According to all available evidence online and numerous published books, we believe since its inception Naropa University has been something of a breeding ground and safe haven for abusive, guru-like faculty members, even starting with its own founder Chögyam Trungpa.
Trungpa started Naropa University in Boulder, CO in 1974, and was notorious for manipulating, controlling, and seducing many of his young students. He was also known to deliberately have sex with married women and to "play God" with people's lives and ruin them, just because he could. Witnesses have even reported that he had forcibly stripped down two people at a “seminary party” one night while drunk (Trungpa was known to be a raging alcoholic and drug addict, and would even lecture to students in these mind-altered states). Due to the power of his charisma and manipulative abilities, many of his vulnerable student followers defended his behavior, falsely believing in Trungpa's "crazy wisdom" as a path towards true enlightenment and personal betterment.
Before Trungpa died of alcoholism in 1987, this “enlightened guru” appointed his favorite assistant Thomas Rich, a.k.a. Osel Tendzin, as his successor at Naropa. Tendzin's time spent at Naropa University was beset with published reports of him having unprotected sex with many of his students, both male and female, without him revealing that he was infected by the HIV virus. Even worse, Trungpa secretly knew about this and even encouraged his behavior, saying (after he swore everyone to secrecy at a special meeting), "as long as he [Tendzin] did his purification practices, it did not matter, because they [students] would not get the disease." Sadly this turned out not to be the case when Tendzin later transmitted the virus to a student, who later died of AIDS. Unfortunately when Tendzin himself died of AIDS in 1990, it didn't stop future Naropa faculty members from following suit with terribly inappropriate and irresponsible behavior towards students.
Most recently, a few years after Katsura Kan taught at Naropa, according to the source below another Naropa teacher, Lama Tenpa, sexually harassed two female students while teaching at Naropa, but without any serious reprimand or disciplinary action. Rather, it seems Tenpa was "sat down for a chat" and forced to write letters to the students stating that he now "understands the Naropa University and American University policy". According to Naropa’s website he is still teaching there today.
In addition, Naropa seems to have a deep-rooted connection with Shambhala International (Tibetan Buddhism). On the surface, Shambhala is represented as a global organization and community “inspired by the principle that every human being has a fundamental nature of basic goodness. This nature, our innate wisdom, can be developed so that it benefits our own lives and helps meet the many challenges facing the world.”
This of course sounds all well and good, but unfortunately as we discovered from numerous victims that there is something much more sinister lurking below the surface of this organization than meets the eye. We will let the victims of this organization speak for themselves:
“Under a veneer of warmth and kindness, Shambhala leaders care only about protecting their guru, institutions, and organization, not the vulnerable people they routinely harm.”
“We were 'deep in' this cult of Shambhala, having taken care of Chogyam Trungpa's [removed] for six years inside this mandala. We picked up the pieces for this neglectful family, who pretends to the world that they are compassionate and caring when their inner circle and the current Sakyong are some of the most self-centered, self-obsessed cult members who care only about spreading their cult and nothing else, while giving lip service and repeating the word 'compassion' over and over until people believe that is what they are about.“
“All the faculty at Naropa that were Trungpa students, and now the Sakyong's Shambhala students, have taken a vow of loyalty to their gurus, and their guru worshipping cult covers up and denies anything negative. Their vows to their gurus, maintained with fear of hell realms, and groupthink and group coercion in the cult of Shambhala International turns them into 'compartmentalized cult members…'”
“I was a Shambhala cult member for almost 20 years, it took me another 10 to come out completely, even after hooking up with another phony Lama, very popular in the west and friend and protector of Randy Sogyal with a second multimillion dollar lawsuit for sexual abusing and physically abusing hundreds of women and turning them into slaves, like Sharon Stern became. They all use the tantric techniques of these Lamas, as this Japanese teacher did, that is why he was attracted to Naropa, he knew he could get away with it. These vows to their gurus, supersedes ethics, laws, and all the western Canon. I know I was one of them.“
“I am in the process of writing a book which is close to being finished, describing my experiences inside this Shambhala cult for so long, and how their mind control works upon people who were once educated and reasonable and how one can become a cult member within a matter of months, rejecting ones own cultural values and belief system and even family, for a ninth century misogynistic belief system of guru worship and its deadly dance of ego dissolution, that becomes ones total focus, while still appearing normal and rational to the outside world. I was a school [removed], and no one would have known that I was a cult member of the Lamas. The more disciplined and a perfectionist one is, the harder one falls into the Guru pleasing trap of 'ego dissolving and constant perfectionism to become the 'best' student of these charlatans. I believe I know how it could happen to your lovely daughter.”
“I am heartbroken to hear about Sharon's story. Shambhala is notorious for being unkind to women who report teacher abuse. For the past two years I have been advocating for the sexual safety of women and youths as a result of my experiences at a Shambhala Center in San Francisco. I also filed internal grievances against leadership all the way to the top for issuing protocols shunning survivors to avoid legal liability. As a result of my public advocacy and complaints, Shambhala leadership issued an organization-wide ban excommunicating me from their centers despite that I do not attend Shambhala centers anymore and have not for some time.”
Tomorrow we’ll expose the true character of Katsura Kan, according to his correspondence with Sharon Stern, her family, and his responses to the wrongful death lawsuit against him.
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Online sources:
http://www.strippingthegurus.com/stgsamplechap…/trungpa.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/us/21beliefs.html?_r=0
https://boulderbuddhistscam.wordpress.com/…/trungpas-influ…/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chögyam_Trungpa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ösel_Tendzin
http://www.drbachinese.org/vbs/publish/228/vbs228p018e.pdf
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