The West must unite to resist Chinese bullying against those who meet Tibet’s leaders

The following quote is an article by Edward Lucas, International Editor of The Economist, that was originally published online by European Voice.

The Tibet season has opened again, with a dire warning to the British government that Prime Minister David Cameron’s temerity in meeting the Dalai Lama last year had blighted relations. Only an apology can mend matters. The communist authorities in Beijing like to think that they can boss other countries around on this score. When Nicolas Sarkozy, then French president, met the Tibetan leader in 2009, France was forced to issue a humble joint statement implying that it would do no such thing again. In 2007, after Germany’s Angela Merkel met the Dalai Lama, Germany did the same.

These are tough times for Tibetans, not just because of their despair at occupation of their homeland, but because of Western pusillanimity. Under the last Labour government, Britain (for no good reason) dropped its position of recognising only Chinese “suzerainty” over Tibet, not de jure rule. Now Cameron is being asked to kow-tow if he wants to restore Chinese trade and investment. Estonia, where President Toomas Hendrick Ilves commendably met the Dalai Lama in 2011, has had the same icy treatment.

Chinese bullying is working. It is ever-harder for Tibetan leaders to get meetings when they travel in Europe and the United States (though the country’s émigré political leader, Lobsang Sangay, did have a reasonably successful trip to Washington DC this month).

This is a test of European and transatlantic political will. If Europe and the US adopted a common position (something on the lines of ‘we will meet with anyone we choose to, regardless of diplomatic bluster’), then the Chinese protests would be fireworks not cannons. China can afford to pick off individual countries, punishing them with a ban on high-level meetings and visits, or even trade and investment sanctions. But it cannot do that to the entire West.

The burden of responsibility and solidarity lies particularly heavily on the countries that have living memories of communist rule and foreign occupation. The Tibetan flag is banned by the Chinese authorities, just as owning a flag in the colours of the pre-war republics guaranteed harsh punishment in the Soviet era. The Baltic states were wiped off the map by the Soviet Union, which criminalised any expression of national sentiment. Migration and russification countered Baltic “nationalist” tendencies; now Beijing is destroying Tibetan identity with huge Han Chinese settlement. The bogus rhetoric of communist ethnic harmony (be like us and we can all be happy) and modernisation are almost identical. The sense of near-hopelessness is similar too. Only 30 years ago the restoration of Baltic independence seemed an impossible dream.

A similar duty lies on Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and other former captive nations. Indeed, anyone who cared about freedom in Europe during the Cold War should care about Tibet now, for the same reasons. Members of the European Parliament, of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, of national legislatures and governments, and everywhere else in public life (universities, think tanks, even media outlets) should make a point of arranging meetings with Tibetan representatives and doing so publicly and proudly. It does not require great moral courage to schedule a meeting and publish a photo. But once everyone is doing so, the ability of the Chinese embassies to feign outrage, and to impose punishments, is greatly limited. Instead of letting timidity ratchet down towards defeat, collective action ratchets resistance upwards towards victory.

The importance of this goes far beyond Tibet. If Europe cannot stick up for principle and defend itself against bullying when the stakes are relatively low, what chance is there that it can do so when the stakes are higher?

More and more do Western democratic countries silently accept the occupation and subsequent colonization of Tibet and the eradication of Tibet’s culture. Human Rights seem most often only to matter for powerful Western countries if there is a political or geopolitical interest in a certain area of the world for them. Tibetans suffer from the unbalanced human rights treatment of powerful Western countries like the US, UK and Germany. This is just unacceptable and really hard to bear. The tendency to ignore the Tibetans’ plight seems to be the current state of politics in the West.

The USCIRF Annual Report 2013 lists China as the “Country of Particular Concern”, the findings include:

The Chinese government continues to perpetrate particularly severe violations of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief. Religious groups and individuals considered to threaten national security or social harmony, or whose practices are deemed beyond the vague legal definition of “normal religious activities,” are illegal and face severe restrictions, harassment, detention, imprisonment, and other abuses. Religious freedom conditions for Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims remain particularly acute, as the government broadened its efforts to discredit and imprison religious leaders, control the selection of clergy, ban certain religious gatherings, and control the distribution of religious literature by members of these groups. The government also detained over a thousand unregistered Protestants in the past year, closed “illegal” meeting points, and prohibited public worship activities. Unregistered Catholic clergy remain in detention or disappeared. Falun Gong face some of the most intense and violent forms of persecution. Adherents are tortured and mistreated in detention and are pursued by an extralegal security force chartered to stamp out “evil cults.” The Chinese government also continues to harass, detain, intimidate, and disbar attorneys who defend members of vulnerable religious groups.

Tsering Wöser calls to Save Lhasa!: “Our Lhasa is on the verge of destruction; this is absolutely not a case of crying wolf!”, and recently The University of Sydney has withdrawn its support for a talk by the Dalai Lama. Tibet activists and Tibet supporters assume that the University has caved into pressure from China.

There were some brave actions by politicians and countries in the past. For instance Switzerland objected the influence from China when they threatened them with economic consequences in case Switzerland welcomes the Dalai Lama. In 2008 the President of the German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert (CDU), objected the pressure the Chinese embassy in Berlin exerted on him and also the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, ignored the threads and protests by China against a meeting with her and the Dalai Lama. However, all of this seems to be past now as recent developments in Switzerland and some other newspaper arcticles make clear. The only halfway brave ally as a nation for Tibetans seems to be now only the U.S.A.

While politicians usually protest easily with respect to attacks against themselves or their allies, the only person I recognized who protested against China’s verbal abuse of the Dalai Lama was Desmond Tutu:

Finally, we ask that China stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to peace. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is not simply a holy man. He is recognized throughout the world as one of our few true moral authorities. He is a teacher who has shown us all how to live our lives with compassion, non-violence and love.”

International Law Background & Recent Developments

• Tibet’s Status Under International Law by Prof. Eckart Klein
• USCIRF Annual Report 2013 – Countries of Particular Concern: China 
• “Our Lhasa is on the Verge of Destruction! Please, Save Lhasa!” – Tsering Woeser
• Sydney University criticised for blocking Dalai Lama visit – The Guardian

New Article by Eliot Sperling

• Incivilities – Elliot Sperling

  Last edited by tenpel on May 18, 2013 at 4:36 pm

The Dalai Lama and the King Demon – Dorje Shugden by Raimondo Bultrini

Those who are interested to get a broader and more detailed background knowledge about the Dorje Shugden controversy and their global players might find the book “The Dalai Lama and the King Demon – Tracking a Triple Murder Mystery Through the Mists of Time“ by Raimondo Bultrini, an investigative journalist from Italy, very useful. (You can only pre-order it, the publication date is 1st Jul ’13.)

Bultrini is a senior journalist who worked for different Newspapers, including La Republica, and who wrote investigative and featured articles on Mafia, Red Brigates and on the new fascist bloodbath killings which occurred in Italy during those years. Bultrini is a member of Choegyal Namkhai Norbu’s Dzogchen Community in Italy.

The upcoming book by Bultrini about the Dorje Shugden Controversy is a translation of ‘IL DEMONE E IL DALAI LAMA’ (2008, 406 p.) from Italian into English.

In this book Bultrini shows the different players and their different involvements, including that of the Chinese authorities and the Dharamsala’s counter-espionage, the New Kadampa Tradition’s/Kelsang Gyatso’s involvements as well as that of Lama Gangchen Rinpoche, Kundeling Lama, the 14th Dalai Lama, his sister, the Delhi ‘Shugden Society’, the assassination of Gen Lobsang Gyatso … and vicious plans from here and there. To give you an idea about some of the dynamics most Westerners just don’t know, here an excerpt:

In a talk broadcast in 2002 by a Tibetan radio station, the young Trijang offered a number of disturbing revelations. He recounted how, while still in Dharamsala, he was told of a plan by the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women’s Association to attack his Labrang [the residence of the lamas.]. “Consequently,” he said, “the Chatreng community appealed to me to immediately come to Delhi and thereafter to leave for Densa [Ganden monastery in south India]. I did so, leaving my attendant, Tharcin, in Dharamsala to request an interview with His Holiness. Anonymous letters and telephone calls were received at the Labrang, where masked men were seen trying to enter my residence at night. As a result, the Chatreng community deputed around twenty guards for my security. In 1996, Gonsar Rinpoche and others decided to move me to Switzerland. The situation in India deteriorated and grew tense between the followers and non-followers of the Protector, consequently delaying my return. Later that year with my aide Tharcin I had an audience with His Holiness during his visit to Switzerland. Tharcin apprised him of the threats to my life and we agreed I should continue my studies abroad. Six years have passed since then.”

Trijang recounted how he had subsequently had other audiences with the Dalai Lama in Europe, during which the Tibetan leader had asked him to choose between his spiritual guide and the protector. “I could decide against him”, he said, but nor could I stop propitiating Shugden with whom my relationship dates back to previous incarnations. I find myself in an immensely difficult situation. The followers of the Protector would not have listened to me”, he added, “and no one seems to care about the difficulties I am facing (…) I also don’t want the people of Chatreng, who have great expectations of me, to be disheartened. But if I continue to propitiate the Protector publicly, I would be compelled to become a sort of head of his worshippers, and this would be an offence to the Dalai Lama from whom I received my Bhikshu ordination, and has always treated me with extraordinary benevolence. I cannot even hope to keep a low profile as they [the Shugden devotees] would not let me.”

The broadcast contained another series of remarkable revelations. “I have reason to believe”, he said, “that my return to India may possibly result in internal chaos, attempts on lives and other immoral activities bringing disgrace to His Holiness (…) I cannot sleep and I have had health problems. I am worried about thinking what will happen next. It is quite terrifying to think that I might be a cause of disgrace instead of serving the Tibetan people and His Holiness (…) Some have told me, “If you abandon the Protector [Shugden], there is no knowing what will happen. We will not consider you a lama [as guru]. The people of Chatreng are strange, very wild and unruly. We do not know what they may do.”

It is very clear my life might be in danger. So I have decided to leave my Labrang and disrobe, so that none of the Shugden worshippers can ask me to be their leader. I hope that this way I can respect the wishes of the Dalai Lama and still revere the protector, practicing in private and far from everyone. I intend to follow a middle way, neither for nor against Shugden. I appeal to both parties not to contact me.”

His account ended with another dramatic twist. “In my own Labrang,” he said, “I have recently witnessed a kind of factionalism and I have discovered that one person in particular was planning an evil conspiracy. This plan was to murder my assistant, Tharchin, and to implicate His Holiness’s government in exile with this odious crime. The conspirator aimed to become chakzoe [manager] of my estate. Tharchin has been very kind to me, more so than my own parents, and has taken care of me since I was three years old. As well as managing the affairs of my Labrang. With my own ears I heard this person discussing on the telephone a plan to assassinate Tharchin. It is really a matter of great sadness and surprise, especially since the person involved in this ploy has been very close to me as well. If he succeeds in his plan, it would be a cause of great trouble for the Labrang, as well as a cause of disgrace to the Tibetan government and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. These are not lies, but true facts which I want everyone to know. That is why I made this statement.”

Trijang concluded his message urging the followers of the Protector to stop seeking him. “I do not wish to be in touch with you,” he said. [After this declaration, Trijang moved to the United States with a small number of his most faithful followers.]

The young Trijang Rinpoche’s radio message created no little embarrassment among the Gyalpo’s practitioners. The image of a community, ‘living peacefully and devoted to the Buddhadharma’ promoted in their propaganda material was seriously damaged, and, for a long time, the polemics against the Dalai Lama seemed to be diminishing. But hopes that they would fade away completely have not been fulfilled – far from it.

I have still to check if the book includes also something about the New Kadampa Traditions’s ‘Western Shugden Society’ campaign, which started in April 2008, and the lawsuit against the Dalai Lama and the TGIE by Kundeling Lama which was finally not even accepted by the Delhi High Court (see PDF: Delhi High Court Dismisses Dorjee Shugden Devotees’ Charges by TibetNet/CTA).

For the publisher’s announcement see:

• The Dalai Lama and the King Demon Tracking a Triple Murder Mystery Through the Mists of Time – By Raimondo Bultrini

More by Raimondo Bultrini:

• A Spirit of the XVII Century by Raimondo Bultrini
• Interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama by Raimondo Bultrini

Dorje Shugden – Academic Research:

• Academic Research regarding Shugden Controversy & New Kadampa Tradition

  Last edited by tenpel on May 17, 2013 at 09:05 pm

Is the NKT a Personality Cult? – A Check Based on Word Statistics

In Germany there is a politician, Peer Steinbrück, who runs a campaign “More We, less I”. Spiegel Online investigated in a ‘Münchhausen Check’ if Steinbrück really says what he preaches by investigating two of his speeches and making a use-of-words statistic. For this they used among others a tool called Wordle to create a word cloud that makes the results easily visible. For the creation of a word statistic cloud the website or blog must have an Atom or RSS feed. The more a word is used the bigger it is written. In that way you get easily what is been stressed the most.

Now, I wondered what would be the result if I check the official New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) start page as well as their official site about Buddhism. I expected that at the centre of NKT and Buddhism is not the Buddha or Buddhism but NKT and its founder Kelsang Gyatso – this is what I would expect at least from a ‘good personality cult’ or based on my experiences.

Here are the results

Result of the official Homepage of the New Kadampa Tradition, http://kadampa.org/en/buddhism, relying on the Atom or RSS feed of that site:

The result of the official “Buddhism” page of the New Kadampa Tradition, http://kadampa.org/en/buddhism, relying on the words displayed, is:

To create the use-of-words statistic of NKT’s official “Buddhism” page I used all the words displayed on that page. The reason for this approach is that the Wordle javascript program relies on the Atom or RSS Feeds of the blog or site, and is therefore on all pages of a site the same. Hence, it doesn’t convey what words are really displayed to the reader of a specific page.

While the first result above shows that at the very centre of NKT is one person only “Venerable Geshe Kelsang founding NKT-IKBU”, the second result above demonstrates that “Kadampa” is what “Buddhism” is all about for NKT, and since the term “Kadampa” is synonymous with NKT – at least in the cosmos of NKT, as well as in their self-promotional approach – the meaning it conveys is ‘Kadampa=NKT=Buddhism’ or in brief ‘We are Buddhism.’

Another question I had is, who is the focal object of NKT’s Western Shugden Society? Is it Buddhism, Shugden or the Dalai Lama?

Here is the result of http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/

Using those statistic tools based on the NKT’s own Atom or RSS feeds and words displayed respectively it becomes somewhat more clear that the main object of ‘the Buddhism’ the New Kadampa Tradition is advertising is not so much Buddhism or the Buddha but mainly one person, NKT’s founder Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. The main object of NKT’s Western Shugden Society is not Dorje Shugden but one person, the Dalai Lama.

In that way it is also somewhat statistically explainable what drove Gen Kelsang Sangye to promote a new book of his guru at a BBC World News talk about Mindfulness in Schools. He has no other choice if he speaks about Buddhism or mindfulness than being compelled to stress his guru Kelsang Gyatso and one of his new books respectively because only HE is the center of his life, his tradition and his Buddhism.

But shouldn’t we begin with ourselves first? I checked this blog. Who is the focal object of this blog, NKT, Shugden, Tibet, the Dalai Lama, Sogyal, I (tenpel)? The RSS Feed gives this result:

Applying the approach of getting the statistics not based on the RSS Feed but on the mere words the start page displays, the following result is given:

To make the investigation complete, here also the words-displayed statistics – which means not relying on the RSS or Atom Feeds – of the NKT’s and the Western Shugden Society’s official start pages:

In case you have problems with the Javascript on Wordle, here are the results in a gallery:

Result of NKT’s Homepage. RSS / Atom Feed.

Result of NKT’s Homepage. Counting displayed words.

Result of NKT’s “Buddhism” page. Counting displayed words.

Result of NKT’s Western Shugden Society. RSS / Atom Feed.

Result of NKT’s WSS page. Counting displayed words.

Result of this blog, using RSS Feed.

Result of this blog using displayed words.

Last edited by tenpel on May 3, 2013 at 3:24 pm

Why are Buddhist monks attacking Muslims? Alan Strathern on BBC News

In a recent post, Buddhist Monks as Hate Preachers & Sexual Abuse, I mainly referred to sad developments within the global Buddhist community where Buddhist monks spread words of hate, actions that harm others, themselves as well as people’s faith in Buddhism. Ashin Wirathu, a Burmese Buddhist monk, was even jailed in 2003 for inciting religious hatred. After his release in 2012, he has referred to himself as “the Burmese Bin Laden”.

In a BBC article Why are Buddhist monks attacking Muslims? Alan Strathern from Oxford University asks and examines “… why have monks been using hate speech against Muslims and joining mobs that have left dozens dead?”

He makes clear in his article, that this is against a basic Buddhist principles as well as that where this is happening – in Burma and Sri Lanka – people are not facing an Islamist militant threat and the Muslims in both countries are “a generally peaceable and small minority”.

Strathern explains the violence from different angles – including power issues (“Faustian pact with state power”), national and religious identity (“many came to feel Buddhism was integral to their national identity – and the position of minorities in these newly independent nations was an uncomfortable one”). And he concludes his article by looking onto the violent events from a global perspective:

Even though they form a majority in both countries, many Buddhists share a sense that their nations must be unified and that their religion is under threat. The global climate is crucial. People believe radical Islam to be at the centre of the many of the most violent conflicts around the world. They feel they are at the receiving end of conversion drives by the much more evangelical monotheistic faiths. And they feel that if other religions are going to get tough, they had better follow suit.

However, there is one point, I don’t agree with Strathern. Though it is true that there has been violence by Buddhists and Buddhists used Buddhism to justify wars and violence against others – I object the following generalisation made by Strathern:

So, historically, Buddhism has been no more a religion of peace than Christianity.

because

1) One should discriminate between the people and the religion. Buddhism is in nature a peaceful religion which roots are non-violence, love, compassion and the teachings of interdependent origination. It are human beings that (ab)use religion to justify violence. Therefore, the faults Stathern attributes to Buddhism are not the faults of Buddhism but of the people who either ignore or twist Buddha’s teachings. All actions based on hatred, desire and ignorance are considered to be wrong and an object of abandonment in Buddhism. (It get’s more complicated and complex, when one considers the understanding of non-violence (ahimsa) in the context of the Bodhisattva ethics. In the book “Buddhist Warfare” one author goes even so far to claim that the ascetics of a monk could be also considered as violence. But if this author had a clear understanding of Buddhist principles, that violence is the wish to harm or all actions based on hatred, he could see that this view is not tenable from a Buddhist point of view, and from a mundane point of view it follows also those people who practice fasting to benefit their body are violent towards themselves.)*

2) Compared with the violence performed by other religious people in the name of their religion the amount of harm Buddhists have done to others (or humanity) by abusing Buddhism to justify war and violence seems to be not that much.

Alan Strathern’s article

• Why are Buddhist monks attacking Muslims?  By Alan Strathern (Oxford University), BBC News

More about Buddhism and Islam

• Buddhism & Islam – Alexander Berzin
• Holy Wars in Buddhism and Islam: The Myth of Shambhala - Alexander Berzin

More about Violence and (Tibetan) Buddhism

• Self-Immolation in Context, 1963-2012 by Prof. Michael Biggs
• »Orientalism« and Aspects of Violence in the Tibetan Tradition by Prof. Elliot Sperling
• Compassionate Killing or Conflict Resolution? The Murder of King Langdarma according to Tibetan Buddhist Sources by Prof. Jens Schlieter
• »Buddhist Warfare« (PDF) – Book Review by Prof. Daniel S. Margolies
• Krieg und Gewalt im Buddhismus: »Buddhist Warfare« – eine Buchbesprechung von Prof. Jens-Uwe Hartmann

* Non-violence or non-harmfulness is explained in the Abhidharma literature as follows:

Non-harmfulness (rnam par mi ‘tshe ba)
Regarding non-harmfulness, the Compendium of Knowledge says:

QUESTION: What is non-harmfulness?
RESPONSE: It is a mind of compassion and is involved with non-hatred. It has the function of not inflicting injury.

Just as it has been said above, non-harmfulness is a patience that, lacking malice, observes suffering sentient beings, thinking, “May they be free of that [suffering]!” This abandoning harm to sentient beings, or non-harmfulness, is the essence of the meaning of the Conqueror’s scriptures. It is taught [in sutra]:

Patience is the supreme austerity.
The Buddha said, “Patience is supreme nirvana.”
An ordained one who harms or injures another
Is not a trainee-in-virtue.

Even the Conqueror’s teaching in the context of bestowing a water strainer in the Vinaya procedural rite is a fine distinction of compassion. Since one must definitely turn away from harming others as well as their bases, the necessity of equipping oneself with a strainer for the sake of abandoning harm to creatures in water has been taught. And on the occasion of giving the instructions, one is cautioned about the necessity to abide in the four qualities that makes one a trainee-in-virtue:

Even when derided, do not deride in return.
Even when someone gets angry at one, do not get angry in return.
Even when hit, do not hit back.
Even when one’s faults are exposed, do not expose others’ faults.

Therefore, if the intelligent ones analyze and understand this well, they will be able to understand that abandoning harmfulness is the essence of the teachings.

From “A Necklace for Those of Clear Awareness Clearly Revealing the Modes of Minds and Mental Factors” by Ye-she Gyel-tsen, Translated from the Tibetan by Toh Sze Gee

  Last edited by tenpel on May 2, 2013 at 8:51 pm

NKT Tharpaland: The Windfarm Study – A Nocebo Effect?

In a recent post, NKT monks beat retreat over wind farm – from Tharpaland to Schloss Sommerswalde, the selling of Tharpaland and a study was discussed that claimed rather heavy negative effects of the infrasound from wind turbines and wind farms in general. The study and the claims of the New Kadampa Tradition appeared to be quite strange and raised my and others’ eyebrows.

At that time I assumed the researcher who did the study for the New Kadampa Tradition might not have taken into consideration “the issue of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, and the dishonest and duplicity mode of the New Kadampa Tradition”.

Now a new research was published by Psychologist Keith J. Petrie and his colleagues of the Medical Highschool in Auckland in the journal Health Psychology. The reason for the symptoms reported in the context of wind turbines they demonstrated to be based on the Nocebo Effect. An impressive example of this Nocebo Effect has been given by Derek Adams who almost killed himself with 29 sugar pills. (For the Derek Adams story see this summery or The New Scientist: The new witch doctors: How belief can kill).

The team of Keith J. Petrie write in the abstract of their research, Can Expectations Produce Symptoms From Infrasound Associated With Wind Turbines?:

The development of new wind farms in many parts of the world has been thwarted by public concern that subaudible sound (infrasound) generated by wind turbines causes adverse health effects. Although the scientific evidence does not support a direct pathophysiological link between infrasound and health complaints, there is a body of lay information suggesting a link between infrasound exposure and health effects. This study tested the potential for such information to create symptom expectations, thereby providing a possible pathway for symptom reporting. Method: A sham-controlled double-blind provocation study, in which participants were exposed to 10 min of infrasound and 10 min of sham infrasound, was conducted. Fifty-four participants were randomized to high- or low-expectancy groups and presented audiovisual information, integrating material from the Internet, designed to invoke either high or low expectations that exposure to infrasound causes specified symptoms. Results: High-expectancy participants reported significant increases, from preexposure assessment, in the number and intensity of symptoms experienced during exposure to both infrasound and sham infrasound. There were no symptomatic changes in the low-expectancy group. Conclusions: Healthy volunteers, when given information about the expected physiological effect of infrasound, reported symptoms that aligned with that information, during exposure to both infrasound and sham infrasound. Symptom expectations were created by viewing information readily available on the Internet, indicating the potential for symptom expectations to be created outside of the laboratory, in real world settings. Results suggest psychological expectations could explain the link between wind turbine exposure and health complaints.

More

• 13 more things: The nocebo effect – The New Scientist

In German

• Die Nebenwirkung der Angst – Die ZEIT
• Windräder machen krank, wenn wir sie fürchten – Die ZEIT

When were the monasteries destroyed in Tibet?

I have to confess that I am not much familiar with the history of Tibet/China and that I am in a learning process. My interest mainly comes from a sense of justice I have for Tibetans and their sad situation.

Recently during a discussion of members of an adult education center in Germany one man said, that it were the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) who destroyed the monasteries in Tibet. But one Tibetologist who was present corrected him and said that most of the monasteries were already destroyed before the Cultural Revolution. However, the adult education center member didn’t believe the Tibetologist and after a check in all for him available history books, travel books and the internet he came to the conclusion that it were the Red Guards who destroyed the monasteries in Tibet. He concluded – based on his research and own experiences in Tibet in the 90ies* – that there might not be any authentic source that can approve the claim by the Tibetologist that most of the monasteries were destroyed already before the Cultural Revolution.

»Most often, what is forgotten is forgotten because it no longer fits in with the current version of events, especially one constructed by an elite group. Sometimes, indeed, unwelcome memories are systematically destroyed by leaderships. (Coney 1997)

Leaderships exclude memories by expelling individual malcontents or by simply not referring to unwelcome historical facts until they ‘cease to be part of the group repertoire of memories’. Changing the name of the leader or group also allows memories associated with previous designations to fade whilst promoting the creation of new memories. The project of deliberately excluding histories, however, is not always completely successful because repressed memories ‘can return to haunt the margins of a discourse and continue, despite their apparent absence, to influence its structure’. Alternatively, competing versions of events may only become temporarily submerged within the dominant account and may later ‘rise again to the surface of the collective memory’. (Kay 2004  : 82; see PDF)

This analysis by David Kay with respect to the history of a New Religious Movement, the NKT, might be well applicable also for this case.

Let’s remember: when China occupied Tibet China’s leadership claimed to come to “liberate” Tibet from “Imperialism” (US and UK imperialists). The Tibetans mocked about this claim because there was no American and only about a handful of Britains in Tibet. Later China claimed it had “liberated” Tibet from “Feudalism” and even later that it had “liberated” Tibet from “Backwardness”. These are all cases of rewriting history. (See also Robbie Barnett in: Blondeau-Buffetrille: Authenticating Tibet, pp. 81–84.)

What are the facts and the sources which approve the Tibetologist’s point of view and disapprove the adult education center member’s point of view?

The facts about the destruction of monasteries in Tibet

Vice Governor Pu Quiong reported that before the rebellion of 1959, which led to the flight of the Dalai Lama, there were 2,700 temples and monasteries with 114,000 monks and 1,600 “living Buddhas”. The “democratic reforms” reduced the monasteries to 550 with 6,900 monks until 1966. After the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1978 were only eight monastery with 970 monks left. Since 1978 until May of this year [1987] 230 monasteries have been renovated or rebuilt again. (Stuttgarter Zeitung, 20 July 1987)**

It were official Chinese statements which approved what also the Tibetans in exile said, that most of the monasteries in Tibet were destroyed before the Cultural Revolution. They were destroyed during the “democratic reforms” which the PRC enforced after the Tibetans’ unsuccessful uprising on 10th March 1959 in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. (For the uprising see also: Blood In The Snows by Tsering Shakya and The Dalai Lama’s Press Statements, Statement issued at Tezpur, 18th April, 1959.)

Tsewang Norbu commented:

For a long time it was easy to blame for the crimes in Tibet alone the so-called left-wing elements of the Cultural Revolution, of which the present Chinese leadership distances itself. The West has made this version uncritically their own.

With this detailed and blunt statistics the Vice Governor of the Autonomous Region of Tibet (ART) officially confirmed the contention of the Tibetans (in exile) that most of the destruction took place before rather than during the infamous Cultural Revolution.

These figures relate only to the so-called ART, which accounts for about half of the actual Tibet.

The Tibet Information Network (TIN) document “Poisoned Arrow. The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama“. (T.I.N., London 1997) quotes from the “Petition of 70,000 characters” by the young 10th Panchen Lama that he submitted to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in 1962, and for which he became later imprisoned (1966–1967). Chairman Mao called the petition “… a poisoned arrow shot at the Party by reactionary feudal overlords”:

… the monastic and secular masses, those people felt disappointed and hurt, incompliant and discontented. But because the masses had temporarily and for a short period suffered strict oppression, they were pressurized and had no alternative but to appear slightly indifferent towards religious belief on the surface, but this was a result of great pressure. Because the religion which they deeply believed in and loved had been greatly weakened, and because they were not permitted to believe, religious feelings grew stronger in the thinking of many people, and their belief was deeper than in the past. So suppressing the wishes of the masses and contravening the will of the people became precisely the reasons for our isolation and was that which brought about failure. This contravenes the instructions of the Party, which have frequently been pointed to and taught, that we should cast aside those actions which cause a serious rift between ourselves and the masses. The people who did these things were truly short-sighted and narrow-minded, and they could only become a laughing-stock

Third, the situation as regards the monasteries alter democratic reform

(1) Before democratic reform there were more than 2,500 large, medium and small monasteries in Tibet. After democratic reform, only 70 or so monasteries were kept in existence by the government. This was a reduction of more than 97%. Because there were no people living in most of the monasteries, there was no-one to look after their Great Prayer Halls [da jing tang] and other divine halls and the monks’ housing. There was great damage and destruction, both by man and otherwise, and they were reduced to the condition of having collapsed or being on the point of collapse.

(2) In the whole of Tibet in the past there was a total of about 110.000 monks and nuns. Of those, possibly 10.000 fled abroad, leaving about 100,000. After democratic reform was concluded, the number of monks and nuns living in the monasteries was about 7.000 people, which is a reduction of 93%.

(3) As regards the quality of the monks and nuns living in the monasteries, apart from those in the Zhashenlunbu [Tashilhunpo; Tibetan bkra shis Ihun po] monastery, who were slightly better, the quality of the monks and nuns in the rest of the monasteries was very low. For most of those of the monks(3)nuin each monastery who were religious intellectuals or who were “good monks” who conducted their affairs in accordance with their religion, the situation was as described above; during democratic reform, owing to attacks and so on it was basically difficult for them to live in peace, and because of this they did not live in the monasteries, or very few of them did so. In reality, the monasteries had already lost their function and significance as religious organizations. (p. 52)

The 10th Panchen Lama states in the same petition:

Those who have religious knowledge will slowly die out, and religious affairs are stagnating, knowledge is not being passed on, there is worry about there being no new people to train, and so we see the elimination of Buddhism, which was flourishing in Tibet and which transmitted teachings and enlightenment. This is something which I and more than 90% of Tibetans cannot endure. (p. 57)

Other authentic sources

Warren Smith: Tibetan Nation: a history of Tibetan nationalism and Sino-Tibetan relations

The number of “functioning monasteries”, according to a Chinese estimate, had dropped from 2,711 in 1958 to 370 in 1960, while he number of monks had been reduced from an estimated 114,000 to 18,104 (both figures refer only to the TAR).  (n.8) – p. 544
n. 8  Jing Sun, “Socioeconomic Changes and Riots in Lhasa” (unpublished paper), 1990,1 citing Zjang Tianlu, Population Change in Tibet (Beijing Tibetan Studies Publishing House of China, 1989), 28. These figures refute the common Chinese contention that the destruction of Tibetan Religion took place during the Cultural Revolution and was exclusively the fault of the “gang of four”. Only the physical destruction took place during the Cultural Revolution.

Less than 1,000 monks remained in the eight monasteries not destroyed during the Cultural revolution. (n. 64) – p. 561
n. 64  Ch’ing Jun : “Socioeconomic Changes and Riots in Lhasa.” Must be the same as in n. 8, only author’s name written differently.

Tsering Shakya: The Dragon in the Land of Snow

By the beginning of 1970, all the monasteries and temples have been vandalised by the Red Guards and left to ruin. – p. 349

Informative on this subject also

• Robbie Barnett in: Blondeau-Buffetrille: Authenticating Tibet,  pp. 88–90
• From Liberation To Liberalisation Dharamsala: The Information Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama 1982
  From the second fact finding delegation in 1980: Phuntsog Wangyal The Report From Tibet, pp. 139–140:

“Religion

In Peking, the Chinese authorities acknowledged the widespread destruction of monasteries that had taken place during the Cultural Revolution. They expressed their regret at the loss of part of ‘their’ national heritage and treasures, and explained how, in an effort to preserve what remained, they had passed decrees to protect them. The delegates could see ruins of monasteries in the distance everywhere they went. Even some of the larger ones, that housed 7–8,000 monks, are now completely non-existent, and the delegates had to be told when they were standing on the spot where once the main temple had been. In some monasteries, the main temple is still standing, in very bad condition, and devoid of statues, paintings or books. Such buildings that do remain are used for storing grain or fertilizer, as cowsheds;…

The official Chinese explanation is that all religious objects and monuments were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and by the Tibetan people. From their own enquiries and interviews with hundreds of people all over Tibet, the delegation formed the following picture of what had actually happened. Most monasteries were destroyed between 1959 and 1961. The larger, more famous ones remained until the Cultural Revolution in 1967, when they too were destroyed. The destruction of monasteries and religious objects was carried out systematically. First of all, special teams of mineralogists were sent to religious buildings to find and extract all the precious stones. Next, experts on metal arrived and marked all metal objects which were subsequently removed. Then, trucks were sent from local commune headquarters, the walls were dynamited, and all wooden beams and pillars were taken away. Clay images were destroyed in the hope of finding precious objects inside them. Finally whatever remained—bits of wood and stone—were removed by the local people. Sometimes the main temple was used for storage, in which cases, the paintings on the walls would be rubbed out—or at least their eyes—whitewashed, or covered with human excrement.

In their three and a half month journey, the delegates saw temples or monasteries in only three places; Gyangtse, Shigatse and Lhasa. There were no sign of any other places of worship, but in spite of the physical destruction of monasteries, temples and shrines, there are still signs of the existence of a strong religious faith in Tibet …

See also

• PDF: The Secret Report of the 10th Panchen Lama Report on the sufferings of the masses in Tibet and other Tibetan regions and suggestions for future work to the central authorities through the respected Premier Zhou Enlai 1962 (A Few Chapters) by Claude Arpi
• TIN News Update / 5 October, 1996 / total no of pages: 3 ISSN 1355-3313: Secret Report by the Panchen Lama Criticises China archived by Samsara – A Tibetan Human Rights Archive
• Congressional Panel To Probe Chinese Theft of Tibetan Treasures – Warren Smith / Radio Free Asia

In German

• “Dalai Lama picture?” fragen die Novizen – Spiegel (PDF), February 1987
• Kohl spricht Menschenrechtsfragen an – Besuch in Tibet beendet – “Hochkultur der Menschheit” – Stuttgarter Zeitung, (PDF), 20. Juli 1987

* He was professionally and without minders in Tibet for a German institution in the 90s and had asked himself the Tibetan monks, when the monasteries were destroyed. The Tibetan monks answered that the monasteries were destroyed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. This might demonstrate the effectiveness of the re-education and propaganda in Tibet that China (even by force) imposes on Tibetans and their own people.

** The newspaper quotes Vice Governor Pu Quiong from the official Chinese press conference conducted in Lhasa that was part of the visit of Germany’s chancellor Helmut Kohl to Tibet in July 1987. The press conference was held in Chinese language and the Chinese authorities offered an official translation into German. The tapes of this press conference still exist.

Last edited by tenpel on April 28, 2013 at 10:23 pm

Buddhist Monks as Hate Preachers & Sexual Abuse

There are some negative developments in the Buddhist world for which Buddhists should be ashamed, and if possible take up responsibility to counter them.

One of them is that the Rohingya – a Muslim minority in Burma – whom the BBC calls “one of the world’s most persecuted minority groups” face racist and violent abuse by Burmese Buddhists. There are also Buddhist monks who fuel this hate and ethnic conflicts by speeches that invoke hate and fear:

• Buddhist monk uses racism and rumours to spread hatred in Burma – BBC
• The Burmese monks who preach intolerance against Muslim Rohingyas – BBC
• Sri Lanka Buddhist monks, supporters demand halal boycott

In case you have Facebook or YouTube accounts and you stumble over racism, religious intolerance and hate speeches by Buddhists I think it’s good to let those people – including Buddhist monks or nuns – know that this is unacceptable and wrong and to give good reasons why. (Without getting angry, just as a peaceful protest against such harmful acts which are contrary to a good heart and Buddha’s teachings.)

My contribution for peace, mutual understanding and to counter these negative development is this speech by His Holiness the Dalai Lama:

There are also recently reported or discussed cases of child and sexual abuse:

• Bhutan seeks to curb sexual diseases among Buddhist monks – Tricycle
• Sri Lanka’s hidden scourge of religious child abuse – BBC
• Child ordinations and the rights of children by Gananath Obeyesekere
• Four Young Tulkus In The West – Details About What Happened To Kalu Rinpoche 2012/07/27

Something inspiring:

• Buddhist text’s true author identified as Thai woman By Samanthi Dissanayake

PDF exploits:

• Latest Adobe PDF exploit used to target Uyghur and Tibetan activists

Update 02 May 2013

• Why are Buddhist monks attacking Muslims?  By Alan Strathern (Oxford University), BBC News

Update 19 May 2013

• Bhutan Makes Condoms Available To Buddhist Monks To Stop Spread Of STDs – Huffington Post
• Buddhicizing or Ethnicizing the State: Do the Sinhala Sangha Fear Muslims in Sri Lanka? – Suren Rāghavan

  Last edited by tenpel on May 19, 2013 at 9:23 pm

Human Rights in Tibet before China’s Invasion or Liberation – ‘The Truth’ about Tibet, the Dalai Lamas and Tibetans

Torture and Execution Ordered by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama

Throughout the time of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, various foreign journalists, officials and explorers visited Tibet and were astounded by the atrocities that met them in place of their expectations of the supposed ‘Shangri-la’. They published accounts of what they saw, and from these works we can gain a more accurate insight into the actual brutality of the theocracy and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama’s role in it. (Western Shugden Society)

What were the conditions regarding human rights in Tibet before democratic reform?

Before 1959, all except 5 percent of the Tibetan population were slaves or serfs in a feudal system in which they were regarded as saleable private property, had no land or freedom, and were subject to punishment by mutilation or amputation. The serfs were liable to be tortured or killed. Economy and culture were stagnant for centuries, life expectancy was 35.5 years, illiteracy was over 90 percent, 12 percent of Lhasa’s population were beggars, and the Dalai Lama was responsible for all of this. (Booklet published by the Chinese government in 1989)

One can find in the internet quite a lot of accounts which either portray Tibet as a heaven or a hell on earth. The depictions of Tibet as a hell on earth are by far more widespread nowadays—as far as I can see. Also on YouTube there are a lot of videos or documentaries that tell the audience how evil and cruel Tibetans and the Dalai Lamas had been. Sometimes such documentaries are even produced by rather reputable media such as ARD’s magazine “Panorama“¹—a national German TV station.

What is tenable among those many claims about Tibet as a Feudal Serfdom, cruelties such as mutilations and amputations—brutalities for which quite often the Dalai Lamas are accused to be the sole culprits?

Robert Barnett (Columbia University) addressed the above claims by the Chinese government in a book called Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China’s “100 Questions”:

• Human Rights in Tibet before 1959 by Robert Barnett

For those interested to deepen their understanding the book Authenticating Tibet: Answers to China’s “100 Questions” might be a good starting point. The publisher, University of California Press, describes it as to offer “clear and unbiased responses to a booklet published by the Chinese government in 1989, which sought to counter the criticism generated by the Dalai Lama and his followers and offer the PRC’s ‘truth’ about Tibet and Tibetans. In Authenticating Tibet, international Tibet scholars provide historically accurate answers to 100 Questions and deal evenhandedly with both China’s ‘truth’ about Tibet and that of the Dalai Lama and his followers. Designed for use by a general audience, the book is an accessible reference, free of the polemics that commonly surround the Tibet question. Although these experts refute many of the points asserted by China, they do not offer blanket endorsements for the claims made by the pro-Tibet movement. Instead, they provide an accurate, historically based assessment of Tibet’s past and its troubled present.”

More about Tibet as a Feudal Hell

• Tibet as ›Hell on Earth‹ by Elliot Sperling
• Imagining Tibet: Between Shangri-la and Feudal Oppression – Attempting a Synthesis by Thierry Dodin and Heinz Räther
• Tibet and China: The Past in the Present by Tsering Shakya
• »Serf Emancipation Day« and China’s New Offensive on Tibet by Warren W. Smith
• China Digs in Its Heels in Tibet by Elliot Sperling
• Jamyang Norbu: FROM DARKNESS TO DAWN: Legal Punishment in Tibet from Imperial Chinese Rule to Independence

The Serfdom in Tibet Controversy

• The Goldstein and Miller Debate on “Reexamining Choice, Dependency and Command In The Tibetan Social System: ‘Tax Appendages’ and Other Landless Serfs” – The Center for Research on Tibet

The Tibet-China Conflict: History, Polemics & Propaganda

• The Tibet-China Conflict: History and Polemics (PDF) by Elliot Sperling
• History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People’s Republic of China by John Powers (PDF)

¹ for more about this Panorama documentary see:

• Panorama und der Dalai Lama – Versuch eines Denkmalsturzes von Helmut Clemens
• Dordsche Schugden und die Religionsfreiheit: Anmerkungen zu einem Konflikt von Jens-Uwe Hartmann
• Religionskämpfe unter den Exil-Tibetern? von Michael von Brück

Last edited by tenpel on April 14, 2013 at 10:23 pm

A brief Review of the New Kadampa Tradition Chapter in: “Spiritual and Visionary Communities: Out to Save the World”

Former members of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), as well as spiritual seekers might be in a better position after reading Carol McQuire’s chapter about her experiences within NKT in:

• McQuire, Carol (2013), “Realizing the Guru’s Intention: Hungry Humans and Awkward Animals in a New Kadampa Tradition Community”, Spiritual and Visionary Communities: Out to Save the World, Edited by Timothy Miller, Ashgate: 65-82.

because they can now base their discrimination and judgement on a more informed perspective.

It is the first academically reliable writing published from a former NKT follower’s point of view addressing issues such as the controversial NKT ordination and the commitment required from members. You might be able to read most of the text on Google-Books but to be fair to the publisher, editor and authors, I would like to encourage and recommend buying the book. It’s not very expensive (£17.99).

Academic research about the New Kadampa Tradition (especially that of the Open University by Prof. Robert Bluck and Dr. Helen Waterhouse) has been – for my taste – quite superficial so far. Robert Bluck (PDF) for instance tried to balance the criticism which was described by Dr. David Kay (PDF) by means of interviewing current members of the New Kadampa Tradition, and they – of course – rejected all criticism and toed the party line of the organisation. From McQuire’s insider-report on NKT one gets to know that “We should never talk to the press or to academic researchers. Only senior teachers could do this, by appointment …” (McQuire: 75). Using this insider-information provided by McQuire and putting it into another context, the interviews of NKT followers which Bluck made for his research on NKT, it becomes clear that Bluck only relied on well chosen people from the NKT establishment. Because no new voice of any former member of NKT is quoted by Bluck, Bluck seems to have missed interviewing former NKT members (or NKT critics) to at least balance the official NKT point of view of his interviewees. Subsequently – for instance – with respect to one of the many criticisms (or allegations) summarized in Kay’s research Bluck states (p. 147) :

More controversially, Bunting (1996b: 26; 1996c: 9) claimed that monastics changed out of their robes to sign for state benefits, residents financed NKT centre mortgages with their housing benefit, some members were pressurized into donating money through covenants or loans and the movement had acquired large properties including ‘several stately homes’. Waterhouse (1997: 144) reported properties being bought and renovated as local centres, with set board and lodging fees for residents who were often on state benefits, and she questioned whether those on the Teacher Training Programme were genuinely available for work.

All such accusations of wrongdoing were vigorously denied by interviewees, who explained that using housing benefit to support mortgages is wholly legitimate and that monastics often have part-time work and may wear ordinary clothes if this is more convenient (Namgyal, 2004). While smaller centres may struggle financially, donations were always voluntary. Manjushri’s large community and popular courses make it financially secure, a few people are sponsored because of their NKT work but others are on ‘extended working visits’ or work locally, and some are legitimately on employment benefit (Belither, 2004). However, while individual rule-bending has never been sanctioned, it may sometimes have been knowingly ignored, at least in the past.

However, for those who were deeply involved and committed to NKT it is obvious that Belither presented a skilful distortion of the facts to Bluck. And Bluck himself was obviously content with this statement, not going deeper into the issue. It is a major strategy within NKT to stretch the commitment of members to work full time for the organisation. Based on the pressure and dynamics of the organisation, many monastics had often no choice except to give up their paid work and receive state benefits which is then used to pay their rent to NKT – if they live in a NKT centre – and to pay the NKT study programmes, NKT festivals etc., and this money pays back the mortgages of castles and big, representative buildings. By this means NKT has acquired a considerable amount of expensive assets. Since this strategy is an integral part of NKT expansion one finds also in McQuire’s insider-report –  a “story similar to that of many others” (McQuire: 82) – in-between the lines (and there are many such points which are in-between the lines):

I wanted to live in an NKT residential community in Britain to deepen my practice and find support like that I had received from the Sangha, the NKT Buddhist community, in Mexico, I stopped training as a counselor and from 1998 to 2006 I lived within or very near an NKT centre with my children, depending entirely on British government social security benefits. I joined the Teacher Training Programme (TTP) and then, to  fulfill my intention to promote these teachings for the rest of my life, requested ordination …

As a result of this lack of questioning the official NKT characterisations, Bluck’s and Waterhouse’s research does not penetrate the issues in many ways and remains superficial – at least for my taste. The example given here is just one of many that can be given that can demonstrate that research published before McQuire’s account has often been superficial. The same non-challenging or non-questioning of NKT’s official point of view can be found also in Danial Cozort’s paper on NKT*. To give briefly another example, I would like to use one point I found in Waterhouse’s “Buddhism in Bath”*. There Waterhouse claims that the NKT ordination is a Getsul (skt. sramanerika) ordination. This is first of all not correct but more important, the implications of the change of how the Vinaya (monastic code for monks and nuns) is understood within NKT has grave, far reaching consequences for the spiritual life of NKT ordainees which have not been analysed at all so far by academic research. Again, McQuire goes into details with this too. There one learns for instance (p. 72/73):

Unlike in the Tibetan tradition, there was no ceremony for disrobing, no “clean break”. Those who disrobed had to stay away for a year and could never teach in the NKT again. Leaving was seen as shameful and a person who left would rarely be mentioned. It was said that disrobing would make our “bad karma” ripen as “hellish” experiences. We were told we were following a “special, new” ordination that “nobody has done before” but even though our ordination was different, we looked like Tibetan monks and nuns.

It was told the robes “tend to lend authority to ordained teachers” and soon after my ordination I began teaching. The first time I taught, enthusiastic, I heard voices in my head during the teaching saying ‘Who do you think you are?’ and criticizing me for teaching when I knew nothing! Upset, I stopped teaching even though Geshe-Ia said that teachers who get “discouraged” are “foolish”. A year later, my ‘Heart Jewel’ practice was stronger so I began again. Teaching was considered our main practice for “promoting the tradition”, a “heart commitment” of Shugden practice, along with regarding Shugden as inseparable from our Tantric practice deity and our Guru. We needed to become “qualified spiritual guides” as soon as possible; one NKT teacher would be “more important” to Geshe-Ia than “the hundred [students] who become Buddhas”. Being qualified didn’t mean passing our exams, that wasn’t necessary; it meant “relying on the Guru” through ‘Heart Jewel’ and then teaching others the NKT texts.

The latter passage of this is already picking up another controversial issue, the qualification of NKT teachers … and in this way almost every passage or even sentence or phrase by McQuire sheds some new light from an insider-perspective on the complex internal functioning of a totally closed, self-referential group, where only one voice is accepted as the highest authority, and the impact it has on an individual.

The chapter by McQuire opens up and invites a deeper investigation into the mechanics and life within NKT and it offers insights as to why there is such an increasing number of former members who have started to speak up, reporting the experience of considerable damage from the organisation. (see e.g. New Kadampa Survivor Forum).

INFORM, based at the London School of Economics, and an independent charity that was founded in 1988 by Professor Eileen Barker with the support of the British Home Office and the mainstream Churches, has published this collection of essays under Ashgate publishing. In recent years this research institution – upon whose expertise the UK government and UK journalists, as well as international and national researchers rely – had more inquiries about the New Kadampa Tradition than about The Church of Scientology (see for instance Annual Reports 2010 (PDF), 2011 (PDF) or this summary). I can only assume that INFORM  saw a need to offer this insider report. As the New Kadampa Tradition had successfully stopped different critical academic publications by threatening to sue the author or publisher, this is the first academic publication that passed unnoticed into the public realm offering a critical insider account. I would like to thank Carol McQuire, Prof. Timothy Miller, INFORM, and Ashgate publishing for their effort and courage.

At the moment I lack time to write a detailed review of the chapter by McQuire in “Spiritual and Visionary Communities: Out to Save the World”. Also, I would prefer an established researcher to write a peer-review but as yet this has not happened. That’s why, meanwhile, I would like to offer a review by Andrew Durling – who is also a former NKT follower who just recently left NKT – which he posted on Amazon. He kindly agreed that it can be posted here on the blog too:

I must admit to being biased about this book: I have personal experience of INFORM, the independent charity that collects and disseminates accurate, balanced and up-to-date information about minority religious and spiritual movements, and which has organised the bringing together of the collection of essays that constitutes this book. I have had reason to be very grateful for the balanced, sensitive help and advice INFORM gave me when I experienced the trauma of becoming involved in a bitter dispute within the New Kadampa Tradition, one of the movements written about in this book. The subtitle of this book – Out to Save the World – indicates what is common to all the intentional communities that feature in this book, these communities being just a small sample of the many thousands of such communities around the world. These communities originally start off with the best of intentions, in this case the intention to help save the world in some way. But so often these communities, because they involve some radical experimentation or innovation in communal living, or represent a radical break with a spiritual tradition, or cultural norm, have crises and disputes to deal with which threaten their very existence. How these communities deal with these crises determines, amongst other things, whether the original intention of these communities survives or changes significantly, sometimes so much so that it becomes unrecognisable to the community’s original founders or members. These communities, when they function harmoniously, often help their members to experience the height of spiritual inspiration, even ecstasy, in ways not available in the ‘normal’ world, sometimes creating the feeling of having been ‘saved’ and thereby empowered to help save others. But when they go wrong, the fall-out can be toxic to all involved, especially given the deep emotional, financial and social investment members of these communities often have to make in order to gain entry to them, or at least feel like they belong within them. Exit from these communities, voluntary or enforced, is often deeply traumatic and destabilising for both the people leaving and for some of those left behind.

I will only mention one essay in this book, the chapter written by Carol McQuire about her time as a Buddhist nun within the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT), which is deeply controversial within the world of Buddhism generally. I, like Carol, was once a devout member of the NKT and I was deeply moved by Carol’s searing honesty about her experiences, and about her complex and evolving feelings towards the teachers, teachings and organisational practices of the NKT both during her time as a nun and after her traumatic exit from the NKT. I could relate to many of her experiences and feelings and recognised how difficult it is to retain one’s idealism and devotion in the midst of turbulent, confusing and often disturbing change within an organisation like the NKT, which tries so hard to preserve what it perceives to be a ‘pure’ Buddhism whilst at the same time trying to put clear blue water between itself and the rest of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition that it originally evolved from and which often itself criticises the NKT as being less than a ‘pure’ Buddhist sangha. Carol’s essay was somewhat cathartic for me and helped me with my present journey towards understanding and integrating my past within the NKT. I suspect many of the other essays in the book will serve a similar function for others who have had contact with either the NKT or the other intentional communities explored in this book.

All the essays in this book are meticulously backed up with copious footnotes and references to academic research and documentary material, and the introductory overview by Timothy Miller of the broad history of intentional communities is extremely useful in putting the essays that follow into context. The stories in this book are about powerful, often bizarre, always deeply felt experiences by real life people within the intentional communities they belonged to, and show a side of spiritual life that very rarely makes the headlines, especially as many communities have fraught relationships with the media and society in general, sometimes preferring not to engage openly with them at all, in order to maintain their ‘purity’ or so as to maintain their freedom to operate in the way they wish to, or simply because they despair of ever getting the wider world to understand or accept them. This book is an invaluable contribution to the study of intentional communities and their often fraught histories, complex social relationships and organisational psychologies. It is also very readable and compelling into the bargain. Truth is often stranger than fiction and this book certainly illustrates that.

* For a detailed list of academic research about the New Kadampa Tradition see

• Academic Research regarding Shugden Controversy and New Kadampa Tradition-IKBU 2008/07/24

  Last edited by tenpel on March 20, 2013 at 9:28 pm

Rigpa, Cults, The Catholic Church and HH Dalai Lama – A Pep Talk

GUEST POST

Recently Mike Garde recommended in an email that the best approach to take regarding this trouble within Rigpa is one based on successes in dealing with Tony Quinn and Scientology. I felt very uneasy about this. In exploring my unease, I came to two important conclusions.  The first is that these Rigpa troubles are best viewed in the context of troubles within mainstream religion, such as within the Catholic Church, rather than in the context of fringe cults such as Scientology.  In this context, HH Dalai Lama has played more of a role towards reform than he is often given credit for.  Second, the word, “cult”, was not created by God. While there are harmful practices which can be discussed in the context of cults, there is no magic line that a group crosses in order to become a “cult.” Using that word is dangerous because it closes down thinking and possibilities. The discussion becomes an either-or, dichotomous debate, instead of one open to all possibilities and solutions.

What is a cult? It appears that this word has evolved over time and is still evolving. On Wikipedia, there is quite a long entry on the word.  There is a lack of agreement between sociologists and psychologists about the term. Here is one definition:

Sociologists have said that unlike sects, which are products of religious schism and therefore maintain a continuity with traditional beliefs and practices, cults arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices.

By this definition, Scientology certainly fits as being a cult, but I would argue that Rigpa does not fall into the category either of sect or of cult. First, Sogyal Rinpoche has not invented a new religion. And while there are gaps in the education program within Rigpa, Sogyal Rinpoche has not turned away from mainstream Buddhist thought either.

In addition, Rigpa regularly invites teachers from outside to teach at its centers. In typical “cults” the social structure is closed. It does not allow for challenges from outside.  This is how they control students. However, Rigpa does not use this ploy, thus allowing students to grow spiritually in ways that a closed “cult” would prevent.

It seems that much of our use of the word “cult” on the threads comes from an assumption that if there are certain harmful practices within a group, then the group is a cult.  Again, I refer to Wikipedia:

In the mass media, and among average citizens, “cult” gained an increasingly negative connotation, becoming associated with things like kidnapping, brainwashing, psychological abuse, sexual abuse and other criminal activity, and mass suicide… Secular cult opponents like those belonging to the anti-cult movement tend to define a “cult” as a group that tends to manipulate, exploit, and control its members. Specific factors in cult behavior are said to include manipulative and authoritarian mind control over members, communal and totalistic organization, aggressive proselytizing, systematic programs of indoctrination, and perpetuation in middle-class communities. The media was quick to follow suit, and social scientists sympathetic to the anti-cult movement, who were usually psychologists, developed more sophisticated models of brainwashing.

While some psychologists were receptive to these theories, sociologists were for the most part skeptical of their ability to explain conversion to NRMs [new religious movement]  In the late 1980s, psychologists and sociologists started to abandon theories like brainwashing and mind- control. While scholars may believe that various less dramatic coercive psychological mechanisms could influence group members, they came to see conversion to new religious movements principally as an act of a rational choice.

While I acknowledge that a quick check of Wikipedia does not constitute a definitive argument, it appears that professionals have not reached much agreement about defining this beast called “cult,” even with the presence of certain, harmful practices in a group.  Because of that fact, I suggest that it would be more fruitful for our discussions on these threads if we addressed these troubles more in terms of old, familiar terms such as “abuse of power” or “sexual abuse” or “greed” or “manipulation” rather than the emotively charged term of “cult.” (Of course, I acknowledge that this might entail taking our conversations off such websites as Dialogue Ireland, which is dedicated to exposing and dissembling cults).

Along these lines, I suggest that it would be helpful to consider the strong similarities between troubles within Rigpa and those within the Catholic Church.  One similarity is the fact that the Rigpa troubles are an example of misbehavior by a spiritual leader and subsequent, shoddy attempts at cover-up.  Students are leaving Rigpa, just as Catholics are leaving the church and though it is difficult for them to do so, though it causes them emotional pain and spiritual trauma, they would rather leave than remain part of such an operation. This becomes a mandate for reform in Rigpa, just as it is for the Catholic Church.  Momentum is building.

The second similarity between troubles within Rigpa and those within the Catholic Church is the antiquated, feudal hierarchies that they both expose. Just as the misbehaviors of priests are a symptom and exposure of even bigger troubles higher up, so many of us believe that Sogyal Rinpoche’s mischief is a symptom of a bigger trouble within Tibetan Buddhist society. This fact, added to recent troubles with young tulkus and lamas, charges the mandate for reform within Tibetan Buddhism with new urgency.

In this context, I would like to observe that HH Dalai Lama has been enormously pro-active towards resolving the troubles within Rigpa—because he has been enormously busy rebuilding the Tibetan Buddhist hierarchy and vision.  While he has not engaged in the infinite regress of finger pointing or name calling, he has made enormous reforms within Tibetan Buddhism that facilitate and empower students and teachers to move forward.  Appreciating the ways in which he has done that could be useful for us. Some examples of this are:

Two decades ago, he met with Western teachers and broke with habitual Tibetan Buddhist approaches to empower westerners to speak out.  The relevant conclusions reached by that meeting are as follows:

4) An individual’s position as a teacher arises in dependence on the request of his or her students, not simply on being appointed as such by a higher authority. Great care must therefore be exercised by the student in selecting an appropriate teacher. Sufficient time must be given to making this choice, which should be based on personal investigation, reason, and experience. Students should be warned against the dangers of falling prey to charisma, charlatans, or exoticism.

5) Particular concern was expressed about unethical conduct among teachers. Both Asian and
 Western teachers have been involved in scandals concerning sexual misconduct with their students,
 abuse of alcohol and drugs, misappropriation of funds, and misuse of power. This has resulted in
 widespread damage both to the Buddhist community and the individuals involved. Each student must be encouraged to take responsible measures to confront teachers with unethical aspects of their conduct. If the teacher shows no sign of reform, students should not hesitate to publicize any unethical behavior of which there is irrefutable evidence. This should be done irrespective of other beneficial aspects of his or her work and of one’s spiritual commitment to that teacher. It should also be made clear in any publicity that such conduct is not in conformity with Buddhist teachings. No matter what level of spiritual attainment a teacher has, or claims to have, reached, no person can stand above the norms of ethical conduct. In order for the Buddha dharma not to be brought into disrepute and to avoid harm to students and teachers, it is necessary that all teachers at least live by the five lay precepts. In cases where ethical standards have been infringed, compassion and care should be shown towards both teacher and student.

2. He has written out in texts and spoken out in teachings about the dangers of the tantric instruction to “see everything the lama does as perfect” or “to see the lama as a Buddha.”  He advises caution with these instructions.

3. He has stepped down as temporal leader of Tibet in order for full Democratic reforms to be implemented.  He has spoken of the dangers inherent in combining temporal and spiritual power.

4. For several decades, he has been engaged in dialogues with the scientific community and has added science to the monastic curriculum.  As a result of these exchanges, he has stated clearly that he disagrees with certain (outdated) aspects of the Abbhidharma (Buddhist) literature on cosmology and matter.  His dialogues with scientists are grounded in deep mutual respect.  His stated goal is to move Buddhism into the 21st century, by calling on Buddhists to be fully informed and critically aware.

5. He is an avid promoter of religious tolerance and actively discourages propagation of Buddhism.  He states repeatedly that it is safest to keep one’s own traditional religion.

6. While he doesn’t point fingers at specific lamas or name names, he is the only Tibetan Buddhist leader to speak of misbehavior on the part of lamas.  He is the only leader to acknowledge that there is a problem and to advise students on how to proceed.

7. He has initiated reforms such that female monastics can now achieve the “geshe” degree (comparable to a doctorate in Buddhist science, philosophy and religion).  Recently, at his home in Macleod Ganj in Northern India, he hosted historic debates between nuns.  In the past, Tibetan nuns frequently couldn’t even read or write and were rarely given full ordination or Buddhist studies.

All of these actions are radical and they push Tibetan Buddhism into 21st century.  This vision from the top calls for democracy and empowerment from the bottom up.  It calls for practitioners to look into their own rational minds, their own wisdom, their own common sense.  Whether we are talking about nuns standing equal to monks or about the Tibetan government-in-exile being run by a democratic system instead of a god king, this vision of His Holiness is about we-the-people.  It is a huge step from the feudal society existent in Tibet only a half century ago.

I suggest that we view our actions today within the optimism of that progress instead of within the pessimism of the problems still existent.  I suggest that Tibetan Buddhist leaders will fit it in with this changed vision or they will begin to face diminishing sanghas.  As Sogyal Rinpoche is doing.

These days, I am no longer certain that there will be a moment when we can say that this trouble has been completely resolved or finished.  However, whether Sogyal Rinpoche steps forward and does that final right thing or not, his actions and our outcries are having an effect that will make it harder for such actions to be committed by lamas in the future. Whether women file criminal/civil charges or not, our sane conversations are having an effect and women are being empowered to say—NO.  Whether we siege Rigpa bedrooms or not, we are here for those women who will need support and care.   We are here for disillusioned men as well.  They know that.

I don’t believe we can draw the line definitively and say, Rigpa is fixed now. Nor do I believe that there is the will in any of us to shut Rigpa down.  However, what we can do is empower each other so that our minds are free to think and analyze and reach sound, unbiased conclusions. What we can do is reach out to each other with warmth and kindness and attempt within ourselves to better embody the Buddha’s teachings.

Joanne Clark
Minor revision on March 18, 2013 at 9:44 pm

Why the Dalai Lama cannot condemn Tibetan self-immolations

“This is a very, very delicate political issue. Now, the reality is that if I say something positive, then the Chinese immediately blame me. If I say something negative, then the family members of those people feel very sad. They sacrificed their own life. It is not easy. So I do not want to create some kind of impression that this is wrong. So the best thing is to remain neutral.”

There are discussions and opinions from Westerners that the Dalai Lama should condemn the Tibetan self-immolations. We had these discussions also here on the blog. Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of “The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation,” states on CNN Belief Blog:

I know it is impolitic to criticize the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is revered as a bodhisattva by many Buddhists. But he deserves criticism in this case. Why not “create some kind of impression” that killing is wrong? Why not use his vast storehouse of moral and spiritual capital to denounce this ritual of human sacrifice?

If the Dalai Lama were to speak out unequivocally against these deaths, they would surely stop. So in a very real sense, their blood is on his hands. But the bad karma the Dalai Lama is accruing here extends far beyond Tibet and these particular protesters.

In a reply to it, Tenzin Dorjee, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, states on CNN blog:

In a crass display of moral blindsight, Stephen Prothero’s blog post on Tibetan self-immolations blames the victim instead of the bully.

Tibetans are stuck in one of the world’s last remaining and most brutal colonial occupations. It is through this lens, more than anything else, that we must understand the self-immolations.

Since 2009, at least 44 Tibetans – monks, nuns and lay people – have set themselves on fire to protest China’s rule; 39 self-immolations have occurred this year alone. Every one of these acts is a direct result of China’s systematic assault on the Tibetan people’s way of life, their movements, their speech, their religion, and their identity.

Instead of responding to China’s oppression with revenge – a path far more tempting to the basic human instinct – Tibetans have chosen a means far more peaceful. Without harming a single Chinese, they set aflame their own bodies to shine a light upon the atrocity taking place in their homeland. They sacrifice their own lives not in the name of “God” or “Buddha,” as Mr. Prothero so dismissively suggests, but in an altruistic intention of alerting the world to their people’s suffering.

By demanding that the Dalai Lama condemn these individuals who have shown compassion beyond our imagination, Mr. Prothero has betrayed a colossal indifference to the courage and circumstances of those fighting for the same democratic freedoms and human rights that he himself enjoys.

How can the Dalai Lama condemn the self-immolators when their motivation was evidently selfless and their tactic nonviolent? Would we ask Gandhi to condemn activists in the Indian freedom struggle who were killed while lying on the road to block British police trucks? Or the hunger strikers who were starving themselves to death in order to protest the injustices of British rule in India?

By every measure, it’s the Chinese leaders and not the Dalai Lama who are responsible for the self-immolations in Tibet. They have the power to ease tensions, reverse restrictions, and stop the self-immolations overnight. But instead of seeking a lasting solution to the Tibet issue, they continue to aggravate the situation by intensifying the repression.

No one is more tormented by the self-immolations than the Dalai Lama, whose bond with the Tibetan people goes deeper than language can express. In fact, it is the singular calming influence of the Dalai Lama that has kept the movement nonviolent to date.

As a universal icon of peace, the Dalai Lama’s spiritual influence goes well beyond the Buddhist world. Nevertheless, his moral authority is not an infinite resource. There is an invisible moral rope with which the Dalai Lama has bound the Tibetans to nonviolence for four decades. But this rope is wearing thin as China’s escalating tyranny drives Tibetans into a corner.

Self-immolation, which emerged as a tactic from being cornered for too long, represents the final outpost in the spectrum of nonviolent resistance. If this last remaining space for expression, no matter how drastic, is taken away, the rope might just snap. Chaos will ensue, vastly increasing the chances of a full-blown ethnic conflict that even the Dalai Lama will have exhausted his moral capital to stop.

From all of Mr. Prothero’s accusations, the most offensive is his comparison of self-immolations to sati – a social system in ancient India where widows were pressured to throw themselves into the funeral pyre of their deceased husbands. Self-immolation – a political act of reason – is the polar opposite of sati – a blind act of superstition.

There is not a single case of Tibetan self-immolation that was prompted by social pressure or religious obligation. Every incident of it, unexpected as it is, shakes the nation, the community, not to mention the family, to its foundations. Every Tibetan prays in his or her heart that the latest might be the last.

The image of a person engulfed in flames is shocking, often disturbing, to people living in the free world. For all our obsession with violent movies, graphic video games, and live coverage of wars, it still rips our hearts to pieces when we see a human in flames.

Rather than indulging in philosophical investigations into the morality of self-immolations, we must see these actions for what they are: urgent pleas for help from a people pushed to the brink by decades of ruthless repression.

One hopes that most people are focused on the real question at hand: how shall we answer this call?

Personally, as a Western Buddhist, I try to be cautious not to condemn others but to start any judgement from first trying to understand the events, situations and background of it. Only if I can understand, if I am able to put myself into the shoes of others, there is the opportunity for a fair judgement of things.

One argument sticks to me as being misleading in this context, and that is that – as Prothero and the Chinese official say – “If the Dalai Lama were to speak out unequivocally against these deaths, they would surely stop.” I think such a belief is based on a wrong mental image that imposes omnipotent powers to the Dalai Lama. This imagination is not based on reality. Why?

First, Tibetans themselves remark self-critically, that they usually never did what their spiritual or political leaders advised them – ‘this tradition’, as Buddhist Tibetans humorous remark – of disobeying the advice of their leaders started already at the time of King Trison Detsen (742–97). The saying goes as follows: Padmasambhava recommended Trison Detsen not to partake in the Tibetan New Year’s annual ceremonies, but Trison Detsen didn’t heed Padmasambhava’s advice (as a king he had to partake, he argued), then Padmasambhava asked him at least not to partake in the horse race, but Trison Detsen didn’t listen. During the horse race he, so it is said, fell off the horse and died. Also the 13th Dalai Lama intensively pleaded to the Tibetans to heed his advice in his “political testament” (PDF):

Therefore take measures now. Maintain friendly relations with the two great powers, China and India, conscript able soldiers to guard the borders and make them sufficiently strong to ward off those countries with whom we have had border disputes. The armed forces should be drilled and disciplined so as to be effective and strong to overcome those who threaten us. These precautions should be taken at a time when the forces of degeneration are most prevalent and when Communism is on the spread. Remember the fate that befell the Mongolian nation when Communists overran the country and where the Head Lama’s reincarnation was forbidden, where property was totally confiscated and where monasteries and religion were completely wiped out. These things have happened, are happening and will happen in the land which is the Centre of Buddhism (i.e. Tibet). So, if you are not able to defend yourselves now, the institutions of the Dalai Lama, venerable incarnates and those who protect the Teachings shall be wiped out completely. Monasteries shall be looted, property confiscated and all living beings shall be destroyed. The memorable rule of the Three Gardian kings of Tibet, the very institutions of the state and religion shall be banned and forgotten. The property of the officials shall be confiscated; they shall be slaves of the conquerors and shall roam the land in bondage. All souls shall be immersed in suffering and the night shall be long and dark.

And what did the Lhasa elite do – especially the conservative wing of the (Gelug) monasteries (most often Shugden proponents btw) – after the death of the 13th Dalai Lama? They reverted almost all of his reforms. Such deep is the “obedience” many superimpose onto the Tibetans and their relation to the Dalai Lamas or their spiritual leaders. Also the case of the 14th Dalai Lama shows many such examples, that while the Tibetans revere him tremendously most often they don’t heed his advice. To take just one example: in 1998 the Dalai Lama personally asked the “Hunger Unto Death” strikers to stop their strike in India. He clearly said that he regards this as violence against oneself and cannot agree with it. Nevertheless, though initially heeding, some of the hunger strikers picked up the political protest again and it ended in the first self-immolation of a Tibetan, the death of Thubten Ngodup.

I would like to ask those who wish to form an opinion, to do this carefully, to first take time to fully investigate the background otherwise one risks to elevate oneself over others based on a narrow minded ethical point of view, and this mode of thinking would easily go into the direction of an unfair discrimination of the Tibetans. (Westerners have this tendency – and I think Stephen Prothero might have stepped into this trap too – to place themselves higher than others based on their assumed superior ethical views without understanding the complex background of events and other cultures.) There is also another risk: shouldn’t we be ashamed about the Western countries’ silence to these self-immolations and our moral corruption with respect to the legal rights of the Tibetans as a people? Isn’t there a risk, that we project our own moral failings onto the Dalai Lama and Tibetans, attacking them, instead of asking us: Why are we silent and leave the Tibetans alone, doing nothing about the brutal colonisation of their country? As anthropologist Katia Buffetrille commented:

What is happening in Tibet is very rarely covered by the media, firstly because of the many events that shock the world, secondly, because the Western countries greatly restrain themselves when it comes to anything to say against China. They are afraid that they might miss a business …

And the Tibetan author and writer Jamyang Norbu states in a more desperate mood:

Seventy Tibetans have, one after the other, in relentless and purposeful succession, set themselves on fire for the cause of their people’s freedom. If anything so heroic, selfless, spontaneous, non-instigated, and entirely non-violent* had happened anywhere else in the world, especially in the West or in places important to Western interests, like the Middle East or North Africa, these self-immolations would not only have become headline news but would have been discussed to death (if you will forgive the expression) in TV news-shows, chat-rooms, newspaper op-eds, editorials, blog-rooms, think-tank forums and so on. The issue could even have come up in the American presidential elections, and Tibetan TV viewers watching the foreign policy debate might have been amused by the vision of Mitt Romney scolding president Obama for ignoring the immolations in Tibet and “apologizing” to China – or its equivalent in this alternate reality.

But, of course, nothing of the kind has happened in our space-time continuum. Far from being the subject of international discussion the world media has given the Tibetan immolations the absolutely minimum attention it is possible to give to a major news story, without actually opening itself to the charge of deliberately and cynically ignoring the issue altogether.

…

I must make it clear that I am not saying that the New York Times, the BBC or CNN have not reported the immolations. Clearly they have all done so, though only to the minimally acceptable extent – CNN being the worst offender. Even the tone of the published reports have been uniformly clinical and impersonal as weather reports. But the big evasion in these reports is the lack of discussion on the fundamental cause for which these Tibetans burnt themselves.

So before we judge another people in despair maybe it’s good to first question our own silence instead of questioning Tibetans, and the Dalai Lama’s supposed silence, isn’t it?

After having done this self-introspection, one might be able to ask in a fairer way why the Dalai Lama cannot condemn Tibetan self-immolations as many Westerners expect him to do.

The Dalai Lama says in The Hindu:

This is a very, very delicate political issue. Now, the reality is that if I say something positive, then the Chinese immediately blame me. If I say something negative, then the family members of those people feel very sad. They sacrificed their own life. It is not easy. So I do not want to create some kind of impression that this is wrong. So the best thing is to remain neutral.

Westerners who are so used to feel compelled to say something, to judge, to give an opinion on everything at hand seem to be unable to tolerate this neutral approach, and subsequently they project – as Prothero does it – that now there would be the self-immolators’ “blood is on his [the Dalai Lama's] hands”. Hello! The Dalai Lama didn’t kill any body, the Chinese mistreat, kill and torture Tibetans!

Moreover, according to Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama supported the appeals of the elected Tibetan government in Exile (CTA) who appealed to the Tibetans to not grasp to such drastic measures as self-immolations. Dr. Lobsang Sangay, elected prime minister of the CTA, said that while he highly discourages the drastic action, it is the “sacred duty” of the exiled community to support it.

“We have made so many appeals (to stop self-immolations), but they are still doing it,” said Sangay, the political successor of the Dalai Lama, as the number of self-immolations by monks, nuns and others swelled to 68 since March 2011.

I think it is save to say, what the Dalai Lama said already: “This is a very, very delicate political issue.”

Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama’s special representative for Europe, explained in an interview with the German radio station Deutschlandfunk (mp3 file, 01. December 2012, translation by Tenpel – sorry for the mistakes):

HEUER: At the moment, people are dying in Tibet. China now says one word of the Dalai Lama were sufficient to stop self-immolations. Why doesn’t he say anything?

GYALTSEN: The Dalai Lama is very, very worried about the situation in Tibet. And the whole world knows his attitude to non-violence and also violence towards oneself. The Dalai Lama has clearly emphasized, when the first case of self-immolation 1998 in Delhi took place that also violence against oneself is an act of violence and should be avoided.

HEUER: But that’s 14 years ago. Why doesn’t he say anything now?

GYALTSEN: Why now he says nothing about it? If the Dalai Lama in this situation cannot offer Tibetans any alternatives in how they can achieve their rights then he simply cannot prohibit the Tibetans to protest against the Chinese’s policy of oppression. Since years he offered to engage in talks [with China].

He makes clear that he doesn’t strive for independence and separation but for a genuine autonomy within the People’s Republic of
China. But the Chinese government is not responding to this offer. If the Chinese government would give any sign that the Chinese leadership is willing to address the concern of the Tibetans, the dissatisfaction of the Tibetans seriously, then I’m convinced that the Dalai Lama would offer every help and cooperation.

HEUER: Mr. Gyaltsen, but then I understand you correctly: As long as that is not the case, the Dalai Lama approves the suicides because they are a protest against Chinese rule and because they create publicity?

GYALTSEN: That’s not the case at all. There can be no talk of his [supposed] endorsement! He must offer an alternative to the Tibetans,
how they can gain their [basic human] rights without immolating themselves. Tell me this alternative!

HEUER: I can not tell you any, but it is clear that people continue to kill themselves. And that you do not do anything against it, that the Dalai Lama does not intervene.

GYALTSEN: But! That’s not right. The elected Tibetan leaders have repeatedly appealed to the Tibetans in Tibet, not to resort to such drastic forms of protest. And the Dalai Lama has supported all of these appeals from the elected Tibetan leaders [in exile].

HEUER: Mr. Gyaltsen, the international community is predominantly silent given to what we’re seeing now in Tibet.
I want to focus this on Germany. We have last experienced that Angela Merkel has publicly criticized Russian President Putin and has tangled with him. Do you wish something like this in dealing with the Chinese Government?

GYALTSEN: Of course! The question, Ms. Heuer, in the frame we are discussing had to be: What does the Chinese government do to stop the self-immolation of Tibetans? What does the international community do to convince the Tibetans thereof not to resort to these forms of protest? You can not, as the Chinese do, blame the Dalai Lama for all the problems that exist in Tibet. The Dalai Lama lives since 50 years outside of Tibet. About 95 percent of the Tibetans who live in Tibet have never seen the Dalai Lama. And still the Chinese explain that for every protest in Tibet, for each of these self-immolations the Dalai Lama as the culprit. I think in this context, of course, Germany is in a very good position, to take effect on China. Germany is China’s largest trading partner in Europe and has a major impact. And an active involvement of the German government, to relax the situation in Tibet and to create a real Dialogue between the Tibetans and the Chinese leadership, would be seen by us Tibetans as being very, very welcomed.

Conclusion

So, why the Dalai Lama cannot condemn Tibetan self-immolations? Ask this yourself but please based on an informed perspective. In my opinion it is strange to expect from a person to condemn actions that are the last means of an oppressed people against their oppressors, a means that does not inflict harm on the oppressors but “only” on themselves. How can I condemn this or expect others to do this?

However, based in the immense suffering self-immolation is creating for oneself and the families, I would highly welcome any action that can stop the self-immolations, right now. This is even more so, since more than 100 self-immolations of Tibetans haven’t turned any thing to the better but only increased China’s oppression. The more than 100 Tibetan self-immolations have not achieved any similar result to the self-immolation of Quảng Đửc, or the self-immolation of Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi that became the catalyst for what has become known as the Arab Spring.

It was the Dalai Lama himself who – besides his known stance on non-violence – also questioned the effectiveness of the Tibetan self-immolations. He said, that these actions would lead to increased repression (see Katia Buffetrille).

Self-Immolations in Perspective

• Self-Immolation in Context, 1963-2012 by Michael Biggs (University of Oxford)
• A reading list: Toward an Understanding of Self-Immolation (as ‘fire suicide’ or ‘auto-cremation’): A Basic Reading Guide

Appeals to Stop Self-Immolations

• Senior exiled Tibetan (Karmapa Lama) urges end to immolations (Reuters)
• Dalai Lama questions wisdom of self-immolations (BBC)
• Lobsang Sangay Discusses Self-Immolation Of Tibetan Buddhist Monks (Huffington Post)
• Plea to Stop Burnings Ignored (Radio Free Asia)
• Naktsang Nulo shares his thoughts on Self-Immolations of Tibetans

The Power of the Dalai Lama in Perspective

• FAQ-Interview with Tibetologist Thierry Dodin

Further Readings

• How Many Self-Immolating Tibetans Does It Take to Make a Difference? – TIME
• Make it a burning issue by Jamyang Norbu
• A collection of scholarly papers in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines
• SELF-IMMOLATION AS PROTEST IN TIBET – Guest Editors: Carole McGranahan (University of Colorado) and Ralph Litzinger (Duke University)
• A large compendium of background material and commentary – provided by the Cultural Anthropology Journal
• Self-immolation as political protest (Prague University)

On this blog

• China is criminalizing self-immolators, arresting protesters’ friends and confiscating thousands of satellite TV dishes 2013/01/21
• Trying to Understand the Self-immolations of Tibetans 2013/01/09
• Tibet’s Independence – Tibet as a Feudal Hell 2013/01/01
• The Burning Question: Why are Tibetans Turning to Self-immolation? 2012/11/10

Last edited by tenpel on March 16, 2013 at 12:35 pm

The Guru-Disciple Relationship – Advice by HH the Dalai Lama

In “Healing Anger – The power of patience from a Buddhist perspective” pub. Snow Lion, USA 1997, pp 83-85, H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, states:

Q: What do you think about Dharma teachers who speak and write about Dharma beautifully, but do not live it?

A: Because Buddha knew of this potential consequence, he was very strict in prescribing the qualities that are necessary for a person to be qualified as a teacher. Nowadays, it seems, this is a serious issue. First on the teacher’s side: the person who gives some teaching, or gives talks on Dharma must have really trained, learned, and studied. Then, since the subject is not history or literature, but rather a spiritual one, the teacher must gain some experience. Then when that person talks about a religious subject with some experience, it carries some weight. Otherwise, it is not so effective. Therefore, the person who begins to talk to others about the Dharma must realize the responsibility, must be prepared. That is very important. Because of this importance, Lama Tsongkhapa, when he describes the qualifications that are necessary for an individual to become a teacher, quotes from Maitreya’s Ornament of Scriptures, in which Maitreya lists most of the key qualifications that are necessary on the part of the teacher, such as that the teacher must be disciplined, at peace with himself, compassionate, and so on. At the conclusion, Lama Tsongkhapa sums up by stating that those who wish to seek a spiritual teacher must first of all be aware of what the qualifications are that one should look for in a teacher. Then, with that knowledge, seek a teacher. Similarly, those who wish to seek students and become teachers must not only be aware of these conditions, but also judge themselves to see whether they possess these qualities, and if not, work towards possessing them. Therefore, from the teachers’ side, they also must realize the great responsibility involved. If some individual, deep down, is really seeking money, then I think it is much better to seek money through other means. So if the deep intention is a different purpose, I think this is very unfortunate. Such an act is actually giving proof to the Communist accusation that religion is an instrument for exploitation. This is very sad.

Buddha himself was aware of this potential for abuse. He therefore categorically stated that one should not live a way of life which is acquired through five wrong means of livelihood. One of them is being deceptive and flattering toward one’s benefactor in order to get maximal benefit.

Now, on the students’ side, they also have responsibility. First, you should not accept the teacher blindly. This is very important. You see, you can learn Dharma from someone you accept not necessarily as a guru, but rather as a spiritual friend. Consider that person until you know him or her very well, until you gain full confidence and can say, “Now, he or she can be my guru.” Until that confidence develops, treat that person as a spiritual friend. Then study and learn from him or her. You also can learn through books, and as time goes by, there are more books available. So I think this is better.

Here I would like to mention a point which I raised as early as thirty years ago about a particular aspect of the guru-disciple relationship. As we have seen with Shantideva’s text Guide to the Bodhisatva’s Way of Life, we find that in a particular context certain lines of thought are very much emphasized, and unless you see the argument in its proper context there is a great potential for misunderstanding. Similarly, in the guru-disciple relationship, because your guru plays such an important role in serving as the source of inspiration, blessing, transmission, and so on, tremendous emphasis is placed on maintaining proper reliance upon and a proper relationship with one’s guru. In the texts describing these practices we find a particular expression, which is, “May I be able to develop respect for the guru, devotion to the guru, which would allow me to see his or her every action as pure.”

I stated as early as thirty years ago that this is a dangerous concept. There is a tremendous potential for abuse in this idea of trying to see all the behaviours of the guru as pure, of seeing everything the guru does as enlightened. I have stated that this is like a poison. To some Tibetans, that sentence may seem a little bit extreme. However, it seems now, as time goes by, that my warning has become something quite relevant. Anyway, that is my own conviction and attitude, but I base the observation that this is a potentially poisonous idea on Buddha’s own words. For instance, in the Vinaya teachings, which are the scriptures that outline Buddha’s ethics and monastic discipline, where a relationship toward one’s guru is very important, Buddha states that although you will have to accord respect to your guru, if the guru happens to give you instructions which contradict the Dharma, then you must reject them.

There are also very explicit statements in the sutras, in which Buddha states that any instructions given by the guru that accord with the general Dharma path should be followed, and any instructions given by the guru that do not accord with the general approach of the Dharma should be discarded.

It is in the practice of Highest Yoga Tantra of Vajrayana Buddhism where the guru-disciple relationship assumes great importance. For instance, in Highest Yoga Tantra we have practices like guru yoga, a whole yoga dedicated toward one’s relation to the guru. However, even in Highest Yoga Tantra we find statements which tell us that any instructions given by the guru which do not accord with Dharma cannot be followed. You should explain to the guru the reasons why you can’t comply with them, but you should not follow the instructions just because the guru said so. What we find here is that we are not instructed to say, “Okay, whatever you say, I will do it,” but rather we are instructed to use our intelligence and judgment and reject instructions which are not in accord with Dharma.

However we do find, if we read the history of Buddhism, that there were examples of single-pointed guru devotion by masters such as Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa which may seem a little extreme. But we find that while these masters, on the surface, may look like outcasts or beggars, or they may have strange behaviours which sometimes lead other people to lose faith, nevertheless when the necessity came for them to reinforce other people’s faith in the Dharma and in themselves as spiritual teachers, these masters had a counterbalancing factor – a very high level of spiritual realization. This was so much so that they could display supernatural powers to outweigh whatever excesses people may have found in them, conventionally speaking. However, in the case of some of the modern-day teachers, they have all the excesses in their unethical behaviours but are lacking in this counterbalancing factor, which is the capacity to display supernatural powers. Because of this, it can lead to a lot of problems.

Therefore, as students, you should first watch and investigate thoroughly. Do not consider someone as a teacher or guru until you have certain confidence in the person’s integrity. This is very important. Then, second, even after that, if some unhealthy things happen, you have the liberty to reject them. Students should make sure that they don’t spoil the guru. This is very important.

---

In “The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra”, pp. 209–211, His Holiness the Dalai Lama states:

Premature Commitment To An Unsuitable Guru

In some cases it happens that disciples do not examine a spiritual teacher very carefully before accepting him or her as their guru and committing themselves to a guru/disciple relationship. They may even have received tantric empowerments from this teacher. But then they find they were wrong. They see many flaws in this teacher and discover many serious mistakes he or she has made. They find that this teacher does not really suit them. Their minds are uneasy regarding this person and they are filled with doubts and possibly regret. What to do in such a circumstance?

The mistake, of course, is that originally the disciples did not examine this teacher very carefully before committing themselves to him or her. But this is something of the past that has already happened. No one can change that. In the future, of course, they must examine any potential guru much more thoroughly. But, as for what to do now in this particular situation with this particular guru, it is not productive or helpful to continue investigating and scrutinizing him or her in terms of suspicions or doubts. Rather, as The Kalachakra Tantra recommends, it is best to keep a respectful distance. They should just forget about him or her and not have anything further to do with this person.

It is not healthy, of course, for disciples to deny serious ethical flaws in their guru, if they are in fact true, or his or her involvement in Buddhist power-politics, if this is the case. To do so would be a total loss of discriminating awareness. But for disciples to dwell on these points with disrespect, self-recrimination, regret or other negative attitudes is not only unnecessary, unhelpful and unproductive, it is also improper. They distance themselves even further from achieving a peaceful state of mind and may seriously jeopardize their future spiritual progress. I think it best in this circumstance just to forget about this teacher.

Premature Commitment To Tantra And Daily Recitation Practices

It may also occur that disciples have taken tantric empowerments prematurely, thinking that since tantra is famous as being so high, it must be beneficial to take this initiation. They feel they are ready for this step and take the empowerment, thereby committing themselves to the master conferring it as now being their tantric guru. Moreover, they commit themselves as well to various sets of vows and a daily recitation meditation practice. Then later these disciples realize that this style of practice does not suit them at all, and again they are filled with doubts, regrets, and possibly fear. Again, what to do?

We can understand this with an analogy. Suppose, for instance, we go to a store, see some useful but exotic item that strikes our fancy and just buy it on impulse, even though it is costly. When we bring it home, we find, after examining the item more soberly now that we are out of the exciting, seductive atmosphere of the marketplace, that we have no particular use for it at the moment. In such situation, it is best not to throw the thing out in the garbage, but rather to put it aside. Later we might find it, in fact, very useful.

The same conclusion applies to the commitments disciples have taken prematurely at a tantric empowerment without sufficient examination to determine if they were ready for them. In such situations, rather than deciding that they are never going to use it at all and throwing the whole thing away, such disciples would do better to establish a neutral attitude toward it, putting tantra and their commitments aside and leaving it like that. This is because they may come back to them later and find them very precious and useful.

Suppose, however, disciples have taken an empowerment and have accepted the commitment to practice the meditations of a particular Buddha-form by reciting a sadhana, a method of actualization, to guide them through a complex sequence of visualization and mantra repetition. Although they still have faith in tantra, they find that their recitation commitment is too long and it has become a great burden and strain to maintain it as a daily practice. What to do then? Such disciples should abbreviate their practice. This is very different from the previous case in which certain disciples find that tantric practice in general does not suit them at the present stage of their spiritual life. Everyone has time each day to eat and to sleep. Likewise, no matter how busy they are, no matter how many family and business responsibilities they may have, such disciples can at least find a few minutes to maintain the daily continuity of generating themselves in their imagination in the aspect of a Buddha-form and reciting the appropriate mantra. They must make some effort. Disciples can never progress anywhere on the spiritual path if they do not make at least a minimal amount of effort.

---

In “The Gelug/Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra”, pp. 185–186, His Holiness the Dalai Lama states about

The Root Guru

Sometimes we differentiate a root guru from our other gurus and focus particularly on him or her for our practice of guru-yoga. Our root guru is usually described in the context of tantra as the one who is kind to us in three ways. There are several manners of explaining these three types of kindness. One, for example, is the kindness to confer upon us empowerments, explanatory discourses on the tantric practices and special guideline instructions for them. If we have received empowerments and discourses from many gurus, we consider as our root guru the one who has had the most beneficial effect upon us. For deciding this, we do not examine in terms of the actual qualifications of the guru from his or her own side, but rather in terms of our own side and the benefit we have gained in our personal development and the state of mind this guru elicits in us. We consider the rest of our gurus as emanations or manifestations of that root guru …

More about the Teacher-Student-Relationship

• Questioning the Advice of the Guru by H.H. the XIV. Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso
• Relating to the Guru by Jetsünma Tenzin Palmo
• The Teacher-Student-Relationship by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye
• Relating to a Spiritual Teacher: Building a Healthy Relationship by Dr. Alexander Berzin
• East-West, West-East by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche
• Approaching the Guru by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
• Devotion with Discernment – A question of personal responsibility by Rob Preece
• Maha-Moggallana by Hellmuth Hecker

Spiritual Teacher and Sexual Abuse / Sexual Exploitation

• Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein
• Books On Sexual Exploitation By Professionals – Selected and reviewed by James Park

See also

• Open Letter – Conference of Western Buddhist Teachers

Posts on this Blog

• The Bodhisattva & Sexuality – The Skill In Means Sutra 2013/01/31
• Dangerous Cult Leaders – Psychology today 2013/01/13
• Is forsaking the Guru, Kelsang Gyatso, worse than the karma generated by Hitler and Mao Tse Tung? 2012/11/01
• Kumaré: A True Film About a False Prophet 2012/07/27
• Sex And The Lama by Gavin Kilty 2012/07/11
• Characteristics of those unsuitable to be gurus 2010/11/05

  Last edited by tenpel on April 27, 2013 at 11:39 pm

Full Ordination for Women: Thailand’s Buddhist nuns cautiously lobby for legal recognition

Thai Bhikkhunis have their own limitations, not just because they number only 25 compared with the approximate 200,000 male monks here. They lack legal recognition – a denial that accompanies various withholdings of public benefits, and it highlights a persistent issue of discrimination for women across the country.

A revived campaign to grant Bhikkhunis legal recognition launched quietly at the end of July, with advocates hoping that minimal fanfare would help them evade the conservative religious opposition that has prevented the movement from strengthening for more than 80 years.

“This is a basic human rights issue,” says prominent former senator and lawyer Paiboon Nititawan, an organizer of the Bhikkhunis’ rights movement.

For more read: Thailand’s female monks (cautiously) lobby for legal recognition by the Christian Science Monitor

See also

• Buddhist text’s true author identified as Thai woman – BBC News
  1st International Congress on Buddhist Women’s Role in the Sangha: Bhikshuni Vinaya and Ordination Lineages held at the University of Hamburg from July 18-20, 2007
• First female Geshe: Geshe Kelsang Wangmo 2012/10/06

Last edited by tenpel on April 1, 2013 at 8:35 pm

NKT monks beat retreat over wind farm – from Tharpaland to Schloss Sommerswalde

Selling Tharpaland

The Sunday Times (Mark Macaskill) has published an article about the selling of NKT’s Tharpaland to one of Britain’s largest energy firms who builds close by a wind farm.

“The monks” of the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) claim that they “have been forced to sell” Tharpaland and they submitted “evidence” to a Scottish parliamentary inquiry into the government’s renewable energy plans. According to Macaskill

In it they attack windfarms as “centres of massive and traumatic disturbance” and urge ministers to introduce a six-mile buffer zone to protect local communities.

Macaskill states further that the

Monks at the Tharpaland retreat centre in the forest of Ae, in Dumfries and Galloway, claim “infrasound” from turbines can cause “mental sinking” that disrupts their ability to meditate and commune with nature.

The claims of “the monks” sound all very strange to me, especially that the NKT monks attack wind farms as “centres of massive and traumatic disturbance” and that “low-level noise from a wind farm will severely affect their health.” NKT made also exaggerated claims that thousands of people from all over the world would have attended the retreats at Tharpaland.

The study (PDF) – financed by the New Kadampa Tradition – states:

The three windfarm studies showed a consistent and progressive average 70% loss in ability to develop concentration over the various distances approaching the windfarms, and virtually a total loss in ability to develop concentration at the turbine site itself. (p. 12)

Further it reports that retreaters have

… reported disturbing negative psychological reactions including (1) confusion (2) loss of self-confidence (3) effects similar to depression (4) effects similar to mania (5) irritability and anger (6) heightened emotionality and crying. (p. 15)

To make clear that the retreaters are not mentally unstable or ‘a bit crazy’ and that the reported effects are mainly created by the wind farm, Dr Alexa Hepburn, PhD, Lecturer in Social Psychology, Loughborough University, comments:

It is important to emphasise that these reactions are very different from subjects’ normally happy and well-balanced psychological states … (p. 15)

To dispel doubts about the reliability of the retreaters’ reports Hepburn goes so far as to claim that the retreaters were “not ordinary subjects” and would be “uniquely qualified to participate in the evaluation” due to their “meditation training and experience” and because “the subjects have all taken vows for life to abstain from lying and only speak the truth and were explicitly instructed to be ‘objective’ and completely truthful in reporting their experience.” (Obviously the issue of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, and the dishonest and duplicity mode of the New Kadampa Tradition were not taken into consideration.) Hephurn concludes that “It is therefore unlikely that conscious subject bias is present to any great extent in the results.” (p.8)

The study by Hepburn reports also about “Disturbing Visual Effects”:

Many of the subjects reported adverse effects just looking at the turbines, describing the demand quality and hypnotic effects of their spinning blades and the shadow flicker as very disturbing … (p. 16)

and it conlcudes that

For most of the subjects in these studies, these windfarms were centres of massive and traumatic disturbance, even after only a few hours. In almost all cases, subjects reported a ‘relief’ in leaving the turbine field. Had they actually been in strict silent retreat at the time of their windfarm visits, their experiences would have been devastating. (p.21)

The ‘farewell photo’ from the facebook page of Tharpaland Kadampa Meditation Centre shows only 1 monk and 8 nuns … where are “the monks”? All together there are about 48 persons on the image. The centre is rather small.

Tharpaland has total assets of £770,085 plus total liabilities of £54,798. It was given as a gift to Kelsang Gyatso, the founder of the NKT, by a devoted follower. It would be at least a possibility that “hav[ing] been forced to sell” the asset “to one of Britain’s largest energy firms” was quite in the interest of the organisation […].

There seem to be some oddities in all of this … and there is more:

The Dumfries and Galloway Standard reported “Concerned monks submitted evidence […] claiming they suffered serious side effects when they were praying within five miles of a windfarm.” The New Kadampa Tradition moves the Tharpaland retreat centre now to Schloss Sommerswalde – (former East-) Germany, Brandenburg, near Schwante. However, at this new location there is already a wind farm about 4.25 miles away from it. The wind farm has four wind turbines with all together 1,604 KW wind power, making an average of 401.00 KW per wind turbine, and is located in Oberkrämer (Vehlefanz/Eichstädt).

Distance between Schloss Sommerswalde (Tharpaland retreat centre near Schwante) and wind farm Oberkrämer (Vehlefanz/Eichstädt): 4.25 miles. Distance calculation via http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

Wind farm with four wind turbines near the new Tharpaland retreat centre.
Distance calculation via http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm

According to Hepburn’s study the proposed Forest of Ae wind turbine rating is 3.00 MW and 95 wind turbines are planned. This would be of course a by far greater project than the wind farm nearby the new Tharpaland retreat centre at Schloss Sommerswalde. But still, if Hepburn’s The Effects Of Windfarms On Meditative Retreaters study is reliable the retreaters at the new Tharpaland home must expect that “their experiences” will be “devastating”, and that they have to undergo “massive and traumatic disturbance”, “(1) confusion (2) loss of self-confidence (3) effects similar to depression (4) effects similar to mania (5) irritability and anger (6) heightened emotionality and crying” because the new Tharpaland home is ”within five miles of a windfarm.”

From Tharpaland to Schloss Sommerswalde

or From one asset to another

NKT is now using Schloss Sommerswalde near Schwante (Brandenburg, close to Berlin) as their new retreat centre and all NKT resident members there — including people from the village who live at this place — have to leave. Some of the villagers who live at Schloss Sommerswalde have been living there already for some decades and their tenancy agreements with the NKT were – at least in the past – sacrosanct. When I remember correctly, the local government (Gemeinde Oberkrämer) made it a condition when NKT bought the castle the first time, that the tenancy agreements with the villagers are sacrosanct. (I lived there from 2000–2002. I was also involved in some of the management issues at that time, including a press conference etc.)

Gemeinde Oberkrämer and the former local major, Manfred Lehmann, were informed in the past by a quite accepted and established Christian cult authority that NKT is seen as a cult but they ignored the warnings – although there was a great controversy with respect to a Transcendental Meditation (TM) group at the same time nearby who bought a big property in Rheinsberg (Brandenburg). The local priest, Pfarrer Johannes Kölbel, didn’t reply to an email I sent him hinting to the problems, when I left the group in 2002.

The local community, including major and priest, were also informed about NKT’s controversial background by ourselves, and at that time they sided with us. As far as my information goes, nobody is willing to listen to the problems within the group. The main reason for turning a blind eye on the groups’ controversial backgrounds might be that the local communities in former East Germany desperately are looking for landlords who take care of the old, much neglected, and maintenance intensive castles. However, there seems to be also an underlying Western society issue where political correctness and misunderstood religious tolerance lead towards an unwillingness to listen to people who report about their real life problems within religious organisations or the harm they receive by the power abuse of religious institutions. In order to be able to sell the castle and to have “peace and harmony” one neglects controversial settings: “No problems, please!”.

According to the TAZ,

The cult commissioner of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg, Thomas Gandow,  states that the Kadampa tradition is a cult of Tibetan Buddhism, which is completely isolated within Buddhism.

Picture postcard – aerial photograph of Castle Sommerswalde

Castle Sommerswalde near Schwante – Main Building

Castle Sommerswalde near Schwante – Main Building

Former horse barn at Castle Sommerswalde

Adjoining building at Castle Sommerswalde

Orangerie at Castle Sommerswalde

© Wikimedia & Doris Antony put it under the GFDL and CC-BY-SA-3.0

The NKT plans now to restore the building of the village residents (Orangerie) with a lot of modernization measures from the roof down to the cellar by April 2013. The costs will sum up for this restoration to more than 200,000€. The tenants from the village who live at the Orangerie have to pay a part of the bill, and so their monthly rental costs will be increased by more than 100€ when the restoration will be finished.

This seems to be now the way to get rid of the non-NKT tenants who are not willing to leave. Some other tenants are more willing to leave because they expect a well paid comparision from NKT by leaving the place.

In the past the NKT didn’t care in any way to restore or maintain the tenant’s building. So, why are they suddenly so caring?

Some background information about NKT at Schloss Sommerswalde

In 2000 the NKT (via Dipankara Zentrum, which I was a member of at that time) bought Schloss Sommerswalde for the first time from the ministry of the German federal state Brandenburg for 1,5 million DM. At that time there were certain legal requirements attached to the purchase contract which we, the NKT, needed to fulfil. Among the many requirements like a kindergarten, a public library, a cultural meeting point, a hospice, and the reconstruction of the building we had to promise to invest 6 million DM into the whole castle ensemble. One of the requirements was also that the tenancy agreements of the people living on the castle ground were protected and we, the NKT, couldn’t cancel them. Only if all these requirements were fulfilled after 10 years (when I remember correctly), the property would be owned by the charity trust.

Then in 2000 Kelsang Gyatso expelled Kelsang Dechen, the NKT resident teacher. She personally had to guarantee for the finances (the main sponsor was related to her), and the property was legally in the hands of the German charity trust which legally separated from NKT. NKT UK tried to get the castle by suing the German charity trust but lost the court case. At one point NKT members illegally occupied the place – entering through the windows – and the police was called to eject them. (We had to do this twice with NKT.) (Quite complicated story …) The German charity trust – without the financial backup of NKT and due to the utter unrealistic claims in order to get the property  (the public was for instance deceived by claiming we had 700 supporters. The number came from counting all peoples who ever gave their name for a newsletter, later it was exaggerated to 2.000–3.000 supporters + we were only very few people with not too many professional skills) — got bankrupt about four or five years after the splitting from NKT (the official declaration of insolvency had been made in 2005.)

The castle ground was then for sale again but no spiritual community, including Thich Nhat Hanh, was interested: too big, too demanding, too much damage for community life. In October 2005 the NKT organised an International Kadampa Festival at Werbellinsee (Joachimsthal) which brought a plus for 1,000,000€. This was the cash with which the castle ground at Sommerswalde was bought in a compulsory auction for the second time. But now there were quite likely no legal requirements stipulated in the purchase contract, at least none referring to the rent contracts of the villagers who live there.

In Germany a landlord has only very limited rights to terminate a tenancy agreement. For a landlord it is only allowed to do so, if he needs the space for himself or for his family members and a landlord in Germany has to justify the termination in written form. By being “pressured to leave Tharpaland” the NKT made some of their people “homeless”, so they might use this now as a justification to dissolve the tenancy contracts. (Which in turn increases the value of the property.) The main reason that has been brought forward by the NKT in their cancellation of the tenancy agreements at Schloss Sommerswalde was that they need the tenants’ flats of the villagers for themselves in order to accommodate NKT members who have moved from Tharpaland IRC, Scotland to Germany.

Besides the huge castle there are three big adjoining buildings situated on the castle ground (see images above) – two of them were empty before the NKT has decided to move from Scotland to Germany. Up till now there weren’t more than 6 or 7 NKT members from Scotland. Two or three of them are living in one of the buildings that were empty before. While this building was completely restored nothing ever was done to repair the building of the villagers (Orangerie) who live there during all those years. Another huge building is still empty. In the evenings one can see that only one or two rooms of the castle (if any at all) are illuminated.

The NKT people who lived in Schloss Sommerswalde after the second purchase and who reconstructed it move now to Berlin to set up another Kadampa Meditation Centre. I met recently twice a NKT monk in Friedrichshain (a region in Berlin) in December 2012.

There are only few Geman articles nowadays online. The whole story is very interesting, and I think a journalist could take time to explore it.

• Spirituelle Ruhe by TAZ*
• Buddhas Jünger ziehen in den “Reichstag” ein - Die Welt
• very interesting finding and summery of a anti-cult group which I can confirm: http://www.religio.de/dialog/100/20_29-30.htm
• a summery I made mainly myself on Wikipedia: Ganden Tashi Choeling
• Der Buddha im Reichstag by TAZ
• Buddhisten restaurieren Schloss Sommerswalde by Berliner Morgenpost**
• Der Weg zu Buddha im kleinen Reichstag by Tagesspiegel

To get a better understanding of the deceptive nature of NKT it is good to get to know at least a bit of the history of Maitreya Buddhist Centre – which stands also for cases within NKT not made public – and the deceptive campaign of the Western Shugden Society or Shugden Supporter Community.

* The article mentions Mönch Tashi – that am I ;-) – there are so many stories behind the scenes, about the press conference, press work, unsubstantiated claims …
** The Berliner Morgenpost was the only newspaper who reported critically about the first purchase of Schloss Sommerswalde. They mentioned in their article that our Dipankara centre is accused of being a cult, and that the finances and the whole situation is not transparent and includes contradictions. The journalist of the Berliner Morgenpost was well informed and didn’t buy our charming offensive, and what we said to ‘dispel doubts’. During the official press conference on the occasion of purchasing the building ensemble – which was widely reported – he was the only one who questioned us and the purchase. All other journalists just repeated and reported what we claimed without any checking or questioning.

See also

• Monks beat retreat over wind farm by The Sunday Times
• Monks selling retreat at Ae forest by The Dumfries and Galloway Standard
• The Effects Of Windfarms On Meditative Retreaters – A Human Impact Assessment (Interim Report) (PDF) by Dr Alexa Hepburn
• An earlier comment on this blog
• Info on a legal case the NKT were involved in
• Highden Manor in Buddhist bust-up by Manawatu Standard

Update 27 April 2013

A new research was published by Psychologist Keith J. Petrie and his colleagues of the Medical Highschool in Auckland in the journal Health Psychology. The reason for the symptoms reported in the context of wind turbines they demonstrated to be based on the Nocebo Effect.

For details see:

• Can Expectations Produce Symptoms From Infrasound Associated With Wind Turbines?

  Last edited by tenpel on April 27, 2013 at 7:41 pm

The Bodhisattva & Sexuality – The Skill In Means Sutra

We had some discussion on the blog about ethics & safety. We mainly looked onto the ethics from the point of view of the Vinaya, and we only slightly touched the ethics from the Vajrayana point of view. This post should stress the Mahayana point of view and is an extract / quote from the The Skill in Means Sutra (Upayakausalya-Sutra) translated by Prof. Dr. Mark Tatz who dedicated the work to his gurus Kalu Rinpoche and Dezhung Rinpoche.

The cover of the book says about this sutra:

This rare Sutra, ancient but timely, has long been treated with circumspection because of its liberal attitude toward sexuality and other ethical concerns. One of the original statements of the early Mahayana school, it is here collated from Chinese and Tibetan translations, and from passages that remain in the original Sanskrit. Originally part of a larger sutra on the six perfections that included the well-known Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, the Skill in Means Sutra explicates the other five perfections of the Bodhisattva. The translator has traced its source to verses of the Ratnagunasamcaya-gatha that have no counterpart in the Perfection of Wisdom. The Skill in Means is also found as part of the Ratnakuta collection of sutras, under the title The Question of Jnanottara’.

The Bodhisattva and Sexuality: The Bodhisattva “King at the Head of the Masses”

23. Then the master Ananda said to the Lord:
“Venerable Lord, the Thus-Come-One may be the teacher of all sentient beings; and it may be that there is nothing not known to, not seen and realized by, not directly evident to him. Nevertheless, the Thus-Come-One has said, ‘When you see a monk incur a transgression, do not dissemble, but tell your fellow celibates or the Thus-Come-One. Therefore I relate this to the Lord, with friendliness and the intention of avoiding an act of transgression.

“Venerable Lord, as I was making my round for alms in this great city of Sravasti, I saw the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses inside a certain house, together with a woman on a couch.”

When master Ananda had finished speaking, the great earth suddenly shook in six ways.

24. Then the Bodhisattva King at the Head of Masses levitated and sat in the atmosphere before the Lord at seven times the height of a palm tree. Addressing master Ananda, he said: “Master Ananda, what do you think of this? Can someone sit in the atmosphere while possessed of a subject of transgression?”

Ananda answered, “No, son of the family, he cannot.”

The Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses asked again: “Then let master Ananda ask the Thus-Come-One who is present before us now how one comes to be possessed of a subject of Bodhisattva transgression.”

Master Ananda was disconcerted. Bowing his head to the feet of the Lord, he said to the Lord:

“Venerable Lord, I disclose as an offense the offense I have committed in accusing such a standard-bearer of a fault. May it please the Lord to accept as an offense the offense I have confessed as an offense.”

25. The Lord replied to master Ananda: “Ananda, do not conceive of a holy person, someone practicing the Greater Vehicle correctly, as being faulty. Ananda, this is how you should understand it: A person of the vehicle of the auditors, in order to be absolutely peerless in maintaining meditative calm, will seek uninterruptedly to exhaust the outflows. In the same way, Ananda, the Bodhisattva great hero who is skilled in means, who is endowed with the thought of omniscience, will seek uninterruptedly for omniscience, even to the point of abiding among a holy retinue of women and enjoying, playing with, and taking pleasure in it.

“Why so? Ananda, the Bodhisattva great hero who is skilled in means takes a retinue only to introduce it to the three jewels—the jewel of the Buddha, the jewel of the doctrine and the jewel of the community—and to supreme,
right and full awakening.

“Ananda, if you should see a son of the family or a daughter of the family (someone of the Bodhisattva vehicle) who, while not parted from the thought of omniscience, is enjoying, playing with and taking pleasure in the five sensuous qualities—then, Ananda, you should understand that the holy person in question is endowed with five faculties like those of the Thus-Come-One.

26, “Now listen, Ananda, to why the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses was sitting together with a woman on a couch. That woman, Ananda, had been the wife of Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses for the past
five hundred lives. Because of that clumsiness (ayonisa) in the past, her thoughts clung to that son of the family. On the other band, she perceived the splendor and majesty (generated by the power of his past morality) of the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses. She found herself incapable of uttering the words that would take her to (sic) a lower rebirth.

“Off in private, the thought arose in her mind, If the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses were to sit with me on a couch, I also would generate the thought of supreme, right and full awakening.

27.  Ananda, the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses 
cognized that sister’s supposition with his mind.
He let the night pass and in the morning put on his under and outer robes, took his bowl and went for alms to the great city of Sravasti. Wandering through the great city of Sravasti for alms, he came to the house of that sister.

“He thought about the earth-equivalency—the spiritual exercise of equating the internal and external elements of earth. He took that sister by the right hand, and they sat down on a couch. As soon as they had been seated, he spoke this stanza:

The Buddha does not praise desire;
That is the range of the foolish.
Eliminate craving for sense-objects,
And become the best of humanity—a Buddha.

28. “Ananda, then that sister, hearing the stanza, was elated and jubilant.
 She rose from the couch and fell at the feet of the Bodhisattva King at the
 Head of the Masses, Then she uttered these stanzas:

Desires censured by the Buddha,
I will not seek hereafter;
Abandoning thirst for sense-objects,
I’ll become the best humanity—a Buddha.

The offensive thought I was thinking,
I hereby confess to you;
For the welfare of all living creatures,
I generate the wish for awakening.

29, “Ananda, the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses instructed that sister in supreme, right and full awakening, built her up to it, introduced her to it, and established her in it with that skill in means. Then he rose from the couch and departed.

“Ananda, regard the distinction of his beneficent intentions! Ananda, I make this prediction in regard to that sister: Upon transmigrating from here, she will exchange her woman’s body. After 9.9 million ‘incalculable’ eons, she will become and appear in the world as a Thus-Come-One, a Worthy, a fully perfected Buddha named Free From Obsession, in the Buddha-field in which he obtains awakening, sentient beings will have no unwholesome obsession at all in their minds.

“Ananda, you may understand by this account how a Bodhisattva takes a retinue without its becoming a subject of transgression.”

30. Then the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses descended from the atmosphere. He made a prostration to the Lord, and said:

“Venerable Lord, a Bodhisattva maintains skill in means and great compassion. Venerable Lord, this is how I think of it:

“Suppose that a transgression would befall a Bodhisattva in the course of creating a store of merit for a particular sentient being, and the offense would cause him to bum in hell for a hundred thousand eons. The Bodhisattva will incur the transgression—and the suffering of hell-enthusiastically, O Venerable Lord, rather than relinquish the store of merit of a single sentient being.”

31. The Lord gave a “Well done!” to the Bodhisattva King at the Head of the Masses. “Well done, well done, holy personage. With such great compassion, a Bodhisattva avoids any transgression; he possesses no subject
of transgression. How is this the case?

pp. 30–33

The Bodhisattva and Sexuality: The Story of Jyotis

[…]

The Bodhisattva and Sexuality: The Story of Vimala

36. Then the Lord again addressed the Bodhisattva great hero Jnanottara:

“Son of the family: If the monks Sariputra and Maudgalyayana had been skilled in means, the monk Kokalika would not have gone to hell. Why so?

37. “Son of the family, this I know for myself. Once upon a time, during the promulgation of the Thus-Come-One, the Worthy, the fully perfected Buddha Kakutsunda, there was a monk a preacher of doctrine named Vimala (‘Immaculate’) who dwelt in a remote cave. Not far from him lived five hundred rsis. During that period a mass of clouds arose unseasonably, and a great rain came to fall. A pair of women who were en route between villages
entered Vimala’s cave seeking refuge from the rain. When they re-
emerged from the cave, they were spied by the five hundred rsis. Seeing them, 
the five hundred rsis thought 
harsh and hateful thoughts:    in alarm:

“‘ Aha! This monk Vimala is lusting for wickedness. He is uncelibate.’

38. “‘Then the monk Vimala, knowing in his mind the thinking of those
 five hundred rsis, levitated into the atmosphere to seven times the height of
 a palm tree. Seeing him sitting there, the rsis thought to themselves:
“‘According to our theories, someone who is uncelibate cannot levitate and sit in the atmosphere.’

“Without further ado they made prostration with five limbs to the feet of the monk Vimala and confessed their fault to be a fault.

“Son of the family: If the monk Vimala had not levitated and sat in the atmosphere at that time, those five hundred rsis would have fallen physically into hell.

39. “Son of the family, what do you think of this? At that time, in that 
life the present Bodhisattva Maitreya was none other than the monk Vimala. Do not view it otherwise. Have no second thoughts or doubt on this point.

“Son Of the family: You should understand by this account that if the monks Sariputra and Maudgalyayana had levitated and sat in the atmosphere, the monk Kokalika would not have gone to hell.

pp. 35–36

From the Conclusion (pp. 39–45)

52. The thought occurred to him, “What have I done to be reborn here?” Knowledge that is a recollection of past deeds arose in him, and he thought:

“I was the daughter of a merchant in the great city of Sravasti, and while there I gazed amorously upon the Bodhisattva great hero Priyamkara. After dying with my mind possessed by lust, I transformed my woman’s body to obtain a male body here. I have become opulent beyond measure.”

Then the male divinity (devaputra) thought: “If this be the reward for thoughts of lust, what would be my reward for doing prostrations and service with thoughts of faith to the Bodhisattva great hero Priyamkara? It is inappropriate and wrong for me to continue in a state of careless indulgence in sensual exhilaration and play and sexual pleasure. Instead, let me go before the Lord and the Bodhisattva great hero Priyamkara.”

[…]

58. Then Master Ananda said to the Lord:

“Venerable Lord, it is like this. All sentient beings who stand before Sumeru, the king of mountains, have the same color—the color of gold—regardless of whether they have thoughts of hatred, serenity, or attachment, or thoughts hindered in access to the doctrine. In the same way, venerable Lord, all sentient beings who stand before Bodhisattvas, whether they have thoughts of hatred, serenity, or attachment, or thoughts hindered in access to the doctrine, all have thoughts of the same complexion—the complexion of omniscience. Venerable Lord, henceforth I will consider all bodhisattvas to be like the king of mountains.

——————-

Professor Mark Tatz holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of British Columbia, and an M.A. in Asian Languages (Sanskrit and Tibetan) from the University of Washington. Resident in Berkeley, California, he teaches at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Rebirth: The Tibetan Game of Liberation; and The Complete Bodhisattva: Asanga ‘s Chapter on Ethics with the Commentary by Tsong-kha-pa.*

* from the book cover

China is criminalizing self-immolators, arresting protesters’ friends and confiscating thousands of satellite TV dishes

Tibetan exile Janphel Yeshi is engulfed in flames after setting himself on fire during a protest in New Delhi. Yeshi set himself on fire and suffered extreme burns as he ran down a street in New Delhi to protest against an upcoming visit to India by Chinese President Hu Jintao. (March 2012)

Nearly 100 Tibetan monks, nuns and lay people have set themselves on fire since 2009. All of them calling for Beijing to allow greater religious freedom and the return from exile of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. None of them said anything bad about China.

Incapable of dealing with these protests, Chinese authorities respond by sending in security forces to seal off areas and prevent information from getting out. Communities and their leaders, as well as the families of self-immolators are punished through the cutting of financial support. Communal prayer services for the deceased and their families have been forbidden. However, those efforts did not stop or slow the protests.

More

• As Tibet burns, China makes arrests, seizes TVs by GILLIAN WONG | Associated Press – Fri, Jan 18, 2013
• 10 facts about Tibet by FreeTibet.org
• Press Releases by FreeTibet.org

See also

• Trying to Understand the Self-immolations of Tibetans 2013/01/09
• Tibet’s Independence – Tibet as a Feudal Hell 2013/01/01
• The Burning Question: Why are Tibetans Turning to Self-immolation? 2012/11/10

Reflections of a former New Kadampa (NKT) practitioner

I received a link today with posts from someone who left NKT. The reflections add new perspectives on NKT, rarely stressed. The following two points from “But the teachings work don’t they?” I feel important to highlight:

The importance of mindfulness and self-acceptance as central teachings of Buddhist practice

It is only since leaving the NKT and reading other teachers that I see clearly what was missing, just the other day I was reading a short Zen book on the basics of the practise, and the author began by saying that  ”the one thing that unites all Buddhist traditions are two main practises, firstly mindfulness and secondly acceptance of ourselves. The curious thing is that despite the hundreds of teachings presented by GKG, these are the very two he doesn’t  look at in any real detail. Mindfulness I have been told can be included in his Mahamudra teachings but these are nothing to do with the very simple presentation I have found in the 6 other books I’ve already read since leaving the NKT, not just Zen but many other traditions, and although breathing meditation is taught in the NKT it is taught as a basic preparation practise not as a mindfulness practise in itself There is sprinkled throughout GKG’s books references to mindfulness, to observing our mind, but it is very sketchy to say the least not presented in any complete way. Also teachings on self acceptance, self love or anything that is likely to empower people to have faith in themselves and to develop their own wisdom is very absent. This is not the case with many other teachers, so I have to ask why out of all the teachings GKG thought to write about why so little on these two subjects which most other traditions seem to feel is very important.

The denigration of oneself and the need for individual growth

Rob Preece writes a brilliant book called “The wisdom of imperfection: The challenge of individuation in Buddhist life.” this book addresses these issue’s but also points out how certain Tibetan teachings do not encourage us to develop as individuals, I believe this is very true of the NKT, infact the individual is ignored, we are told time and time again how little wisdom we have, how ignorant we are, how only our Guru has the insight to know the truth. For those of us in the west with already very low self esteem we eat up this information with relish and use it to continue beating ourselves. Suddenly we know nothing and the Guru knows all, we are faulty, the Guru faultless. And the only light at the end of the tunnel? We will one day be a Buddha like him! Great just countless life times of ignorance and misery and maybe by some miracle one day we will become Buddha’s, but how? I do not for the life of me understand how we can even hope to emulate these great, perfect beings if all we relate to in ourselves is our deluded, dark mind. I can not believe Buddha ment for us to see ourselves in such a negative light. How can we hope to love and accept other’s if we can not love and accept ourselves? We mirror what is happening within our own mind, if what is happening is self abuse, fear and hatred, where is the light and love to come from.

Read more: http://independent-buddhist.webnode.com/blog/

See also

• A cult or not a cult that is the question.

Thoughts on Leaving Rigpa

GUEST POST

After almost 20 years in Rigpa, I have left with a heavy heart and a wounded soul.

I still have huge faith and trust in the Dharma and have connected with my own wisdom in a real way. The allegations of abuse by Sogyal Rinpoche have been around for a long time and every now and again, they re-surface in the media and a whole new generation of Rigpa students become aware that all is not as it seems.

For my first few years in Rigpa, I was not aware of these issues at all and when I did become aware in some way, my mind compartamentalised these issues. I was so confused, I tried to rationalise it – so many people benefit from the teachings, this surely can’t be true and so on but there was always a niggling doubt.  Then people that I trusted in the Dharma assured me that this was all fine, it was allegations, it was crazy wisdom, this was my ego reacting and so on. However, this doubt got bigger and bigger and when I discussed the issues with senior students, some of whom were in blank denial and issued a party line, some of whom admitted the truth of the allegations but justified it by “crazy wisdom” approach. Both reactions only made my doubts bigger, I read as much as could, watched interviews and soon found myself connecting with other students who had left or were leaving. We were all fearful  as this was a taboo subject and had been taught that to speak or think badly about the master would be a terrible corruption of samaya and would send you to the vajra hells. These teachings in recent years in Rigpa on devotion and samaya have become more numerous and explicit – I believe this is deliberate.

Only after leaving Rigpa, did I realise how free I felt – no longer did I have to justify thoughts in my mind as bad or a corruption of samaya, I was recognising something wrong had happened. I had attended weekends where these issues were discussed in Rigpa but mostly how the issues could be managed in the face of questions from students or the public. It was effectively a re-education or PR training and it left me feeling deeply uncomfortable. Why  should I put out a party line? I remember how my skin crawled a little when one instructor referred to those making allegations as “these women”, it was how it was said, it was loaded with meaning – these woman who dare speak out, who make these allegations, these women who don’t know what they want. We were told Sogyal is not a monk, he is not celibate and is entitled to a private life and that many woman because he is a Rinpoche want to connect with him and have a relationship. This does not make it ok as many people project hugely onto Tibetan masters, in much the same way as those in psychotherapy in the West might do so with a therapist. A good therapist sees this immediately and uses it in the therapy in a healthy way to sort out real issues and the idea of a therapist sleeping with a client is seen as a huge betrayal of trust and breach of fiduciary duty.

Since leaving Rigpa, I am clearer and happier – I feel sick that I stayed there so long and didn’t see the reality, that I listened to the lies and justification. I sometimes now meet people from Rigpa and I know that a lot of people have left in the past year or two and there is a concerted campaign to re-connect with those who have left, wanting to know their reasons why, wanting to talk to them. I want to have nothing to do with this as I believe the allegations against Sogyal Rinpoche should be dealt with openly and honesty.

The complicity of many people in Rigpa in covering up these allegations, managing what can and can’t be said and so on is wrong and so sad. It is no different that the terrible behaviour of the Catholic Church in how they covered up abuses for years.

This whole experience has left me deeply wounded in ways I cannot describe – Buddhism has brought huge benefit and meaning to my life but this experience with Rigpa about Rinpoche’s abuse and the cover-up of same means there is a dark shadow over my experience. I feel by participating in such an organisation for some time, I was also complicit as first I didn’t know and then I did and didn’t say anything about my questions or concerns. This isn’t surprisingly as a very strong and distinct culture of silence, group think and constant activity has built up in Rigpa. It means people are afraid to speak out, afraid to be different and the constant activity means people are so busy and tired they don’t question the norms.

I am hopeful that in the coming year the issues in Rigpa will be exposed more and more and there will be a honest dialogue that benefit all those who have suffered at the hands of this organisation.  The really sad thing is there are many kind and good people in Rigpa, who lead lives according to the Dharma but there is this huge blindspot about the issues of the allegations about Rinpoche. Rigpa has also provided students in the west with access to extraordinary lamas such as Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Garchen Rinpoche and so on but I also have questions why does no-one speak up. Surely these lamas also know about these allegations? it is all so sad and confusing and disheartening and I commend those who have the bravery to speak out from the bottom of my heart.

A former Rigpa student’s thoughts and cultivating discernment …

GUEST POST

I was a Rigpa student for ten years and trainee instructor for the last four. For most of this time I was very much moved and inspired by the teachings, the retreats I attended and by the work done by students of Rigpa, as there are a lot of good-hearted, genuine, dedicated, well intentioned people who are working for this organisation. Then in the last few years some of the allegations about Sogyal started appearing once again in the press, up till this point I had been in complete ignorance that there was anything like this in his past.

As trainee instructors we were informed about the Janice Doe case and sent on a training retreat on how to manage this if asked about it by the general public or by students. If not voiced officially I got the sense that the general understanding was that this woman had misunderstood the nature of Sogyal’s teachings and of his intentions. We were given material to read on the student – teacher relationship, the nature of devotion, and the unconventional way of teaching that a ‘Crazy Wisdom’ teacher might use with his students. None of the details of the nature of the allegations could be shared because this had been one of the clauses in the settlement of the lawsuit, so at the time I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.  I told myself that maybe he had been a bit wild in his youth along with other Lama’s such as Chogyam Trungpa, but that now he had settled down and was only interested in bringing the teachings to the West. However when it came to his relationship with the young girls who served him and all the other allegations about him, I found that it was all very much kept hidden and unspoken even to long term students like myself.

I did question to myself over the years why most of the students in ‘Lama care’ who served Rinpoche were beautiful girls in their twenties, but there is such a focus on teachings on devotion, (i.e, seeing his every action as a teaching, never questioning that he can do any wrong and seeing him as an incarnate Buddha,)  that I just told myself there must be some good reason for it which was beyond my understanding as an ordinary being.   It may sound naive to anyone outside of Rigpa who is reading material on it being a cult, but I would like to add that there is also lot of genuine Dharma being taught which has a positive transformative effect, and as I immersed myself in these teachings it was easy to lose the discernment, especially seeing as these types of teachings are also genuine when given within a certain context. On top of this I had a lot of respect for some of the senior students that I encountered who were rational, highly intelligent  people and full of wisdom and kindness, I looked at them as an example of what could be accomplished by really practising the teachings.

For the sake of balance I would also like to say of my time in Rigpa that  for the most part it was a positive experience. I disagree with the label of ‘cult’ that parties such as Dialogue Ireland have placed upon it who actually have no personal experience of the organisation  and who seem to have their own personal agenda in the matter.  Rinpoche is still a gifted teacher of Tibetan Buddhism who has inspired many in a positive way and Rigpa is a well organised structure for the transmission of the Dharma in the West. In my experience the courses and retreats I attended have enabled many to be able to connect with their own wisdom and kindness with the aim to then practise this more consistently in their lives. This is why it is such a shame that these other behaviours have not been addressed and have been allowed to continue, threatening all the good work that is being done. It is a spiritual organisation and for my part I am grieved that I had to leave because without fail everyone I met was genuinely motivated and many of them are still my friends. In hindsight I can see that my time in Rigpa has given me a thorough grounding in the practise of meditation and in the Buddhist teachings so there is a lot I have to be grateful for also. This is why initially before reading Mimi’s account I was willing to give Rinpoche the benefit of the doubt and tried to ignore my own misgivings. However once I had read her account I couldn’t ignore them any more and I am saddened that, for me, all the good in Rigpa is now tarnished by these actions.

When I eventually ended up reading Mimi’s report and questioned a senior instructor on the truth it he confirmed that her words were true and I appreciated his openness and honesty on the matter.  Still I felt the understanding was that she had misunderstood the nature of the blessing of the Lama. That all the other girls were doing well and didn’t seem to mind so therefore this was her ignorance, that she was an isolated case that had become deluded and lost her way. There is very much a sense that those who are in the inner circle and are in close proximity to Rinpoche are especially privileged.

For the last few years I have been a student of another teacher of Tibetan Buddhism and it was only by being on retreat with him that I realised it wasn’t the normal thing  for there to be such a focus on teachings on devotion,  the guru – student relationship and the unconventional nature of a crazy wisdom master. I feel that these teachings were used to justify Rinpoche’s behaviour and to discourage the questioning of such. There are also teachings that to criticise a Bodhisattva and to cause discord among the Sangha (the spiritual community) will cause you to be reborn in the Vajra hells, so that was quite a strong factor in repressing this questioning of him even in my own thoughts, let alone voicing my misgivings publicly. I noticed in the last few years that as more of these allegations came to light there was more and more focus put on these kind of teachings.

I am no longer a student of Rigpa and feel  that the teachings should not be used to justify this sort of behaviour. As has been stated there is too much of a power differential where his students are expected to obey absolutely his every command. After reading Mimi’s account of his behaviour I believe that it is a huge betrayal of the trust that we put in the teacher and the teachings. The basic tenet of Buddhism is non harming and this applies to all beings, not just the initiated.  Luckily I have seen other  teachers who always behave with absolute integrity towards all of their students which has allowed me to have some sort of perspective that this is just the behaviour of one man and that the group consensus to ignore it and justify his behaviour among his students to preserve the status quo doesn’t represent Buddhism or the Dharma.

I now have a teacher who is the embodiment of the teachings in wisdom, compassion, integrity and patience and I trust him completely, it has restored my faith to see what can be achieved when someone does genuinely try to live the teachings with humility. However we really need to take our time and use our discernment when it comes to who we pick to be our teacher.

I have just watched the video on youtube of Kalu Rinpoche where he confesses about his life as a tulku and warns us that teachers may be extraordinary human beings but they are still human beings. He talks about issues of greed, power, sexual misconduct and control that he experienced within the structure of Tibetan Buddhism. These are corruptions that we can all fall prey to, even teachers and Lamas. I think it is very dangerous to be encouraged to perceive a man as an enlightened Buddha who can do no wrong and to be discouraged to question or to trust in our own perceptive abilities. I admired Kalu Rinpoche’s honesty, humility and transparency and think that this is what is needed at this time which is why I appreciate that these issues are now being addressed by Buddhists in a rational and intelligent way.

Amendment

I feel the comments and discussions that have been triggered by this post have now far exceeded the original post in their depth, detail and understanding of the issues in question, therefore I would suggest taking the time to read them and to not just read my blog in isolation.

  Last edited on May 17, 2013 at 8:57 am

Dangerous Cult Leaders – Psychology today

Dangerous Cult Leaders

There is an article by Joe Navarro, a former FBI Counterintelligence Agent, about “Dangerous Cult Leaders“.

Navarro is investigating the topic from the perspective of cult leader’s pathological patterns and from the point of view when he or she becomes a danger to others. For Navarro there is a “historical record of suffering and hurt caused by various cult leaders around the world.” Joe Navarro bases his article on his studies of cults and cult leaders during his time in the FBI.

In my opinion one of the pattern behind cult leaders is a personality disorder, usually I stress that it is good to get to know the signs of a Narcissistic personality disorder in order to understand cults and one’s own or others’ experiences in the context of so-called “cults”.

Navarro seems to come also to such a conclusion and he states that the individuals whose life, teachings, and behaviours he studied have “or had an over-abundant belief that they were special, that they and they alone had the answers to problems, and that they had to be revered. They demanded perfect loyalty from followers, they overvalued themselves and devalued those around them, they were intolerant of criticism, and above all they did not like being questioned or challenged. And yet, in spite of these less than charming traits, they had no trouble attracting those who were willing to overlook these features.”

Joe Navarro offers a list of 50 typical traits of a pathological cult leader and suggests that “you should watch for and which shout caution, get away, run, or avoid if possible”:

1. He has a grandiose idea of who he is and what he can achieve.
2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, or brilliance.
3. Demands blind unquestioned obedience.
4. Requires excessive admiration from followers and outsiders.
5. Has a sense of entitlement – expecting to be treated special at all times.
6. Is exploitative of others by asking for their money or that of relatives putting others at financial risk.
7. Is arrogant and haughty in his behavior or attitude.
8. Has an exaggerated sense of power (entitlement) that allows him to bend rules and break laws.
9. Takes sexual advantage of members of his sect or cult.
10. Sex is a requirement with adults and sub adults as part of a ritual or rite.
11. Is hypersensitive to how he is seen or perceived by others.
12. —> for more please read the article: Dangerous Cult Leaders, Published on August 25, 2012 by Joe Navarro, M.A. on Psychology today blog.

The Dalai Lama as a god king in the eyes of a psychologist who has no understanding of Tibet’s history, Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lamas

Another article on Psychology today blog shows rather the opposite of a thoughtful investigation: Dr. Joachim Krueger’s “The Dalai Lama as a Brand – neither god nor king“. After Krueger portrays the image of the current Dalai Lama as “a unique phenomenon in today’s world. More than anyone else, he transcends ordinary social categories …” etc. he puts him high above human categories and claims he would be “the closest thing to a god-king we currently have.”

God king? No Tibetan, not the Dalai Lama, nor anybody else who has some understanding calls the Dalai Lama “a god king”. The term derives from Western projections as scientists like Michael von Brück made clear. The Dalai Lama stresses himself quite often – including in his books – that he is just a human being like everybody else. When the Dalai Lama was asked in 1960 that it is believed he were a “living Buddha” or “a god king”  he replied: “What a strange remark! I am just a blessed follower of the Buddha.”

However, Krueger has to ignore those things to be able to follow Goldner’s presentation of a Dalai Lama, an image that is based on an “Anti-religious”, “Anti-lamaistic” stance (Golzio). To make it short, though it is highly welcome to balance the overall present rather enthusiastic image of the Dalai Lama, Goldner’s work is just a skilfully distorted, one-sided portray of Tibet, monasticism, and the Dalai Lama which FAZ reviewd as “Excessive doom-saying in such an amount and in such disparaging, abusive lingo, it’s not every day.” Although there exist some positive reviews of Goldner’s book in some news outlets too (NR, FR), the journalists in those outlets clearly lack any knowledge about the history of Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lamas, and missed to contact Tibetologists, Historians, Indologists or Anthropologists to verify Goldner’s presentation. A trap in which Krueger stepped too.

When I hinted to Krueger that Colin Goldner is a highly questionable source and gave some brief background information in the comment section Krueger wrote immediately another post Comments on Dalai Lama Post. There he wrongly claimed that

“The commentator gets more specific with regard to the last charge by noting that Goldner lost a court case when suing a reviewer who accused him of racism. … A Viennese court apparently saw it differently. I ask the commentator to supply the entire text of the court’s decision so I can form an informed opinion.

What strikes me is what did not happen. The suit was brought by Goldner with respect to an issue of language and not of fact. I would be interested to learn if there are cases of successful suits against Goldner, showing that critical parts of the evidence presented in his book are false, made-up, or grossly distorted.”

My request to clarify and to change this he ignored.

However, the “Dalai Lama as a Brand” is still an interesting topic. But I think if one wants to really investigate it in a serious and thoughtful manner one needs also enough knowledge about Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lamas, and reliable sources. — Not only knowledge is required but one must be free from prejudices and ideological delusions, and one should understand the inner logic of phenomena too. “Schuster bleib bei Deinen Leisten” we would say in German: “Cobbler, stick to your last!”*

* A cobbler makes shoes and their last is the thing they fashion or repair the shoes on. The phrase means stick to what you’re good at, or more negatively, don’t get above yourself. (see http://ask.metafilter.com/27518/What-does-Cobbler-stick-to-thy-last-mean)

Update 04 April 2013

• Spiritual Esperanto: A Response to “The Dalai Lama as a Brand” by Alex Caring-Lobel in Tricycle

Update 20 April 2013

• Colin Goldner: »Speichellecken und Scheissefressen« by Ursache&Wirkung