Word: asahara
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Before al-Qaeda, before the anthrax scare, there was Aum Shinrikyo. The mysterious cult, based on distortions of the tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism, attracted tens of thousands of followers in Japan and around the world. Asahara, its founder, was an intelligent misfit who claimed he could levitate himself and who appeared regularly on the TV talk-show circuit. Then, on a sunny March morning in 1995, followers of the doomsday cult, in an apparent attempt to create mayhem and distract police investigating their secretive chemical-manufacturing operation, quietly used the tips of umbrellas to puncture plastic bags filled with...
...Shoko Asahara shuffles, handcuffed, into a Tokyo courtroom. His hair, once wild and frizzy, is now cut short. Accused of masterminding the poisoning of Tokyo's subway system with the deadly nerve gas sarin seven years ago, Asahara, 47, has spent the past seven years stewing in a jail cell. In court, he bobs his head up and down, looking tired and confused. He scrunches up his face and occasionally emits a grunt. Every move he makes is closely watched by his disciples, wide-eyed men and women who flock to the courtroom because it's the only chance they...
Fast-forward to the present, to an era when terrorism is a global nightmare. Surprisingly, Aum lives on. True, many members quit after the atrocity, which led to the arrest and prosecution of Asahara and 18 others. But hundreds more (1,186 according to the group; hundreds more than that, according to police who watch them) stuck with it. And additional cults are springing up, offering refuge to disillusioned youth in a Japan that, owing to a pervasive sense of economic doom, is searching for its soul. By one government estimate, there are more than 10,000 "new religions...
...Asahara's group, which in 2000 changed its name from Aum Shinrikyo ("Supreme Truth") to Aleph (the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet), endures because its most loyal followers can't let go of their devotion to Asahara and his teachings. It has seven main facilities throughout Japan and 20 smaller branches where members can practice meditation. The Public Security Investigation Agency assigns about 50 agents to keep tabs on Aleph. Investigators say it organizes yoga classes, computer seminars and clubs on university campuses--activities that don't at first reveal the nature of the religion--to attract unsuspecting recruits...
...make sure my cup of tea was full, the famously accessible doctor of metaphysics talked with full-bodied candor, for day after day, about his death, the increasingly public divisions within the Tibetan community and the new pressures of his spotlighted life. Accepting donations from Shoko Asahara, the head of the Aum Shinrikyo group in Japan that later allegedly planted deadly sarin gas in the subways of Tokyo, was, he says frankly, "a mistake. Due to ignorance. So this proves"--a mischievous gleam escapes--"I'm not a living Buddha!" He'd love to delegate some responsibilities to his deputies...