Email-letter that I sent to the Canberra Rigpa sangha

[Stevyn]

Email-letter that I sent to the Canberra Rigpa sangha when I left 3 years ago:

Email-letter that I sent to the Canberra Rigpa sangha when I left 3 years ago:

Hello Everyone,

Some people already know that I have decided to leave Rigpa after finding a great deal of information on sexual, physical and other abuse by high lamas in the Tibetan tradition, including Sogyal Rinpoche. I wanted to ring people and let them know personally, but I have found it very psychologically exhausting. So I have decided to send this email to most of the older Canberra Rigpa students.

For a long time I was not convinced by the information I had found but then the sheer volume of similar stories of abuse, some coming from very credible sources, just could not be swept under the carpet or skilfully rationalised any longer (for me personally).

I will share some of the information I have found so that people may know why I have left and may also investigate for themselves and make their own decisions.

Of course the biggest problem with this sort of information is determining its credibility. So I will start by listing some of the more credible sources.

The story of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo has to be one of the most disturbing and reasonably credible cases I came across. Jetsunma was born in New York City and was recognised by Penor Rinpoche (the supreme head of the Nyingma school) as the reincarnation of the founder of his entire Palyul lineage. She is a very high lama and was given the highest title for a female in Tibetan Buddhism, "Jetsunma" (Milarepa is sometimes called "Jetsun" Milarepa).

The story of Jetsunma's sangha was published in 2001 in a book called 'The Buddha from Brooklyn' by a Washington Post reporter who had, with Jetsunma's permission, conducted first-hand interviews with Sangha members. The author herself was interested in Tibetan Buddhism as a spiritual path. Also, critical reviews of the book observe that the author does not draw moral conclusions for the reader or make judgements. Together with the fact that the author would loose her career in journalism if she was found to be lying, I think this makes the book quite a credible source.

One chapter in the book, called "The Great Blessing", details the chilling beating and ensuing psychologically damaging group-humiliation of a nun by Jetsunma. This was a result of the nun having had an affair with a visiting monk. The nun had also just been prematurely released form hospital with stitches on her face (after a car accident) and rushed to the shrine room to meet Jetsunma. Before Jetsunma entered the shrine room for the beating (wearing black leather), the head nun stood at the front of the shrine room and told all the assembled monks and nuns that "what ever happens is enlightened activity".

Jetsunma also practised a vast amount of sexual antics which may or may not have been abusive.

This book can be bought from Amazon.com or viewed at the online-library called American Buddha ( http://www.american-buddha.com/buddha.brook.htm ). This website is at first-sight a little distasteful, but there is a lot of information that can be found there; some of it less credible than others. To enter the website you will have to enter an email address and password, due to the fact that it is technically/legally an "online-library" and displays copyrighted material (e.g. published books). I haven't received any spam email from them. It is a homemade website by a couple who left their Sangha in America about five years ago after 22 years as Tibetan Buddhists. I think they have gone too far and thrown out the teachings with the abusive teachers. But that is their decision and probably quite understandable after what they've seen and been through.

Another quite credible story is that of June Campbell, one of Kalu Rinpoche's most senior students. Kalu Rinpoche was I think the lama who first told Sogyal Rinpoche the Dzogchen phrase "chu ma nyuk na dang, sem ma cho na de". June Campbell was a nun with Kalu Rinpoche for at least 10 years I think and he eventually (and secretly) requested her to be his consort for tantric sexual practices. Some of the old students deny to this day that she ever was a consort, but she certainly was one of his closest and long time students. She wrote a book about her experiences called "Traveller in Space". Campbell said she received thinly veiled death threats if she ever disclosed the affair or left. She gave an interview to Tricycle (a Buddhist magazine) about her experiences, read it online at: http://www.anandainfo.com/tantric_robes.html

Then there are the stories about Sogyal Rinpoche. These are harder to verify, but for me in the light of abuse by other lamas in Tibetan Buddhism, the number of accounts was starting to add up a little too much and some of the accounts sounded so reasonable and genuine, i.e. not psychologically troubled people trying to discredit a famous person. Of course the biggest event was the court case in 1994 in America. The $10 million law case accused Sogyal Rinpoche of "physical, mental and sexual abuse" of a woman at American retreats. Other women made similar claims about Rinpoche and jointly wrote a letter to the Dalai Lama concerning this abuse. The court case was settled out of court.

The American Buddha website has collected together posts made to newsgroups about sexual abuse experienced by Sogyal Rinpoche's women students ( http://www.american-buddha.com/randy.sogyal.htm ). I know that posts to newsgroups are not the most reliable source of information, but if the abuse did happen how else will we find out about it? Most people, I think, just want to leave and put the whole thing behind them. I recommend reading the writings of Oscar and Pema Zangmo first, their accounts sound so genuine and very reasonable. The other accounts contain more anger, but they are also from the people who claim to have been directly abused by Rinpoche and abuse does produce anger, understandably.

Also an essay "The Thorn in the Lotus" written by Pema Zangmo, who says she is a former consort of Rinpoche's is very insightful, wise and honest ( http://www.american-buddha.com/thorn.lotus.htm ). I think she sums up my own conclusions on what is happening with Tibetan Buddhist lamas in the West and how to make sense of great teachings but not so great teachers.

There is also some shocking information about Tibetan politics and history. At http://www.stephenbatchelor.org/daylight.html you can read an article about a long standing feud between the Geluk School (The Dalai Lama's school) of Tibetan Buddhism and the Kagyu School (the Karmapa's school) for the political control of Tibet. The author Stephen Batchelor is a scholar of Buddhism and has been a Tibetan Buddhist monk and a Zen monk for many years. This article, among other things, describes the use of Mongol warlords by the Fifth Dalai Lama as mercenaries to overthrow the Karmapa and the Kagyu school's control of Tibet at the time. I am sure this would have involved a lot of killing; does this sound very Buddhist to you?

This long standing feud between the two schools forms some of the background to the current controversy over the two competing reincarnated tulkus for the Karmapa's seat as head of the Kagyu School and the Dalai Lama's partisan interference in the affair. The Karmapa controversy can be read about in an Asia Week article: http://www.american-buddha.com/struggle.tib.htm (as well as many other sources).

So this is some of the information that is out there if you start investigating. There are also many other disturbing stories about other sanghas and other lamas often involving sexual abuse/manipulation, but I don't want the email to get too long.

I know some people will try to use the "crazy wisdom" argument to explain the controversial behaviour of some of the lamas in the West. For example it is well known that Tilopa (the founder of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism) made Naropa do all kinds of crazy things, including forcing heated wooden splinters under finger nails, in order to crush his ego so that he could realise enlightenment. But one of the things that is supposed to happen with "crazy wisdom" is that it is only given to students who are very advanced in their practice and ready and willing (i.e. they have given their teacher permission to crush their ego).

Because of the increased risk, there has to be increased discernment and skill from the guru. In the case of Jetsunma's nun, she was acknowledged by many in the sangha to already be suffering from low self-esteem and not an entirely solid or advanced practitioner. Incidentally, she has left the Dharma and Jetsunma's Sangha and now lives on the West Coast of America working as a secretary. So if that is Jetsunma's "enlightened activity", it is starting to look like 'crazy crazy', not 'crazy wisdom'. Also a lot of the sexual abuse by lamas looks much more like sexual desire (a normal human quality) rather than crazy wisdom. Why does crazy wisdom always have to involve sex, for the lama to enjoy too, not others!

So obviously my view of Tibetan Buddhism and particularly many of the teachers has changed. I encourage you to have the courage to investigate for yourself and read the articles I have listed in this email. Otherwise it will be very hard for you to appreciate fully where I am coming from, in terms of my decision to leave Rigpa.

Yours Sincerely,

ThinkForMyself