It has been clearly seen that some of the teaching « methods » used by JS give more information about his character than about quality teaching methods of Vedanta. Those people who stumble on the Shiningworld website have usually only vague ideas about Vedanta and/or have been conditioned by other teachers and methodologies found in the modern spiritual supermarket. If you were never taught properly Vedanta or are not well-versed in its age-old tradition, you will find what you discover on this website extraordinary at first, until your critical radar picks up things that don’t ring true.
It takes a while, especially if you are on your own with no support of a forum like this one or if your critical thinking has been already severely eroded by your time with other questionable gurus.
Another issue mentioned by zizl : “because it can also be admirable qualities like loyalty and gratefulness that compel his students not to believe the allegations.” Indeed, that is what happens inevitably, even more so for those who have been appointed teachers by JS. It binds those mostly good and good-intentioned people to him in a subtle way which will be extremely hard to break, unless you are kicked out by him - a blessing in disguise. Otherwise loyalty and gratitude will keep them bound to him for better or worse, as well as for those who embark on that same spiritual boat.
Others leave the Shiningworld community because they did have issues with Vedanta as taught or transmitted by JS, but they won’t go public about it, so they just disappear and go their own way out of an attitude that discussing the matter with him would not bring anything good, which can amount to throwing the baby with the water, which is a shame because if the teaching had been done properly, they could have discussed their doubts openly and view Advaita Vedanta very differently. But that it is the way of things; each attracts whatever is meant for them to experience.
Finally to add to the entanglement of the situation, I wonder how someone whose first encounter with Vedanta is Shiningworld cannot but feel bound from the start when he hears that he has to pay a “donation which is not voluntary”! What a strange way to introduce a student to a teaching supposedly meant to take you to real Freedom! Only a qualified enlightened teacher would know that this creates a subtle bond that obscures slightly the mind of a new seeker, even more directly when made feel guilty by the teacher telling publicly in a group that some have not donated enough (according to JS’s opinion & expectation, such that should never exist in the mind of a qualified Vedanta teacher) all the more so when the teaching had not yet been completed!
Caution is really the order of the day, as has been said over and over again on this thread!
It takes a while, especially if you are on your own with no support of a forum like this one or if your critical thinking has been already severely eroded by your time with other questionable gurus.
Another issue mentioned by zizl : “because it can also be admirable qualities like loyalty and gratefulness that compel his students not to believe the allegations.” Indeed, that is what happens inevitably, even more so for those who have been appointed teachers by JS. It binds those mostly good and good-intentioned people to him in a subtle way which will be extremely hard to break, unless you are kicked out by him - a blessing in disguise. Otherwise loyalty and gratitude will keep them bound to him for better or worse, as well as for those who embark on that same spiritual boat.
Others leave the Shiningworld community because they did have issues with Vedanta as taught or transmitted by JS, but they won’t go public about it, so they just disappear and go their own way out of an attitude that discussing the matter with him would not bring anything good, which can amount to throwing the baby with the water, which is a shame because if the teaching had been done properly, they could have discussed their doubts openly and view Advaita Vedanta very differently. But that it is the way of things; each attracts whatever is meant for them to experience.
Finally to add to the entanglement of the situation, I wonder how someone whose first encounter with Vedanta is Shiningworld cannot but feel bound from the start when he hears that he has to pay a “donation which is not voluntary”! What a strange way to introduce a student to a teaching supposedly meant to take you to real Freedom! Only a qualified enlightened teacher would know that this creates a subtle bond that obscures slightly the mind of a new seeker, even more directly when made feel guilty by the teacher telling publicly in a group that some have not donated enough (according to JS’s opinion & expectation, such that should never exist in the mind of a qualified Vedanta teacher) all the more so when the teaching had not yet been completed!
Caution is really the order of the day, as has been said over and over again on this thread!