Landmark Education & ISKCON
Vaishnava Commentary – mayesvara dasa – April 1997
This article was originally written in 1997 after a wave of devotees attended the Landmark Forum because they felt the experience helped them go deeper into their application of Krishna Conscious principles. Since then I have had the opportunity to attend Dhira Govinda prabhu’s Satvatove introductory foundational program. I would be remiss here, to not point out to readers interested in Landmark that they should consider the service he is providing which can be found at this link: http://www.satvatove.com/
Landmark provides a powerful format to access aspects of our consciousness that tends to be eclipsed by our narcissistically persistent false ego. However, because Landmark is a commercially oriented organization, they follow a secular approach in order to reach the largest client potential. The Satvatove program also welcomes individuals from all backgrounds but the foundation of Dhira Govinda’s program firmly rests on Krishna Conscious principles.
Therefore, devotees who are interested in this type of personal growth introspection would probably find attending Satvatove courses more fulfilling, although Landmark does have a much wider international reach which makes their Forum more regionally accessible.
Why Are Devotees Attracted to Landmark Education?
Everyone would agree that speed-reading is an important skill that enhances one’s ability to become Krishna Consciousness yet speed-reading is not taught in Srila Prabhupada’s books. Neither is time management, how to improve one’s memory or how one can become more observant. Yet these skills are taught elsewhere and a devotee who has these talents will obviously be more adept at performing his service. The proper way to think of Landmark Education is to consider it a school that teaches one how to become more effective at what we are already committed to. It is not an alternative to serving Krishna, it is simply a crash course in how one can become more conscious. For one practicing Krishna Consciousness the opportunity to become more consciousness is an invitation to get closer to Krishna and that is an attractive proposition. We have to be conscious to be Krsna conscious!
The main reason why Srila Prabhupada succeeded in getting ISKCON off the ground was primarily because of his loving personality. Had he not charmed his audience right in the very beginning nobody would have been compelled to listen to what he had to say. When he first started lecturing there were few books but Srila Prabhupada was expert at relating to everyone so effectively he was able to enroll all he met into his vision for ISKCON. This illustrated two points. The first is that love seems to be more powerful than philosophy, although we know that both must be there to avoid the trap of sentimentalism. As it is often said, people don’t care what you know but if they know you care then that makes all the difference. The other is that success requires that we enroll others into our vision, that we are empathic to others. How to become more expert at practicing both of these skills is what a devotee can learn by attending such seminars.
The philosophy of Krishna Consciousness is so comprehensive there is a tendency for many devotees to practice it with a sterile philosophical attitude. One of the reasons why devotees are so interested in Landmark Education is because it helps them become more aware of how they can incorporate more love into their daily practice of Krishna Consciousness. This is not something that cannot be successfully communicated simply by speaking from the vyasasan. One must come down off the vyasasana and actually practice Krishna Consciousness shoulder to shoulder amid the association of the devotees. When we fail to practice what we preach and rely solely on our airtight philosophy we run the risk of becoming arrogant, impersonal and stonehearted. Personal growth programs such as Landmark helps a devotee really comprehend and appreciate that the nectar is in actually serving each other in meaningful ways that are timely and appropriate. The future of our movement depends on those of us who are willing to truly practice that concept and not just talk about it philosophically.
Srila Prabhupada taught over and over again that devotees should be very careful not to commit vaishnava aparadha. Everyone knows that this is a very serious offense and yet we see so many difficulties arise because devotees fail to follow this simple instruction. We were also taught by Lord Chaitanya to be humbler than the straw in the street, yet how many devotees actually act without expecting special treatment, service, or attention? The Gita teaches us that a devotee is peaceful, self-controlled and austere but how often do we forget to act that way? The point here is that knowledge by itself is not useful if it doesn’t produce the desired result. Forums like Landmark provides sincere devotees ways to help them follow these good instructions at the most critical moment when they need to remember and practice them. If gaining this improved sensitivity were the only thing devotees got from attending the Landmark Forum it would be worth it.
Spiritual & Material Knowledge
Srila Prabhupada wrote: “The perfect way of life gives all sorts of instructions in things both material and spiritual” SB. 1.18.45p
Thinking of Landmark Education as an alternative philosophy to KC is as much of a mistake as thinking of Steven Coveys Training (The Seven Habit’s of Highly Effective People) as an alternative philosophy to KC. Neither is a replacement or alternative to KC but both can teach us how to become more effective in practicing Krishna Consciousness.
Landmark Education does not claim to be teaching any new aged type of “Spirituality”. They make that distinction over and over again and it is rigorously held to. The process is strictly a dialectic inquiry about the mechanics of how the trappings of the material world affect us. Devotees refer to this process as being caught in the clutches of maya and to become more aware of how maya creeps into our lives is very illuminating. As Vaishnavas we also know that everything is under Krishna’s direction but we are accustomed to forget that truth. The way Landmark integrates the impact of our material conditioning onto our consciousness can be thought of informally as a type of “Sankhya Yoga” (sankhya the analytical study of the nature of spirit and matter.)
Any knowledge or tool can be used properly or improperly. When it is misused those who don’t want to acknowledge its value will point to the black sheep as a reason to reject the whole flock. Srila Prabhupada referred to this tendency as “Tossing the baby out with the bath water.” Within a six-month period in 1977 two devotees came to the 13 story Manhattan Radha Govinda temple and jumped off the roof of the building. The newspapers and deprogrammers had a field day with it and used those events to discredit everything Srila Prabhupada gave us. There may be a few individuals who will inevitably misuse Landmark Education in some way for personal reasons that may indeed be dishonorable and inappropriate. The tendency for this to happen will be there with everything and we should be careful not to judge the potential of the institution based on the shortcomings of a few misguided individuals.
Utility Is the Principle
“…a person in Krishna Consciousness knows how to use everything in the service of the Lord;” – BG 2-63 Purport
Srila Prabhupada taught that a devotee should accept those things that are favorable and reject those things that are unfavorable. Some may say that Landmark Education is unfavorable and should therefore be rejected. But is this evident by the facts or it just a fanatical or conditioned way of thinking? Unless there are specific examples of how Landmark has had a negative impact on the consciousness of a devotee this type of blanket condemnation is not helpful or constructive. It only polarizes the community and makes those who have prospered from the experience feel wrong about something that enhanced their Krishna Consciousness.
Landmark Education has become such a fast-growing company in the field of corporate training, the Harvard Business School spent two years studying it. The result is a published case study outlining the highlights of its unusual success in turning inefficient, dysfunctional businesses around.
Some have compared Landmark Education to the personality oriented “Lazereth Fad”, several years ago. It should be noted that Landmark is not dependent on a charismatic personality anymore than Harvard University is dependent on a charismatic chancellor. Meaningful education retains its value long after the teacher has departed.
Landmark has offices all over the world and has been asked to provide corporate training for major multi-million dollar companies like Reebok Foot-ware, Magma Copper Mining, UNUM Insurance, and Northern Indiana Power Service Company to name a few. In all cases productivity went up and costs went down. The results are too impressive for a rational person to simply discard. The benefits ISKCON could gain by adopting some of Landmarks management techniques are real if we are willing to accept help from outside sources.
Just like a microscope is a tool that aids the eye in seeing harmful bacterial, Landmark Education offers tools that helps one see the things which infects our consciousness. Landmark shows us where our own tool kit is for dismantling the crippled type of thinking that keeps us from becoming the powerful representatives of Krishna that we are all meant to be.
The principle of using everything in the service of Krishna is actually the crown jewel of our philosophy. We should be careful not to become like the Christians who stand behind their Bible and criticize everything they don’t understand and are unwilling to learn about. They insist on telling the world how spiritual they are, while they simultaneously slaughter millions of innocent animals. Then they wonder why their congregation disintegrates right out from underneath them.
Landmark and the Sankirtana Movement
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Landmark Education splits the material and spiritual phenomena into two completely separate areas of study. They acknowledge their inability to address those things beyond the physically observable and therefore make no attempt to discuss things like spirituality. Their expertise is in observing how people have become entrapped and conditioned by the mechanics of the material world and they do that very well. But because they only address one half of the whole, the other half is left wide open for us to slip Krishna Consciousness right in. What most devotees notice is that people who are willing to take a rigorous look at how they have been sucked into the illusion of the material world are also very inclined to seek out a rigorous philosophical approach towards religion. That’s where the devotees step in to complete the process of examination that Landmark Education has so nicely started for us. Krishna Consciousness is the next logical step because it integrates the philosophy Landmark postulates about the material world so well with the absolute truth Srila Prabhupada gave us about the Spiritual world.
Everything Is In Srila Prabhupada’ Books
Although it is a common fallacy to think that leadership is a natural born characteristic one is blessed with at birth, numerous studies have shown that this just simply is not true. Good leadership skills have been identified and can be successfully taught which is why college graduates with MBA degrees command higher salaries than normal undergraduates get. What does seem to be true is that those who fell into leadership positions by dint of anything other than good leadership training are usually the most resistant to accepting this well established fact. They are also the most likely ones to try and sabotage any attempts to provide leadership training. The devotees of Krishna must be careful not to use the time worn emotionally packed argument that: “Everything we need to know is available in Srila Prabhupada’s books and we need not look elsewhere for anything else”, as an excuse for academic laziness. The devotees of Krishna should become as vigilant about managing and distributing Krishna Consciousness as McDonnalds is about selling hamburgers. How can we ever expect to serve 10 billion BBT books worldwide if we aren’t willing to become as trained as the corporate executives at McDonnalds? This type of training begins with institutions like Landmark Education.
Not everyone is willing or capable of practicing the austerities required to become expert in a particular field of knowledge. The student must be willing to submit to the instructions of the teacher and make many sacrifices if the desired skill is to be gained. In the case of Landmark Education a devotee must be truly willing to look at his own personal shortcomings. They help us with recognising and pulling the weeds in our hearts. This requires real humility and not everyone is comfortable admitting publicly his or her shortcomings.
The potency of Krishna Consciousness is so strong it’s very easy for us to start thinking that we already know it all. This is not only a very dangerous way of thinking but it is often perceived as arrogance and when people think of devotees like that we are offending Srila Prabhupada.
Landmark identifies the distinction between what is known and what is not known. It is similar to the Jarhari Window used in traditional behavioral sciences to help one become more conscious of the different fields of knowledge. This is diagramed below.
The Jahari Window Of What is Known
* Landmark Education provides tools for discovering the two unknow quadrants of the Jahari Window. They offer ways for learning more about what others know about us but aren’t inclined to share with us, as well as discovering more about what we don’t know we don’t know. Growing in these areas first requires that we acknowledge that there is a value in knowing more about them and then a williness to step out of our comfort zone to attain it. Devotees are familiar with the concept in what we refer to as surrendering. As easy as it may sound those who are enamored by their own intellectual prowless are often so entangled in trying to think their way through everything they are incapable of benefiting from a process that initially sounds like a lot of word juggling mumbo-jumbo.
To teach that one need only read Srila Prabhupada’s books is not a guarantee of anything. This is actually good because it also means one who can not read at all, is also not incapable of becoming Krishna Consious. Our success is based on developing a consciousness of wanting to serve Krishna in any condition or capacity. That is how we should undertake anything we set out to learn. If a devotee approaches Landmark Forum as an excuse for not beng a devotee then that is the result which can be expected. But that outcome is inevitable sooner or later in one form or another with a person of that consciousness. But if one is clear about the purpose of life then attending forums like Landmark Education would be to his Krishna Consciousness benefit, like jet fuel would be to a lawn mower.
We are taught not to preach the glories of the holy name to the faithless and that milk touched by the lips of a serpent has poisonous effects. So to conclude that one need only read Srila Prabhupad’s books in order to become Krishna Consciousss may be true in one context but simply a cop out when considered in a different context. This is like saying that Krishna will always protect his devotee and therefore a devotee can lie down on the freeway without fear of bodily injury. It is true that Krishna does protect his devotee but to act irresponsibliy carries it’s own consequences. We are not fanatics. We teach the principal of dovetailing.
Landmark Education teaches how we can put our past in the past where it belongs. What’s wrong with doing that? Isn’t that what we are teaching in Krishna Consciousness? We say we unplug the fan of materialistic thinking when we take to Krishna Consciousness and start to replace our karmic conditioning with suddha-satva behavior. As long as we continue to allow our previous way of thinking to infect our soul we are not clear for becoming fully Krishna Conscious. Srila Prabhupada liked the idea of having the brain washed clean of silly mundane thoughts. Landmark has an effective way of assisting individuals in the process of letting go of past mistakes, regrets, hurt, pain, disappointments, emotional scars and difficulties. This is very releaving for devotees who have been mistreated and it empowers them to move into a stage of forgiveness and cooperation.
Good management understands that the nature of the world is that it is always changing. Those who will survive in the future are the ones who are able to adjust to outside changes without compromising their own mission or purpose. Close examination reveals that Srila Prabhupada was expert at knowing how to make necessary adjustments in establishing Krishna Consciousness without loosing the essence of it. One could argue that Srila Prabhupada would never consent to allowing the devotees attend a Landmark Education seminar but that is the type of thing someone who is intimidated by the unknown might say. If Srila Prabhupada were still here our whole society would be different in so many ways it’s impossible for any of us to comprehend what things would be like. The fact is he is not physically present here in the same way and devotees are attending Landmark programs. That is the reality that ISKCON managers must deal with today. How they choose to do so has the potential to divide our movement further or bring us together in deeper ways than we have ever bonded before.
In 1980 the Smithstonian Institute granted ISKCON $1,000,000 to fund the Matsy project in India. In 1981 they renewed the grant and doubled the funding. The only reason why this ever happened was because Varutapa Prabhu made the commitment to attend a six month class at UCLA to study how to write a grant proposal. He underwent the austerity of attending classes and studying many “OTHER” books. The simple fact of the matter is that the process of applying for a grant is not taught in Srila Prabhupada’s books. Had Varutappa adhered to this rigid cliché the grant would have never been won and project Matsya would have never happened. This is just one of many examples of how an intelligent devotee can utilize everything in the service of Krishna. It’s hard to image how our movement could prosper if we were more willing to get properly trained in other mundane fields like Law, Accounting, Management, Fundraising, Public Relations, Advertising, Strategic Planning, City Planning and International trade just to name a few.
Open the Bottle and Taste the Honey before You Condemn.
Management can solve problems by passively relying on Krishna just like we have done for many years in the past or it can try a different approach. An alternative method would be to face the problem knowing that Krishna will reveal the best solution if a wise and informed decision is made. That would require more effort than the passive approach and a willingness to understand what experts would suggest. If professionals trained in behavioral sciences were asked how to cope with the situation they might very well recommend that those who are most concerned about the possibility of Landmark disrupting ISKCON activities should attend the seminar themselves. By doing so, they would have first hand experience of the Forum which would be the best way to identify their real nemesis or have all their concerns evaporate. They could then speak about the Landmark Forum from a truly knowledgeable position which always commands greater respect then hearsay. The alternative would be to approach it politically and run the risk of making things worse by sounding unreasonable, fearful, dogmatic, or personally motivated.
Honey can only be appreciated when it is tasted. Discussing it and arguing about what it might taste like is similar to just licking the bottle. The only way ISKCON management will ever really understand what the Landmark Forum is all about is if they participate in it. Until then they must be careful not to make the mistake of creating a problem where one doesn’t already exist. It seems to me that there are far more serious issues jeopardizing the sovereignty of our movement at this time than a few business seminars. If the whole thing were considered in a different light one might consider the possibility of our sankirtan devotees becoming twice as effective if they were sent to Landmark Education.
mayesvara dasa ACBSP
AKA: William Roberts MBA/MIS, CCP
Director: American Vedic Association
Proprietor: Jagannatha Enterprises
687 West Villanova Road
Ojai, California 93023
(805) 640-0405 mdjagdasa @ gmail.com