Cartoon NKT Survivor Experiences
There is a series of cartoons from a former NKT nun which are well made and shed light on life within the New Kadampa Tradition / Kadampa Buddhism.
It makes me very sad to watch them.
I can highly recommend these clips. Presently one can watch:
- Survivor
- Can You Afford To Stay In Your Own Room
- Spread the Dharma
- Punished For Being Human
- Purification
- Lojong Teachings
- Karma
- Disrobing
- Suffer More
- Dear Geshe-la
NEW: The former NKT nun created now her own website: http://www.xtranormalbuddhist.co.uk/
Last Update: 09 Jan 2012
Advertisement
Like this:
One blogger likes this post.
Quite a damning indictment of the NKT by someone who obviously had firsthand knowledge of how it operates. They’re all very effective. The one titled Purification is exceptional in showing how an understanding of the Dharma can be used by those in power as a weapon against students who have literally put themselves in their hands. Monstrous and shameful.
comityoferrors
November 4, 2011 at 2:21 pm
Recently someone who was in my FP class six years or so ago died of a very agressive cancer. I had already decided not to go to her funeral as I didn’t know her all that well. Then I found out that there was to be a large NKT presence there including my second RT. My reaction had all the hallmarks of post traumatic stress, even though I didn’t actually attend! An ex-NKT friend who did attend had an even bigger stress reaction afterwards.
These videos show very well things that happen day to day in NKT centres, especially to the ordained. And also how it feels to have made the commitment of getting ordained and then to disrobe when it becomes clear what NKT is really about. And you can’t really talk about it to anyone, as there is no common ground on which to base discussion and comparison.
Being a cult survivor is a lonely business, and I am greatful I have several ex-NKT friends around, though no one who acually took ordination.
It’s also difficult to make ex-NKT friendships healthy ones, and that can be hard to understand and work with too – no point ranting about the cult, but a real need to support, validate and explore each other’s experiences and processes. I don’t think we ever “get over it”, not when we’ve made that heartfelt commitment to the cult and then been so severely let down. You lose trust in both organisations and yourself.
I hope the person who made these videos is finding support and friendship back in the general morass of samsara! And let’s hope all ex-NKT find healthy ways that suit us individually, to find our way out of the morass.
Perhaps the hardest thing for me now is I know the unsatisfactoryness of samsara, but I don’t know what to do about it, who can be trusted and how to practice on my own if I can’t trust.
lifegoeson
November 24, 2011 at 6:42 pm