It is essential that these teachings continue and that they help us work with personal and societal obstacles that plague our lives. You may be wondering about the Scorpion Seal Garchen at Shambhala Mountain Center, what to expect, how you feel, maybe even whether to come.
Rather than retreating to a bubble that pretends nothing has happened, we plan to relate with this painful news in the context of our many practices including Shambhala Meditation and the Inner White Lotus practice of working with the dons, as well as the new practices for your particular Assembly. And we look forward to being with our Scorpion Seal sisters and brothers.
We see this as an opportunity to create a fresh karmic stream for our community, going into the future. Rest assured, we Werma Acharyas will be giving all the transmissions in the event he is not there. Please join us with your heartbreak, your doubts, your confidence, and your love of the Shambhala community and teaching, and your connection with our Sakyong. It promises to be a deep and authentic experience. Whether you find this plausible or not beliefs are like intentions here: far less important than impacts , two things are important to know.
Uncertainty and certainty. Listening and telling. Care and demand. Support and dependency. These are domesticated versions of the most dangerous dyad: the confusion of love with terror at the heart of every high-demand group.
Their caregiver is at once the safe haven and also the source of threat or alarm. So, when the child feels threatened by the caregiver, he or she is caught in an impossible situation: both comfort and threat are represented by the same person —the caregiver. The child experiences the unresolvable paradox of seeking to simultaneously flee from and approach the caregiver. This happens at a biological level, not thought out or conscious, but as evolved behavior to fear.
The child attempts to run TO and flee FROM the caregiver at one and the same time… However, in most cases the need for proximity — for physical closeness — tends to override attempts to avoid the fear-arousing caregiver.
So usually the child stays close to the frightening parent while internally both their withdrawal and approach systems are simultaneously activated, and in conflict. Now compare the two statements from the acaryas. Stein suggests that such a gambit is not a contradiction, but a feature of the continuously-charged feedback loop of caregiver betrayal that lies at the root of disorganized attachment. This charge will be heightened in environments of physical, sexual, financial or moral abuse. With Shambhala International, this feedback loop is not new.
To be fair, this interview is now twenty-five years old, and comes from another era. She remains listed amongst the current cohort of acharyas. Tricycle: Would you say that the intention behind this unconventional behavior, including his sexual exploits and his drinking, was to help others?
I know he changed my life. I know I love him. I learned something from him. But who was that masked man? Tricycle: In recent years women have become more articulate about sexism. And we know more today about the prevalence of child abuse and about how many people come into dharma really hurting.
If you knew ten years ago what you know today, would you have been so optimistic about Trungpa Rinpoche and his sexuality? But you have to decide for yourself who you think this guy is. Tricycle: Were there women who turned down his sexual invitations and maintained close relationships as students? Was that an option? The teacher says something, then everybody does it.
There was a time when he smoked cigarettes and everybody started smoking. Then he stopped and they stopped and it was ridiculous. The one predictable thing about him was that he would continually pull the rug out no matter what. You can probably see the pattern, though. It is also a textbook example of I-got-mine-ism. Intentionally or not, this stunning paragraph manages to both hide and spiritualize an induction into disorganized attachment. We now have to wonder whether this message has as much to do with Buddhism as it does with creating a poetic strategy for metabolizing an abusive relationship that presented itself as loving, and doing so in order for it to continue, and eventually be commodified.
Never mind that Tricycle thought that this was a reasonable thing to publish. In late December of last year, Ashtanga Yoga adept Kino MacGregor recommended this very interview to her million-plus followers as a resource that would help them integrate the competing stories of love and terror that constitute the legacy of Pattabhi Jois.
Whether it works remains to be seen. If you have a copy, please send it to [email protected] and I will upload and link it here. You could say that I am Ronin these days…a refusenik.
You see, I consider your language analysis quite insightful, but I question the leaps of logic you make to reach your conclusions. Granted, there are other opinions and you will have to be the judge of who and what is trustworthy. I read your article and you seem to be conflating some things and using the wrongdoing of Osel Mukpo to essentially take what appears to me a broad swipe at all Buddhism. I called the Baltimore Shambhala Sangha my spiritual home for several years.
I sat in front of Mukpo in his role as Sakyong and took teaching from him. I requested he bless my then-unborn daughter. Send me an email address and I will share the emails I sent to the Sangha. I believe he should submit to a transparent and just criminal investigation. And my connection is with the Baltimore Sangha, which is filled with people of good will and good character wrestling with something awful.
You seem be implying that Shambhala—all of Buddhism? As though no in Shambhala or Buddhism is of good faith. The Baltimore Sangha is filled with people up and down who are committed to the Dharma and their practice.
You get into various events where fees are charged. I notice you offer various goods here on your site. Do you advertise thusly you will give them for free to those of low income? Buddhism teaches compassion for all. Chodron acts like they can work through abuse by confronting their own feelings about it while doing nothing in the external world to hold the teacher responsible, which makes her an enabler and an apologist in my book.
Jan Chozen Bays is a teacher of profound wisdom and compassion who also supports victims of abuse; I wish more people would take notice of her example. Pema Chodron: That really does feel like McCarthyism to me.
It has been a big relief to me to slowly relax into the courage of living in the ambiguity. Those poor, persecuted teachers preying on their students really need a break. The slippery refusal of Chodron and other teachers to explicitly condemn teachers whose misconduct harms students and endorse guidelines to prevent it from occurring is cowardly and irresponsible.
Thank you. All your analyses have been insightful and helpful. Your voice will help those reeling from the latest scandals and abuse. Keep it up. A Wake Up Call. As a trauma sufferer this helps me consider the mechanisms that lead to dissociative experiences. It appears to me that some vague Vajrayana principles understood in the prism of Shambhala are here mixed with equally vague notions of Madhyamaka.
Hence, the learned is not inclined to misconduct, because of the cessation of such an impulse. In other words, a knowledgeable person acts in way which reflects his knowledge, especially about the cause of suffering. He does not go about inflicting suffering on others or on himself.
Moreover, I shall insist again, Madhyamaka does not simply negate conventions, as this would make it a nihilist path. It is through conventions, and their analysis, that the student is to establish his understanding the ultimate, if ever.
Many years ago when I was a newcomer to Buddhism, Pema told me that even if she were to be shown actual photographs of Chogyam Trungpa molesting children, her devotion would not be diminished.
I took this to be her way of illustrating the concept of tantric devotion to me, a neophyte, and I was suitably impressed. Within a few years I had been schooled in the conceptual framework that makes this kind of ambiguous thinking possible, and while it seemed outrageous and challenging I considered it ultimately harmless, because I saw no crimes or harms being committed in its name.
Over time I slowly began developing a moral compass of my own, and saw some other people doing the same, as reports of actual harms, perhaps even crimes, seeped into my sphere of discourse. That clip from is heartbreaking, as is her silence now. How unfortunate that she appears content to end her illustrious career as an apologist for rape.
It was in the context of a private interview. This was in the days before she became a celebrity, when residents of Gampo Abbey could enjoy considerable face-time with her. In all fairness, what Mr. Remski apparently quoted the worst part. I also knew Pema then and she has matured a great deal in the teacher role, which initially she rejected. At the time she said that she would never have dreamed she would have a say in governance or setting standards in a similar but not the same situation.
You were not asking her about that then, but were asking about how to work with difficult behaviors in a teacher—a different question. Regardless of her present position, do you find it valuable to consider how past responses to ethics questions have helped set the stage for how the current abuse revelations are understood and faced?
Great post. She has never been in the situation she is in now. She believe it or not has never been in the hierarchy or wanted to be a part of the administration—it is not her interest, at least until several years ago when I last talked with her about such.
She is now in a new situation for her. I have never found her to be evasive or take refuge in the subtleties of doctrine. She does this often in the talks on Shanti Deva. She will be taking a position—not to worry! There are parts to a whole and context is everything. Context is true of orgs too.
It is accident that several key people in Shambhala came there from Scientology. From the frying pan into the fire I should say. The paramilitary uniforms of both orgs, emphasis on ranks and levels. These same people think Shambhala was an actual Tibetan org and representative of TB.
Not true. It is just like picking a church etc, there is a whole gamut of benign to malignant choices. The first time I know of his saying this was the conference,. The tantric position on this, the maha yoga anutara tantra.. If just the faith enough no need such qualifications. So David had the other man killed in the front lines of battle so he could marry Bathsheba. The Rabbi told me something extremely important: Jews do not worship other human beings.
It is very evident in the OT that nobody is perfect, not even Moses. My students were satisfied with this answer and so was I. Vast, multi-volume works are available for many traditions, such as the ten-volume Treasury of Knowledge , the Complete Nyingma Tradition eventually seven volumes and by far the largest work on a single tradition , the Treasury of Precious Instructions eventually eighteen volumes and the Library of Tibetan Classics series Wisdom Publications.
There are multiple translations and commentaries on the five Maitreya texts, the core of the Mahayana. There is the projec t committed to translating the entire Kangyur the words of the Buddha and Tengyur the commentaries from India , even if few teachers teach those texts and few people read them. Even some of the university presses Oxford, Columbia, Chicago, SUNY, and Hawaii in particular are making some great contributions beneficial—or at least of interest—to practitioners, not just academics.
There are also some very important behind-the-scenes organizations that really enable a lot of the important works coming out to happen—the Tsadra Foundation , the Hershey Foundation, the Khyentse Foundation , the Ho Foundation, and more, as well some private donors supporting translators and publishing projects. Tibetan texts are also widely available to translators and readers thanks in particular to the Buddhist Digital Resource Center formerly TBRC online library.
Thanks to our many teachers, translators, scholars, and sponsors, we have so much Buddhist material at our fingertips. There is a lot to feel very hopeful and positive about, not just about the books, but about authentic Dharma being made available both inside and outside of Asia.
Yet, as I survey the landscape of Buddhism in the West through the lens of Buddhist publishing in English, at times I have a lot of trepidation—as a publisher and also as a Buddhist. We have a long way to go. I was recently talking to Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche, author of the superb Our Pristine Mind , and he described to me the curriculum at Larung Gar, the Buddhist center of learning and practice founded by the great Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche.
The way many of us read Dharma books in the West would be regarded as pretty superficial and foreign to them. There, they are introduced to a text in a teaching context that may last for weeks or months, and still they revisit parts of it again and again.
Then there are those on a particular track who are presented texts and topics—by authors such as Asanga, Nagarjuna, Shantideva, Longchenpa, Tsongkhapa, Mipham Rinpoche, and many more—and spend months or more on each one, studying and practicing, often returning to the same text the following year. Consistent, repeated, in-depth attention and application allow the students to thoroughly internalize the works. I think of how many teachers trained in Tibet could recall and recite quotes at will, appropriate for the topic at hand.
Not many can do that here, but perhaps that will change. During a recent event at Shambhala in Boulder, Anyen Rinpoche talked about how he encourages some of his students to read the Way of the Bodhisattva times. This is encouraging. I feel that until we western Buddhists embrace this more immersive way of studying the core texts and teachings of whatever traditions we are in, it will be harder for the Dharma to really take root in the soil here, like it has wherever it has gone, taking on its own characteristics reflecting our culture but not budging an inch in its authenticity and potency.
What Orgyen Chowang Rinpoche discussed above comes out of a Buddhist culture that has been gestating in Tibet for 1, years. While we do not have the institutional and social constructs that can instantly support something like this, it is still important to study the authentic texts ourselves in a format that fits our culture perhaps like bible reading study groups. Of course many teachers recommend to individual students that they focus on practice and not studying, and that advice, of course, is primary.
But as a Buddhist subculture forming within our society, I still think it is vital for this to happen. There is no shortage of great books available and the list keeps growing, from translations of Indian and Tibetan foundational texts, commentaries both new and old, and contemporary approaches that try, often very successfully, to speak to the modern-day needs of readers from the experienced to the curious. But, it is this last category of reader I worry about.
There is a lot of material someone without much guidance can get lost in. An extension of this confusion of what to read is issues around restricted texts. The point, as most readers here will know, is that those kind of texts are not beneficial unless the reader has the appropriate transmission, initiation, permission, and fulfilled any practice prerequisites. I am disheartened to see some translators go the self-publishing route with texts that should be handled in a more considered manner.
There is nothing wrong with self-publishing, but what I worry about is the plethora of works now on tantra, Dzogchen, etc. This is not sour grapes from a publisher—if they were done well and care was taken, more power to them.
After all, publishers generally cannot take on even a great work if the readership is only a few hundred. Rather, this is concern from someone who has tried to absorb the teachings about samaya, etc. Lama and translator Sangye Khendro explains this well in a video we recorded. I do think we publishers can try to do more by directing people. Assuming we can get people to our websites, we can provide better guidance for people at various levels of interest and commitment for where to go deeper.
While the best approach is to follow the guidance of a dependable teacher, many Westerners do not have that option in their present circumstances and books are their primary resource. At Shambhala we feel this is a responsibility we need to take seriously given that we have published the majority of English-language Buddhist books. We want to make sure that the rich depth and breadth of quality authentic books are accessible and discoverable.
We are currently developing material to give more guidance to people—not just for our books but for everything that is available in English. And more come out every month. One challenge we have as publishers is the stream of submissions we get by dedicated students of excellent teachers who have been tasked with creating a book from oral teachings. This is not a simple matter.
Invariably, a transcript from an oral teaching has a long way to go before it can be a coherent, impactful book. Transcripts require an immense amount of work, eliminating what is extraneous or repeated which works in a teaching context, but less so on paper , moving things around, changing the sentence structure.
It can work, but those involved have to have a clear vision and be a little brave. This is a tradition that goes back to the Buddha of course.
The Competition Recently I was asked who our biggest competitor was. This is an easy answer. And it is not self-publishing, which is a great way for works that have a very small, specialized, or sangha-specific audience to be available. The real competition is the host of distractions we are all bombarded with constantly. Before I ended up in publishing I was a technologist, so I am not speaking as a Luddite.
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