On March 25, 2020, Butler University's Center for Faith and Vocation is hosting a screening of the 2011 film Crazy Wisdom, an homage to Chogyam Trungpa by his student, Johanna Demetrakas. Mainstream media reviews of the film make clear that the film "unfolds like a fan letter to a rock star," is "hopelessly obscured by fawning and myopia," and "plays more like a TV infomercial than an unbiased examination of the Tibetan's controversial life." Chogyam Trungpa has been accused by multiple people of sexual assault, beating his wife, child sexual abuse and molestation, and animal torture. This is not someone to glorify. In solidarity with survivors, please help spread the truth about Chogyam Trungpa and please boycott this screening and every screening of this film.
Updates
March 5, 2020
The gathering momentum behind this call for accountability reflects a profound commitment to truth. It is clear that many people find the glorification of abuse under the guise of spiritual wisdom to be unacceptable. I am encouraged by the resolve shown by those who have added their names to this collective effort.
28 Comments
I've seen this and the filmmaker's other film about his son. Both are relentlessly fawning as though these people are demigods. Both have been credibly accused of a very long list of exploitative crimes involving sexual misconduct with teenagers, rape, alcoholism (Trungpa selfishly died of it at 47), and the madness of self infatuation that comes with leading a cult. If you present this film as a study in how cults work, that might work, but lean on those who've lived through the hell these people created if you do so. Their voices are FAR more important. It's a discussion which sadly needs to be had for the protection of the innocent seekers of the future who will be as we were in the past ~ starry eyed and impressionable.
This film is about a person and culture that actively promoted rape as a way of relating to the world, and people have been sexually assaulted by all three teachers in this lineage. Showing such a film is misleading at best, and dangerous at the worst.
People who see this movie need to understand it for what it is: utter hagiographic propaganda that presents a distorted and one-sided view of Trungpa's behavior. The culture of minimizing abuse that we now see rampant in Shambhala sprang directly from his and his students' confusion over the term "crazy wisdom", which Demetrakas fails to analyze. This movie would best be viewed in the context of a sociology class examining the messaging mechanisms of cults.
If the screening was part of a seminar on how high-demand groups produce hagiographic propaganda, it would be a fitting event for a college. Otherwise not.
It's a commercial for his organization Shambhala which has repeatedly produced sexually abusive and exploitative leaders. It's fully inappropriate to promote this film to the public.
students should not be subjected to cult indoctrination. Chogyam Trungpa was an abusive man who preyed on underage women, tortured animals, drove drunk, and ordered the abuse and forced stripping of poets.
Show a survivor documentary instead!
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On March 25, 2020, Butler University's Center for Faith and Vocation is hosting a screening of the 2011 film Crazy Wisdom, an homage to Chogyam Trungpa by his student, Johanna Demetrakas. Mainstream media reviews of the film make clear that the film "unfolds like a fan letter to a rock star," is "hopelessly obscured by fawning and myopia," and "plays more like a TV infomercial than an unbiased examination of the Tibetan's controversial life." Chogyam Trungpa has been accused by multiple people of sexual assault, beating his wife, child sexual abuse and molestation, and animal torture. This is not someone to glorify. In solidarity with survivors, please help spread the truth about Chogyam Trungpa and please boycott this screening and every screening of this film.
Updates
March 5, 2020
The gathering momentum behind this call for accountability reflects a profound commitment to truth. It is clear that many people find the glorification of abuse under the guise of spiritual wisdom to be unacceptable. I am encouraged by the resolve shown by those who have added their names to this collective effort.
28 Comments
There is nothing wise about dying from alcohol abuse at age 48, surrounded by people who think you are so enlightened that your addiction is holy. Chogyam Trungpa was a cult leader. This whitewashed documentary shows only the good from the perspective of devotees and covers over the institutional abuse he helped create, perpetuated in people like his own son who has raped and sexually assaulted many women himself. None of Trungpa’s victims are interviewed, and they are still alive and kicking. If you want to show this movie, interview one of Trungpa’s secret wives like Leslie Hays or some of the women “The Sakyong” raped too, how about it. Otherwise you are just perpetuating the lie.
I've seen this and the filmmaker's other film about his son. Both are relentlessly fawning as though these people are demigods. Both have been credibly accused of a very long list of exploitative crimes involving sexual misconduct with teenagers, rape, alcoholism (Trungpa selfishly died of it at 47), and the madness of self infatuation that comes with leading a cult. If you present this film as a study in how cults work, that might work, but lean on those who've lived through the hell these people created if you do so. Their voices are FAR more important. It's a discussion which sadly needs to be had for the protection of the innocent seekers of the future who will be as we were in the past ~ starry eyed and impressionable.
This film is about a person and culture that actively promoted rape as a way of relating to the world, and people have been sexually assaulted by all three teachers in this lineage. Showing such a film is misleading at best, and dangerous at the worst.
People who see this movie need to understand it for what it is: utter hagiographic propaganda that presents a distorted and one-sided view of Trungpa's behavior. The culture of minimizing abuse that we now see rampant in Shambhala sprang directly from his and his students' confusion over the term "crazy wisdom", which Demetrakas fails to analyze. This movie would best be viewed in the context of a sociology class examining the messaging mechanisms of cults.
If the screening was part of a seminar on how high-demand groups produce hagiographic propaganda, it would be a fitting event for a college. Otherwise not.
It's a commercial for his organization Shambhala which has repeatedly produced sexually abusive and exploitative leaders. It's fully inappropriate to promote this film to the public.
students should not be subjected to cult indoctrination. Chogyam Trungpa was an abusive man who preyed on underage women, tortured animals, drove drunk, and ordered the abuse and forced stripping of poets.
Show a survivor documentary instead!
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There is nothing wise about dying from alcohol abuse at age 48, surrounded by people who think you are so enlightened that your addiction is holy. Chogyam Trungpa was a cult leader. This whitewashed documentary shows only the good from the perspective of devotees and covers over the institutional abuse he helped create, perpetuated in people like his own son who has raped and sexually assaulted many women himself. None of Trungpa’s victims are interviewed, and they are still alive and kicking. If you want to show this movie, interview one of Trungpa’s secret wives like Leslie Hays or some of the women “The Sakyong” raped too, how about it. Otherwise you are just perpetuating the lie.