Letter to Shambhala Transition Team

Point of Clarification: It is absolutely not true that the Sakyong asked any or all Vajrayana students to renounce VCTR. RE: Story about VCTR and renouncing your prior teachers. Many students of VCTR have different teachers and are also students of the Scorpion Seal path. It's part of the Rime tradition of inclusivity of buddhist schools. And a strongly held value in AA is "honesty in your everyday affairs". Let's practice what we practice.

Like many others, I think there's a danger of going too far, reading any such moment in black and white, and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This is still the crazy wisdom lineage, and our original teacher, The Vidyadhara, was not exactly well behaved always. Those were different times, but none of his behavior cast any shadow on his brilliant teachings.

I sign this petition mainly to let know here is one more person who thoroughly enjoys and values the Kagyu Nyigma practices of the VCTR and is unable to understand how anyone could suggest discarding them or throwing them down the drain. I doubt the petition will accomplish its goal nor if it is really necessary. The current situation is making SI weaker every day and the way it reacts worsens its position even more. Plus, there is further trouble coming from various sides on the horizon. The intention of reuniting the family is noble and sweet but I don’t see the point of reuniting with something that could be falling apart and that I can’t identify with. Besides the scandal, Shambhala now looks like something between a new age health farm or spa and a cult, oriented towards well-being, spiritual materialism and forces you to assent and be totally “loyal” or will treat you as out. The slightest humor about this brings up defensiveness. Just as in rigid sects no questioning or joking is allowed any more. Before I ever join back it’s not just the administration but also the deceptive teachings and the sectarianism that have to be purged out.

This seems to be the right move at the right time.

Much thanks for this petition and very glad to be part of it.

I would like to ask a question coming from a sincere place. What is it that keeps people wanting more traditional Buddhist teachings from banding together and inviting teachers from your own wish-list? Is there a perceived benefit to having this come under the Shambhala International umbrella?

Bring back a clear Buddhist curriculum alongside Shambhala Training.

After delaying, I’ll add on as well. I’ve delayed, because…like many things the Vidyadhara said famously….best to kill one bird with one stone…..we really might best, instead, and singularly….let the results of the Sunshine report work their way forward, as that seems to have been the beginning of this unwinding. However, and that said….as so many here have said, including early by Gayle Van Gius, and many more I won’t here name…. this may be the right time for us to embrace these ideas. On the detail, while I don’t know that the specific strategy of including folks on our transition teams with the particular background named is the way to get the results sought after…at the same time…..since we ARE now moving forward with the logical details of assembling teams to bring ourselves forward constructively….loading up the slots with folks who have this mandate so clearly given voice to here may be and simply the appropriate next steps we should indeed take. As a practitioner way-layed at Vajrayogini, and who has been receiving guidance within this community, I’ll add more and future opportunities to stretch forward further is welcome…and also…..providing the opportunity to other new practitioners to experience this end of the stick may be a good option, whether or not it is in combination with Scorpion Seal, which I do hope can continue for those already engaged in these practices. If we are resource challenged…as I may have read here being implied as rationales for not having both of these opportunities available….let this petition help give voice to another view. With appreciation and respect for everyone’s good intent in all of this, Ira Zukerman DC

Comments that are made anonymously have little validity to my mind. Personally, I feel strongly that people should hold their comments unless they are willing to take responsibility for what they say. The process ahead will be difficult and will require honesty, courage and patience with each other. We need to acknowledge our full humanity and share the context of our experience by bravely being who we are in every sense of the word. Take responsibility!

There is an interesting story of a group of people who decided to go and study under a great Tibetan teacher. They had already studied somewhat with other teachers, but had decide to concentrate on trying to learn from this particular person. They were all very anxious to become his students and so sought an audience with him, but this great teacher would not accept any of them. “Under one condition only will I accept you,” he said. “If you are willing to renounce your previous teachers.” They all pleaded with him, telling him how much they were devoted to him, how great his reputation was, and how much they would like to study with him. But he would not accept any of them unless they would meet his condition. Finally all except one person in the party decided to renounce their previous teachers, from whom they had in fact learned a great deal. The guru seemed to be quite happy when they did so and told them all to come back the next day. But when they returned he said to them, “I understand your hypocrisy. The next time you go to another teacher you will renounce me. So get out.” And he chased them all out except for the one person who valued what he had learned previously. – Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

I have noticed that the Sakyong asked all of his vajrayana students to renounce other teachers, including VCTR.

I love fearfull anonymous 'warriors'!

I haven’t noticed that the Sakyong has excluded anyone. I have noticed lots of people deciding to leave. That is very different. The first is a projection. The second is a person’s decision. The repeated statements that the vision of VCTR is being lost are totally uninformed, understandably so perhaps, for those who have chosen to leave and therefore keep up. The Sakyong’s teachings are a refreshing and illuminating bridge between the traditional Kagyu and Nygma approaches to the training of monks and making them more accessible to householders who have grown up in Western cultures. His accomplishment, steadfastness and teachings are a joy to experience. Can we give the Sakyong credit for the deep thought he put into deciding how best to use his energy to be of benefit in his lifetime and understand if his decision has been that he could not do justice to both approaches and accomplish as much as he has? Any student of VCTR is welcome to study the teachings of the Sakyong to see how faithful he is to his father’s lineage and what an amazing contribution he has made to help make the material even more understandable for Western students who are not being trained from age 5 in a monastery. There are also a number of talks he has given explaining his decision about how he could best contribute. In my opinion, he has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations and I am quite certain his father would agree! May everyone who so wishes join in any time and see for yourself.

Bakes, thank you for this initiative. This petition has legs; may it also grow wings! I concur with Dr. Sacamano’s call for all ‘acharyas’ (and shastris and other appointees) to step down, with our appreciation for their work. It is indeed time to move on and move forward. Ironically, and as this petition makes very clear, KOS does not belong to Ösel Rangdrol Mukpo (ÖRM), nor to his small band of sycophants known as the ‘Kalapa Council’. KOS belongs to us; KOS is us. Why should we ever surrender our inheritance, to either a placeholder - as is the current instance with ÖRM - or someone else? It’s high time that we, as Michael Chender writes, “move forward together”. But this doesn’t mean waiting for a different-looking, yet still ‘court-appointed’ group, to divine our future for us. How could that process ever be trusted? Vajradhatu was a mostly-motley collection of local centres and devoted practitioners. This was the heart and soul of what the Vidyādara created, a modern-day tent culture dispersed over a large area. I believe that if we re-create a true, inclusive KOS as VCTR envisioned it and taught it, a true Sakyong will appear once more. Let us all, indeed, individually and collectively, seize this precious opportunity! Let us plot our future together. In the words of Rotary International, may we “raise awareness, take action”.

I really care about this cause, and I'd love it if you joined me in supporting it. It's free and takes just a few seconds of your time. Thanks!

Thanks to Bakes for putting forward a statement that includes the essential perspective of lineage connection with concrete positive suggestions. I hope this direction is implemented in clear, balanced and timely matter.

The Vidyadhara provided the space for each of us to connect with the same “enlightened genes” which we share as a family. In that sense, even though we have taken many paths over the years, we don’t need re-uniting because we have never been separated. Do we have confidence that this situation contains the cause of its own liberation? I do and have signed the petition.

Thank you. We need to restore unity and the Vidyadhara's heritage and include devoted, scholarly teachers again.

I have felt our Shambhala project has been haunted for a long time by the departure of so many older, deeply committed students and by the loss of connection with our buddhist lineages. What kind of enlightened society is built by effectively banishing so many of the founders, and narrowing rather than embracing? This has been the elephant in the room energetically in Shambala, whether acknowledged or not. Now there is a real possibility to reconcile and move forward together--I am touched by how many names I see on this list of old friends I haven't seen in thirty or more years. CTR's blessings have ensured we're still crazy after all these years. Please seize this precious opportunity!

Please do this. Time to heal in this messy world.