Part 5 of 6
2.5. Economical, Physical and Psychological AbuseThe devaluation of others (An Olive Branch 2019b, p. 6), abuse of power, rumors and slander (An Olive Branch 2019b, p. 6) that were described as taking place in the organization Shambala are common behavior in many groups. When asked about the kinds of abuse experienced or witnessed, the following reply was given:
Abuse of donations, of blind devotion, of the readiness for manipulation; abuse of power or power imbalances; abuse of unknowingness and abuse of the openness to engage in other traditions; abuse of naivety and good faith. Abuse of generosity, abuse of the Dharma to sexually utilise women. Abuse of the Dharma for concealing flaws, lack of education and of realisation. Abuse of the Dharma in order to present oneself as a great teacher. Abuse of Dharma in order to aggressively release one’s own negative emotions on others. Abuse of the Dharma in order to gain a position of elevation. Abuse of the Dharma in order to refuse communication.
-- (respondent #1)
The abuse or violence experienced in person was also described as:
“humiliation, exposure, psychological violence, repression, deprivation of healthy self-esteem, intrigues, defamation campaigns, systematic manipulation and lies. Theft: […] misuse of tied donations” (respondent #1). Concerning the organization Rigpa, the primary concerns in the open letter to Sogyal Lakar addressed the following actions of abuse: “1. Your physical, emotional and psychological abuse of students. 2. Your sexual abuse of students. 3. Your lavish, gluttonous, and sybaritic lifestyle. 4. Your actions have tainted our appreciation for the practice of the Dharma” (Standlee et al. 2017, pp. 2–3). The writers of the letter elaborated as follows:
We have received directly from you, and witnessed others receiving, many different forms of physical abuse. You have punched and kicked us, pulled hair, torn ears, as well as hit us and others with various objects such as your back-scratcher, wooden hangers, phones, cups, and any other objects that happened to be close at hand. We trusted for many years that this physical and emotional treatment of students—what you assert to be your ‘skillful means’ of ‘wrathful compassion’ in the tradition of ‘crazy wisdom’—was done with our best interest at heart in order to free us from our ‘habitual patterns’. We no longer believe this to be so. We feel that we and others have been harmed because your actions were not compassionate; rather they demonstrated your lack of discipline and your own frustration. Your physical abuse—which constitutes a crime under the laws of the lands where you have done these acts—have left monks, nuns, and lay students of yours with bloody injuries and permanent scars. This is not second hand information; we have experienced and witnessed your behavior for years.
-- (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 3)
Nowadays, even
harmful incidents are reframed as being the ‘perception’ of the individual only. This psychological trick of shifting the fault to the victim builds on simplified and distorted versions of philosophical discourses on the relative and absolute truth. These discourses on a view meant for individual practice are then applied to power imbalances, the manipulation of groups and the denigration of individuals. For this reframing, sometimes the terms ‘illusion’ and even ‘hallucination’ (Zopa 2019) are employed, which devalues the experience of this damage by defining it as an individual problem or even as a mental illness. This demonstrates a way of manipulating huge groups, and patterns of isolating individuals and victims, as well as silencing trauma. That is, instead of dealing with the damage, the groups have to adapt to the prescribed point of view, thought and talk. Thus, unwanted aspects are pressed into the unconscious. That perspective was then spiritually masked and promoted as a so-called ‘pure view,’ which people are manipulated to adopt, especially by inducing the fear of ‘creating bad karma’ through naming the incident or speaking up. In addition to this structural silencing of victims, they are stigmatized as ‘having a bad karma’ and patterns of ignoring or even excluding them from the group lead to secondary wounding. Thus, based on the distorted concepts described above, the ‘reality’ or ‘truth’ is defined by the abuser and his entourage, by prescribing the way of thought for the group. Thus, the damaging incidents remained hidden for decades, by stigmatizing victims and ignoring the harm endured, instead even framing it as beneficial in the sense of the assumed purification of their ‘bad karma’. Furthermore, the exploitation of those working in such a Buddhist organization was described as follows:
I tried to be cheerful and accommodating within reason, but they expect way too much from people. At a certain point after working between 8–10 h or if I got injured, I started telling people I was going to bed. They looked shocked like someone slapped them. Those who worked to exhaustion were seen as the most devoted until they could no longer complete tasks. After I threw my back out building the foundation for the lama’s cabin, I refused to do work that would harm me physically (I already had back problems from excessive manual labor during formative years in foster care).
-- (Anders 2019c, respondent #4)
These statements, made by people from the ‘inner circles’, bear far-reaching implications, as became apparent with the letter of Kusung (Morman et al. 2019), in the organization Shambala, because they show the layers and strategies beyond the public, nice face of the organization. The survey questioned whether one’s own education and training was taken into account when being selected for a job in the Buddhist group. One of the answers was: “they treat everyone as an underclass of servants that exist to serve the lama” (respondent #4) and the person explained further “it was based on what the lama decreed.
Almost everyone obeyed like slaves” (respondent #4). Thus, in such structures, the devaluation and exploitation of others, using very well-trained people as slaves for one’s own purposes is regarded as normal. The extent of the damage inflicted on the person concerned, and its impact on his or her life, is only revealed when listening to his or her narrative, which is not taken seriously in current Buddhist discourses. Here is an example:
I separated from my first guru (from the now-defunct Ratna-Shri Drikung Kagyu center in Berkeley, California) because he sexually violated my best friend. The lama chose her because she was mentally ill and had a history of abuse. He told her he could heal her trauma through sexual acts. I separated from another center and lama (Dzogchen/Nyingma) in Oregon because students were being worked to exhaustion, financially exploited, and discarded. They were told if their minds were pure, they would not need much sleep and their bodies would not get injured from backbreaking labor. People were told the world was ending and they should use their credit cards and savings to make donations because the merit they would get would be incalculable. This place was run like a cult. The teacher also was very controlling and made homophobic comments. […] One of the students worked so much, she had a nervous breakdown and ended up in an institution. No one from the sangha visited her and they banned her from the center, I practiced on my own for years after this until […] after I discovered that my best friend’s child had been raped by the lama/tulku Shenpen Rinpoche, in addition to other children. I had been struggling with my faith for years prior to this […] I could no longer represent an organization or faith that did this as a monk. I lost my faith in Buddhism completely after seeing that the historical Buddha subjected rape victims to interrogation and expulsion if their mindfullness [sic mindfulness] during an assault was deemed insufficient. That’s not compassion. I also was offended by The Buddha’s misogyny in general. I don’t even know what enlightenment means anymore. [???]
-- (Anders 2019c, respondent #5)
Having once held a special position is by no means consolidating: “I was also declared my first Lama’s regent, which meant I was expected to run his center and find his rebirth when he died. I’m not looking for that pervert’s reincarnation. Some work was voluntary, while a lot of it was expected or coerced” (respondent #4). These were some of the terms and concepts used for rationalizing and silencing trauma. The reframing of the perception of group members (Anders 2019a, p. 40) by the elites, allowing them to behave arbitrarily and explaining it as ‘crazy wisdom’ (Anders 2019a, p. 37; Baxter 2018, p. 12; Standlee et al. 2017, p. 5), and defining harm as no-harm, caused by so-called ‘good motivation’, are some of the main manipulative tricks employed. The analysis of terms and concepts for the rationalization of trauma leads to group dynamics that go well beyond the dichotomy of perpetrator and victims. Some psychological aspects of this will be addressed in the following chapter.
2.6. Psychological AspectsIn the specific situation of indoctrination and manipulation with Buddhist terms and concepts, individuals of the entourages obtained special positions with privileges due to their physical proximity to leaders, and usually consider themselves to be above ordinary folk in a kind of spiritual narcissism. Considering the fact of the trauma dynamic itself makes it impossible to refuse positioning, tacit silence about abuse results in a positioning close to the perpetrator. For these individuals, this constitutes a narrow path dividing privileges and their own subjugation and self-abuse. Simultaneously, they themselves are bystanders and witnesses, whose positioning, which they rarely seek, is challenged, because of their identification with the perpetrator, or because of a more or less conscious fear of being victimized themselves. Some even take on the role of teachers indoctrinating the group by unreflectively adopting the previously described concepts and, thus, stigmatizing victims and isolating them socially. Now that the realities of indoctrination, and the current circumstances of economic, physical and psychological abuse (Anders 2019a, p. 39; An Olive Branch 2019a, p. 7; 2019b, p. 6; Standlee et al. 2017, p. 3; Baxter 2018, pp. 16, 23, 29; Finnigan 2019; Winn 2018, p. 5; Winn et al. 2018a, p. 6; Winn et al. 2018b, p. 6) are emerging, it would be appropriate to use courage and strength to thoroughly restructure organizations, to compensate victims and to prevent further damaging incidents rather than whitewashing them, which only the established elites and entourage, who have already profited at others’ costs, would benefit from. Although such ensuing damages are inconsistent with even the basic Buddhist assumptions of non-damage, they continue to be rationalized by its elites, who try to reframe their subordinates’ perception and, in these ways, put group pressure on them, in favor of their own agendas. When it comes to trauma (Newland 2019, p. 213), the agenda is to silence and isolate the victims, and deprive them of people who simply listen, which deprives them of the urgently needed social networks to prevent the outbreak and chronification of disease. While employing the same, dubious terminology, group members, who have not only witnessed the abuse, but often enriched themselves in the role of teachers, translators and command-takers for very many years, continue to preach their versions of ‘pure view’, the ‘karma purification’ of others and Buddhist meditation on such grounds. This means that the instructions of such teachers cynically preaching a ‘pure view’ that whitewashes abuse and exploitation and regards the victims to be the objects of so-called ‘karma purification’ are not only stigmatizing those affected by abuse, but are also continuing to manipulate their seminar participants. Whoever is chosen as an object of that ‘purification’ is not only covered with projections of the unpleasant elements of the projecting group, they are made into the object of acts of slander, stalking and bodily harm. This frequently results in multiple and complex traumatizations and secondary traumatizations. These are the consequences of ignoring the individual and collective unconscious (Hark 1988, pp. 188–89), the discourse of which has permeated scientific fields and social contexts in Europe and America for more than one hundred years, and promoting identification with the collective psyche (Jung 1990, pp. 53–59), instead of updating knowledge and teaching in a culturally sensitive way. Thus, the prescribed ways of thinking, talking and reframing push people into being objects of the group unconscious (Jung 1990, p. 59). This shows in the fact that, while consciously preaching their understanding of compassion, many of the group members are quite unconcerned by the pain and damage inflicted on the victims. Although, at this point, an urgently needed dialogue could be developed, respected authorities dictate to others how they should feel and think, reframe the trauma as aggression, and, in this way, work towards collective silencing. In such ways, the victims are subjected to the projection of many unwanted aspects of the group. It is the power imbalances (Baker 2019, pp. 85–89) within the structures of established centers that facilitate this. Although it was said in Buddhist teachings that genuine teachers were able to explain and impart knowledge through their own understanding and insight, and that their behavior would grow increasingly refined, it seems that nowadays we instead see the repetition of fancy and nice-sounding words. Both the victims and their society pay a high price for this. Furthermore, some individuals were subjected to pseudotherapies (e.g., ‘Rigpa therapy’) (Anders 2019a, pp. 34, 42; Standlee et al. 2017, pp. 4–5; Baxter 2018, pp. 31–32) in their Buddhist groups, which impacts negatively on their trust. As in many countries psychotherapy or trauma therapy is not available in a timely manner, this, in turn, leads to chronic diseases. Thus, people are psychologically damaged by increasing dependency, insecurity, fear, and the identification processes with the master as well as with his group. Stereotyping and the requirement of beautifying one´s speech, as well as merging in the so-called ‘guru yoga’, serve to reduce access to one´s own feelings and to deepen dependency. The seemingly required disintegration of boundaries, instead of development of self-reliance, endangers mental health. From a psychological perspective, along with the impact of physical and psychological violence and traumatization, the patterns of constant humiliation and the systematic questioning of one’s own perception are detrimental, especially when this is tolerated for decades, believing it will serve the purpose of enlightenment. Some people consider themselves advanced, and assume that they are training in sophisticated meditation techniques, even though they actually just rehearse dissociation.
2.6.1. Rationalisation of Damage for Silencing TraumaThe following example reveals the pattern of systematic humiliation towards those of the ‘inner circle’: “With impatience, you have made demands for this entertainment and decadent sensory indulgences. When these are not made available at the snap of a finger, or exactly as you wished, we were insulted, humiliated, made to feel worthless, stupid and incompetent, and often hit or slapped” (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 6). Here, the shifting of anger to any other person willing to take it is illustrated: “or you were moody because you were upset with one of your girlfriends. There are hundreds of examples of trivial incidents that have set you off and your response has been to strike us violently” (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 4). In An Olive Branch report on the organization Shambala, out of 62 people contacting the listening post, there were “35 incidents of sexual misconduct […] 7 incidents of child abuse […] 10 incidents of physical violence” (An Olive Branch 2019b, p. 5). Sexual coercion was described in the open letter from the organization Rigpa, as follows:
You use your role as a teacher to gain access to young women, and to coerce, intimidate and manipulate them into giving you sexual favors. […] The ongoing controversies of your sexual abuse that we can read and watch on the Internet are only a small window into your decades of this behavior. Some of us have been subjected to sexual harassment in the form of being told to strip, to show you our genitals (both men and women), to give you oral sex, being groped, asked to give you photos of our genitals, to have sex in your bed with our partners, and to describe to you our sexual relations with our partners. You’ve ordered your students to photograph your attendants and girlfriends naked, and then forced other students to make photographic collages for you, which you have shown to others. You have offered one of your female attendants to another lama (who is well known in Rigpa) for sex. You have had for decades, and continue to have, sexual relationships with a number of your student attendants, some who are married. You have told us to lie on your behalf.
-- (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 5)
This shows how, on the basis of the above-described concepts of merging, even with the wants of the perpetrator, the patterns of humiliation and manipulation, intimidation, coercion as well as seduction were mixed with sexual issues. Claiming that the subjects were bound to vows, which the group leader himself fails to keep, is evidence of their double standards. It is only a matter of time before people see through this and take their own steps: “You have always told us to be appreciative of the personal attention that you give, that you were ‘pointing out our hidden faults’ in our character, and freeing us from ‘our self-cherishing ego’. We no longer believe this to be so” (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 4). The consequences of such behaviors are already showing, in a loss of trust. For instance, a person who attended seminars at Rigpa for approximately ten years shared the following: “I left immediately I heard about the abuse because I knew one person who highlighted it and knew they were honest and reliable” (Anders 2019c, respondent #3). Thus, self-responsibility, developing self-awareness and trust in one’s own perception, as well as supportive social relationships, rather than the social isolation and silencing resulting from the above-mentioned circumstances, are essential for regaining one’s own strength and freedom. Furthermore, understanding that the pure view described for Vajrayāna practise is definitely not the pattern of positive thinking by all means, which serves as a panacea for all, might help one to think and care for oneself. That is, positive thinking is not an adequate means to solve the damage of trauma, depersonalization and silencing addressed here. Nor will victims benefit from hypocritical compassionate talk, instead they will find such talk to be cynical. Particularly, there is a need to restore their dignity and work to provide reparations, as addressed in the open letter:
We are not showing a lack of trust and respect, being a ‘trouble-maker’ with ‘negative talk’ as you often assert when anyone has dared to object to your methods. In fact, we have trusted you too long, given you the benefit of the doubt over and over again. When we’ve attempted to raise these concerns you’ve shamed us, and threatened to withhold the teachings from all the students because we had ‘doubts’.
-- (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 8)
When asked about personal experiences of indoctrination, one person replied:
Presenting a very narrow perspective of fundamentalist Tibetan Buddhism as the only true view. Selective and manipulative quotation from scriptures. Using Buddhist teachings to psychologically cleverly exploit needs [sic.] Avoiding systematic teaching on the basics of Buddhism, e.g., the actual teachings, e.g., ethics, and subtle dismissal of such teachings as low [sic.] Attempts to seduce people along rapid paths, e.g., Atiyoga, lacking one’s own basics, lacking students’ basics, or lacking basic knowledge on how to convey these. The sale of mere tradition-bound phenomena to be Buddhism. Establishing a Lamaism instead of Buddhism. Confusing ‘Tibetism’ with Vajrayana.
-- (respondent #1)
Such behaviors attempt to keep the ‘students’ in one’s own organization and seduce them into lifelong schooling. The impact of self-exploitation, and payment for unending seminars on the lives of students is easily disregarded. The following statement was shared by someone from the organization Rigpa: “The teacher/lama said people were not to go outside the group for teachings. Other lamas /teachers were brought in to teach.” (respondent #3). Similarly, coercion was described by another person: “we were told not to take outside teachings and not to ever discuss teachings from outside the lineage, including the Buddha’s words. My first teacher wanted to force me to give up my child and send her to a monastery. I refused and went over his head and said I was out if this was required. The teacher I appealed to agreed with me” (respondent #6). Furthermore, the decontextualized use of the phrase ‘crazy wisdom’ and its usage to rationalize misbehavior and the subsequent damage is shown here: “You and others in your organization claim this is how a Buddhist master of ‘crazy wisdom’ behaves, just like the tantric adepts of the past. We do not believe this to be so and see such claims as attempts to explain away egregious behaviors” (Standlee et al. 2017, p. 5). Another example of elaborating on this neologism and its impact is found here:
Very often it was taught Lakar would apply wrathful wisdom, a traditional tool of TB, historically e.g., Milarepa. In this way the ground was prepared if disloyal students would report nonsense (i.e., the truth). The majority of them simply left without any attempts towards disclosure. Karma (negative) could be very quickly matured and passed in Lerab Ling in case of unpleasant events. Any small sign of whatsoever, even good weather, was considered ‘magical’. A constant show was presented on how much Lakar would take care of all the students and he would work day and night for their good. Reality looked different. Most of the students he didn’t know and he only cared about money and his reputation. Due to the high fluctuation of students, however, it would have taken a considerable effort on his part. Dharma was always taught in ways that fitted, e.g., what hells would await a person breaking samaya. However, no basics were taught whatsoever regarding sound knowledge of samaya and examining the [spiritual] teacher. In fact, hardly any Westerners ever have the chance to examine a Tibetan lama. This is impeded by language limitations, disassociation from the students and brief stays. In the case of Lakar, a highly professional image was created for those new and older students, who were not in the ‘inner circle’, that had nothing in common with reality.
-- (respondent #1)
Thus, it is important to deconstruct such pseudo-professional images, which deceive the public, and have a look at the education and integrity of a person, and their leadership qualities instead. The levels of manipulation and false praise for the promotion of some and the denigration of others were illustrated through the example of the organization Rigpa in Germany:
Typical public methods at Rigpa: public humiliation, abuse, exposure, exaggerated false praise, promoting or degrading people in the ‘Rigpa Ranking’. Promoting and exploiting intrigues, power games and denunciation among students. Encouraging a sense of value within the collective and for the individual by cleverly presenting the Lama and his organisation as unique, exceptional, significant, superior to others, more advanced, etc. and then reducing the pupils to pocket size by public speech. I have called this attracting and domestising. Secrecy as a measure to create unofficial, subtle, non-formal structures within the so-called ‘sangha’. Ideologically, this is justified by the selective use of specific parts of texts from the canon of Tibetan Buddhist texts, partly in a quite subtle and manipulative ways. Encouraging unhealthy ambitiousness and worldly interest by publicly displaying students’ diligence, dedication, working enthusiasm, readiness to donate, etc. by setting up a gold standard in devotion. Great ‘devotion’ = greater progress on the path, thus also greater appreciation by the collective, thus higher ranking. The longing for alternatives for family and social belonging is being exploited to a very great extent.
-- (Anders 2019c, respondent #2)
These examples clearly illustrate the highly sophisticated psychological methods employed to internally promote some yet abuse others. Hence, it is not difficult to discern the kind of arrogance and intangibility established among the elites of the system, and the impact of such behavior and indoctrination on others who, for years or even decades, have invested their time and labor to gain access to spirituality and were played around with and abused. One person elaborated on the system of using people who were uneducated for their jobs and leaving out those who were well educated, which seems to be a strategy used in many of contemporary international Buddhist groups: “Very often utterly incompetent individuals were employed, I got the impression the permanent chaos associated with that allows for better manipulation” (Anders 2019c, respondent #2). Someone who left the organization Pathgate after ten years shared the following information a few months after his separation:
There is one single teacher in Pathgate […]. He functions as an authoritarian leader, dictating every aspect of students’ lives […] gives Buddhist teachings, taichi and qigong [sic Taichi and Qigong] classes, provides advice to students, dictates their daily routines, and delegates jobs and functions for regular students, whether they are staying at the center or not. […] I realised that Pathgate was a cult and PY was behaving like a authoritarian cult leader. I concluded that his behaviour was unethical, narcissistic, manipulative and aggressive, which is not what an authentic Buddhist teacher should have. […] Psychologically, I feel anger, depression and a sense of injustice. Professionally, I have not been in a stable job for 6–7 years because PY has discouraged his students to detach from mainstream society.
-- (respondent #7)
He shared his testimony on violence and manipulation as follows:
I did not experience violence towards me personally. I saw PY verbally abuse students on multiple occasions. I saw him humiliate students publicly several times. I saw him physically strike a female student on 1 [sic one] occasion. On these occasions the students were upset and crying after. I felt uncomfortable but I justified PY’s abuse as ‘crazy wisdom’, that the teacher was using skilful methods to teach the students and ‘purify their negative karma’, Now I realise that there was no wisdom in PY’s methods, he was simply abusive and there was no justification for it. Many students are so brainwashed and fearful of PY that they are conditioned to accept the abuse.
-- (respondent #7)
These examples show ways of rationalizing the damage employed in order to silence trauma and victims. That is used to divide people against each other and isolates the victims. Be it within the group or outside, this often constitutes secondary traumatization. Thus, the traditional doctrines distorted are the concepts of mindfulness and pure view - that is, the interpretations of what is translated as absolute and relative reality, and their respective methods of training, taking the goal as the path. Furthermore, there is a dangerous distortion in the teacher-student relationship, which impacts on the concept and method of guru yoga and the meaning of devotion in that context, as well as on the pure views being ascribed to the teacher only. Moreover,
the idea of ‘karma purification’ is a neologism that attracts people with cleansing fantasies, constitutes a risky mainstream uniting of purity, exclusiveness and exclusion and, in this way, presents challenges for society. If silencing the victim does not seem to be enough, other methods of isolation and intimidation are employed.
2.6.2. Methods of Isolation and Intimidation—Portraying Others as Crazy or rlung DiseasedIn many societies, social isolation has been a tool employed for punishment. However, in some of these Buddhist groups, the isolation is employed for the traumatized victims of abuse, to demonstrate the strength of a leader against someone’s autonomy, or because of the concealed jealousy of anyone in the entourage. People in power and their established entourage have the opportunity to use social isolation by spreading rumors about someone, employing public slander or ordering others to do so. And such slander campaigns are not limited to group borders, but may be extended to members’ social background, key relationships or professional relationships. Nowadays, due to the internationality of these groups, they can go far beyond national borders. While victims previously had the opportunity to move home or relocate abroad, such strategies no longer work. Inside the group, any offense can be justified using the new concept of ‘karma purification’. By then publicly framing such methods, as well as the individuals’ isolation, as the victim’s perception problem, the perpetrators have little to fear from within. Moreover, those who begin to doubt the legitimacy of such methods may be sufficiently scared of being made victims themselves. Thus, the extent to which the unreflective adoption of these concepts, by people who consider themselves not bound by any national law due to their religious elevation leads to can be seen. Unfortunately, projecting one’s ideals onto a Tibetan myth and the overall indiscriminate idealization of Buddhist values has prevented corresponding societal measures being taken to investigate and respond to the conditions behind the superficial image, and to limit its dangers to society. Particularly within psychotherapeutic contexts, the mainstream idealization of mindfulness meditation has hindered victims from being heard, taken seriously and receiving the required psychotherapeutic treatment. It is these confusing and grueling methods, covertly applied in a group, that, over many years, have made people sick.
Another method to avoid self-responsibility and being held accountable is to distract from violence, exploitation and abuse by stating that there was no intention to harm, as if the damage to the victim were less severe because of the rationalized intention of the perpetrator. Furthermore, in instances where a person is among those who can define and change the rules, it is always possible to harass someone by simply publicly accusing the person of having broken rules -- those in power may even alter the rules the second before the complaint, if needed — for reasons such as jealousy. In such cases, although there was no fault to criticize, there usually are no consequences for the perpetrator. Such conditions result from imported hierarchies, based on the assignment of positions to unqualified or ethically incapable persons, and the failure to implement democratic processes, which results in members being unable to remove a person, and the absence of legal implementation, as though these structures were beyond public legal frameworks, as well as the terminological tricks used. Another method commonly employed in traditional Tibetan contexts is refusing communication altogether, which is rationalized as the “breakthrough of truth”:
In both his letter to me of 4 July 2018, and the letter 18 July 2017 to the eight letter writers, I noted that Sogyal did not deny the allegations against him, but instead pointed out that he did not ever intend to cause harm. Having heard evidence from a number of witnesses and listened to some recorded teachings by Sogyal, I have concluded that it would not be safe to treat his lack of denial as a tacit admission. Sogyal has stated publically that he considers that he will not defend himself against attack, and others (e.g., Witness N) spoke to me of the Buddhist belief that there is no need to respond to any form of attack against you—‘wait and the truth will come’.
-- (Baxter 2018, p. 10)
However, sitting out of issues of such magnitude will not lead to any constructive solutions, but rather cause damage and disputes over decades — the resolution of which is merely postponed to future generations. Considering the retrospective whitewashing of historiography to preserve the elite's influence, common hypocrisy (Sogyal Rinpoche [2018] 2019; Carreon 2019) and so-called masters who assume themselves beyond legislation, a good first step for our societies would be to invoke human rights concerns and their implementation, along with claiming compensation payments from the organizations that have enriched themselves at the expense of their victims. Such a system of slandering, systematically humiliating women and stigmatizing people, even with terms referring to psychiatric diseases, creates distress and fear in the group and for the individual. This is because people know that, if they become the center of attention for whatever reason, or if they dare to withdraw from the group or even leave it, they will be treated the same way. Stalking is also a common method, including but not only at the organization Rigpa. From the organization Rigpa:
It was striking that Rigpa wanted to find out if and which other teacher I would turn to. […] When I first came to a seminar, rather soon after I had left, I met a ‘senior student’ of Rigpa, we knew each other. He was a bit uneasy about me. He had already conveyed messages from Sogyal Lakar to other Lamas on several previous occasions, as I knew. Anyway, as Rigpas’ representative, he paid his respects and handed over a letter. Then the Lama intensely looked at me, and upon parting he told me to come again, in a compassionate tone. I cannot prove it, but I know of similar cases where lamas were informed that student xyz would come, he/she would have difficulties, or too much lung or something similar. At this point I would consider that as a precaution against negative information about Sogyal Lakar which ex-disciples could tell.
-- (Anders 2019c, respondent #2)
These experiences result in distrust, not only in others but also in oneself, which was described as follows:
Distrust. Trusting other people has become much more difficult for me than it was when I was younger, before my participation in an abusive sangha. Boundary: By this I intend to clearly disassociate from people who act strongly dishonest, who permanently manipulate, and/or who present characteristics of belonging to particular subcultures. Anger: When it comes to abuse in religious groups and concealment, and when ritualised behaviour is being sold for spiritual practice, my fuse has become quite short. Resignation: I have no more patience to use energy and time on others.
-- (respondent #1)
The challenging group structures described above were developed based on inherited hierarchical command structures, decontextualized concepts and neologisms, as well as on psychological manipulations that were unquestioned for decades. However, since they not only impact the individuals and their health, but, due to the situation of many individuals, also on society, its judgement and attention to this are now required. The following chapter illustrates some consequences for the victims.
