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Shambhala Transition Task Force
Update from the Transition Task Force
Dear Worldwide Shambhala Community,
Summary (Highlights of the letter for those who do not speak English as a first language): Thank you to the 96 people interested in being a part of the Process Team and for your patience as we take care in assessing our approach and requirements for applicants, types of involvement, and structure for the PT. There will be four areas of commitment: Community Healing, Culture Change, Governance, and Community Building. A small group of organizational development and culture change professionals are working with us to design the appropriate structure for the PT in advance of its launch. Thank you for everyone’s support and participation in the unfolding and maturation of this landmark group.
Thank you to all of you who have applied to the Process Team and for your patience. With the seating of the Shambhala Interim Board of Directors, the Transition Task Force has turned its attention to the establishment of the Process Team. This is a very different process than selecting the Interim Board. We acknowledge the Process Team’s importance and potential impact on the global Shambhala community, and we are taking care with each step of its development.
Ninety-six people from around the world are interested in being part of the Process Team. This includes 47 people from the United States, 34 from Europe, 11 from Canada, and 4 others from Australia, Chile, Costa Rica, and New Zealand. It has been inspiring to have so many people step forward. Every applicant has expressed passion and heart, and an impressive array of skills, expertise, and knowledge in the professions and disciplines that will be needed. While we would like to include everyone in an aspect of the PT, we are also taking time to review specific qualifications and proposed structures in advance of appointments.
The Process Team is charged with the task of creating a path to freshness, trust, and transparency for Shambhala as a worldwide organization and, at the same time, to adhere to the vision of Shambhala, the lineage of Sakyongs, the Shambhala teachings, and Mahayana and Vajrayana buddhadharma. We envision that the Process Team will listen to and consult with the Shambhala community region by region in order to explore, and eventually propose to the community and Interim Board, how Shambhala can heal and find sustainable culture and leadership.
The task of the Process Team will be to engage with the community, build on efforts already underway, prototype, and reveal appropriate regional and, potentially, sangha-wide ways to heal, be more inclusive, develop sustainable governance structures, and build community. The current four areas, which overlap, and may develop in different ways depending on regional needs, reflect the concerns that the community has communicated to us and are likely to contribute to and guide the ways the work of this group will move forward. These four areas are:
- Community Healing & Learning
Assessing what people need to continue in Shambhala with full engagement and heart, for example, addressing trauma, and truth and reconciliation. This includes practitioners at every level, including students of the Vidyadhara who are not students of the Sakyong.
- Culture Change
While remaining true to the heart of Shambhala vision, fostering education and raising awareness regarding social system dynamics, i.e., privilege and power, racism, North American centrism, classism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, and able bodyism, among other areas of change.
- Governance Structures
Exploring what it means to manifest the vision of Shambhala and the teachings of our lineage as a worldwide organization. This might include activities such as gathering input from the community toward the design of a model for the organization, possible governance structures, and models of financial and resource sustainability.
- Community Building
Working with efforts already underway in this area to strengthen our communities and bring out their best qualities at local, regional, and global sangha levels. Community Building may include suggestions from the other three areas.
We have looked carefully at all the PT applicants’ bios and areas of interest and have organized all applicants by regions and general areas of interest. Recently, we sent a survey to applicants to learn more about their specific area of interest, including their personal and professional experience, time availability, and leadership experience.
With this information, we will consider next steps to create an appropriate distributive organizational structure for the Process Team. To do so, we have consulted with five organizational and culture change professionals from three continents. They have reviewed our steps to date and the four areas of interest, and have agreed to meet again to offer a proposed design for the Process Team that is inclusive, cohesive, and flexible.
We look forward to this continuing conversation and the initiation of the Process Team. As the PT initiates and enters its work, other areas that need to be addressed or a sequence for addressing areas may evolve. The Process Team will be fully empowered to adjust and adapt its work accordingly, and/or to invite others into the process, as needed. The Process Team will also be in communication with the Interim Board about its scope, tasks, and progress.
Thank you to all those who have applied to the Process Team and for everyone’s support and participation in the unfolding and maturation of this landmark group.
Sincerely,
The Transition Task Force
Ani Pema Chödrön, Acharya
Arawana Hayashi, Acharya
Charlene Leung, Acharya
Suzann Duquette, Acharya
Katrin Stelzel, Treasury Council Europe, Member
Andrew Sacamano, Kasung Shastri
Sharon Owyang, Regional Director
Basia Solarz (facilitator)
Pema Chödrön: Letter to the Shambhala Community
Recently, we requested Ani Pema Chödrön, as a member of the Transition Task Force, to write a letter to the Shambhala community. The request arose as a way to share the outcome of her communication with the woman who spoke of Ani Pema in the third Project Sunshine document.
But it evolved as a request to share with the community how Shambhala might effect long-lasting culture change around the embedded patterns of sexual abuse and abuse of power. We deeply appreciate Ani Pema’s beautiful, honest, and humble response and advice for us all.
The Transition Task Force
Dear Shambhala Community:
I would like to share some thoughts I have about the need for a deep and lasting change in the Shambhala culture regarding sexual abuse of power. These thoughts are prompted by the reports of the Sakyong’s sexual misconduct and by reports of harm caused by many others in the sangha.
Recently, someone outside our community asked me if I thought Shambhala had a loose sexual culture. It was such a non-aggressive and straightforward question that I answered without even thinking, “it sure does!”. Then reflecting on this later, I had to admit that I had always thought of it this way.
I entered Vajradhatu (as we were then called) in the 1970s as a fairly new celibate nun who had been instructed by my teacher Chögyam Trungpa, to keep my vows impeccably but to not be too uptight. I think that it’s no exaggeration to say that at that time the community was famous for being wild … a group that was characterized by a lot of drinking and a lot of sex. I was not put off by this, and it did not seem to me to be a problem. It was the 70s and free love was practically a cultural norm.
After Trungpa Rinpoche’s death in 1987 and despite a huge community upheaval around the Vajra Regent’s sexual conduct a few years later, it seemed to me that this free love culture continued pretty much as before. Then slowly bit by bit some women got up the courage to complain about inappropriate (even creepy) advances from teachers at programs, or their meditation instructors, or others in positions of power. The problem however was that there really wasn’t anyone official to complain to. Women would come to me or to Judith Simmer-Brown or Judy Lief or other sympathetic women, and we would try to help but found there was almost nothing we could do to address the behavior. There was not what you would call a cover-up but rather the whole situation where complaints were most often met in Shambhala with the attitude of “what’s the big deal?“ or “oh that’s just what he’s like.” In other words, this sexual behavior was considered no problem. The culture of looseness was systemic. Sometimes there was sympathy but that was about it. The upshot was, as we are now finding, that this culture gave permission to various individuals to do some very harmful things to women of all ages. People, mostly women, were getting hurt. In response to this in 2002, the Care and Conduct Policy was created, and an International Panel convened, to deal with a situation that was finally being recognized as harmful to everyone involved, both accuser and accused. This was certainly a step forward. Yet currently some women are saying that when they reported sexual misconduct or abuse to the Panel, their stories were heard with real sympathy and concern but in their cases, there was no meaningful follow through, and limited consequences. The culture of looseness, although less pervasive, continued until the present when there is now an upsurge of pent-up reports of abuse in the organization that are pouring out. I feel we are indeed experiencing the ripening of some very old karma.
In my opinion, it is good news that this is all coming out and that the old culture is being shaken up. When things fall apart like this, there is the chance for positive change. That, of course, is our challenge; how to work with all that is coming to the surface in a way that is compassionate, courageous, and dharmic, and to not let politics outweigh kindness. As many people have written to me, now is our chance to work with this painful history, and with the people who have been harmed, in a way that truly manifests enlightened society – that truly honors the basic goodness of all concerned.
I had an experience recently that brought home to me the importance of openhearted communication in this forward going process.
In the third Project Sunshine, I was described as having said some very unskillful, unkind words to a young woman who confided in me that she had been raped and become pregnant by the director of her Shambhala Center. Through An Olive Branch, I was able to get the young woman’s permission to contact her, and then we were able to talk. This was a frightening experience for both of us. We were both too nervous to eat before the call, and we both prepared by sitting. When we actually began talking, however, it got easier. I began by apologizing for the things I had said and then asked if she had anything she wanted to say to me. It turned out she had many questions for me, and I tried to answer them as genuinely as I could. We talked for a long time, and ultimately the apology gave rise to a very insightful and honest conversation. In the end, we both said we felt good about the outcome of meeting one another like this, and I was able to tell her that I feel very differently now; I believe what she told me and, going forward, I hope to be a better listener and not again say such insensitive and hurtful remarks to those who come to me for help. She said that for her it was important that from now on, Shambhala manifest as an organization that she could feel really does care, and that a new Shambhala code of ethics has to be developed that supports people and gives them confidence that when harm is done there will be consequences. I feel, as she does, that consequences are very important.
I tell this story to point out the power of speaking openly with each other and apologizing whenever possible for any harm we’ve caused (intentionally or not). It also showed me the importance of honoring the other person‘s view of what happened. In other words, it showed me the importance of not going on the defensive but really listening and trying to stand in the other person’s shoes. Usually they are hurting and could use our help in order to heal.
This morning I picked up a lojong card that read, “Correct all wrongs with one intention.” That intention being, in Trungpa Rinpoche’s words, “to have a sense of gentleness toward others and a willingness to help others – always.” I guess that’s the main point – a willingness to think of others before ourselves and to communicate with each other in ways that bring us closer together rather than further polarize us. We won’t always get it right, but I say let’s have the courage to try.
May the Shambhala community come through this upheaval older but wiser, stronger and kinder, and may each and every one of us benefit from this chance for a fresh and possibly revolutionary new start.
Pema Chödrön
Copyright © 2018 Shambhala, All rights reserved.
Report Reveals New Sexual Assault Allegations Against Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
New accusers come forward to allege misconduct by the Shambhala leader, who stepped aside from teaching duties last month, in a third report by Buddhist Project Sunshine.