching on sex, love relationships and families work? Is it the truth? Answer: no. It resulted in the leaving behind of a string of unhappy, angry and confused women and children over a period of decades. That is unlike, for example, his teaching on meditation and stillness, which is what some recent posts have appreciated. It was great teaching. It worked. It was the truth. It just shows – you don’t have to be good to be enlightened. You just have to sit still a lot. Then there’s “getting your life right” as Barry called it. It’s crucial to do, and he didn’t do it. It’s what someone does *after* they’re enlightened that shows you who they really are. How do they use their talents and gifts? What did they leave behind? Apart from the books and tapes etc., Barry seems to have left four things: (1) The de-mumbo-jumbo-isation of a lot of “eastern” teachings and techniques which enabled a lot of people to experience a depth of stillness that they had never done before, a great service to humanity, but obvious and simple when you’ve done it, just like riding a bike. It’s the same thing that many teachers of all religions and none have been teaching for millennia and the same thing that many people just know for themselves. Barry was just quite a good teacher of it. (2) A lot of pseudo-gnostic teachings which are unverifiable in anyone’s experience and just as confusing as the “eastern” teachings that he tried to clarify. (3) Some poetry [this from a man who, speaking about Rumi, said that poetry was one of the worst things to happen to the Earth because it was confusing and not straight – I can think of a lot worse things than poetry actually, but it’s just another example of Barry saying one thing and doing another] and (4) A lifelong string of abandoned and unhappy women and children.
Re the post from Barry’s daughter, Anne, it doesn’t surprise me, particularly the tawdriness of Barry’s actions, the lies and the deceit. Barry let slip in an overenthusiastic and unguarded moment at a Master Session that his “abandonment” in India by Ann Lane, his secretary that he got together with in India behind his wife’s back, an abandonment which was supposed to have caused him such great trauma that it pushed him to new levels of spiritual realisation, to realise the Woman behind all women, was actually Barry sending her home because they were both ill but they could only afford to send one of them back to Australia. He packed her off to Australia and then went off to England. Didn’t even try and get back in touch with her. Doesn’t make such a dramatic story, does it?
I’m fascinated by the fact that of the two most relevant and interesting posts on this entire blog, Simon Kuttner’s and Anne (nee ) Long’s, Anne’s has got hardly any response on this blog. Barry’s great “going forth” (Buddhist reference) to find God was in fact him going off to commit adultery with his secretary, lying to his wife and children about what he was doing, and lying about coming back. He never came back. The root of Barry’s “spiritual” life, which went on to become the whole teaching, the people who were attracted to it and still are, the group meetings, the books, tapes, DVDs and so on, was an action of deceit and the abandonment of a family, of a woman and children, with God knows what damage caused. The same pattern was repeated throughout his life. His disrespect of women, children and families and his use of them for his own self-glorification shines throughout. It was deep in his personality and it infected his teaching. Doesn’t anyone think that matters?!
Anthony
Thanks, Anthony, for your post. Some lack the capacity to find hope in life on their own. In so-called cases of mental illness (such as lack of hope / depression) the poor in society are referred to professionals in the mental health field. On the other hand, members of the elite, such as James Packer and Tom Cruise, openly challenge the integrity of psychiatry. By their reckoning, psychiatry is dangerously flawed and organized religion (notice that I didn’t use that dirty, four-letter c-word?) is the better alternative. Barry wasn’t a fan of therapy either. Barry wished that his published words be meticulously preserved and made forever available for the sake of the people I mentioned in the beginning; that is the task of the Barry Long Foundation. He clearly acknowledged that not all can do it on their own, that some need help, and of course, others are fortunate enough to only require a good kick up the backside, sending them off on their merry way. Hope for what you might challenge? Refer this dispute to page 21, “A Prayer for Life”.
Regarding the point raised earlier about the Spanish Inquisition (The Catholic Inquisition is the more accurate term), such events in history, much like the genocide of six million Jews in world war two, are of course horrifically tragic, and are significant in that they demonstrate what evil human beings are capable of. However, it shouldn’t matter to Buddhists especially that the slaughter was carried out under the banner of one of their most revered religion symbols, the swastika. Likewise, it shouldn’t matter especially to anyone with a true understanding of Christ’s teaching that 5 million women were burnt at the stake in the name of Jesus, their teacher. They’re sensible enough to know that individuals like Adolf Hitler and Emperor Constantine are very sick people who will exploit any means necessary to fulfill their twisted desires, including a sound spiritual teaching, and that such tragic events have little if no connection to their faith. Haven’t you read “The Da Vinci Code”? Or are you like, “it’s a work of popular fiction, so what?”
Tell me Anthony Conway is a certain Paul Richards an extremely close friend? Maybe you could form an exclusive club of one and revel in your separateness.
I think he/they already has, and is.
correction: ‘and does’
No more argumentum ad hominem? C’mon, let’s play! Now I have to go back to being real. Nooooo… I’m dying!
Catch this one, pundits: Barry was free to contradict himself, it’s what makes him so appealing … heads up! 😉
Barry Long’s teaching addressed just about the entire scope of human experience in the modern, western world. His insights into the functioning of the mind and emotions, his advice on dealing with self and selfishness and, as one contributor above emphasises, the powerfully communicated “space” within him, were peerless.
Although it is true, as contributors above have noted, that “everyone knows sex is not love”, Barry Long was, as far as I know, unequalled in his exploration of what that actually means. He exposed the workings of the unconscious and robotic sexual mind, and traced it down to its most subtle and cunning last resort. The way it sneaks looks at vague fertile forms in the street, idly fantasises, replaces, in love-making, the lover with an erotic image of him or her, and moves attention out of the penis/vagnina/body, and into the mind and emotions, they way it jokes and makes subtle allusions in order to get a quick thrill, and, in toto, its disgraceful dishonesty – seeing all this (and more), and to transform it through that still seeing, or being, turns love and love-making – every actual day together – into something unbelievably good.
Some women, it seems, who have been in contact with Barry Long, are unhappy and confused by his treatment of them. But such tittle-tattle is a distraction. It is evident to me that he lived the essence of what he taught, or he wouldn’t have been able to produce so many original and practical insights. It is these insights which are the key to his teaching, because these are undeniably and absolutely true to the reader or they are not. The gossip that surrounded BLs worldly actions is debatable and circumstantial to say the least. For example; early in this forum someone rubbishes BLs approach to Simon, then Simon himself posts a compelling refutation.
It’s true that testimonies such as these are valuable – were Simon’s mother, Sara, or some other people very close to Barry to speak – they would also be very significant. But all these details are like the miracles of Jesus, his relationship with Mary Magdelene, whether he visited India, which part of the trinity he represents, who he chose to be pope, and so on; quite appallingly besides the point. The point of Jesus is, is what he said (and in the case of Jesus, some scholorship is required to try and work out what he is very likely, through ideological overlay, not to have said), and then whether it is true for the experiencing individual. Everything else is religion.
The funniest criticism of Barry Long on this site is “I used to get great pains in my intestines during meditation and was told by Barry that it was my fear and unwillingness coming to the surface. It turned out to be long-term salmonella poisoning.” It is possible that he made mistakes with these things I suppose; and its also possible that somehow salmonella and fear are connected. But, again, idle mentation. The key is, is it true for me?
For me, it is true that, above all, I am reading these words. Before I am a man, a doctor, Italian or whatever, I am reading these words. it is true for me that the quality of space is love. It is true for me that there is a more intelligent, more inclusive and more revealing way of looking than the normal pin-pointing and stressful object-naming that the unconscious mind engages in. It is true for me that it is a good idea to sit down with the children and agree that this house is not to be a moody one, and that anyone in it is allowed to simply ask another why they are moody, and what can be done. It is true for me that the aim of life is to find death before it finds you. It is true for me that if I can’t stop thinking about something I should do it, and if I can’t do something, I should stop thinking about it. It is true for me that politeness is not the same as courtesy, that cleverness is not the same as intelligence and that love is not an emotion. It is true for me that I am responsible for my life. It is true for me that it is only true for me, if it is true for me.
Above all it is true for me that the space inside of me, the stillness, is where all creativity and love originate, that there is no end to the truth of this space, and that Barry Long’s knowledge and communication of it, in such tapes as How to Stop Thinking (a personal fave), were and are amazingly powerful. From this stillness I have discovered for myself innumerable incredible and original truths about myself, about life.
You can debate about what films Blong liked to watch, whether his ex-lovers are happy now, how he conducted his worldly affairs, how a life-realise man should behave, and how well he appreciated irony, the English, salty food, and so on. You can argue about how the foundation are operating. You can feel sick at the chillingly sentimental gush that people write in praising him, or the reckless bile in criticising him. You can wonder why the universe filling up with the ceaselessly growing hairs of a dog is so funny. You can cringe at the cheesy book covers. And, finally, you can pick rational holes in some of his more bizarre claims, or take his perfectly appropriate ones out of context. But, the last word, as Simon says is,
“The only use for the truth is in the experience of it.”
I don’t know if Barry Long was God-realised or a master or any of the other things he claimed to be, but I do know that he was very funny, that he never struck me as creepy or cultish, that he spoke directly and unsentimentally of what is most true in my life, helped take me further into it, and revealed aspects of it that it would have taken me a long time to uncover for myself. As far as I know there are no more accurate words for this truth than life, death, love or God.
hey – I really like all his book covers! 😉
Outstanding, sterling post, Darren. Interesting website, too.
I think the hardest thing about Barry´s teaching is the fact that its so damn hard to actually live. Something in us want to se him citicized, or for him to fail with his own teaching, so that the teaching or really, the truth, won´t bother us so much. But really, apart from his tempers (in public, I didn,t like them either)and some other small things I don´t agree with him, have I ever come across such a genius? No. I have read it all, it seems, and nothing comes even close. Even if Barry was a murderer, how would that change what I see to be the truth? I can never know how he lived his life, I just can´t. But my god, without him I would not have had the understanding I have now. I loved, and love, Barry for his reflection of the truth.
By “tempers” (sorry, my english is not perfect) I mean his sometimes aggressiv teaching style. He would seem angry but when asked about it he said that he wasn´t. I could never figure out wy it was necessary to pretend to be angry or aggressiv. Other than that, and it didn´t happen often, he was lovely see in action.
In the presence of Barry Long – who was answering a question of the woman I was with at that time – I have experienced energy coming into the solar plexus, working like a kind of force. After letting it happen at first and merely observe the effects, I eventually blocked this when it started to feel as an uncomfortable throbbing pulse.
Apparently when I was asking “wrong” questions – some “questions” in reality are statements of self – the effect would be different. Barry would become more aggressive and the energy came more on top of the head than in the solar plexus.
But I do acknowledge I have since then realized, that the habit of asking questions can well be an emotional negative statement of the lack of will or resistance in my self, to disappear and make way for my body to become the vehicle of the energy being the positive answer to another man’s question instead. Then again, if I do not ever question you, how can anything be revealed?
Also have I become aware of the fact in life, that it is the way of the child in man, to focus on all the details of the life of another man, be it the teacher, as an excuse to continue to stink up the place far beyond the smell that triggered the complaint n the first place.
The reality and reliability of the Source lies within the body reading these words, waiting for Truth to be expressed again, thus reïnforcing Truth, Love, God, Life and Death in existence now, through my body and yours. Not in judging or discussing the life of the Man who endeavoured to show the way.
When it comes to trails of unhappy people that Barry Long seems to have left behind: we learnt what to do about unhappyness now, didnt we?
The only thing I still find disturbing is a lack of pre-selection that – according to my experience – should have taken place, before anyone being admitted to the most difficult journey through existence. Not every body on the brink of awakening is prepared enough for the most difficult task of self destruction. Making excuses? Perhaps.
I would say that it makes sense for a living teacher of Truth and Wisdom who knows what he is doing, to build a sound wall around a teaching that deep. And not give it a boundary to the world with the thickness of a slice of blank paper: “If you turn the next page, you will become karmic responsible for your life”. Media that provide a one way broadcast of energies this deep, may come to places where they cannot be properly absorbed. Even a teacher not knowing all the members of the audience may start bristling in the psyche in places that cannot handle the Now, still or not.
In a book called “Concentration and Meditation” Christmas Humphreys warns the Western people to be aware of the potentially devastating effects of hasty and pre-mature Kundalini transformation, which is the transformation of the energy of sex into Love. According to his statement, man should only turn away from the world and sink in, if he is truly finished with the ways of the world. Also according to Humphreys, a man who leaves the world behind, must always before and during transformation carefully examine his deeper motives.
Another spritual source, Alice Bailey, warns that the state of being without choice must not be entered before the subject is ready. In my own experience I found this to be true: I got stuck between a rock and a hard place, not knowing what to do for several years. Since then I have returned to do what I do best: being plain stupid, I have no choice.
Masters in the East have not during the ages carefully selected the members of their audience for no reason. Also, in the East progress of individuals often is monitored and the developing individual is sent away into the world, when lack of progress indicates there still is a need for living experience.
I have not experienced that this is taken care of by the subject becoming filled up and leaving on his own account. Granting I am among the worst cases of thick headedness. Still, never ask the idiot to make the diagnosis himself, never ask a child to be mature enough to take grown up decisions!
I have tested many statements of Barry Long and found these to be True indeed. I must admit – reluctantly, when proven wrong I still feel a disturbance – that according to my experience he truly was Master of Love as he stated.
But,but,but…
Thank you Richard for your response. This specific technique is new to me, perhaps since I did not attend Barry’s teachings from the very beginning. It feels good to receive a constructive response, as if I am not alone in this. At times it can become quite lonely near the top of my anthill, I must say, especially among all these Great Mountain Tops I am looking up to.
Usually I bring Still Awareness to thoughts moving and merely observe. In my case the restlesness is located in the neck. Without my knowledge or consent a “Point of disappearance” was opened, which – if applied in a controlled way – allows the subject to perform astral and cosmic travelling. In the Himalaya this is only done by Masters of the East, after they teach students in Being for many a year how to control the Kundalini Energy. But as we know, Westerners can be hasty folk.
Not knowing it was there and required both firm energetic control and alignment with Will Power, I went through this point uncontrolled and blew up my aura. Unadvisable: people tend to go mad that way.
Since then I have spent 10 years collecting the pieces and return to Stillnes, with Still Awareness on the winning side again, the last couple of years.
I will endeavour to apply the technique you mentioned, at moments I experience “tantrums”, much similar to what has been described in other postings I suppose.
At present I am holding on to both sides of the stick (Styx?) and various pieces of my system are identified with either side of the (broken) mirror. The repetition you mentioned and the point between the eyebrows may help me to detach from my statements at the surface, based on notions of what should (not) be at present or should (not) have been in the past.
Similar to the donkey between two hay stacks, I dwell in the middle of the river Styx: Will it be surface mind or Depth under the world; Shall I chase comfort or accept Awe and Bitter Cups; Will I continue to run or swim from dying or will I search for Death and observe if and how long my body floats before I sink for Good?
Well, as Barry said: we never run out of time, so I am not making any decisions until I feel someting in the solar plexus again. It is quite a swim though, while moving backwards and forwards. Beginning to sense my choices are limited to none.
I must admit that in spite of the fact that – by the Grace of God – I have already experienced Peace beyond Understanding, I still have to consciously decide to turn away from the surface mind existence. I am not even sure what is the biggest yes at my point in space and time: I let myself be tricked into living the Spiritual Life, at a moment in which my heart recently had been seriously wounded by a great Love that ended, after I fell into it, not being Man enough for Her.
My will to exist and to experience at that time was very, very strong in a projective way. My insight in taking responsibility for what I wanted and my willingness to die for God’s Will – or even my understanding of what it takes for a man to do so – was at the same time very, very poor.
Looking back. Love or God spoke to me in images in a lucid dream, telling me to not yet enter the Spiritual Realm of Life, since I was too instable emotionally and my use of will was still way too forceful for the most subtle areas of the Still Waters of Great Love.
If I would continue to force myself into the Spiritual Realm, my ship would sink to the bottom of the Still Waters, that I disturbed with my emotional drive, with myself below deck after I was sunk, fighting with the spirits of the past.
Instead I was advised to enter the sexual energies of existence and first build up more living experience. Not promising a comfortable journey, though.
Unfortunately, by that time I did – or dared – not fully understand the lucid dream and asked a Goddess realized Woman to help me explain the symbols in the dream. She told me, I wanted Power and should continue on the Spiritual Path. Right?
Trusting her deeper contact with Life and lost in her Eyes of Gold so I did, and the lucid dream became my living reality: I went to the bottom with an active mind, an instable emotional body and until today I am a sunken ship at my “point” in space and time(less Being).
Yet another traffic accident inflicted by the sheer Beauty of Woman and Her potentially Fatal Attraction to sexual man. Oh well, what did Barry say again: Man of Love who knows what he is doing… All temptation is of my self…darn it: again, no one but my self to blame!
The shipwreck helped me to realize the Truth in the words Barry spoke: “Never trust a woman” and “She can be trouble too”. Ever since I experienced the Truth in this, I seldom ask woman for directions any more. Nor tell her, that there is a hole in my bucket. And if necessary I will even tell Her, to only speak for Her self and not tell me what I want. Seems that even here I begin to have a taste for living dangerously…
I realized that as a man I must know what I want for my self. Which is – as Barry stated – Nothing, but i still do make mistakes, in matters of Life and Death I tend to be a slow learner. I must also understand the images in which Love or God speaks to me from Within, without having to ask woman for explanations or perhaps even without sharing the contents of a lucid dream with her at the surface
When years ago I arrived at “Koningshof” in the Netherlands, two overheated cells in my system took a left turn and refused to go through the door, that had during Barry’s presence written above it: “Let go of all hope, ye who enter Here Now.” It was the same text as written above the door of the room where I had to take my oral exams in the ways of the world, or wasn’t it?
Nevertheless I pushed through, searching for the woman I was with at the time, to tell her I could not stay and would have to leave before the teaching even had started.
But as it is Very Still in Me and as it is Very Beautiful in Me, I forgot what I came to say to her in the first place and I stayed.
Lost in Beauty, again. Some things never change, some do.
Should there be any techniques to enter the body again more solidly – which I have not completely been able to do ever since the big bang of the aura I am with – I would be very interested to learn about these too. Since at present I feel as if I am neither of the world, nor in it.
This all said, I do admit that no matter what, Love Is and Life is Good. I tested that in my own experience like so many a body too and have been and Still Am witness, that this is forever True, no buts there.
Solar Plexus and Ajna center as an excercise for someone who ruined a Crown.
Thanks again Richard, my best regards to you too, from all the bits and pieces at both sides of the mirror. Still pulling myself together.
Bart
Seeing as his family and close friends concern themselves with this blog, I wish for all my entries to be deleted if possible, as it is not really a place for argument. Thanks
[Admin note: As requested, past posts have been deleted.]
Dear Mister John Smith
Since you have expressed you are willing to give up on arguments
Since all of your postings show, you are well aware of the words spoken by Barry Long in much detail – could it be, you would even know them by heart?
Since the Presence of Man does not seem to have left you unaffected (same here!)
Since you do not seem to have been able to dismiss all that instantaneously, as if it were mere bullshit (same here!)
May I asssume you are Still among the splendid Company I am with?
In your last postings, you appeared as a regular Sir Knight to me.
What is it, that you really feel to fight for?
What is the original message you bring from within?
I have no doubt, it is well worth listening to.
Kind regards,
Bart
Good riddance, John.
I attended Barry’s classes in London in 1987 and have some of his books and tapes.
He was an amazing man but he had a knack for bringing up in you issues you could only just bear to face (fear of nuclear war and annihilation was it in my case) and I think as a result he had a high dropout rate from his classes. He could also be rough and unsympathetic in his correspondence with individual students who he felt had “asked for” the difficulties they were facing in life.
But as he said in one of his tapes, “You ask for the truth, and when I give it to you you can’t stand it”. It’s hard to argue with that.
Read a few BL books. Heard a few tapes. Never met the man.
Sometimes what he says makes me grateful to him. Other times the same things makes me irate.
A lot of what he teaches isn’t easy to see in one’s own experience especially the content of The Origins of Life and what he wrote about death in Only fears dies book.
Australians are known to be a tough lot.
He never used the words mercy or arrogant in his books.
His words have taken permanent residence in my brain. Whether they’ll ever actually help me I’m not sure, but I’ll keep listening.
So long Barry. Even though you’re gone, when I’m on my own and ailing I’ve got your books to read.
Barry is the greatest man I have met and my greatest adult influence.
His energy lives in me every moment, more so in his (body’s) death.
I am in gratitude to life for being alive when he was and with him for several years of his live teaching.
As Ian above described, an honest man, and an honest man with rare courage to live the truth.
I love thee Barry.
Thank you master.
To say Barry had a massive impact on my life would be an understatement :o)
I highly recommend his teaching to anyone.
The seemingly corrupt nature of Barry Long’s treatment of his family finds similarity with that of Siddhārtha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, who abandoned his wife and child of only a few days to seek enlightenment.
Buddhism is a major religion and spiritual practice in the world today, whose participants include many thousands of families, who find hope and strength in its teaching.
Perhaps the teaching of Barry Long will earn such a legacy with the families and people of the future, despite both Barry’s and Siddhartha’s wish that their teaching be not exploited by a monastic order.
The subversive nature of Barry’s “Political History of the World”, in his book, “Only Fear Dies”, left me trembling. I was almost certain I had stumbled upon an insurgent effort to undermine the government, until I realized I was reading the work of a spiritual teacher. I will never forget the devastating impact that book had on my life, an influence that turned out to be wholly positive. I’m very lucky to be in contact with this teaching, which for all seeming intents and purposes, is just another despicable cult that is the favorite object of derision and ridicule by the Media and its regular viewers.
To clarify the meaning of “for all seeming intents and purposes” this refers to the perception of others and not myself.
Thank you Richard, for raising this significant issue. Indeed, the assumption is that a collective group, namely, the Barry Long Foundation, has complete ownership of the right to reproduce the work of Barry Long. And yet, why wouldn’t Barry, who persistently undermined faith in collectivist ideals as an important aspect of his spiritual teaching, nominate a trusted individual as the sole trustee of his work?
I need only draw comparisons with the life’s work of Osho (aka: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), the rights of which officially belong the International Osho Foundation. However, it was claimed recently on YouTube that controversy surrounding the collapse of the commune in Oregon and the imprisonment of Ma Anand Sheela (Osho’s secretary) was a deception orchestrated by Osho himself to maintain Sheela as the sole beneficiary of his books and recordings. The reasons for this subversive activity were probably related to the multi-million dollar donations that Osho received from his followers.
So, it’s likely that the individual mentioned above is the sole beneficiary of Barry Long’s work, and it’s also likely she, like Sheela, may, or already has, endured intense pressure and scrutiny by “followers” of Barry Long for holding such an exclusive privilege. And if so, I think it’s likely that Barry’s Will will never be published by the Sole Beneficiary in order to maintain secrecy, which just happens to be the function of any practical and down-to-earth Secretary.
As Barry once said, “It’s the Divide Leela isn’t it?” This Enlightenment, Spiritual Teacher / Master, Disciple / Student / Follower / Seeker of the Way, all that is the most interesting and engaging drama I have ever discovered on this Earth. It sure as hell beats “Home & Away” and all that other crap on TV and at the Movies. I love the Teaching Barry left behind, I love his books, his recordings, and I love this blog. I also love Osho, it seems. I’ve traveled throughout East Asia, including Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and in all these countries the Buddhist Religion is very prominent, and Siddhartha Gotama’s message can easily be found if you look closely enough through the eye-watering haze of incense… I love him too.
I found it difficult at times to part with my money in exchange for a book, CD, or seminar; I can only imagine what it was like for one who parted with the best part of a home loan to finance Barry Long. Would I have done the same, if I was in his /her position to give away a large sum of money (or the equivalent in working hours and overtime), without any oversight and accounting guaranteed in the future?
The trustees have not only inherited a sound spiritual teaching, they’ve also obtained a notable example of what make Australia culturally distinctive. Barry’s poem, “Akubra”, is an example of how Barry created an intelligent, creative and original text with an authentic Australian theme. Considering the relatively vague identity Australians experience amongst the rest of the world’s people Barry Long’s teaching has the potential to contribute to what is a priceless asset to the “great southern land”: its culture. Therefore, no amount of financial support could be enough to preserve and publicize his life’s work.
While bookshelves of western libraries categorize Osho as a cult leader (alongside Rev. Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and others) he is one of only two authors whose entire works have been placed in the Library of India’s National Parliament in New Delhi (the other is Mahatma Gandhi). He is so esteemed in his country of origin that it astonishes the mind when reading the bitter regrets that some of his American followers have expressed.
Perhaps Barry’s former status as a public servant to the Australian government may provide further incentive to the suggestion that the BL trustees lobby for an exclusive partition in the Parliamentary Library in Canberra be set aside to preserve the books, recordings, and other archived materials of the life’s work of Barry Long for the sake of the moral and cultural development of the nation.
Quoting the Barry Long Foundation, in a generous & informative response to my enquiry:
“Thank you for your enquiry.
We are still planning on publishing Barry’s autobiography. We have been short of staff for some time, which is why we currently are in the process of recruiting a new manager and a new marketing person. These people need to be informed, take audit and come up with a plan first. I cannot put a time-frame to it at the moment, but we are getting everything and everyone in place to be able to market and publish the autobiography and other books on which Barry had been working in the last years before his death, some of which may become available as an e-book. We also intend to produce some Barry Long audio as MP3’s as well.
As long as we have a valid email address for you, we will keep you informed of any new publications and other news as and when they become available.
I trust this gives you an idea of where we are at and what the BLFI’s plans are for publishing Barry Long’s books.
Greetings”
The article, “Guru went from The Truth to Enlightenment”, published in the Sydney Morning Herald by Clive Tempest on January 3, 2004, was a surprising find:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/02/1072908904360.html?from=storyrhs
Revisiting this site after several months.
Alan Johnston – in answer to your question of July 11: no, Paul Richards is not a close friend of mine. I only spoke to him a couple of times. As I recall he was courting Dawn for a short time but went back to the USA after spending some time in Australia with her. Anyway, even if Paul were my friend, what would your point be?
If your remark about “an exclusive club of one” is meant to imply that I am he, I am not.
Any separateness that you may or may not perceive here is entirely a matter of your perception. I don’t feel any. Never have, really. That doesn’t mean that I agree with everybody or that my experience is the same as everybody else’s.
Perhaps you could say who you really are and what your association with Barry and the Foundation is. I believe that you were Jade’s partner after she stopped partnering Barry. You may still be. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Is this perchance yet another Barry follower projecting emotional states onto a dissenter which actually don’t exist except in your mind? A pea from the same pod as Neal Bowhay (who worked for the Foundation at one time and may still do so), Hossein and others? I thought we went through this a year ago. It’s boring and pointless and does not reflect well on you or the Foundation. This kind of discourse should have been educated out of you at any decent school, and you seemed well-educated when I met you, if you’re who I think you are.
Instead of wasting energy imagining that I am “revelling” in some imagined “separateness” (and even apparently imagining who I am), rather than making up stories in your head about people that you don’t know, why not just engage in a sensible and factual discussion? Barry spent a lot of time teaching people not to waste energy imagining, teaching them just to see the fact. Have you forgotten? Or are you more interested in being a member of a cosy group of followers (as the Englishman John, who partnered Sharon for some time called it, the “Barry Long coffee morning circuit”) and rubbishing those outside the group, than in living anything of value that you may have learned from Barry? Share your experience, if you want, it would probably be interesting and valuable (particularly given your relationship with Jade, if I remember you rightly). That would be more constructive than making snide remarks, wouldn’t it?
By the way, I think it’s pretty ironic to be accused of “separateness” by a follower of a man who imagined that he was “the only I in the universe” and taught his followers that they were too. How much more separate (some might say pathologically dissociated and self-centred) can you get? I’ve never met anyone who lived more in an “exclusive club of one” than Barry.
For everyone else, re Barry’s autobiography, the first draft was completed by him in 2000. It was probably redrafted a few times after then, but it was certainly complete well before his death. If the Foundation really wished to publish this document, it could have done so a long time ago at minimal cost as a pdf download on the website.
Darren Allen, read this: “Some women, it seems, who have been in contact with Barry Long, are made happy by his treatment of them. But such tittle-tattle is a distraction.” Recognise it? If I had written that, you or someone else would have rightly questioned my dismissal of those women’s accounts. Why, by the same token, do you write off as “tittle-tattle” the experience of “some women” who have been made “unhappy and confused”. Rather patronising and demeaning, wouldn’t you say?
Let’s carry on. “It is evident to me that he didn’t live the essence of what he taught, or he wouldn’t have produced so much chaos and unhappiness around him. It is this chaos and unhappiness which is the key to his teaching, because these are undeniably and absolutely true. BL’s worldly actions are facts, but his accounts of his spiritual realisations are debatable and circumstantial to say the least, with no evidence at all.” Rather one-sided, again, wouldn’t you say? Recognise it? I do not deny that many people derived value from Barry’s teaching. I did so myself, as did you to judge from some of your posting. But on what grounds do you write off the experience of others who may have found the opposite, or who have mixed experiences and are prepared to write simply and openly about them? Does it make you question your own experience? If it does, is that uncomfortable?
Otherwise, nice post, apart perhaps from some of the tautologies and plain common-sense dressed up as wisdom. Did you really need Barry to teach you that? I think you’re wise enough yourself.
Philip Keir, a point of information. Buddha didn’t wish that his “teaching be not exploited by a monastic order”. He actually set one up, made lots of the rules, and it’s still going over 2,500 years later. He and Barry did have other things in common though, among them their abandonment of a young family to look for something-or-other, a distaste for existing and a problem with sex and women. Gautama dealt with the last by becoming celibate. He thought that the life of his monastic order would be severely curtailed after he admitted women to it. Barry dealt with the same problem by being a womaniser, setting himself up as a tantric master and relegating “his” women to a subordinate position where they could not teach or speak independently.
A request to Simon Kuttner if he reads this: Simon, would Kathy, your mother, be willing to make a contribution to this blog? Her account of her experience with Barry would be really valuable.
Similarly, a request to Sara, Jade, Moira, Dawn and Sally (no doubt at least one of you, or at least someone you are in touch with, monitors this blog): would one or more of you be willing to make a contribution to this blog? I, and I imagine many others, would really like to hear what legacy your experience with Barry has left in your life. It could be very valuable to a lot of people. If it’s so great, why be shy talking about it? Or does Barry’s gagging order survive his death?
I can’t imagine any value in continuing to faff on about this. It’s over. Stop it. Now. Or continue to live in the past.
Furthermore, I’m aware of the irony of suggesting that we stop this when I myself have obviously been drawn back here to this site! I guess it’s a kind of curiosity.
The point still stands that none of the views put forward on this site, including my own, are of any consequence to the truth.
Mum will post if she wants to, however, she has more resistance to perpetuating this discussion than I!
All the best everyone!
well put Simon!
You people are really something. 5 years later and you are still blogging about Barry’s death. Christ, talk about not letting go! This is how all full blown cults come to be. Get over it, he is dead and rottibng in the ground, quit speaking of him as some kind of Christ figure. GET A LIFE, LIVE IN THE NOW, FOLLOW YOUR OWN BELIEFS. You are all pathetic.
I notice Anthony attacks Barry Long and others for the supposed poor treatment of women yet defends his right to directly name and shame women of his association in a public arena. Contradiction is the way…
Look! Barry Long is NO longer. He’s nothing, He’s not even a he. Stop talking about him. Forget the complicated new age crap! Forget what he said. If you want to know about truth find it within, and stop putting an image of some dead or alive master along side the truth. If Barry’s infront of you, he’s there. If he’s not he’s gone there’s NO BARRY LONG unless he’s with you. even then you are talking about the truth not some body called Barry. There is no change what so ever after Barry’s death. If he’s alive and you’re not with him – he’s not alive at THAT time. Dead or Alive,it doesn’t make a differance – he’s not here – NO images attached to the truth or what ever you want to call it. Forget the books that have not come out. Forget the lovers, forget the bloggers! Forget the questions, forget trying to be enlightend – All people are flawed. Thats why using an image like Barry Long will only result in a flaw of the truth.
Again
What I am saying is there is no image or person – only truth-
No Barry wanted this, No Barry was a bad this or that. IT’S NOT ABOUT BARRY even when he was alive.
SO STOP YOUR WORSHIPING OR TALKINK OF A PERSON OR IMAGE. SURELY WE’VE LEARNT OUR LESSON BY NOW.
ITS ALL BULLSHIT!!!!! AND YOU KNOW IT.
This is my first and last blog EVER! Ciao!!!
Sorry, I changed my mind, one more go.
If you have to see a teacher or master – go only to hear or see the truth – not to see the master. But surely if you’ve seen Barry Long there is no need to see anothe teacher, surely you know your course. If not, what the hell is the matter with you? Ask yourself that! When I went to see Barry Long, everyone I met were there to see Barry Long. Barry Long was king!!! ‘Barry says this, Barry says that’, It was the Barry Long show!!!! This should not be, but it always happens. It should have been to see the truth not BL, It should have been The Truth Sessions, not the master sessions!!! and forget the crap about sitting with Barry Long.. Barry Long is just an outlet of the truth and should be treated as such, not worshiped, talked about, feared, or loved!!! The tantric thing is all good and well, but most men in the audience think they are the next Barry Long, this is the way of man, however much training you give them – the tantric thing gave them ideas! I It is ignorant to bring this up as a teacher and not expect that most men, like I say are thinking they will someday be BL’s replacement, and as far as I am concerned it was a double edge sword that was best left alone. I heard many men and women talk of loving more than one partner at a time, purely because of what they heard from the teacher.
Remember the real master does not have to tell people he is a master. In fact a real master does no longer know he’s a master. There is a time and a place for people like Barry Long – but only when they can speak infront of you – which with Barry is no longer the case!
Lets leave the master out of the truth, the only master is you!!!
I’ve only discovered Barry Long in the last month after going through a mental crises & needing to take time off work.A friend gave me ‘Only Fear Dies’& then I bought ‘Stillness Is The Way’.
Every single day for the last month I have read,sat quietly & meditated on the ‘senstaions’ in my body & got through a major mental terror attact.So I was feeling very positive & serene re Barry Long’s teachings.Then I find out he is dead & come across this blog.It has certainly raised doubts,fears,laughter,major questions at present I cannot answer.Many years ago I attended a workshop with Werner Erhard & at the time felt he was amazing.And yet since then he too has had much criticism & I even know people who have recently met him & the reports were not favourable.But what does this mean ? Do I discard everything I felt & experienced back in 1986 just because of someone else’s perception of him now ? As many have said already in this blog Barry Long was a person.I only need to look to the truth (not Barry Long’s truth)& see if it is so in me & my experience now, this very moment I am writing this.All other arguements re his life or words are the past & are mental abstractions which could go on forever beacause of the yin yang principal inherent in the world of existence.I have really enjoyed every single entry in this blog & I have read them all.No one is wrong or right it’s just people requring the truth.So was Barry Long the truth ? Sit down quietly with your eyes closed & go within & you will discover it doesn’t matter.For within you alone is the truth & for that Barry Long need not exist !
Tim James (CharlesCampbell@talktalk.net)
Richard, I recall a large video and audio recording unit that was set up at the back of the room to record his seminars. Surely the cost of this technology and the efforts to catalogue every recording must be compensated with a financial supplement gained from the video showings. I can only speculate; maybe they are in financial debt.
I have no affiliation with BLF, just some ordinary person like Tim James who enjoys this blog. I’ve never actually been to a video showing and don’t intend to because of commitments to other important duties. Thank you for being there in the beginning when Barry first started his teaching, and you’ve raised some really good points about the method concerning the individual.
I’d be interested to see the list of enlightened masters you speak of. Can you include it here?
Sorry I just posted incorrectly just a few minutes ago, so here it is again.
The mad thing thing is how can Barry’s lover at the time of his death be the keeper of the foundation for as long as she’s alive. Surely everyone knows that it is not always possible to retain love of one person for an entire lifetime so how could the person who is half his age be expected to see eye to eye with Barry over the course of her lifetime. Its way too trusting. Barry should have tied up things better and put out a book with the title that goes something like – my teaching is over now I’m gone! So it was clear!!
my god it goes on and even grows! i’m writing a book, perhaps you can follow me soon? not sure anybody’s gonna read it though. good to see some familiar blogs still here. good old barry, he seems to have stunted as many people’s lives as he enriched, perhaps thats as it should be. after all doesn’t the earth exist in balance. perhaps you should all get together, face-to-face, and have a good old whinge. i’ve never been too keen on these modern, anonymous communication devices.
“There’s a customer (sucker) born every minute”.
just found this most intresting blog. found Barrys books reasently.to me this blog reflects man at mo
st vulnerable , loosig fate. not a nice feeling.
Can somebody tell me:
nobody that I know works more than 40 hours a week. I would guess that 90% of the population, at least, don’t work more than 50 hours a week.
How long does it take to record a one hour talk of yourself, with a £150 camcorder? About one hour. How much does it cost to sit in a public place, like a big field, and give a talk to people who want to hear you? Nothing.
So why did Barry Long charge people for the privilege of hearing his message? If I wanted to help people, why would I be taking their money?
I make music in my spare time. I wouldn’t dream of making people PAY to hear it, I’d be grateful if anybody wanted to hear it in the first place.
Finally – anybody who is interested in the ‘spiritual life’ (and I was, once) has too much time on their hands, and their life is TOO easy, and they are TOO unaware of the suffering of so many billions of innocent beings on Earth.
As for Barry’s statement that animals don’t have self-awareness – I take it that animals walk off cliffs, abandon their babies after birth, don’t run from predators, don’t avoid pain and don’t seek pleasure, don’t eat, etc.etc.
Obviously they do, just like us humans, and therefore have self awareness.
Barry Long was a fraud, just like all the other ‘masters’, and I knew he was really up to no good when I found out about his ‘hareem’…
Saliverii – I guess that’s why you are a musician that doesn’t get paid! I work with musicians. One of the dumbest things I hear people say is that music should be free. It takes years upon years to be able to create something worthwhile – of course musicians should get paid for their art. And how would one do it full time if they didn’t get paid? Ludicrous. Ditto for spiritual teachers. If you don’t like the music, you don’t have to listen or buy the album!
Saliverii, How can he teach with no money! That is a crazy remark. You want eveyone to work as a trader by day and teacher by night. Come on. No wonder you think he’s a fraud because you’re not smart enough to know different.
Yeah back in the 60s I bet you wanted the guys from the Beatles to work in a bank during the week and tour the States for free on the weekends. What a great world you want to live in!!
Also if you do teachings for free you get people coming who are not serious.
I suggest you go back and practise your hardest to tap into your intelligence and then come back and say nothing. That would be nice, wouldnt it!
Good on yous for putting the boot into the old fella better out than in,I liked Barry Longs words and i felt my world was a better place through knowing about him and i’ll salute him for being real although obviously not up to the exacting standards of some of you, good on you for having yr say and being true to yrselves, I particularly like that he stood up and voiced a whole lot of things that were so much more useful than what most of the older men id met had to give or were willing to say about life when i was in my early tweneties.
Saliverii and anyone else who thinks spiritual masters should work for free,
I never recalled Barry doing a talk in a big field.
He gave talks in places that required rent to be paid. He flew in aeroplanes that required fares to be paid. He ran an organisation to support his work that required staff who needed to be paid and buildings that needed to be heated and lit. And Like any ordinary person he needed to eat, pay rent and run a car. And he provided a service that was the result of many years of work.
Absolutely! His teaching wasn’t even that expensive. I’d say it was cheap. I guess it depends on whether you consider if it’s the lotus that grows from the mud, or the mud from which the lotus grows.
Hey subject, why do all these popular successful singers, actors and performers charge so much money for their CDs, DVDs, cinema admission, concerts and general fan paraphernalia? Shouldn’t they be expressing their talent and passion free-of-charge? Look at how much money they’ve got! It’s disgusting! They must be BRAINWASHING us into enjoying their performances, movies, art and music! They must be self-centered, egotistical cult leaders! The world would be so much better of without them, don’t you think? Imagine the paradise we would live in… no music, no movies, no concerts, no art, no life … YES!!!
What bitterness weeps when the master dies.
Knives of complaint disguised in clear reason.
Fools dancing on the grave of a giant.
What’s that I hear? Laughter?
Golden laughter!
My God how many unintelligent comments. This blog should be erased, it doesn´t do any good.
Anyone with a little bit of intelligens knows without any doubt that Barry was extremely intelligent. He could reflect on truth and love like noone else. Its obvious.
I´m pretty sure the men arguing against him here love there sexuell self more than the truth. Otherwise why argue? Go on and fantasise and make pain and come back when you´re done!
luved barry……but there’s always eckhart tolle
Dear Minna,
That is so sweet. I am very grateful to learn, that I am still connected to – Whatever – inspiring you to write that you love me. The greatest Gift of all, but also a pricelessly dear One, that can be given nor accepted in any light hearted manner.
In your first post, you stated that Barry’s book “Only fear dies” is working for you and has struck you as very powerful. It is, and since Barry wrote of Truth, Love, God, Life and Death, I cannot allow myself to be in the way between you and the Love of Man for Woman.
This is why you must know, that Barry regarded me as a complete idiot and not a man, for which he had sufficient cause during his stay in the “Koningshof” – translated “The King’s Court” – in the Netherlands. In fact, the “more” I have learned about Life, Love, God, Truth an Death in my limited experience, the more I agree: he was right and I am holding on to “the wrong end of the stick” as he put it.
Barry wrote and spoke about several givens in the Love between Man and Woman, that I feel you should be very much aware of, when you make such a brave and unconditional statement as to Love me. He said: we must learn to love God first. If the Love of God for Woman is the Love you are waiting for: read Barry’s books and feel inside whar Barry’s Teaching is doing for you.
As for myself: I am not worthy of the Love of Woman in my present state, which is the mess I made when I did not take care of the State of Love that I was given through Barry Long by the Grace of God. I ran away from the brightness of Truth as he predicted and must now live through my old self, that cannot handle the Now. So I continue to be the wearisome child, playing to be man, but lacking the courage and strength to be Man enough for Woman. My words may conceil this, but – even though men have a way with words – the Love of Man is not about words.
I cannot but acknowledge the True Authority of Barry Long. He indeed Loved Woman very much and to a very, very high degree – he once mentioned that “it is always coming through a condition” – his words are “Me talking” as he stated it. Take in the Teaching that Barry brought us, go with God and you will some day draw to you, a real Man who will really and truly Love you as Woman.
I no longer doubt Barry’s deep Love for Woman and his being united with the Being and Beauty. He indeed is Master of Love as he claimed to be and his Teaching is too important, to allow myself to win the Love of any Beautiful Woman by anything else but by living it and by dying for Love.
Which I am still resisting very much.
Go with God,
love,
Bart
Indeed, Micheal; after all, Eckhart Tolle, “states that by listening to and speaking with the spiritual teacher Barry Long, he understood things more deeply.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle]
Eckhart Tolle – at best a mimic, at worst a money machine, don’t put his name on this blog!
As for Bart and Minna perhaps you could keep your lovemaking to the teen magazines where they should be among many other puerile meanderings.
The tape Life: Law of Karma landed in my postbox in 1993 sended by a friend. Several circumstances in my life that time caused me to get in deep depression. Life: Law of Karma has been the start of my biggest spiritual insight of my life uptill now.
The consiousness important of selfresponsability still is of great liberating power in my life.
Thank you Barry Long.
Ok you crazy kids, now I feel the need to defend Eckhart after that last unconscious comment.
Since this is a tribute I will say Barry Long was an authentic teacher of Truth, that perhaps got sidetracked along the way like most of them do.
I hate dead-beat dads also, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath-water. Barry Long was truly enlightened and called it like he saw it, we need more Longs in the world.
Eckhart was influenced by Barry, and went to see him because he recognized the Truth in him and wanted to understand better what the heck happened that caused all his sudden inner peace. Barry (along with others) gave Tolle the vocabulary to describe his experience, and now luckily for our species we actually have a shot at survival.
Tolle has scrubbed the message clean, freeing it from all that cultural and gender baggage. Tolle is a true lover of women and talks about the time when they led the planet and we were better off ect, as well as being with the same woman for fifteen years, who happens to teach Presence.
Barry was a little old fashioned in that department, the idea that women can’t be spiritual teachers is ridiculous. The fact that a self-proclaimed Tantra master died of prostate cancer is rather ironic. I suspect Presence was lacking in that chakra, a reflection of his flawed ideas on sex and love. It could have been karmic as well.
I am so tired of this women as second class citizens crap.
Its so conditioned into the male mind it even pops up in Spirtual leaders. Our personal gender is so surfacey compared to the Truth of our Being. Are men and women different? Yes, are they equal YES!
The answer to all questions you will find is not yes and no, its more likely yes and no. (tolle paraphrase)
I would consider Tolle a modernized, diplomatic, improved, purer, version of Long. He will never be accused of womanizing, too much of a nerd. Tolle lives his teachings and gets rid more mumbo jumbo than even Long did.
Barry pointed the way to the cliff and calls you stupid for not jumping, Tolle takes you to the edge of the cliff and gently nudges you off. You still must choose to jump. I recommend you do.
I was lucky to stumble into Tolles work before he got huge and met and sat with him in Presence many times. I was a huge “success” in all areas before I met him, and now I actually love life despite external circumstance, or should I say I am one with Life. Sometimes that means having animalistic sex, sometimes it means making love. Both are valid expressions, and both can be very spiritual.
Tolle is the real deal, he does not care about money, if you saw his apartment you would believe me. Recently he did upgrade to a nice house, but its by no means OshoLand…he only has one SUV..lol.
Tolle transmits Presence through audio/visual mediums better than any teacher ever including Long. I never saw Barry live, but have seen his videos, and many teachers can transmit Presence live, but Tolle can really do powerfully via tapes and cd’s.
Barry was spot -on with his stillness message, but his ego/mind /self whatever you want to call it seems to have crept back in with all the Tantra stuff. Its very common with almost all Gurus. His transgressions were actually mild compared to most, at least these women were consenting and of age.
Can I say for certain he was wrong about all that Tantra Jive? No, but hey its highly unlikely these women became enlightened by boinking Barry. Hmmm I think I will try that line next time I hit the bars. So you want to see God?
Being more Present during sex or any activity is always a good thing however, and maybe it does work.
So take what resonates and leave the rest behind!
Barry Long you were quite a character with great strengths and some flaws, but I sincerely thank you for your significant contribution to lifting the consciousness of this dysfunctional human race. Next go around don’t abandon your family or have affairs, thats just not right!
Now people go out and buy A New Earth and lets get on with it.
Or just download it for free of the net, Tolle does not care unlike Long who would freak out if someone copied his books.
Cheers!
Thanks Barry.
Being still is certainly the way for me.
There’s not much else to say.
Svaha!
Amen.
JoeReal, that was an excellent post, thank you. Onya Bazza, go for gold Tolle!
Thanks Barry.
Be still, don’t think, silence.
Nothing else to say.
If you get into Barry Long, several things may happen.
1) You will learn how to enter a trance state.
2) You will have your sense of reality undermined by his half baked theories and assertions, and will be damaged.
3) Your relationships with your friends, lovers, family, society will be warped.
4) You will waste money.
5) You will find he and his followers lack empathy for you about what they do to you, which another otherwise sane individual would have.
Eckhart Tolle references A Course in Miracles a lot. He obviously thinks that it has great spiritual merit. ACIM was transcribed by someone who worked for MK Ultra. I don’t know about you, but that makes me think twice about Tolles sense of discrimination.
To joe real
I’m sorry you didn’t get to see barry in his life,you seem to expound the elements of several different religions and beliefs, barry would have set you right. As for the truth, I prefer it raw and unexpurgated, whilst you seem to favour the nice fluffy bunny version. Barry (and Osho for that matter) was authentic and original, qualities Tolle seems to lack. I accept, for the moment, his lack of desire for money but he is indeed diplomatic … and politic like so many others these days.
As for private lives, men such as these (Barry, Osho and others) are not hampered by the niceties of our so called civilization.
I myself was a channel for one of the entities which Barry, by the grace of God, banished to that place only the master knows.
Now I know I lived in ignorance of the true master.
Thank you Barry for your power and grace.
The point that needs to be made about the legacy of Barry Long, Osho and Eckhart Tolle is this: the most power crazed and greed addicted people are above the law and get away with everything. Democracy is a fairy tale. Nothing is what it seems, reality isn’t real.
Everyone in this world has been mind-fucked since birth. It’s all about breeding impulsive and emotionally-driven consumers. You hear the propaganda enough and the message is internalized. It becomes something like the air you breathe, like gravity. It’s there, omnipresent, but you don’t realize it or consciously think about it. It becomes the spring from which your thoughts leap forth.
Osho, Barry Long, Eckhart Tolle do more than even the most dedicated soldiers waging war against evil on the earth’s raging battlefields. When it comes to doing battle with the real enemies of human beings, the world-super-mind, they are the masters of the universe. They are unbeatable, unbelievable and totally unreal.
My life is about me … Barry showed me the way in. I am having shivers right now pointing to an inner presence, maybe the presence of the conciousness once called Barry. The point is me and my life. As comment to some of the said above, truth is truth for allt times, the way is to be taken by the individual I. The way … in .. is the message. That is all. Debate of worldly or personal issues is of the mind. The being state is the state of a mind that sits as a good dog before its master.. Master being I.
Shock, Horror Barry Long turns EVIL. I’d like to be able to make a serious comment but I don’t think I could stop giggling for long enough. I think Richard, it’s more likely you’ve “turned” mad!
Richard, I don’t believe your interpretation and limited experience of Barry Long.
Since when did Barry Long “promise” anything to anyone? How could Barry Long let you down? What were you expecting?
In comparison to whom, and what, is Barry Long “evil”?
If his students truly felt their actions where not predatory, why should they care if Barry accused them of such? And how could Long steal women? Are they things to be stolen?
And, please, enlighten me, what is “sexual magic”? Is it anything like the devious nature of your post?
Wow, I never knew Barry was dead.
I only googled him the other day as I recently started a course entitle “Practical Philosophy”, ran by a group called the school of economic science, who in some respects share similar ideas with the deceased. My only previous contact with the guy was some eight years ago as a sound engineer in a tape factory charged with duplicating cassettes which Mister Long presumably sold to people at his seminars (I think he was getting them for around 20p per cassette for anyone whose interested). So after doing a quick web search, I was amazed at how strong and polarising a legacy Barry L has left behind to the folks on little old Earth.
Now like I say, my contact with L is confined to 4 or 5 double tape packs, and I knew nothing else of him or his past, other than the fact he had what I perceived to be an Australian accent, which in the scheme of things is negligible. So here is what I learned in this short 6-10 hours, I learned that this guy Barry Long was waltzing around the planet, indulging himself in the most perverted, gratuitous, vulgar example of egocentricism that I had ever encounter. I mean seriously, all this guy is doing is regurgitating his own distorted new-age understanding of classical Eastern philosophy/mysticism (stuff you could easily find at a decent library). He then throws in a bit of Gospel, passing it on and adding in a bit of sexy stuff for his own self-satisfaction, sounding off like he’s the almighty or something. Okay so maybe it is debatable that he was in some ways a good teacher, a confident, articulate showman of sort, but certainly not an example of a great teacher, a role model or a “master” though.
However, the most deplorable thing I found was that in doing all this, he was preying largely on the insecure, needy and the confused, which is why I particularly object to Mr Tim’s comment regarding “little girls in need of a father figure”. This is a very dispassionate view for someone so who studies the nature of understanding (though obviously not economics).
Recalling Barry Long’s audio cassettes really fills me with a kind of anger, a sense of injustice, only compounded by reading both the appraisals and critiques found on this blog and else where. I find it hard not to swear and make a fuss and generally try and upset people, but I have shown restrain It’s a sad day when such emotions are allowed to permeate my near apoptotic apathy, a sad day indeed.
For clarity/In Defence
i) I am not biased for or against Barry on the basis of anything other than the delivery and content of “his” self-proclaimed “wisdom”, and his response to the questions from those attending the seminars.
ii) I am not claiming everyone who attended Barry’s seminars, was or is needy/insecure/ vulnerable, I’m sure that there would have been those who would have already had leanings towards the kind of philosophies that Barry preached. However, reading this blog gives a general impression that a fair number of people who have encountered Barry Longs teachings feel as though something is missing or incomplete about their life, which is often exploited intentionally or otherwise by an authoritarian figure professing answers.
iii) I am not attacking Barry’s teachings on the grounds of any of his metaphysical analysis (I’ll save that for another day), simply his self-righteous, totalitarian, bombastic, hypocrisy.
iv) I am judging Barry Long, we all make judgements for better or worse, and we wouldn’t be alive without them. This whole blog contains judgements of Long, whether they are cynical, sceptical, critical, constructive, or appreciative. I am not pre-judging against prior experience of him, his teaching or Vedas/Zen philosophies, my judgement are solely due to my experience of his voice and word, and the evoked cognitive response. I am humble enough to admit that they are subject to the same distortion of which I charge the man, and which we as human beings are all subject to.
“The only thing of which we can ever be certain of is that we are uncertain” – Richard Feynman (A very clever man)
“Wake up and smell the truth”
“What truth?”
“Ah, my work is done” (from On Metaphysics by N Wood)
Peace and Love (no really)
That’s right Bob,
If it isn’t silent, or truth speaking about NOW, it’s usually self talking about the past.
Anymore tributes to Barry? (wasn’t that the point of this blog?)
In response to the appraisal above, in comparison to whom is Barry Long “evil”? You can’t be serious, Richard.
Since when did Barry Long promise liberation / enlightenment to any of his students? Is that what you expect from a spiritual master? You might expect a cult or religious leader to market themselves like that, but a genuine teacher wouldn’t put out guarantees as part of his/her teaching. Barry never made promises, if anything he did the exact opposite.
How could Barry Long have stolen women? Are women things to be stolen, as the men he accused of being sexually predatory make them out to be such?
What is the “right” direction for the younger generation that you are suggesting, Richard? How would this direction be impacted by the Global Financial Crisis?
As a young person, I say that Barry Long brought clarity and focus to my life through confirming deep yet unexpressed thoughts and feelings I had about life.
Barry Long lifted me up and beyond what I never believed and thought possible. He is among the greatest spiritual heroes of our time.
Hello to you all.
I have been scanning through all these blogs for the first time and what strikes me is the amount of time this word -truth- appears! as if we really want to get to the bottom of it! and ‘in truth’ we can’t get to the bottom of it – Love and Life bring it out, so to speak!
Barry Long said ‘I speak of Love, Life, Truth, Death and God’. That is the order of things.
Here is something from me about the first 3.
Love first right?
ASPIRE TO LOVE
LOVE IS CLEAN
FREE OF IMPURITIES
LOVE IS CLEAR
Life next right? (actually Love shall drop you into chaos -which is unpredictability- (no knowing, no understanding, no control) before coming to Life.
I AM LIFE
I AM LIFE IN THIS BODY
AND OUTSIDE THIS BODY
I AM LIFE IN EVERYTHING
AND EVERYWHERE
I AM LIFE
Truth next right?
Truth is not something that is known. Truth is made known, is unique to you, yet has a universal resonance.
The Truth BL speaks of is not of this world! here is something about truth.
Homage to Truth
Beloved Truth
I welcome you whole-heartedly
You are the Sweetest
And sought after by many
Yet you are revealed to few my Beloved
For man has forgotten
You are the Gift given to Love
And in making his search for you before Love
You are kept hidden in the Father
People of the Earth
Do not be concern about Truth
For She is revealed through Love
So find Thy Mother first for She is all Love
Then one day Truth shall be given to you
Not to keep, for you cannot possess it
But to return to Her Mother
Sweet Little Truth
Safe, from your Mother’s womb
You are the One
That shall me Free
This may sound a little cryptic It’s all LOVE. The essence of Mother’s Love is Life and the essence of the Father’s Love is Truth. So first Love, which brings us to Life right? then follows Truth which is a Gift given to Life (not all people receive it) for we must Love it and it takes humility. Then we live it by being true to what we are, and it just happens naturally.
In reality/actuality Love, Life, Truth, Death and God are never separate, they are always connected, at every stage of transformation, and the process is unknown. There is no end to it. Our Aspiration must be the greatest which is never to come back to earth for if you do not already know this, the prerequisite to Life on Earth is Suffering and to be Free of Suffering is to return to the formless, never to come back.
I have never been a follower of anything or anyone. I did write to Barry Long in 2002. I had only read 2 books from him then so knew little about him. In my letter I asked him about the meaning and purpose of Guru, for in what I had read he did not speak about it. It’s the wisest move I ever made.
With Love
Annette
The problem I found with Barry Long was that his depth of God Realization and profound love of woman tended to stir a furious reaction in people who still had a lot of self in them.
I’d say this is demonstated very well by some of the comments on this blog.
“Saliverii and anyone else who thinks spiritual masters should work for free,
I never recalled Barry doing a talk in a big field.
He gave talks in places that required rent to be paid.”
God, are you this stupid? WHY did he give his talks in places that required rent to be paid? Why not just do it in a field? Why not release one CD and tell everybody to copy it for FREE? Why didn’t he WORK? I clearly explained how 99% of people work for less than 40 hours a week, and pay for their own needs, with the rest of their time free. Seems like none of you cult members, with TOO much spare time on your hands, are able to understand basic English.
Again I ask- if Barry Long was full of love and kindness, why did he massively reduce the number of people who could ‘benefit’ from his message, by charging for it?
As for the laughable comments about my music – I produce my own music in my spare time. I wouldn’t ask people to pay for it. Why did Barry?
“He flew in aeroplanes that required fares to be paid. He ran an organisation to support his work”
Oh rly? What sort of ‘support’ did he need? If he had given his words away for free, nobody would be needed to ‘support’ it, would they?
“that required staff who needed to be paid and buildings that needed to be heated and lit. And Like any ordinary person he needed to eat, pay rent and run a car.”
Big clue: GET A JOB…
“And he provided a service that was the result of many years of work.”
Oh, that’s alright then.
You all have far too much time on your hands, and are obsessed with YOURSELVES, which is why you spent your pathetic lives trying to make yourselves ‘happy’. You never will be ‘happy’, until you stop ignoring the untold suffering of the billions of other beings on this planet.
I had already drafted this when I saw Richard Osband’s post above. It also concerns a “turn” between Barry’s early teaching and his later teaching.
Barry’s teaching was great until he stopped teaching meditation and started teaching “going into me”.
In his early days in Highgate in London he was a wonderful teacher for people not brought up in a “meditation culture” such as Buddhism or Hinduism, because he taught the practice using mostly English vocabulary and directly from his own experience. He thus avoided much of the distracting glamour and mystery that Western students seemingly inevitably attach to foreign cultures, and particularly to non-European languages such as Sanskrit or Pali
However, there was a subtle but fateful move when he started to teach people to go into “me” instead of meditate. People, including me for a while, started to go into their own unresolved and most childish emotions and act them out instead, of being still and investigating their cause. Some of these emotions are sweet (“that sweetest part of me” as Barry used to call it) but many are basic and greedy and unhappy and needy, shocked and angry and fearful at existing, wanting attention and reassurance. In an adult they can be acted out as attention-seeking and as a restless promiscuous sexual need. Barry changed and his teaching changed. It was the beginning of his sexual restlessness and his competitiveness with other “masters” and other men.
He missed the traditional complement to meditation practice – ethical behaviour, or REALLY getting your life right. You can’t be truly still and undisturbed if you are acting unethically in your life and harming other people, because somewhere inside it makes you uncomfortable. His teaching would encourage students to dismiss such concerns as “of the mind”, as Anders Vilmos K puts it above, and therefore to be ignored, but it’s incredibly important to develop discernment in this area. It’s what most people would call a conscience. This is particularly so when undertaking a discipline like meditation which can bring raw primitive emotions to the surface. They need revealing and investigating and “taking care of”, but also containing within an ethical discipline to keep the practitioner and others from harm. Living an ethical life (be it the Buddhist Five Precepts or the Ten Commandments or just a plain common sense honest, forgiving and contributive life) without meditating can give far greater and steadier stillness than practicing meditation while living unethically. An ethically lived life also counteracts the almost inevitable tendency for someone involved in meditation or the spiritual life to become a bit (or a lot) self-obsessed, since you’re looking at yourself most of the time. It helps you focus outside yourself as well as inside, to get the whole picture. Barry’s “Me” teaching exacerbated the self-obsession.
The nearest Barry’s teaching got to ethics was “getting your life right”, which he used to characterise as changing any circumstance which made you unhappy and disturbed your stillness. In fact as far as Barry was concerned this mostly just meant walking away from situations and abandoning them rather than getting them right.
Richard Osband is right and I am glad to see it said – there exists a responsibility to inform sincere seekers, particularly young people, about Barry and his later teaching, and hopefully to stop them distorting and wasting their lives following it.
It is good to see this blog. Good to know what people are saying. All tainted of course like what I write too.
True what Mr Osband says. Either go on your own or look to someone else other than Barry.
It is so so so clear that if Barry was totally true to what he spoke he would not have had a much younger lover. Of course its not to judge, but not the smartest thing, I would say. Also advertising the fact you had relationships with more than one woman at one time that only he could do as he was a tantric master, is totally ignorant.
And if you want to tell me that I am slurring his name, well let me tell you. The day he died was the end of his name.
He was a great man but the tantric was flawed for sure
Some of my comments towards the critics of Barry Long were very dispassionate, there was much fault in what was said, and I apologize to anyone hurt.
However, there are no regrets here, after all, what good is a man who won’t take a stand?
Every time the assertion is put forward that Barry Long was some kind of bombastic, totalitarian, dictatorial, spiritual ego-freak, one can’t help to feel disappointed and mildly irritated that such conscious, responsible and bold action can be misunderstood to such a degree, even by intelligent readers and contributers who were moved enough to investigate his obituary.
Seriously, it is important to understand that although Barry Long presented himself as an exclusive Spiritual / Tantric Master, it is because the way that he teaches is the traditional and ancient time-honored Guru-devotee relationship (admittedly, Barry never used “devotee”, “followers”, or “students” to describe the people who attended his life’s teaching), as the means for Self / God realization. When he refers to himself or his person in the context of a spiritual teaching discourse, he is not referring to person that you recognize as a disparate individual. He is referring to something much greater and speaks without any reference to Barry Long at all, so do not misunderstand.
Barry’s clear and simple teaching of fundamental spiritual principles, such as the logic of subjective and objective truth, is unprecedented in our anti-spiritual culture, where such ideas have been complicated in the past (for example, the proclamation, “I Am The Way, the Life and the Truth”) and usually discounted as romantic, sentimental, religious bullshit. Part of the mystery is coming to understand just who Barry Long was and what he meant by all of his apparent cult-like teaching. I appeal to anyone who feels angered and saddened by the fiercely polarized arguments on this blog, before you start to cry “Wolf!” please, look into this mystery and find out. It will change your life. I do not doubt it for a second.
Thank you, Barry Long. Rest in peace.
Saliverri, now that your offering career guidance, may i suggest that if you recommend anyone to ‘get a job’, define this as joining the police force, training to be a fireman or nurse, etc. Otherwise, recommend they could do something a little more creative and original with their life, without wasting their talent and using their intelligence for social, humanitarian and spiritual betterment. For instance, Barry Long is the perfect example for such an enterprise.
Also how can any new unpublished books be trusted if they have not been published by Barry himself. How do we know things have not been altered etc. If those books were supposed to be published.. they would have been.
Barry should have totally closed down shop before he died if he was true to his teachings.
Too bad
barry is the greatest spiritual teacher ever.I reached level 6 of mind through him,what a star.
Barry was and is the greatest spiritual teacher of all eternity.I’ve acheived level 6 in mind through him what a great man!
I could never have conceived in any and all of the meetings and workshops with The Master in Sydney 20 years ago that today I would be enjoying this blog.
And for that I thank you all.
Thank you Barry
The greatest spiritual master of all eternity ,he irreversibaly obliterated my past,and now I am also a Master,Quite simply the most clear of all teachers.
I agree with Mr. Osband. But like I said before, how can we trust the autobiography if Barry never published it while he was alive. I say there is no way we would ever know if that was BL’s writing or and edited/revised version with a new agenda added from the BL Foundation.
My understanding all along is that once BL died.. that was the end of everything! — He should have tied this up and closed down long before his death actually.
I can not believe BL did not finish the job off.. it really ruins all of his good work for me.
I also believe that the Foundation should be investigated.
I first heard Barry when I got back from Iraq. Since I have been listening to Barry no other logical person has been in my life. I am only 23 and when I look around at my so called leadership of men I can not find a man that is intelligent. This is bullshit.
Who is Barry Long? Well, really he someone who is making huge amounts of money out of vulnerable and needy people- he is an articulate new priest preaching supersition and ignorance. In reality what has he done for the world? – saved animals faced with extinction, worked for the one and only environment that this planet has, worked to stamp out starvation and human trafficing. No, none of those – but you can go and listen to his semi-religious quackery for $989 if you like. We are not timeless. When we expire our last breath we go back to the earth from whence we came. What will it be like when you are dead? If you want to imagine what that will be like – well, try to imagine the 20 years before you were born.
Having left Barry’s teaching in late 1998 after ten years due to many of the reasons outlined above, I’ve just listened to him for the first time since then on the new free download from the BL Foundation website. It apparently consists of extracts from a ten day meeting at Bond University on the Gold Coast in March 2001.
I was not surprised at what he covered – he had covered it all already. However, I was shocked at the way that his teaching had degenerated since I had last seen him less than three years before. The longer he went on the more his speech became a rant, and the more he ranted the more unpleasant, unedifying, self-centred and self-justifying the rant became. At one point when he was particularly possessed he shouted loudly and angrily “I will not have anger in me”! He obviously heard himself and came to his senses a bit, because he then tried to calm down and tell everybody that he wasn’t angry, just “passionate”.
If this recording were my first contact with Barry I would have stopped listening after giving him a good ten minutes and then never given him a second thought. This makes me very sad because I learned much from Barry in his earlier days, and what I saw then is still with me now. I wish I knew what happened to him.
PS Richard Osband, since the BL Foundation has not used you money for the purpose for which you gave it, have you asked them to give it back?
hopefully the foundation will come crashing down and let it rest. beware of people who say they are masters on an internet blog tribute and rate their mind in number levels.. don’t you think their is nothing in mastering yourself.. not a number level ? Again do not trust any materials coming out of the foundaton or peole speaking for b.l. Ciao ciao
BL was clear. But should have closed up shop before he died. (maybe he took it too far into old age to be able to deliver this). Like he said all along — after he died — that’s the end! No more! Now all the good work is tainted. The showman may have won through at the end.
Funny how your masterful clarity doesn’t seem to impede mistakes of spelling and interpunction.
I may or may not add further statements regarding Barry Long when I have finished reading his “Origins of Man and the Universe” – for the third time (this time reading backwards) – as well as the interesting parts of this blog.
This is mainly to mark where I will have to pick up reading after I am through with the blog.
But in short: I am forever grateful for Long’s originality in formulating certain aspects and helping me take “myself deeper into me”, and at the same time I take issue with some exaggerations and misjudgments regarding topics he obviously was not competent to comment about (for instance some aspects of religions, science – and as typical for journalists, he didn’t seem to mind that you cannot hold science liable for his misunderstandings – and the spiritual, even if just introductory, purpose of the rational process of refutation, as well as the need to remain consistent in your own presentation which he violates in several places).
Most likely, when I am through with the blog, it will be obvious that further comments from my side are superfluous.
Why has the autobiography not been published?
When Barry was alive he invited anyone who wished to receive a copy of the accounts of the foundation.
I wonder if this is still the case?
i can only speak for me… barrys teaching has changed everything. If you attended his meetings and didnt like it you should have confronted him or walked away… ill ever know barrys personal life story..and dontneed to thanks barry and thank god i found the teaching….
Apparently the Foundation is separate from the Trusties. Who are the Trusties? Why do they not reveal their names and reasons as to why they decided not to publish the autobiography?
My understanding of the biography that it was still going to be abstract in the sense of a traditional biography. I was under the impression it was going to be the biography of ‘me’ or ‘the biography of mastering the self’. Maybe I got that totally wrong.
To anyone who who claims on an internet blog ‘they are a master’ or at some number level of mind????.. let me tell you this.. There is no master or mind level calculation. No moment when you’ve done it.. there is a moment of complete dedication to the purpose and love of life and the spirit.. but not level, goal or becoming of a master.
About 15 years ago in deep depression a friend sended me a tape Law of Life: Karma by Barry Long. It has been a amazing awakening to my life. My life has change forgood. Self-responsibility for me is the keyword message that he awoke me.
What a enormous present that reach me in this life!
(This moment I learn a lot from Eckhart Tolle, who I recently found out had teachings from Barry Long.)
Innerpeace and love
Posted by John Cadens on May 5, 2009 8:13 AM
“At one point when he was particularly possessed he shouted loudly and angrily “I will not have anger in me”! He obviously heard himself and came to his senses a bit, because he then tried to calm down and tell everybody that he wasn’t angry, just “passionate”.
Hi John, it is funny that you should quote this passage, because it is precisely the one in which I loved Barry the most in that 3 hour recording. What are the odds?
From that same recording (‘Gnosis’):
“Where the hell is Jerusalem!”
In its context, a close number 2. Go listen to the whole tape anyway.
And on the bottom of the list:
“You busy yourself worrying about all the people around you and all the starving millions around you and all the rest of it, and all that the priests have told you, religious priests, waste of time, out with the lot of them!”
How the genius and the delusional, the wise and the ignorant (and harmul) can come out of one mouth in one speech!
A final quote from that recording:
“If you believe anything I say you are a FOOL.”
I believe (in) many things Barry Long says. Other things are dumb and the productions of his own Self which like every other human being he still carries with him. To witness that struggle, which indeed has great genuine passion in it, is seriously entertaining and madly informative.
I thank you Barry, but you already knew that.
I post below some correspondence on the subject of the autobiography between me, the Barry Long Foundation International and an individual to whom the Foundation passed my first email. I have removed the individual’s personal name in order to protect their privacy. Otherwise the text remains unaltered apart from one instance of the the word “the” inserted in square brackets in order to correct a typo.
__________
14 May 2009, me to the Barry Long Foundation
Dear Barry Long Foundation
I understand that since Barry’s death you have received substantial donations for the publication of his autobiography.
Could you please give some indication of your planned publication timetable? If a final donation is needed to enable publication then, subject to the amount required, I may be able to help.
Kind regards
Paris
__________
26 May 2009, me to the Barry Long Foundation
I look forward to hearing from you with regard to my possible donation.
__________
26 May 2009, [personal name suppressed] to me
Dear Paris,
Our apologies for the delayed reply to your mail of 14 May and your kind offer to perhaps give us some help. You mail has been forwarded to me today from the Foundation¹s office in Australia.
The actual situation with Barry Long¹s autobiography is that the rights in the work are available to commercial publishers but no deal has yet been signed. It would be a book of around 400 pages and expensive to produce. The Foundation is not in a position to market it to the wide readership it deserves and would find it difficult to recover the costs unless each copy were sold at an unreasonably high price. So the book really needs a commercial publisher who can sell enough copies to justify the production.
The Foundation has not to my knowledge sought donations or loans specifically to publish the autobiography and would not do so unless publication was already in hand. However I understand that perhaps some people intended their donations for this purpose and are disappointed that they still cannot read the book that Barry spoke about in some of his meetings. I am confident that it will come out eventually.
What we can do is publish short books and market them on a small scale. There are two such books planned for publication early next year, one on love and one on death. (They will not be announced for some months yet.) Even though this is a modest project, conceived to recover the costs relatively quickly, I still need to capitalise it. If there were not a recession, the Foundations¹ investments could be relied on. As it is, it looks as if I will need to cover the initial costs, probably with an interest-free loan. Maybe this is something I could approach you about?
I would be happy to speak to you on the phone to clarify any questions you may still have, if that suits you.
[Personal name suppressed]
__________
27 May 2009, me to [personal name suppressed]
Dear [personal name suppressed]
Thanks for your long reply.
Barry wrote and spoke extensively about love and death, and that material has been widely published in many formats for some years, but his autobiography is genuinely new material. Although having a beautifully produced hardback copy of the autobiography would obviously be nice, I think that those waiting for the autobiography are more interested in simply being able to read the text. If the choice is between an expensively produced book not being published and a less expensive format actually being published, I think most people would choose the latter.
Have you considered publishing it electronically? This would cost very little and would give access to the text to the widest audience possible which is, after all, the most important thing.
Kind regards
Paris
__________
27 May 2009, [personal name suppressed] to me
Dear Paris
The number of people waiting for the autobiography is small compared to the number of those who would read it in a professionally published edition.
Unfortunately, publishers want new material – so if we release the text electronically it is very unlikely that a book would ever appear.
Anyway I do not think that giving access to 120,000 words of text to the widest audience possible on the internet means that it will be read and valued by the largest possible readership. Conventional book publishing is still the best route and the only one that’s commercially attractive.
Although in respect of the autobiography Barry broke his own rule about not making promises, did he actually promise that the Foundation would publish his life story? In fact in the late 1990’s he asked a literary agent to sell the rights to another publisher. These efforts were unsuccessful. Things have changed now. There is more chance as time goes by.
Meanwhile the Foundation’s object is to “disseminate the teachings of Barry Long” – basically about love and death.
[Personal name suppressed]
PS The autobiography we are talking about takes Barry’s story up to his second wife’s death, just before he went on to the public stage as a master. The threads of it are told in his commentary to ‘Where The Spirit Speaks To Its Own’. The 120,000 words of the autobiography contain his memories in much more detail. It is a certainly an interesting self-portrait. But if in a fire Barry had to save his life-story or his books of truth there’s no doubt what he would do.
__________
28 May 2009, me to [personal name suppressed]
Dear [personal name suppressed]
Some comments below:
“The number of people waiting for the autobiography is small compared to the number of those who would read it in a professionally published edition.” I suspect it’s the other way round. Everybody who would buy it in hardcopy would read it electronic form, but there may be people who could not afford 400 page professionally produced book who would read it online.
“Unfortunately, publishers want new material – so if we release the text electronically it is very unlikely that a book would ever appear.” Why is that a problem? The important thing is the publication, not the form it takes.
“Anyway I do not think that giving access to 120,000 words of text to the widest audience possible on the internet means that it will be read and valued by the largest possible readership.” Surely it means exactly that. Could you explain why not?
“Conventional book publishing is still the best route …” (still don’t understand why – could you explain?) “… and the only one that’s commercially attractive.” How is commercial attractiveness relevant? The purpose of the BLF is to disseminate the teachings of Barry Long, not to be a commercial business.
“Although in respect of the autobiography Barry broke his own rule about not making promises, did he actually promise that the Foundation would publish his life story?” Well, either he broke his own rule about making promises or he didn’t, and you say that he did (not that I asked or even raised the subject). If you take “autobiography” to mean “life story”, which I think most people would, then he did tell us more than once in the late 1990s that his autobiography (i.e. life story) would soon be published. I don’t remember him using the word “promise”, he just told us matter-of-factly that it would happen and we all accepted it. As I understand it the Foundation has the text of and the rights to the autobiography and they publish all of Barry’s other books, so I can’t see who else would publish the autobiography.
“Meanwhile the Foundation’s object is to ‘disseminate the teachings of Barry Long’ – basically about love and death.” Well, they are about a lot more than that. Is the material in the two upcoming books on love and death new, or is it repackaging of previously published material?
“PS The autobiography we are talking about takes Barry’s story up to his second wife’s death, just before he went on to the public stage as a master. The threads of it are told in his commentary to ‘Where The Spirit Speaks To Its Own’. The 120,000 words of the autobiography contain his memories in much more detail.” Many of us would find it interesting and probably helpful as we face many of the things that Barry probably faced.
“It is a certainly an interesting self-portrait. But if in a fire Barry had to save his life-story or his books of truth there’s no doubt what he would do.” Fair enough. But in fact there is no fire. You can publish both.
Would the Foundation reconsider its current policy of only publishing the autobiography in an expensively produced edition through a commercial publisher, and instead go for a much lower cost (but still high quality) electronic format? I think a lot of people who were with Barry would be grateful if you did so and I hope you will.
Kind regards
Paris
__________
28 May 2009, [personal name suppressed] to me
I gave you my best shot at an explanation, Paris.
The situation is always under review but I can’t say more about it now than I have already.
[Personal name suppressed]
__________
13 August 2009, me to [personal name suppressed]
Dear [personal name suppressed]
Sorry for taking so long to reply. I have been travelling and not had much access to the internet.
To be honest [the] Foundation’s decision still makes no sense to me, but thank you for taking considerable time and trouble to try and provide an explanation.
Since the Foundation has decided not to finance the publication of the autobiography itself, has it returned or will it be returning the donations which, as you say, were intended for that purpose?
Regards
Paris
__________
20 August 2009, [personal name suppressed] to me
“To be honest [the] Foundation’s decision still makes no sense to me . . .”
I agree it appears not to make sense – but must everything make sense? In my life with Barry there were many times when things he did, or wanted done, made no apparent sense to me; but I saw later that it was the truth in action.
My view about donations is that they are feely given, without conditions. Until recently donations were not invited to fund specific projects. If anyone gave a donation specifically stating that it was for the publication of the autobiography, then (in my personal view) they would be entitled to ask for it back. However, I am not in touch with the day-to-day operation of the BLFI office in Australia and do not have much influence over what is done there,
[Personal name suppressed]
__________
10 September 2009, me to [personal name suppressed]
Oh, [Personal name suppressed], please! Are you seriously suggesting that the Foundation’s refusal to carry out its own mission and publish the autobiography when there is no good reason not to is “the truth in action?! I thought the reason was (i) the Foundation is unwilling to finance a low cost publication but wants a publisher to pay for an expensive glossy publication and they haven’t found one willing to do so and (ii) Sara is ill and cannot or will not release the rights from the Trust to the Foundation until she has recovered.
Well, I don’t pretend to have any particular insight so I suppose the truth will emerge in the fullness of time. At the moment it does, however, sound like New Agey post-hoc justification to me. Sorry if that sounds harsh.
I think we’ve probably gone as far as we can but I really do thank you for taking my questions seriously and taking the time to answer them seriously.
As far as the donations are concerned, I appreciate your position and I agree with it. A number of donations were made specifically to enable the Foundation to publish the autobiography and I hope that the Foundation will return them if the Foundation is now not intending to carry out that publication.
Kind regards
Paris
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10 September 2009, me to [personal name suppressed]
[Personal name suppressed]
Sorry, one last point.
Donations are not given “without conditions”. They are given for the Foundation to carry out its mission to “disseminate the teachings of Barry Long” as you put it. The Foundation’s own website states that its “continuing responsibility and purpose is to preserve his [i.e. Barry’s] works and make them available”. The Foundation is not free to simply do what it likes with donations and ultimately, as a non-profit organisation registered in Australia, is subject to Australian Law if it does not use donations to carry out its publicly stated purpose.
Regards
Paris
Hi Petra,is that you?mine and Guytane’s meditation teacher from Pokara???We have been looking for you…
I heard about Barry in Nepal,went to the master session,and since than my life has changed so much for good..and i see so much truth in his teachings.And now i also found the teachings of Echart Tolle,which is helping me further…
Thank You Barry,and all the great souls(like you Petra and Guytane)that helped me to look within…
Barry Long’s teachings were indeed unique. I have never found any teachings on love quite like his, and so suited for the modern world. I really feel like his teachings could transform male-female relationships into divinity, and in turn raise children in a better world. It is tragic that so many people have bad relationships just because they let their egos get in the way, and then their problems are passed down to their children. I feel like Barry Long was the first to put spirituality in the heart of everyday life, so that it is intertwined with something every human does; love.
Please check out the entry called ‘the present” on http://www.truthcontest.com. It has some good sections on spiritual love as well.
I miss him
Hi people, I have just found this site.
Hi Tarlach, how are you? Still in Dublin? Do you remember me? You had a major inner upheaval during one of the Master Sessions and nearly left.
I am still busy living life and listening to Barry. I am still a medical herbalist. Barry is the main source of intelligent reflection and spiritual consciousness for me and my man and our daughter.
I can’t be bothered with most of the posts on this site as it looks rather self indulgent, but I was pleased to hear from Simon Kuttner. He has obviously been deeply informed by Barry. Which is wonderful.
I came to the site wondering whatever happened to the autobiography that Barry was writing. I think I have found out that it is not available. Does anyone know why or what happened.
My tribute to Barry is just to say Thank You, you brilliant uncompromising man.
Afifah Hamilton
Thank god for barry long
Barry Long was a creature of devolution controlled by the rotting energy of unmastered shakti, Kali. But go ahead, get on your fucking knees before the “Princess”, get devoured by the womb of pain, see if I care. Bom Shiva.
Being with Barry Long was life changing. He was just what I needed, loving, straight to the point and wild with being and truth. Not afraid to shock, disturb and change the old, ignorant patterns within me. And he left you with an inner stillness that just expands your world and opens you up to a new you. So for me his teaching was love.
Bach
Barry Long – Great Man – Great Teacher. HOWEVER one of the biggest parts of his teaching was that when he was dead it was all over. The Living master is now DEAD. No more Foundation / donations / software / screenings etc. If he can not speak for himself – its over.
Barry long was and is awesome. Say what you will about him. Those who know beyond needing to know they know will know the kind of slander men of his kind can come to. He once said it is impossible to be true in this world. You can only be true to yourself.
My husband introduced me to Barry Long about 5 years ago and I am thankful to have all the tapes, books, and DVD’s available to me whenever I need a good dose of love, truth, and God.
I’ll end the first posting in 2010 with this though. shut this blog down. BL never wanted anyone to believe, interpret, or argue any points. The truth is the truth and “I” don’t need his children (supposeabley) or his followers or his enemies to tell “ME” what the truth is. To simply have his untainted work available is good enough. I also appreciate Eckhart Tolle.
After picking up the pieces for quite some time now, one issue still remains unresolved in my mind: “Let’s continue the destruction.”
Barry mentioned in “The End of the World” tape that the more sensitive among us already stated – regarding the present ways of Humanity – “If you don’t desist, you are going to blow us all up!”.
Later – in one of the Eindhoven sessions in the Netherlands – he referred to “Earth Man, who some day – out of compassion – will blow up the physical Earth.” So much for the future of the Human race: in our present form we’ll perish either from selfish effort or from having a Heart. Such are the ways of Life, I suppose. And such a perspective could only be sketched by a man, who cheered up the patient by stating “Chances are, you are going to die!”
Before I attended any Barry Long seminar, a book came into my hands named “Concentration and Meditation” written by the British Buddhist Christmas Humphreys. In the introduction of this book he warns hasty Western folk, to engage in the process of Kundalini or Tantric transformation if and only if the passing ways of the world have truly lost their attraction. Otherwise one might create Hell beyond understanding in one’s consciousness. Christmas was right about that, I can tell from experience.
The issue not to be ignored is this: we all stand for the decision, to make an effort to improve quality of living by means of self-destruction and be out of the way to allow contributions to the quality of life of other people. Or we can accept, even speed up the inevitable destruction of physical existence, which at some spiritual (?) places is even accomplished by stimulating selfish behavior (“Let’s get it over with”). The latter is a contribution as well, but lacks any concern of ethics, continuity and wants no future for Humanity.
The point being: large scale Meditation without proper Purpose, alignment of Will and group effort without coherent structure here in the thick of it, may untimely destroy what is still required.
What is the Teaching all about: raising an army of Dead to purge the ways of the world out of Humanity, or to teach individuals to live a modest life, containing less disharmony and unhappiness? Though “Pass the jam please” was pleasant to hear, the suggestion that building up a profound state of Divine Consciousness can be combined on the long term with “all day living” in the Western world is not the Truth.
Being without compromise and intolerance to self must inevitably lead to escalation of conflict. It takes a friendly, patient and benevolent audience – or sufficient armory, effective use of it and a subsequent hideout against worldly authorities – to combine Barry Long style bluntness in response to the self with continuity in breathing and living on as a free man.
The world we live in does not provide such an audience to the average man in the process of God realization: with his Teaching Barry Long created a niche, in which at least a substantial part of the audience he attracted could be regarded as safe. The practice of Being Blunt out in the world – without the teacher / audience relationship – requires a different preparation than writing books, creating DAT tapes and making videos.
I fully admit I live in a society that has derailed through over-tolerance of self. That the world as it is cannot be advocated seriously as a place worthy of preserving, as seen from a perspective of Holiness. Still I love being Human and I am not yet ready to give up on the Human race and Human Love.
Save yourself? Don’t save yourself, you will only save your unhappiness. Save the world? Don’t save the world, you will only preserve the suffering.
Since the forces of destruction already have a cutting edge over preservation attempts – were it not for the Will of God, we would not last very long here – I think Life on Earth needs a down to Earth plan. Regarding positive action instead of providing another opportunity for discussion. And more structure and cohesion than can be provided by an internet Blog. Or we might better return to embracing being “only Human”.
If we continue the destruction as separated individuals without sufficient cohesion, the species of “The Power and the Glory, that’s what you are” as Barry Long called the audience in Eindhoven, might become extinct in the Wild very soon. Being blunt, without a paying, friendly audience. Becoming a drop of water on a hot metal plate.
“And then I look around, and I realize: that is my self too”, Barry Long stated once. So I better be the first One Realized, before someone else declares to have realized the Center of the Universe. That would make me his self too, and I just knows what to do with self…
If “Let’s continue the destruction” leads to such a distance to one another, there sure is no hope for us. Shall we give up on the rat race to Heaven? It is so tiresome. Thank God I’m only Human.
Still here,
Bart Benus
It has been nearly five years since I made a contribution and I am stunned to read the contributiions.I did have to skim most of them.The critics have missed one vital point and that is that Barry said to NEVER BELIEVE anything he said but to test the truth of it in your own experience (or if you did not have sufficient experience to hear the ring of truth in it).He did his very best to avoid confusion and debate in the teaching by encouraging people to own it as their truth once they heard it.He was the most nonegotistical man I have ever met.I am not brainwashed.I look for the truth in my own experience.I did not receive the truth about man and woman and making love from any of my peers, parents and especially not the church.When I first heard the “Making Love ” tapes I felt an overwhelming sense of rightness and deep inner knowledge.My life, after some painful dying of my “self” righted itself and I know enduring harmony.Barry had to be straight and direct.He did not employ the soft style of other teachers as that was not him but he did manage to penetrate peoples problems very effectively.I know it does not matter what I say.The critics will keep coming as is their right in our world and neither Barry or those grateful for his teaching care anyway.It just amuses me that he predicted this very thing.After all look how all masters through history have been treated (alive or dead).They are simply ahead of their time and of course the metaphorical mob is always needed to crucify them …such is human nature. I will make this aside however.When I wrote to Barry ( my letter is piublished in “To Woman With Love”)I certainly did not get the comforting reply my “self” (as opposed to my being) would have liked but it was the truth and helped me far more than I even realised at the time.Similarily, when I was going through a difficult time he took the time to ring me in response to my letter.I am a very down to earth person.I am a teacher(school) and a woman and have no conflict between my outer and inner states.When Barry referred to woman not being a teacher he meant in the male projective fashion not as a general rule.The bottom line is that as I gave my life more to truth and love and less to emotionality and feeling my life improved.No one else had (or has ) anything like the truth he presented and it was always going to be unpalatable to the “self”The journey continues and everybody faces challenges.Barry never asked anyone to believe anything he said as he also said don’t make a god of me or worship me.I know I havent.If you don’t resonate with the truth he speaks then simply walk away from it.
Still no book of his biography as of today !!! will it ever come out as wished by BL ?
(I recently found a book written by a french men called Darpan on Amazon.fr and it is also very down to earth and straightforward – a great help for me at this period of my life ! what a lonely road !)
Hello to the editor 🙂
I’m not sure I have written correctly my email address in my last message – this is the right one al67@hotmail.ch and not .com ! Thank you for this blog ! – kind regards – Sylviane Bieri
It’s great to see so much discussion of Barry Long. I was with Barry for quite a while. Most of the comments are very positive, but for the negative ones I’d say: you are more than welcome to make these comments but are you looking for a human without faults? I don’t think this is a realistic search.
Barry claimed to be free of unhappiness, and in my experience I have no reason to doubt this.
He taught me a lot that was original, and still rings true after many years. The point is, what did *you* take away from his teaching? It didn’t work for you, fine, you want to point out what you believe to be his faults, fine, but don’t confuse this with the point, which is your own happiness.
Barry always asked people not to put him in the past and think of him, because thinking is the past. He was a teacher. He was not an angel. Go find one!
It took me a long time to get the rubbish out of my head given me by Barry Long and his followers. Now I can simply laugh at his ridiculous assertions, but not so much at the harm people like that cause.
As for the rest of you, try plugging your brains in for a minute, and give Barry’s nonsense the elbow.
you spoke like a scalpel and cut straight to the heart of the matter. No grey areas with you! when ever i drift its your calm brogue that pulls me back on course, the master on the sea of consciousness. i feel your sure hand in my life today. Of all the mighty blessings in my life you stand high. Thank you Barry.
I came to Barry’s teaching in my late teens, and knew with inexhaustible surety, through his clarity, that the truth is practical and livable. Now in my thirties my living continues to bring to me the circumstances necessary to awaken me to my various identifications / attachments.
I am blessed to have been gifted with the demonstration of a humble living master.
The teaching continues to work for the good in my life, the good of giving.
I love love and truth. And am grateful for the man called Barry who has showed me how to die, to go on going on, to become more simple.
What I got from Barry regarding his sex thing is basically shut up and make love. It’s not sex obssession , he sees sex as a pure way of clearing the mind and rubbish that can arise in partnerships. What I understood in my experience is the worship of bodies and not mind or personality is deep down all everyone wants, the other stuff we think we want is basically all bullshit and unhappiness in disguise. But this only works if the couple are on the same page and we all know that’s hard.
As for the personal comments about Barry , everyone should have asked him in person. If you have not done that then just chill out and forget about it.
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Love-Truth-Spiritual-Autobiography/dp/1899324194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369874477&sr=8-1&keywords=barry+long+autobiography
IT seems they have finally got around to publishing the autobioraphy.
Phew, just finished the first reading of the biography. As you would expect it is an excellent read, the story of one man’s search for truth with its profound insights and its very personal stories, loves and tragedies.
There are parts of the book that I can relate to intimately, both in his experiences and in his ongoing search for and living of the truth. He has had a profound influence on me over many years and his teaching felt direct and straight and deeply real.
There are chapters about his relationships to woman and to God which may appear fanciful and other worldly to some readers but I take him at his word and have no doubt that all he describes is true. Unlike many other spiritual teachers Barry was often disdainful of psychic phenomena and mystical experiences, he loved to see and describe things simply. It is interesting how in his posthumously published autobiography he then details a large number of mystical or other worldly experiences. Is it possible that during his life he couldn’t trust his students to discern the truth behind these experiences? Like many teachers before and since there is often a hesitancy to reveal the naked truth about the personality and character of the teacher for fear that the teaching will be compromised. This will remain an issue and stumbling block until a teacher comes along with even greater verve and humility.
It seems in the search for truth we explain and explore through symbols and myth as a means of trying to come to terms with a mystery within and without. How can life be explained? How can certain events and experiences be explored that have no basis in logic or rationality, without the need for myth and without symbols? He uses the symbol of God and Christ and notions of rebirth and they slip off his tongue in a manner that is real and deeply personal. Such symbols may resonate with me but how useful are they for younger, more worldly and modern man and woman? I suggest many young people will find them old fashioned and out of date. On reflection, and as the years have passed ,so his use of myth seems archaic and of its time and with too much basis in religious and spiritual symbolism. Why wasn’t he able to speak more simply? I suggest it is because he was confused about love.
He describes on many occasions how difficult it is to realise real liberation, freedom from the robotic and fearful mind, and how as an individual and as a teacher he uses severe methods to break both himself and others from the chains of the mind. The mind demands certainty and consistency whilst the place beyond the mind, the nothing place, has no link to our everyday mind. Because of our absolute separation from the real, from nothingness, we are bound to break into or required to break through into reality. Such breakdowns take us to the verge of madness and the Blessed John is the most recognisable example of this and Barry devotes some time to describing the events around the time when he,as the Master, became the student.
There is a profound logic to the book, each chapter exploring and explaining particular events and experiences that helped shape and mould the man and the teacher. Of course there are gaps and if he was here to speak, there would be the need to ask more and to question more deeply.
His love of woman is striking, it seems to make the man and to destroy the man, but it is also somewhat contradictory. He suggests that it is through his love of woman that he finds his love of God and his liberation. But he also leaves her, is left by her and remains deeply emotional and bound by her. Is he dependant on her? How far is his love for her, just another form of sentimentality? These are the doubts that Barry Longs teaching had on me and others with whom he so generously worked. It was Barry’s way to teach about love, with hindsight it is becoming clearer that love is no longer the simple answer he was hoping for.
For all his clarity and freedom, there is a sense that he is also a victim of love. Finally when his lover dies, Julia, he finds solace and peace with a recognition that she is within him, they are one, and there is no need for tears or grief. But in his life afterwards he went on to live and love other women and of course none of the events after 1982 are detailed in the book. His life was a continuing evolution towards a better understanding of life. How his relationships with woman evolved remains a mystery unless a further autobiography is planned.
Barry’s profound humility and his humanity are so striking. He doesn’t fake his enlightenment, there’s no holding back on his ignorance or mistakes. There’s no holding back his love of woman and his emotions. He reveals them all, with no guilt, and with absolute frankness. This makes him a real man, a real teacher and a real human being. And by real, I also mean rare and unique. He is humble in a way no saint or sage has ever revealed himself to be. That makes him a teacher of real compassion and of value.
found youre writing interesting and refreshingly deep I am a simple hairdresser but growing up as son of Julia and barry as my step father was truly a remarkable experience whowever through a man called john wimber after attendending a meeting in brighton in 1985 I had an encounter with the god of gods and the truth of all truths what you may call mythology in barrys use of words like Christ etc become to me to my utter amazement completely living realitys and the peace joy and love that came flooded my whole being causing my human body to shake ike electric love was pulsating through me for an hour after this I understood and as a tiny child in the eyes of the almighty am still following that spirit barry never could lead anyone further than he had been himself and many of his encounters came from a demonic spirit or spirits whoever I still have many wonderful memories of him and my beautiful mother who also had demonic encounters although I believe her love for god came through and touched his heart in the end maybe someone reading this may find it of intrest also I hope my use of words do not offend as they are not intended in any way as my spirit comes in truth with much love son of Julia long jonathan
Unofficial Barry Long tumblr blog posting quotes, pictures, videos and longer extracts from his books, audios and videos.
Barry Long Quotes
anyway barry life had a huge impact on me dare I say more than most as he had the power to change the course of every ones life that was close to my mother if anyone would like to no more about my life with barry growing up get in touch at times he had me crying with laughter as did my mother funniest moment was around the dinner table when Julia and barry were having a rather heated disagreement on the right way to eat spaghetti my mother was insisting to my brother mark and I that the only correct way that is by far the most dignified and quite frankly the only proper way was to rotate the fork around the spaggeti then place in youre mouth and suck up the remaining lengths into youre mouth until entire contents had gone barry however was insisting equally dogmaticly that Julia was wrong and the correct way was to take spaggetti in mouth and bite remains not on fork and let it drop to the plate anyway barry decided there was only one way to decide who was right and barry was now going to demonstrate so we could see for ourselves . so first of all barry to the fork filled with spaggetti up to his mouth and bit of remains as I watched intrigued by this my Julia almost shouted out at how discusting this was seeing all the remains dropping on the plate then barry talking somewhat quietly in an authorative way that he would now show us mothers method we all gazed completely mezmorized in utter silence as he began to tworle the spaggetti around his fork and without any warning slurped up huge amounts so fast and furiously that bolognaze sause was splattered all over us and behond at whitch point discussion had ended as Julia had got up in utter horror at which point an eruption of hysterical laughter proceeded from the depths of my being barry even over something so trivial become so fiersly competitive and would use any means to prove his point the dynamic of Julia was hilarious at times when mum would be outraged by something extreme he said and would make it known how wrong he was wich made it all quite real growing up in the house of barry long findest regards jonathan son of Julia long
So can you tell me Jonathan if Barry was as disciplined in his living outside the meetings?
hi Stephen I only new barry outside his meetings and I would have to say he was amazingly disciplined in his life and that’s one area I wish had rubbed off on me more , his pratical diligence in the mundane of life like going through every single item of a large weekly food shop with my mum ticking every item off like doing an important inventory he was an organized and hard working for sure is that what you meant by youre question
hi Stephen yes in a pratical way barry was extremely good at handling the mundane things of this world but making them important to get on in this world even a big food shop he would tick off every item at home as if it was an important inventory turning pratical into spiritual lessons wherever he could
Of course, how else could he talk out of practical living.