Introduction and Kymberlee Ruff

[Odelle]

I'm a white American woman who is currently struggling through an advanced degree in linguistics. I've never participated in any kind of on-line group like this before, so you folks may have to bear with me on some stuff. 

I first encountered NAFPS a couple of years ago after hearing a friend talk about a shaman training camp at Burning Man that he attended and the idea of such a thing just sounded like bs to me. To be honest, I found a lot of the information on this site weirdly compelling. I've spent time around people with New Age interests and have seen how sometimes teachings and attitudes in the New Age border on racist and just general exploitative, but people rarely get called out on it. See these attitudes and some of the more blatant exploiters of those attitudes get called out on this site is like scratching an itch, sometimes.  In my field work (I do descriptive linguistics), I also sometimes across the same sort of thing and over time I've changed how I feel about this. People can't help being ignorant. I know I am ignorant of a lot of things and as someone who spends a lot of time moving around in places and communities that aren't my homeland, I make lots of mistakes. Almost certainly, I probably am aware of only a few of them. I can only change when I'm aware of a particular mistake. So the question is, how do you help people be aware of their mistakes? I rarely have the courage to point it out when I think someone is expressing a racist viewpoint, because I don't know how to do it in such a way that a) I don't anger the person, b) they actually see my point and don't just think I'm being a PC thug.

I now want to talk about the specific reason I decided to join. It may not be appropriate for this forum, however? Please let me know if I'm posting in the wrong place or whatever.


A couple of days ago, I encountered this page by Kymberlee Ruff on the Hopi-Tibetan Prophecy: http://0163efd.netsolhost.com/hopi_tibetan/2012/033112.html

She's just basically babbling, but it's about how she found a stone in Zuni that a "Zuni elder" knew he should show her, and then her son "who can read some Tibetan", recognized it as having om mani padme hum written on it, and so she showed it to a prominent Buddhist teacher and he said a bunch of stuff, but basically the take home message is Kymberlee Ruff is the mouthpiece of Tibetans (because they are a hivemind, apparently, and all think as one. Also, in spite of what the rather sizable industry of books, videos and recordings of Buddhist teachings given in English may have you believe, they need help talking to the West), she's a prophecy-holder (Real Indians told her so! And her son reads Tibetan, so it's legit!) and what not. I've read about her on this site and just found her sort of innocuous (there are lots and lots of Americans who think that Tibetans are a magical fairy people who need to be saved by the West), if irritating, but the use of the Tibetan Buddhism teacher's name really bothered me. I'd like to know if I should do something about this and, if so, what?

For starters, I don't know this Rinpoche, so it is *possible* that he said what she says he said. I highly doubt it. For one, Rinpoche is highly respected and very well-educated so if she showed him the rock she has pictured on the site, I think he might be able recognize roughly where it came from based on the writing style. I think someone with a litle knowledge in this area might know that it is from Dunhuang or wherever, if it is old. The rock doesn't say anything that millions of mani stones over in Asia don't say. It is a blessing, not a prophecy and certainly not mysterious or secret, although some people believe that mani stones manifest naturally, without being carved by humans. Which just makes this more special than an ordinary stone, but unremarkable compared with literally millions of such stones all over the Himalayan region. It's possible, however, that I'm overestimating how easy it is to identify these stones and Rinpoche believes her (it's also possible that someone really did find this stone in New Mexico. There are Tibetan Buddhist monasteries there and almost certainly some of them have mani piles.).

Another possibility is that Rinpoche did not believe her, but still said what she says he said for whatever reason, such as to comfort her or for some other purpose.

The most likely possibility I think is that she heard about this Rinpoche fellow (he has followers in New Mexico, and has lectured there, I think) and decided to throw his name into her story to bolster her claim to having some sort of magical connection with Tibetan Buddhist wisdom. In that case, I feel like she's using Rinpoche's name in a way that is bad and she shouldn't do it.

But I don't know that Rinpoche or his organization care. I'm not sure what to do? Should I contact his organization? Should I contact Russ?

[Epiphany]

Welcome, and here is a thread on Kymberlee Ruff: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3574.0

[Odelle]

Thanks for that. Wow! She's making a lot of strange claims.  So she has used both Rinpoches' names a couple of times at least. I bet she probably is a student, but I also bet they are unaware that she is using their names together to bolster her own claims to be a teacher. I was reading up on some of the Chief Lookinghorse impersonators and it sounds like people on this network let him know when other people make claims about him, so I think I will probably just present an anonymous tip to them with the link to the forum on her.

Thanks.  I'll report back if I hear anything.

[Pono Aloha]

Dear Odelle, Welcome to the forum. I have in the past contacted Hawaiian elders who I know, whose names are being used by people in a manner I was pretty sure the elders did not approve. In every case, the elders did not necessarily know that the particular person was using their name, but they were aware of many others. Occasionally they have asked me to ask the person to stop, but usually they just laugh and say never mind. When I have talked to some of these users, most of the time they argue that they have the right to use the name, and so I gave up. Once, though, a man did stop using the elder's name on his website. I do feel it is worthwhile to tell the elders or teachers about these situations. I feel sometimes the elders are ignorant about what goes on in cyberspace and we have a responsibility to inform them. What they choose to do is up to them. Some of the younger ones are starting to fight back. In my opinion, that's a good thing.

[Odelle]

Thanks for that, Pono Aloha.

I wrote an email to the center today.  I think that Ruff just uses this person's name to bolster her own appearance of authenticity and doesn't actually represent herself to students as part of the center, but I'm concerned that people looking for information on Tulku Ogyen Phuntsok or the center he works with might end up going to her, instead.

I think it's possible that the center and the Rinpoche don't really care what this woman is doing. They may already know all about her. I'll post if I get a reply from them.

Tibetan Buddhism is probably one of the biggest topics of religious books in English today and there are so many centers and teachers, Tibetan and of other ethnic backgrounds. I really would've thought that so much of the misinformation about the religion and the people would have dissipated, but I guess there is something too attractive about the stereotype of the mystical Eastern religion and the magical people that live on top of the world for it to die.

[Epiphany]

...I guess there is something too attractive about the stereotype of the mystical Eastern religion and the magical people that live on top of the world

Well said, Odelle, so many people oppressively romanticize cultures that are not their own. I think it is like being addicted to delusions, they refuse to give up their supply. And they resist factual, respectful information with all their might.

So it is up to those addicted to delusions to dry themselves out, and then hopefully lend a helping hand to help others step out of the clouds of delusion.