Diana J. Mukpo

Cheerful year of the Iron Ox to the Sangha of Warriors,

Last summer, Diana Mukpo convened a group to advise her on how best to support the dharma legacy of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. We are part of that multigenerational group of teachers and practitioners who were asked to contemplate our sangha’s present circumstances and offer ideas about the road forward.

During the last several months, we met to discuss questions facing the future of the life’s work of Trungpa Rinpoche, and in particular the availability of his essential practice instructions and transmissions. The results of those discussions are presented in this letter, which is intended to be a first step and starting point for further dialogue and action.

First, to briefly clarify what we mean by “sangha.” During the Vidyadhara’s lifetime, his students formed a close-knit community, which held the forms, transmissions, and energy that he cultivated. Much has changed since then.

In the years following his death, his students moved in a number of different and complementary directions. Some chose to work closely with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. Others moved in more independent directions, developing new sanghas in forms as varied as meditation groups, book clubs, study initiatives, and group retreats.

Given the events of the past few years, this movement towards diversity of presentation and inspiration has accelerated, providing new approaches to share the Vidyadhara’s insights into spirituality and human life. New and seasoned practitioners alike have begun to explore what works for them along with the communities they serve.

We unequivocally believe this diversity is a good thing. The dharma flourishes when it is given space to be creative and experimental. There is no one-size-fits-all approach that works for everyone. This sentiment inspired the rimé masters of eastern Tibet and many of the Kagyu and Nyingma teachers who fled into exile and brought the dharma to the West.

We acknowledge that our community has a shadow side that has perpetuated harm in various forms across generations. Facing that history, fearlessly acknowledging it, and then remedying it is the only path to protecting the Vidyadhara’s teachings and ensuring they flourish in the future. This is a collective responsibility shared by all who wish to build that future and care for their fellow practitioners.

But the path forward may not look the same for everyone, and in recognition of that, we want to offer as many tools as we can to the mahasangha and all within it who are inspired to cultivate new approaches. In particular, we feel strongly that students seeking to receive vows and transmissions outside of a samaya commitment to Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche should have avenues to do so.

The Vidyadhara established a vast array of forms, paths, and environments for students to connect with their own dignity and wakeful mind. This included the Shambhala path, and also dharma art, traditional Kagyu and Nyingma practices, Kasungship, and beyond. Rooted in the practice of meditation, these creative approaches were a product of two-way communication with his students, reflecting his intuitive sense that there were different ways for people to connect with the essence of the traditions he held.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone who is carrying these traditions forward will have all the support that we can provide.

Kagyu and Nyingma Practice Paths

The Kagyu and Nyingma teaching streams are central to the Vidyadhara’s presentation of dharma in the West. He is a revered figure within the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions, and many practitioners have expressed their desire to enter into those streams.

As copyright holder of Trungpa Rinpoche’s written work, Diana Mukpo will be ensuring that the texts, instructions, and sadhanas associated with his presentation of the Kagyu and Nyingma paths of meditation and study will be available to qualified practitioners who wish to receive them. We will support programs and spaces where engagement with these paths can deepen, providing the availability of refuge and bodhisattva vows in contexts where the hinayana and mahayana foundations are being studied.

If you are an administrator of a local center, hold a practice and education role, or are a member interested in continued study of the Buddhist mahayana and vajrayana teachings at your center, we hope to support you, and we hope you can support and advise us. The Shambhala membership and its center leaders have strong training and understanding of how to present these teachings, as well as how to create containers for the transmission of practice and sacred outlook. We see no reason why many centers should not be able to continue presenting dharma as they have done for years.

If you are a teacher or member of a group that currently operates outside the official Shambhala organization, but is motivated by dedication to the Vidyadhara’s traditions, we also wish to offer support to you. As much as possible, we hope that we can amplify your work and help to facilitate communication across the broader mahasangha.

In the coming months, we will reach out to our friends — teachers and practitioners — within the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions to discuss how best to facilitate access to vajrayana practices in ways that honor the integrity of those lineages. If you feel connected to this path and are looking for ways to engage with it more deeply, please contact us at OpenTorii@gmail.com.

Werma Sadhana and Shambhala Termas

The culmination of the Vidyadhara’s work with his students was his presentation of the Shambhala teachings. Rooted in the Kalachakra and Vajrakilaya tantras along with Tibetan and other traditions of secular warriorship from around the world, this body of teachings is well-suited for our time. Incorporating and based on Buddhist wisdom, the Vidyadhara presented these teachings as his essential work, emphasizing our celebration of the phenomenal world, our fundamental worthiness to be a part of it, and the vision of creating a good human society.

We are all fully committed to the perpetuation and continued transmission of those teachings.

Thus, we will ensure that those who wish to receive the texts, transmissions, and sadhanas associated with the Shambhala termas will have that opportunity. This includes the Werma Sadhana. We know that many of you have worked diligently to prepare for this practice, and Diana Mukpo will facilitate access and support for students to receive it within programs at Shambhala centers, as well as to empower others working outside the organization to transmit the lung so it can be more broadly accessible.

With this, we will facilitate an expansion of the opportunities for students to receive this practice, as well as The Letter of the Black Ashe and the other core texts of the Shambhala tradition. We recognize this is a significant change in how these practices have been offered in the recent past. However, we view this expansion as a continuation of the Vidyadhara’s original approach whereby the lung or “reading transmission” for Werma practice was given by various preceptors at a culminating assembly of warriors.

To address questions that may arise from these decisions, we have posted two articles online, with links below. These offer brief histories of how these practices were introduced to students in past eras. We hope these accounts will demonstrate that there are many legitimate ways to receive them. Ultimately, they are tools to help us live our lives infused with warriorship, decency, fearlessness, and confidence. The more people who are practicing them, the better.

Mapping the Legacy

Some of us are now working to create a website-hub where the many communities practicing and studying the teachings of Trungpa Rinpoche can be represented, so that those who feel a heart connection to his teachings can find each other, share resources, and communicate. This hub will be nonsectarian and inclusive — not associated with any one lineage or institution in particular. Our intention for this mapping project is to create a potent resource of already existing communities, rather than an additional organization. Those of us who are working on it are in the process of surveying those communities, and will publish information and contact details for the groups that opt in.

If you would like your group to be included in this project, or would like to offer other resources, please contact us, again at OpenTorii@gmail.com.

Mahasangha Gathering this Summer

The Shambhala teachings were intended to be cradled within a society — a community rooted in warriorship, celebration, and basic goodness. Clearly, we have received a sharp message that we have much to do to give rise to such a society. For those who are inspired to carry that effort forward, let’s heed the messages we have received and together co-create spaces for real and lasting change.

We acknowledge that a path of healing from past harms across generations in our community will not be an easy or short one. But we believe it can be done concurrently with co-creating an inclusive vision for the future. We invite you into this process with us — to be part of the change that so many of us would like to see happen.

We want to acknowledge that there are divisions in our sangha. Nonetheless, we hope that we can be generous enough to see ourselves as a part of a larger family and remain connected, even as we arrive at different conclusions about the way forward and the environments we want to practice in. We all have a shared opportunity to decide what a society based in warriorship and spiritual integrity looks like in 2021 and beyond.

To this end, we have begun to plan a ten-day assembly that is tentatively scheduled to take place in July this summer at Shambhala Mountain Center, public health safety requirements permitting. This event will offer time to practice, dialogue, heal, celebrate, and envision the future together. We hope this assembly will be a chance for the sangha to connect with one another after a few very difficult years, and for new ideas to have the space to arise.

The assembly will run as two consecutive, but joined programs. The first will be a community-focused gathering open to all, which will include opportunities to take part in a broad range of practices, community dialogues, and activities in separate spaces during the day, with evening talks and group dinners. There will be opportunities to engage in conversations about our past history, present challenges, and future aspirations, with participants free to opt into the topics and activities that they feel inspired to join.

The second program within the assembly will be an intensive retreat for Werma practitioners and those ready to receive the practice. This will include a lung for the practice itself, given by a preceptor who was authorized by the Vidyadhara to transmit it, as well as several days of deep training with experienced teachers. Remote digital attendance for this lung and training will be an option.

We are eager to solicit feedback from the sangha about how this assembly can serve all those who wish to spend time together in a practice environment. The more creative, the better. If you are interested in attending this assembly or contributing input, please email us at OpenTorii@gmail.com to let us know or fill out this survey. We can’t say what will arise at this gathering and how its timing will be affected by the pandemic, but we hope it can be one starting point for whatever might come next.

This program is being planned independently of, and in consultation with, the Shambhala Board. Participants and teachers in attendance will agree to fully comply with Shambhala’s new Code of Conduct and SMC’s Code of Ethics.

Ultimately, there is much work to be done from here. We recognize that the composition of our group does not reflect the diversity of the sangha and represents only a limited range of perspectives. Any next steps will require many more voices and sources of energy.

Our work has been inspired by a desire to remain in dialogue, gather in person, and move forward with tangible actions. We hope that by offering encouragement for the sangha to empower itself, we are supporting our dharma traditions to flourish, and that all of us will be active in helping to set a new course.

What arises next will be determined by the commitment and confidence of the students and teachers who hold the Vidyadhara’s lineage in their hearts, and the willingness of younger generations to begin taking ownership of the future. We stand ready and willing to help in any way we can.

The Vidyadhara often spoke of the world entering a dark age. Looking around, there is a sense of foresight in that prediction. More than ever, we remain committed to the compassion and bravery embodied in his teachings, and which our tradition is intended to spark in us as humans on this earth. As he would say, good luck to us all.

In the vision of the Great Eastern Sun,

Diana Mukpo

Emily Bower

Dorje Loppön Lodrö Dorje

Catherine Fordham

Holly Gayley

Carolyn Gimian

David Hope

Sara Lewis

Judy Lief

Larry Mermelstein

Ashoka Mukpo

Tillie Perks

Colin Stubbert

References:

https://www.ldmletter.com/early-history-of-werma

https://www.ldmletter.com/k-n-three-yanas

To the Shambhala sangha,

I write this letter in a difficult time for our community as well as our world. Turmoil engulfs us internally and externally as across society people wake up to the ways the institutions that surround us have failed those who they should serve. Our community is no exception, and the last three years have been a painful reckoning with where we have fallen short of our aspirations.

I spent 17 years of my life with the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and was present for nearly every step of his journey to bring his sacred heritage from his lost homeland to ours. One day, shortly after we moved to Boulder, I said to Rinpoche, “I love you more than anyone in the world.” He responded by saying, “I love you second best.” When I asked who came first, he said, “I will always love my guru Jamgon Kongtrul most because he represents the dharma.”

For two decades, I watched as he devoted every fiber of his being and life force to what he felt was his duty: to share what he brought over the Himalayas with us in these faraway lands. He believed teaching the dharma was his reason for being on this earth, and this permeated all his actions.

During his life as well as after his death, tens of thousands of people contributed to building the sangha that he inspired and guided. They lifted tents so that mountain fields could become sacred teaching environments, cooked meals for one another, washed sheets, windows, and dishes as a service to their fellow practitioners, worked tirelessly to build spaces in cities across the world, and dedicated their precious time and money to our community.

Now, what was built by all that exertion is in peril.

We must be honest. It is in peril because of us. In our zeal to see only what was nourishing and profound about the world we were creating, we failed in our duty to listen to and protect the vulnerable among us. This was a collective failure of leadership that stretched across eras, and we cannot brush it aside.

I know that this letter will be read by some of those who were abused by teachers or fellow practitioners in our community, or who were subjected to harm and dismissed when they tried to express what had happened to them. To you, I say: I am sorry. We failed you, and there are no words that can fix what you experienced. You deserved better.

Now, our community finds itself at a crossroads. The heartbreak, anger, and disappointment that we have collectively experienced has fractured us and left us frozen about how to move forward – or for many, whether we should at all. For some, this pain is new. For others, it has been carried for years or decades. One thing is clear – for our tradition to continue, it must change, and so must we.

The work of addressing the cultural and institutional patterns that brought us to this point cannot be carried out by one person, nor any small group, no matter how well-practiced or devoted they may be. It is a collective responsibility that all who wish to see the Shambhala tradition emerge from this crisis now share. The wisdom that is at the core of that tradition is owned by no one. Everywhere it has arrived, it has adapted and changed to meet the intelligence of those who have been entrusted with it.

I feel that it is important to say this clearly and without hesitation: Shambhala is all of us. It is the community of warriors, teachers, meditators, and workers who have devoted their sweat and tears to its propagation across decades and generations. Now, we must decide how to care for that inheritance so we may pass it along to others, just as it was given to us.

Throughout the history of our sangha, authentic dharma has been offered by our teachers in many forms. The insights gained on zafus, benches, and teaching chairs have transformed people’s lives and given them tools to work with their minds and contemplate the nature of reality. But that is understandably of small consolation to those who were hurt, and who left exhausted and disillusioned.

Chogyam Trungpa once told us to “never give up on anyone.” But that is not a license to evade responsibility for harmful behavior or abuses of power. When we harm others, consciously or not, we must be brave enough to face the consequences of our actions, and if we cannot do so, our positions of leadership are not inviolable. None of us is above a reckoning with that pain.

I recognize that this includes me. And I know that some of you who are reading this may feel that my own proximity to power and authority over the years makes me a questionable spokesperson for change. All of those who have held leadership positions must be willing to account for the moment we are in and how we arrived here. I am no exception to this. But this brings me to the purpose of this letter.

When the Vidyadhara died, he passed on responsibility for his legacy and sangha to a number of people. While it is undeniable that he hoped the Shambhala tradition would be carried forward by his son, he left me with control over the copyrights for all his writings, practice instructions, sadhanas, translations, and termas. I believe that this was intended to provide checks and balances in case there were difficulties in the future. After his death, in my role as the Druk Sakyong Wangmo I periodically gave authorization to sangha members who wished to practice the Werma Sadhana.

I will now be making all of that material available to those who wish to carry his legacy forward, outside of any single line of strict control. In the coming months I will be convening a representative group of practitioners across generations and eras to discuss how we can provide opportunities for all those who wish to receive those materials in the future to do so. My hope is that ultimately the sangha itself will become empowered to craft a path forward without replicating the dynamics that brought us to this painful point.

When I reflect on the Vidyadhara’s life’s work, I am struck by the array of meditative forms and teaching streams that he created to help people cultivate a relationship to the dharma. He established programs for dharma art, offered traditional Karma Kagyu-Nyingma practice instructions, invited teachers from the Zen and Kyudo worlds to share their traditions, and created a new language for Tibet’s spiritual warriorship tradition, which he called Shambhala. In addition, he built relationships with scholars and meditation masters from across the world, many of whom were instrumental in the founding of our community from its earliest days.

I hope that those who now hold these wisdom traditions in their hands – all of you – can bring them into a new era and help to shape the society that contains them.

I would like to make it clear that I am not seeking to assume administrative or spiritual leadership of the sangha, nor attempting to establish a new hierarchy through a closed process. Rather, I plan to use what power I do have – those over the Vidyadhara’s copyrights – to support those who wish to create an independent path for students to receive training in the forms and practices he taught, and to develop new environments in which they can be shared. I hope that by conferring these authorizations to a new generation, I am carrying out the responsibility that was entrusted to me by my husband before his death.

The contours of what our community choses to do with the treasures it holds is not mine alone to decide. But by opening up space for new possibilities, perhaps our collective wisdom will illuminate the way forward.

Some of this work is already being done, and has been for some time. People who were trained or raised by the Shambhala community have struck out on their own, and are currently serving as teachers in their own communities, whether local or otherwise. I find this encouraging and note that many of these environments are thriving as they commit themselves to addressing spiritual power dynamics that, if left unchecked, can breed abuse.

There can be no mandate for every teacher or sangha affiliated with our tradition to pledge allegiance to one central body. Many will wish to continue as they are and build on the work that they have been developing, on their own, without becoming too tied into any larger group. I hope to be able to give authorization for some of those teachers to share the Vidyadhara’s writings and termas so they may have additional resources to offer their students.

Many sangha members, however, are understandably unwilling to carry on with business as usual, but do not wish to see the unique forms, customs, and practices of what has been known as Vajradhatu or Shambhala over the years disappear entirely from their lives. I find myself in this group, and it is this group to whom I would like to offer as much support as I can.

None of this is happening in a vacuum, of course. In recent months, it has become clear that Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is choosing to work with a smaller group of students, provided they are willing to continue with their samaya and the other vows they have made to him. The actions that many had hoped would take place through this crisis do not look likely to occur. I recognize the depth of commitment that some of members of our sangha have to him, and I respect their decision to remain on their journey. My aspiration is that we will continue to see ourselves as part of a broader family and not become inhospitable to or alienated from one another.

I recognize as well that many newer students have questions about Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his personal conduct. Those questions are valid. Nobody is beyond scrutiny, and there is much about his behavior that we have emulated in ways that have been unhealthy and dangerous over the years. However vast his mind may have been, he was still a human being.

But as someone who spent years by his side, I want you to know that I never met anyone who was kinder, more devoted to others, and more unfathomably brilliant than him. Without doubt I can say that what he brought into the world, he did so because of a bone-deep commitment to the awakenment of sentient beings. I feel incredibly lucky to have spent the time with him that I did, along with a profound commitment to his life’s work.

For his heart transmissions to survive, we will need to hand the shrine room keys to a new generation of leaders and teachers. Over the years, I have met countless members of our extended family of practitioners, both young and old. I know that we have tremendous resources to draw on, and I believe fully that our sangha can rise to the challenges we face.

At the heart of my husband’s work in his later life was the idea of an “enlightened society.” It informed and guided so much of his teaching and creativity. So much of his energy was spent building a sangha that didn’t shy away from celebration or participation in the world, but could do so from the ground of meditation practice, basic goodness, and appreciation of sacred world. It is now our responsibility to recognize where we have stumbled, and to move forward in a way that does not repeat past mistakes.

But we might also remember how fortunate we are, as well as what our tradition and community has to offer when it is at its best. To give up entirely on our sangha would be another mistake, and a grave one.

For those of you who do not want to give up, I will be doing everything I can to ensure that you have every resource that is in my power to provide.

Yours in the dharma,

Diana Mukpo

Dear Members of the Shambhala Community,

I write to you today with a very heavy heart. This is an incredibly painful time for all of us. However, in many ways, I feel that the situation we find ourselves in as a community was inevitable. The deep dysfunction and unkindness at the heart of our organization has been like a festering boil that finally burst. The revelations that have come to light over the last year have been horrifying. It has been so shocking to hear how women have been harmed. The abuse of power and violation of trust that allowed this to occur is unimaginable. As an organization and as individuals, we need to do whatever we can to support not only the women who have been abused but, as we now know, the men who are victims as well.

I have been heartbroken for years as I have watched the expansive vision of the Vidyadhara becoming more and more reduced. He used to say that Shambhala was a vast umbrella that would encompass many different activities and levels of practice. Over the last two decades, our community has become fractured, and the teachings that promise the way toward manifesting an enlightened and compassionate society have become hollow words.

During my seventeen-year marriage to the Vidyadhara I saw him manifest and teach in many different ways. The priority for him was always to find the best way to connect with people. I am sure that if he were alive today, he would be using totally different forms to interact with his students than those he employed during the era in which he was teaching. During his lifetime, he created the Kalapa Court to be a vehicle for students to have access to him. The current interpretation of court is a perversion of the initial intention. The Vidyadhara’s court was designed to build a bridge for his students to interact with him. The current model has built a wall.

I feel that the model of the court and of monarchy has become an obstacle, within which, as we have recently heard, there were abuses and cruelty. I have avoided the court situation for many years, having felt increasingly uncomfortable in that environment. It has been very sad for me, but I felt that I had to distance myself. At the same time, not being aware of the harm that was being perpetrated, I felt that it would only have caused divisiveness to speak out publicly about what I perceived to be a misunderstanding of the teachings. I have watched so many of the beautiful parts of our culture disappear and be replaced by what I have perceived to be a culturally bound religiosity. Like many others, I also have felt marginalized and have been subject to unhealthy power dynamics. If I had thought that speaking out publicly would have helped, I would have done so. In many respects, I now regret that I did not do so earlier. Privately, over the years, I have tried to give the Sakyong advice, but his reaction has been to avoid communication with me. I wrote to him twice last summer imploring him to take responsibility for his actions. We spoke on the phone, and I made a similar plea. Ultimately it is up to him to do what he can to repair the harm he has created.

There has been much discussion about the Sakyong’s childhood. He had a very difficult time growing up. When he arrived in this country as a traumatized ten-year-old child, I, his stepmother, was nineteen. I did not have the parenting skills to help him sufficiently. I am sorry about this and wish it had been different. His father was always loving toward the Sakyong but did not give him as much attention as he needed. This too is sad, but we all have different degrees of trauma. It is the nature of life and doesn’t really excuse his abuse of power and all that went along with it.

There also has been plenty of discussion about the Vidyadhara over the past year. I feel that it is my duty to be completely honest about his life. He was the most brilliant, kind, and insightful person that I have ever met. He was also ultimately unfathomable. When one examines his life, it is easy to make judgements, since his behavior was so unconventional. He was a human being and was not perfect, but he was unrelentingly kind and helped many, many people. During this difficult time, many people have spoken up about how he saved their lives. This is how they have put it, and I can connect with that completely.

In general and understandably, people – especially those who did not know him and only are hearing second-hand stories – may pass negative judgements on him. I know that there is one person who has prominently spoken up about feeling traumatized by the Vidyadhara and those around him. As his wife, the last few years of his life were very difficult for me. There is no question in my mind that alcohol had a devastating effect on both his body and mind in his latter years. My sense of this is quite different from some of the students who were close to him at that time. I have heard from a number of close students that they had positive experiences during that era, and I honor that. I think this is a time for us to honor one another’s experience, rather than judging or dismissing it. Simply speaking for myself, however, this period was very difficult. Nevertheless, it does not negate the brilliance of his teachings both in his words and in the sacred environments he created as learning situations.

The Vidyadhara taught that the Shambhala teachings should be practiced along with the Buddhadharma, and that the two must support one another. He wrote, for example: “We can plant the moon of bodhichitta in everyone’s heart and the sun of the Great Eastern Sun in their heads.” (Collected KA, page 194.) The Sakyong’s de-emphasis and outright omission of the Kagyu and Nyingma teachings in the last 15 years has been a great detriment for our community. As much as the Vidyadhara conducted Kalapa Assemblies where he opened the Shambhala terma, at the same time he also taught Vajradhatu seminaries where he transmitted the Buddhist teachings of the three yana’s in a traditional manner. Not long before his death, when he was very ill, he made it a priority to give the Chakrasamvara Abisheka to several hundred students. This was an important Buddhist ceremony empowering people to practice advanced vajrayana teachings. He felt that it was imperative that he give this transmission to senior practitioners. I truly believe that he saw the Shambhala and the Buddhist teachings as equally important.

At the first Kalapa Assembly, in 1978, there was a lot of discussion about what problems might arise from propagating the Shambhala vision. In that era, people often openly questioned the Vidyadhara and each other about any number of things. The following question was posed to him:

“As someone who has been worried about fascism and the possibility of the degeneration of Shambhala into that, could you say something that might be a safeguard against that?”

His response was: “Gentleness, meekness. Most of the warriors are meek persons. That’s it. And also they are practitioners of Buddhadharma.” (Collected KA, page 148)

There are many other examples of how the Vidyadhara viewed the two aspects of his teaching as equally important and supportive of one another. I do not think it was his intention to combine these teachings into one “Shambhala Buddhism”, as the Sakyong did after the Vidyadhara’s death. This move has created deep and painful rifts, not only with Trungpa Rinpoche’s heart students but also with respected members and teachers within the Tibetan community. So I think we need to look to the buddhadharma, as well as to the Shambhala teachings, to help us find the path forward. This does not invalidate the path taught by the Sakyong, nor the diligence of his students in applying themselves to it or the genuine experience of devotion many have had. Rather, it is a call for us to incorporate a bigger version of our relationship to the dharma.

I am writing to all of you and sharing my innermost thoughts with you today because I do believe so strongly that this community is worth fighting for. The incomparable practice of meditation and all the valuable teachings we have received have helped numerous people. Clearly, everything has to be re-evaluated and a healthy organizational structure needs to grow out of this. Over the past year, I have worried that the unfolding of events would be the destruction of Shambhala, but now I am wondering if, in fact, these disclosures might be what actually saves our precious community. I truly pray that we can get back on track and become what we profess to be, becoming a safe and nurturing home for those who seek these teachings. I don’t have the answers, nor do I know how all this is going to happen. There is certainly going to be more difficulty as things unfold.

Please know that I am willing to help in any way I can. I will make myself available if anyone would like to reach out to me.

In closing, I would like to discuss the role that I have played as the copyright holder for all the Vidyadhara’s written and other intellectual properties. Since his death, almost thirty-three years ago, there have been close to thirty books published, and many more could appear in the years to come. It always has been and will continue to be my intention to make his work accessible and available to all those who wish to practice and learn from his teachings. I consider this legacy as a sacred trust and will continue to work to protect and safeguard his teachings so that they will be available to people for years to come. I will do whatever is necessary to honor this commitment to all of you.

Holding you all in my heart,
Diana J. Mukpo

This has been a very dark dön season for many people. It has exposed a tremendous amount of pain that people have experienced both in the Shambhala community and in the greater world.

Having the Shambhala community as the focal point for the majority of my life, I have witnessed numerous times when many members of our community, myself included, have not been protected in a way that reflects our ideals and strengths. Culturally we are at a powerful moment in time, which allows women a voice to express their pain. This has not always been the case in the past. We have a responsibility to one another to facilitate a conversation that is actually of benefit to our community and therefore the greater world.

Distortion of facts is extremely damaging and is counterproductive for this process. While I respect the need for everyone who has experienced trauma to find a way to be heard and to find healing, that does not absolve us of the poison of presenting assumptions and untruths. This has caused a great deal of pain and confusion and this is what I need to address.

When I first heard about Project Sunshine I thought it would be a wonderful way to embark on this important process. But now that I’ve seen its connection to the spreading of inaccurate, misleading facts, I no longer have faith in its ability to assist with this important task in an unbiased and honest manner. Embarking on the process of healing is a greater call to our sangha to come together and address these issues. This process is being hindered by a personal agenda to launch an attack on the Mukpo family.

Unlike many Buddhist teachers, Trungpa Rinpoche was committed to transparency. He had a very outrageous lifestyle. Some of the events that transpired during that era clearly caused some people pain and we need to create a process where these people can be heard. In the vein of transparency, I have written extensively about this time in my book Dragon Thunder. The reason that I wrote this book was that, in order for people to learn from Trungpa Rinpoche‘s teachings, they needed to have their own insight into the lifestyle that surrounded those teachings. Personally, I feel that the Shambhala teachings provide tremendous benefit to people and will continue to do so for generations to come, but only if we truly commit to helping one another heal and chart a path toward a better sangha.

When and where a transparent, measured, and responsible accounting of the facts shows that misconduct or abuse has taken place, or that the response by administrators and teachers has failed to adequately protect and care for those who were harmed, I am committed to healing and acknowledgment, even if that requires consequences for those at fault. But our tradition is not one that allows for mindless mob justice spun from aggression and half-truths.

May the remainder of this dön season be free of obstacles. I extend the love of the Mukpo family to all of you. May this new year bring in a time of healing and change in which we are committed to finding the correct forum for this process to take place.

Lady Diana Mukpo