New Kadampa Tradition: never mix with Tibetan Buddhists, they can cause “Great Spiritual Confusion” and are dangerous for your “Purity”
NEW KADAMPA TRADITION
INTERNATIONAL KADAMPA BUDDHIST UNION
To all NKT-IKBU Centres
05 August 2010
Dear Administrative Directors,
Because of the potential for great spiritual confusion both now and in the future, we advise and request that NKT Centres, teachers, managers and residents do not get involved with the activities of any Tibetan Buddhist groups, teachers or their students.
If you receive any invitations or requests from a Tibetan Buddhist group, teacher or student, please politely decline them, and forward them to the Education Council Representatives for our information.
These approaches can be for support in some form (for example with donations, fundraising events, visa applications, hosting, transport, publicity, social events); or offers to give teachings, empowerments or informal talks, or to perform pujas, ceremonies, ritual demonstrations and so on.
The main reason for this request is to help NKT practitioners to avoid mixing spiritual traditions, while of course maintaining respect for other traditions. It will also avoid being drawn into the many difficult political problems associated with Tibetan Buddhism, caused by mixing Dharma and politics.
Please inform the teachers, managers and residents at your Centre of this advice and request.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Warm regards,
Steve Cowing, NKT-IKBU Secretary
on behalf of the GSD and Education Council Reps
NKT declaration of sectarian views 2010
Religious Fundamentalism in Buddhism 2008/09/05
Mixing Dharma with Politics 2008/08/13
Religious Extremists – a brief analysis
AND
What is the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT)? 2014/10/24
NKT Survivor activists informing the public about the New Kadampa Tradition at the University of London 2014/10/10
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45Comments ADD YOURS
1
jigje on October 29, 2014 at 4:24 pm Reply
An amazing, eye-opening document! This obsession with purity! What immediately comes to mind for me personally is Nazi Germany’s obsession with racial/blood purity. Is there any reason to believe that the NKT has come to embrace a different, more moderate outlook some four years later?
2
tenpel on October 29, 2014 at 4:32 pm Reply
I read in a book about fundamentalism that at the core of any fundamentalism lies a concept or “purity”, and I think this is very true. Yes, the pure NKT blood should not be mixed with the bad blood of Tibetan Buddhists.
3
Marek on January 20, 2017 at 11:51 am
yet all the ordained NKT have Tibetan names – many don’t even know what their names mean, the 1st NKT festival I attended in 1999 or 2000, I bought a Manjushri pendant, on its reverse –
3 Tibetan/Sanskrit syllables – I asked Gen La Samden Gyatso what they were – HE DIDN’T KNOW!? Geshe Kelsang’s sister told me they were Om Ah Hum at the Crown, throat and heart chakra – something so basic and so simple yet Geshe Kelsang’s golden boy was unable to tell me – interetsing
4
dharmaanarchist on October 30, 2014 at 3:51 pm Reply
It reminds me more of the screwed up attitude that a lot of Christian groups have toward sex. Which is seen as dirty, sinful and paving your road to hell if you dare to succumb to the enjoyment of it, that way crippling the followers in paranoid fears and binding them to their faith that is the only thing that can save them from the wrath of god.
5
Marek on January 20, 2017 at 11:54 am
you and I & perhaps ALL OF HUMANITY exist because our parents had unprotected sex – and then they decided that it would be nifty to have unpaid staff to stand around with trays of vol au vents to distribute at cocktail parties
6
Julien on February 5, 2015 at 11:58 am Reply
Hi Jigje,
maybe my knowledge of english is too poor to understand well but can you tell me where it is question of blood purity in the above letter ?
yours in Dharma,
Julien.
7
Sam Hoff on October 29, 2014 at 5:32 pm Reply
The NKT is an extreme cult. Plain and simple.
8
Sam Hoff on October 29, 2014 at 5:33 pm Reply
We need the following signs at NKT counterprotests:
NKT=cult
NKT=fake monks
Stop NKT ban on traditional dharmapalas
9
Khedrup on October 29, 2014 at 11:08 pm Reply
THe only time they are allowed near any Tibetans is when they are defaming His Holiness. What a dry, sad and limited way to practice Buddhism. I am surprised people stay in such a fundamentalist sect voluntarily. Reminds me exactly of my family members that are Jehovah’s Witnesses.
10
tenpel on October 31, 2014 at 10:15 am Reply
If you see their FB accounts of the “Kelsang Family” they are full of NKT stuff and Anti Dalai Lama staff, for instance here these examples taken just on a quick look, their world got totally limited to a Pro NKT and Anti Dalai Lama cosmos as their favorites:
https://www.facebook.com/kelsang.tabkay
https://www.facebook.com/kelsang.longku.1
https://www.facebook.com/kelsang.drolma
11
Khedrup on October 31, 2014 at 6:30 pm
Very telling and sad indeed. What a horrible “universe” to limit yourself to.
12
jigmeyeshe on October 30, 2014 at 1:07 pm Reply
Reasons why Kelsang Gyatso may not want his students to have contact with Tibetan people or to know his full background:
1. His lack of orthodox qualifications and methods will be revealed
2. His students may want to visit places he lived in and go for refuge to his previous teachers
3. The lack of training by NKT teachers will become obvious
4. By comparison to that of other Tibetan teachers and Gelug founder, Je Tsongkhapa, Kelsang Gyatso’s transmissions and teachings are minimal
5. Comparisons with texts by the Indian Masters show that the NKT is only teaching introductory works
6. His students will hear the reasons why His Holiness the Dalai Lama does not want his students to practice Shugden
7. New students would often be more inclined to respect His Holiness’ views than that of fundamentalist views clothed in the language of Human Rights
13
tenpel on October 30, 2014 at 1:30 pm Reply
Or they will faint when they see the vastness and profundity of Buddhism compared with the NKT’s superficial and remotely rote learned understanding where almost nobody can think for themselves or is able to apply any good reasoning … similar to the frog in the well when he met the ocean:
TEACHERS LIKE THE FROG THAT LIVED IN A WELL.
Teachers of this kind lack any special qualities that might distinguish them from ordinary people. But other people put them up on a pedestal in blind faith, without examining them at all. Puffed up with pride by the profits and honours they receive, they are themselves quite unaware of the true qualities of great teachers. They are like the frog that lived in a well.
One day an old frog that had always lived in a well was visited by another frog who lived on the shores of the great ocean.
“Where are you from?” asked the frog that lived in the well.
“I come from the great ocean,” the visitor replied.
“How big is this ocean of yours?” asked the frog from the well.
“It is enormous,” replied the other.
“About a quarter the size of my well?” he asked.
“Oh! Bigger than that!” exclaimed the frog from the ocean.
“Half the size, then?”
“No, bigger than that!”
“So—the same size as the well?”
“No, no! Much, much bigger!”
“That’s impossible!” said the frog who lived in the well. “This I have to see for myself.”
So the two frogs set off together, and the story goes that when the frog who lived in the well saw the ocean, he fainted, his head split apart, and he died.
14
jigmeyeshe on October 30, 2014 at 1:49 pm
I wish they would ‘see for themselves’. But, it’s sad. So many people tell me they go to other groups, from the NKT and feel so ‘confused’ that they go back to the NKT in frustration.
15
tenpel on October 30, 2014 at 2:13 pm
To go back to a cult is quite of a common pattern. Cults have dynamics that are highly addictive and many experience certain emotional needs being met by the cult similar as drugs and alcohol seem to meet certain emotional needs but don’t solve your deeper problems and make you dependent and harm you in the long run …
16
Khedrup on October 31, 2014 at 10:05 pm
Now NKT members are posting my photo and saying I am @manjushriNL on twitter and have “harassed” Shugden people. @manjushriNL is NOT an account I have anything to do with. Is there any way to get NKT to stop circulating this lie?
I can easily prove that account is not mine.
17
tenpel on October 31, 2014 at 10:08 pm
I am not so sure if you can convince them. They spread lies and untruths about all their perceived enemies and stalk and bully them … Its part of their tactic …
18
Khedrup on October 31, 2014 at 10:13 pm
I have never made this personal and have been polite.
I am really shocked at being targeted like this, it is really despicable. And now they are trying to “Indict” Robert Thurman. They have really gone crazy.
19
tenpel on October 31, 2014 at 10:33 pm
I think they have gone crazy already many years ago. They also attacked researcher and scientists …
20
Khedrup on October 31, 2014 at 11:01 pm
It’s cute they think I’m at the University of Amsterdam though. Far more illustrious than my actual position 😉
21
tenpel on October 31, 2014 at 11:32 pm
Ha ha ha, yes. If they attack an illustrious monk their live has more meaning 😉
22
jigmeyeshe on November 1, 2014 at 12:28 am
They are ‘going crazy’ because their leader is dying and they are making their group ‘cohesive’ by blaming the Dalai Lama who they KNOW won’t respond and take the NKT to court for MILLIONS, which anyone else would, for defamation, etc. And they know their students are so ignorant of the lack of context for such a ‘Human Rights’ campaign that is not human at all.
It won’t matter what anyone does, they are doing these demos just like they did the ones in 1996 and 2008, for ‘internal’ reasons that have nothing to do with external reality at all. Very minimally, as there is a ‘problem’ with Shugden, but that’s not the ‘real’ issue here. It’s bonding. And I mean it.
23
tenpel on November 1, 2014 at 12:42 am
My feeling is the craziness is there from the start, did it increase? Maybe because I grew up with it I don’t perceive a higher degree like a frog sitting in water that is gradually heated and is finally boiled without getting aware …
24
Alex Xs on March 25, 2015 at 9:46 pm
like saying that the chinesse goverment pay them?.
How even that can be possible?.
In fact, why why defaming, the dharma of the nkt are the instructions of the buddha simplified for our moddern world.
25
tenpel on April 15, 2015 at 2:11 pm
I would never say that the PRC is paying them. I am not supporting rumours that are baseless. Why do you think this would be my view? I never ever said something like this …
The NKT defames themselves, I think I cannot really defame them. Did I? How?
26
laughingdaquini on November 2, 2014 at 10:30 am
Khedrup, perhaps you could adapt this handy guide they produced on how to indict Robert Thurman and fill in the blanks appropriately. http://arebuddhistsracist.com/how_to_indict_robert_thurman.html I’m not sure if they produced guidance in there on how to identify anonymous attackers who are potentially putting you in danger, but the authorities clearly do have the power to identify such persons. Internet anonymity is no protection from the reach of the law. I for one would love to see these venomous liars prosecuted or have their asses sued.
In the UK the difference between a prosecution and suing someone is decided by the nature of the offence. Harassment is a crime and if you report it to the police they have a duty to investigate it. After gathering the evidence, the police will then issue a “Caution” or ask the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute the offender. The CPS will then analyse the evidence and issue criminal court proceedings ie Crown vs Whomever if they believe the evidence is enough to be able to secure conviction.
On the other hand, libel, slander and defamation are civil wrongs (torts) and are not offences that fall within the police remit as they are not deemed to be crimes. To bring legal proceedings on these matters people usually have to employ a solicitor and pay for it themselves, obviously with the hope that they will win damages from the defendant to then cover the costs. Obviously, most ordinary people do not want to risk huge sums of money on such a course of action. However, it is possible for groups of ordinary people to get together and bring a “class action”, where one case is brought on behalf of the group against the offending party. In this way the cost and risks are much reduced as they are shared among many.
27
Khedrup on November 2, 2014 at 12:35 pm
You are right in that I may have a case, LD.
I certainly wouldn’t want to stoop to their level and call for legal action based on a minor offence. Imagine the idiocy of them calling the FBI on Prof. Bob when the FBI has to worry about drug smuggling, terrorism etc… ridiculous, selfish, I could go on and on.
But I would hope to appeal to their basic sense of human decency. Also their naievite, that they think there is only me in Holland who is a critic of Shugden. I think the underestimate how many people their shenanigans have offended.
Also, they indeed did put me in danger, as I have received threats due to my outspokenness regarding the pernicious nature of Shugden practice. But, in their minds, even if I am not the owner of that twitter account, I still “deserve” the harassment due to the fact I had the “gall” to criticize Shugden.
28
tenpel on November 2, 2014 at 12:55 pm
Just glanced through this piece allegedly written by or put online to this site by Gen Kelsang Rabten, Nicholas Pitts. What a poor, desperate, blind and ignorant mind. He bullies and slanders the Dalai Lama with lies and hate and those who object this bullying are slandered by him again but still he thinks others are wrong and he does not see that he reports about himself and the ICS/NKT/KG tactics when he hypocritically states:
This is why I believe cyber bullying is on the increase, it’s the disassociation between our actions and the hurt experienced by others.
Bullying is a big dislike of mine and in researching this subject I have encountered an unprecedented amount of bullying, threats and intimidation – sometimes from people who really should know better.
The best way I have found to approach bullying is to either ignore it, or stand up to it. The best way I have found to stand up to bullying is to involve authorities because bullies often act outside of the law and the rules.
Its exactly that what Rabten and the NKT puppets do with dozens of anonymous internet sites, anonymous blogs, anonymous accounts and pseudonyms.
NKT makes you a mess and Rabten has become a mess. He cannot open his mouth without lying even if he gives a small report about the Princeton protests he lies that they were the biggest group of protesters ever there, the only group allowed to march through the campus (a 30 seconds internet research disapproves this) and that the permission to walk through the campus were an approval of their mission by the university. Oh Rabten. Lost in propaganda and delusions. And why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, and not notice the beam which is in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3) May you awake!
29
tenpel on November 2, 2014 at 1:12 pm
And also a good example of the NKT / Shugden attainment of the perfection “How to victimize yourself and blame others”.
30
Marek on January 20, 2017 at 12:47 pm Reply
no other Geshes in NKT other than Geshe Kelsang, and nobody in the NKT qualified or experienced to the same standard as Geshe Kelsand – that must raise questions – AND YET – PLEASE GOOGLE GESHE KELSANG WANGMO – WORLD’S FIRST WESTERN WOMAN QUALIFIED AS A GESHE – REJOICE
31
Brian on January 20, 2017 at 7:24 pm
Also, twenty Tibetan Geshemas graduated on December 22, 2016.
http://tibet.net/2016/12/his-holiness-the-dalai-lama-to-award-historic-geshema-degree-to-20-tibetan-buddhist-nuns/
32
David Cooke on October 31, 2014 at 5:37 am Reply
This is another parallel between the NKT and the Church of Scientology, particularly that phrase ‘avoid mixing spiritual traditions’. To avoid such mixing, ‘Church’ members are forbidden to speak with scientologists who are outside the church, even if this means disconnecting from their family. NKT will probably be forbidding its followers from using the internet or watching television next.
33
tenpel on October 31, 2014 at 10:47 am Reply
If they use the internet to slander the Dalai Lama this is highly welcomed. But if they use the internet to investigate the faults of NKT leadership, e.g. the sexual abuse of nuns by the NKT deputy Gen-la Kelsang Samden and how this could happen again and again although Kelsang Gyatso was informed about the abuse, then this is “meaningless activity” and the internet forum was shut down:
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso:
Some small group in our NKT society engage in meaningless activity on the internet, not only Sangha, some lay. This is incorrect. We are Kadampa practitioners, Kadampa Teachers. Why are we enjoying meaningless activity, discussion? We can have a meaningful discussion with pure practitioners or senior practitioners, Teachers. There is no meaning in talking about silly things publicly on the internet.
Instead, make meaningful discussion with our pure practitioners, senior Teachers. Please give my message to the individuals of this group. Stop this kind of actions. Gen-la Khyenrab, give my message in email or writing. Stop meaningless discussion on the internet. If you wish, do meaningful discussion with senior Teachers or pure practitioners, or meaningful discussion with your Teacher.
No meaning engaging in silly question and answers on the internet. Please Gen-la Khyenrab, pass my message. I am telling you for your purpose and our society’s purpose. In this way, keep individuals and society pure and show very good example.
This was posted in the German NKT forum after NKT followers got aware that Gen-la Samden was stripped over night from power and all NKT websites. This removal happened only after someone had made the sexual abuse public at E-Sangha forum. Through that making public at E-Sangha the NKT leadership couldn’t hide anymore the facts and protect Samden. To protect the nuns from abuse and being misled has never been an issue for Kelsang Gyatso. Those who reported Kelsang Gyatso about the sexual abuse of Samden (who also convinced other monks to follow his bad example) got angry letters from Gyatso that they should stop to say this and that they would “harm millions of sentient beings”. After the over night removal of Samden by the NKT the devoted NKT followers – who didn’t receive any clear information by the NKT leadership – started to try to find out what happened. The NKT leaderhsip threw their usual blurring information pack as they did it with Gen la Thubten / Elliot – another deputy that got involved in such activities, claiming he would do a retreat now etc. So naturally, NKT followers wondered and started to ask each other in the official NKT chat forums. However, as you might guess, their research and questioning of what happened to and by Gen-la Samden was not accepted by the NKT leadership. Then Kelsang Gyatso wrote this statement quoted above and it was sent to all official NKT chat forums.
However, his statement was not accepted by anybody. In the German NKT chat forum someone asked for instance: “why are thoughts of sentient beings meaningless activities?” Later he compared the advice to ask your NKT teacher with his experiences of the communists. Than the forum head closed the forum – as far as I know based on the order of Kelsang Gyatso.
It is obvious that for the NKT leadership it is of utmost importance to discuss and spread the projected / fantasy faults of the Dalai Lama instead of facing and addressing the real faults of the own organization and the multiple sexual abuse by the leadership. What to say. A cult.
34
Khedrup on November 1, 2014 at 7:04 am Reply
Another growing similarity with Scientologyis their willingness to make no holds barred attacks on ANY Shugden critic. Often just random accusations based on a hunch with no fround in reality. Being against Shugden is reason enough to target someone, they even had a campaign to call the FBI on Bob Thurman. So, Tenzin, I would say they are definitely getting crazier. There will be consequences, though, moderate , fringe or new members will see the antics on the internet and be turned off. The current postings from them are not thought provoking debate points. Just rabid attacks of anyone they perceive as being on the wrong side.
35
jigje on October 31, 2014 at 5:02 pm Reply
The context behind this comment by Kelsang Gyatso is essential for giving us (on the outside) a clear window into how the leadership of a group like this deals with an internal scandal: devoted followers are deliberately kept in the dark with the naive expectation that nondisclosure is the best way to limit any potential damage and move forward. I say “naive” because anyone familiar with the basics of human behavior already knows that this has the very opposite effect.
And how does Kelsang Gyatso handle this natural curiosity to know more about something that is deliberately and mysteriously being kept from them? He reframes their inquisitiveness into a negative thing, “meaningless discussion!” and further, shames them for it! When that tactic isn’t sufficient to put an end to their desire to know what is going on within their own community, the entire forum is simply shut down.This is how groups of this nature handle scandal and dissent.
The ironic implication here is that a “pure” NKT partitioner is not inquisitive, not curious, does not question authority or it’s actions. In other words, a pure practitioner is a blind believer, someone who simply accepts and never questions. The very opposite of what the Buddha himself entreated his followers:
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
36 I LOVE YOU ALL on November 2, 2014 at 11:06 am Reply
The two people mainly behind the current attacks on Thurman, Kelsang Rabten ‘Indy hack’ and M ‘So what’ Matthew Rochford [+ sidekick Dooton] themselves need to be very careful, especially about inviting the FBI to investigate Thurman [which I doubt very much they have but sincerely hope they do] Rabtens multiple twitter accounts under false identity’s and Rochfords repettion of the ‘abducted by aliens’ type fantasy that the CIA paid for Tibet House NY are not only proof of their state of mind. Both acts are now legally actionable at an international level under newly established internet regulatory laws and, unlike flimsily evidenced, failed appeals to the Indian high court, easily proven to be immoral, corrupt and libelous. Throw them more spades and rope folks; they are so crazed that they cant see they are about to destroy themselves.
37 tenpel on November 2, 2014 at 11:12 am Reply
They hold now placards which try to indicate Robert Thurman as the puppet of the Dalai Lama:
