Friday, December 4, 2009

FOR THOSE RESEARCHING MY LIFE:

Publications:

Masters Thesis and Ph.D. dissertation (Sierra University, Costa Mesa CA 1985-87):

Academic and other publications:
Journal of Humanistic Psychology

Philosophical Quarterly:

Yoga Journal:

Inner Directions:
Downloadable booklet on self-inquiry and self knowledge:


http://itisnotreal.com/Self-Knowledge%20&%20Liberation-Dialogues.pdf

The following is an article in Korean in Pulgyo Shinmun, newsletter of the Korean Chogye Zen order, of my appointment as the first American World Teacher of Chogye Zen Buddhism in 1997 or 1998.

Were I to characterize myself, I would state I am an animal activist and spiritual teacher living in the Phoenix area, interested in all animal issues related to the Los Angeles area, but especially those related to cats, the performance and policies of the area animal shelters, and the local laws and policies regarding animals. I am especially interested in feral cat laws and how shelters are dealing with stray and feral cats, as well as rectifying the lack of knowledge of urban cat population dynamics.
Currently, I edit psychological evaluation reports and rebuttals and conduct research into forensic psychiatry. My animal blog is at: http://laanimalwatch.blogspot.com and spiritual website at: http://itisnotreal.com and http://wearesentience.com, sites dedicated to Robert Adams, my teacher.
BACKGROUND: I received a BA in philosophy from Case Western Reserve University and also completed coursework for a Masters in Public Management there also. I moved to Detroit where I spent two years as a Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Economics at Wayne State University. 

Finding academics totally pointless, I dropped out of academia, initially studying Zen in New York with Phillip Kapleau, then traveling to Mt. Baldy Zen Center to Study Zen with Sasaki Roshi. In 1971 I became a Buddhist monk at the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles under Dr. Thich Thien-An. There I studied under several Zen Masters including Maezumi Roshi and the famous Korean master, Seung Sahn Soen Sa. I taught psychology and Zen at the College of Oriental Studies, and at four of the University of California Extensions (UCLA, UCSD, UC Irvine and UCSB) from 1975 until 1983. While studying and teaching Zen, I also worked as a mid level administrator at UCLA from 1975 to 1982, as the administrator for UCLA's Clinical Neutron Therapy Program.
I returned to school in 1985 at Sierra University, a state authorized and approved graduate school in psychology (see below), and earned a doctorate in 1987, and became a registered psychological assistant in the state of California. I have worked in this field ever since, performing psychological evaluations, writing evaluation reports, and finally, editing and forensic research. My Masters Thesis and Dissertation can be found on the http://wearesentience.com website with links provide above. Sierra University went out of business several years ago along with dozens of specialty graduate schools in the 1990s.

In 1998 I went to Korea to visit Seung Sahn Soen Sa and other masters as the guest of a Chogye Zen abbot in Los Angeles. I was ordained as the first American World Teacher of Chogye Buddhism, which authorized me to establish a separate American branch of Chogye Zen.

Sierra University operated all through the 1980's and early 1990s in California. At the time, the state had a "three tier" system for graduate schools. At the lowest level, "Authorized," schools were allowed to operate after sending in an application with an affadavit attesting to their resources in 13 specific areas, and that they had at least $50,000 in assets dedicated to the school. The second level was "Approved." At that time, California approved individual degree programs within schools, rather than whole schools. So, you could have a school with most of its programs Authorized, yet have one or more programs Approved. The third category was "Accredited," meaning the school was accredited by a USDOE-recognized agency. Sierra University's degree programs were all Approved. Sierra went out of business sometime during the early 1990s, as did many small graduate schools of psychology in California. According to the California Dept. of Education, the keeper of records for the defunct Sierra, is the San Diego University for Integrative Studies, 3900 Harney Street, Suite 210 San Diego, CA 92110.

You have to realize, nothing I did prior to 1995 makes any difference to me. That is the year of my awakening under my guru, Robert Adams. Nothing I am now has anything to do with my education, previous writings or worldy attainments. They are irrelevant. What I am now is the present.

(CYBERSTALKING STORY: In December of 2005, Mayor Villaraigosa appointed Ed Boks as the new General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services. Almost immediately he was attacked by an online reporter Annette Stark, who wrote several negative columns about him.

I interviewed him and thought him honest and capable, and stepped in to defend him against the reporter and her attorney friend. I worked with Ed Boks and another woman, Mary Cummins, to defend the quality of his work and show that the reporter's fact finding was shoddy, leading to totally wrong conclusions.

From a CityBeat article:

Regardless, Boks has garnered substantial support with the rescue and humane community. He has many supporters who feel certain Boks's heart is in the right place. "I have been receiving positive letter after letter about Boks from all over the country, including from a supervisor in Maricopa as well as volunteers and employees from NYC," explains supporter Edward Muzika. "They all say [Boks] made a big difference and lifted morale. There are some positive ones from around here too, such as from the Harbor shelter."

I also wrote a letter to the editor of CityBeat--an online magazine--singing Ed Boks' praises. In it, I identified myself as a psychologist, because I had been functioning in such a role for about 19 years as a psychological assistant. What separated me from becoming a psychologist was taking a rather lengthy state test which I had no interest in taking, and I found psychology to be rather boring anyway. The test usually requires about 6 months or preparation, and I just wasn't interested enough. My employment did not require that I take or pass the test and my spiritual teacher, Robert Adams, told me not to bother, and to instead spend the time with him. This was all I needed to drop the idea altogether.

However, I had performed all the functions of a psychologist under others' licenses: psychotherapy, psychological evaluations, report writing, report editing, psychological research, administering, scoring and interpreting psychodiagnostic testing, writing rebuttals of defense psychiatrists, and training historians. I had never advertised as being a psychologist.

This reporter then turned her ire on Mary Cummins and I because we pointed out the inaccuracies incredibly poor investigations this reporter had done. She felt humiliated when her inaccuracies and illogic were publicly pointed out, and she began cyberstalking Mary and I. She reported me to the CA Psychological Board as having represented myself as a "psychologist" in my letter to CityBeat, rather than as a "psychological assistant." The distinction never crossed my mind since I was not advertising to take on clients in private practice, but I was practicing psychology and had done so for almost 2 decades.

Unfortunately, I found out I had been wrong about Ed Boks. He turned out to be a very poor manager of Animal Services and the death rate for animals remained unchanged during his second and third year in Los Angeles. After 2006, my own blog reports became very critical concerning his and LAAS' performance regarding saving animals lives.

However, this reporter and her attorney friend have gone to great lengths to defame me and others who had been involved in the defense of Ed Boks. All over the Internet one can find lies about me, such as an accusation that I was "Ed Reed" because the my wife was named Reed and who also was a CA state registered psychologist. Another lie was that Ed Boks and I used the same laptop computer because the IP of Boks' blog and my blog were the same, namely that of Google's blogger IP. She again felt humiliated that we pointed out that all blogs had the same IP address if they were hosted on Google Blogspot. She then threatened to sue me for defamation and libel.

Really, the only "proof" she had that I was Ed Reed was that I was living with a Kerima Reed, having the same last name as Ed Reed, who was a psychologist. The reporter apparently did not see any contradiction in claiming I was a registered psychologist, Ed Reed, who apparently had some sort of criminal record according to them, but at the same time, I was also Ed Muzika, who was a state-registered psychological assistant who was, they said, claiming to be a psychologist. This reporter never said what sort of crimes Ed Reed was allegedly involved in.

This reporter also claims that a website featuring Robert Adams teaching was mine, and it was hosted on some foreign web hosting service that was also involved in some sort of criminal activities. However, I have never been part of any website that hosted Robert's teachings, other than my own. However, because of repeated threats of lawsuits by Nicole Adam's attorneys, I have had had nothing of Robert's talks on my own sites for well over five years.


These cyberstalking websites never provide ANY PROOF OF ANY OF THEIR ACCUSATIONS. THEY JUST MADE IT ALL UP.

For those who want the true information about me, I put up this blog. It will come down once the untruths come down. Currently my sole remaining interests are animal activism, and guiding a few students interested in self-realization and self-discovery.

You can see many 2006 and 2007 posts in http://laanimalwatch.blogspot.com wherein I reply with truth to the cyberstalkers' lies.)
In the late 1990s I was a Commissioner on the City of Santa Monica's Senior Services Commission, and prior to that a community activist.  

Part of what got me into that field and on the Commission was my activism in preventing a Santa Monica prime real estate, Montana Blvd. retirement home being sold out from under the many elderly and disabled residents.  I testified before city council on the psychological damages that could be experienced by the residents forced to vacate and relocate. Council voted against the sale.

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