Analysis of Criticisms Levelled at the Friends of the Western Buddhist
Order, with Particular Reference to Claims Made in Relation to
Activities at the FWBO’s Dublin Buddhist Centre
http://www.dialogueireland.org/dicontent/media/AnalysisofCriticisms.pdf
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Filed under: Conferences & Commentaries, FWBO, The DUBLIN BUDDHIST CENTRE
Well done DI for getting this info posted. The abuse that the program refers to was subsequently found to be far more widespread.AFAIK, the same ideas were still being promoted as late as the middle 90s, at least in a homosexual context. Your briefing document on the Dublin Buddhist Centre would seem to indicate that similar ideas to those used by FWBO seniors to incite male to male sexual abuse, were used in Dublin to facilitate male to female sexual abuse, where such abuse is based on a power imbalance between teacher and student. Perhaps here would be the place for those with more recent experience of FWBO (or TBMSG) as they are now called to post their experiences
Interesting-If you google FWBO and ‘abuse’ this newly posted video appears at No 5!! Popular already DI!!And after only 24 hours!
It would be hilarious if it was not a tragedy.Young people have committed suicide, others had to battle depression and had to have long psychotherapy after having been sexually abused by Sangharakshita.
I was one of the first women to be drawn to the FWBO in the seventies,looking for spirituality and answers to life.I was vulnerable, idealistic,rebellious.Sangharakshita presented the vision of a new society, based apparently on friendship,loving kindness, refusal of material consumerism.He was skilled at convincing young people, that the Buddhist path meant leaving behind the old model of family life to live in single-sex communities,abandon our current jobs and set up “right businesses” in fact working undeclared for peanuts while collecting funds for the FWBO.I was a school teacher in France.I left everything to live in a women’s community with a one year old child.I was and witnessed other men and women being bullied by the top order members .I lived in a squat .I was left in a room with a leaking roof while the men order members were the only ones allowed to stay in the newly renovated buildings at the fire station in London.A lot of members,including my “preceptors” left the order when faced with Sangharakshita’s coercing young men into sharing his bed at Padmaloka and imposing sex on them.During my first retreat in Holland, a friend of mine , a seventeen years old boy who had hitchhiked with me from France ,had to leave as Sangharakshita was becoming too interested in him.It took me years to break the denial that this organisation had nothing to do with real Buddhism.It is only through meeting an authentic teacher and getting married that I realised what I had put myself and my child throught hat these single sex communities were only a pretext for the sexual gratification of a man who is now planning his way out, looking for a 1.5 million pound property for sale.
Thank you Dominique for sharing this. The FWBO (who have now changed their name to TBMSG because of all the bad publicity on the internet around the FWBO name) are still in denial about this and, despite claiming to have been open about things, still try to hide away behind lame excuses concerning the 60s and social mores. The reality, as you say, is one of suicides, widespread psychological damage and broken lives. The games continue as we speak, as more and more older members resign and speak out. Your contribution confrims everything critics have said. Hopefully we will reach a tipping point at some stage and people will realize that, if the roots are rotten, the whole tree must be poisonous
http://nicklbc.wordpress.com/
This page is about the London Buddhist Centre, which is also an FWBO/TBMSG centre. reading it, the parallels between Dublin and London,as well as the plces mentioned in the program are obvious. If anybody wants to know what institutionalised abuse looks like, look no further!
http://vajratool.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/new-sites-concerning-the-triratna-buddhist-community/
Dear Mahamati,
I am writing to ask you to withdraw my name from the Order list, etc. As I expect you know I have had nothing to do with WBO/TBC activities for well over a decade now, and minimal involvement for some time before that, and I wish to make it clear that this position is a matter of choice rather than forgetfulness on my part. I have regarded myself as no longer a part of ‘the Order’ for a long time and it is now probably overdue for me to make this absolutely clear to all concerned.
My decision to do this is, amongst other things, connected with the subject of various materials now in the public domain, most notably the self-deceiving document “Conversations with Bhante”, and the character of the collective response over the years to the issues that are raised therein. While I fully accept the well-meaning and good faith of members of the WBO/TBC, there is also a collective self-deception at work in connection with certain past events and present attitudes which I regard as deleterious to the welfare of all those involved, past and present. I would summarise my concerns as being focused in the areas of sexual misconduct, inadequate boundaries and cultic or controlling group behaviours, compounded by the lack of informed and truly moral leadership on how the Order should understand and respond to these problems, as shown for example by your and Subhuti’s rapturous endorsement of “Conversations…”. It is particularly damning that no-one addresses the crucial factor of the breach of fiduciary duty and teacher-disciple boundaries. Everyone inside the WBO/TBC, it seems, is engaged in denial of how destructive such behaviour can be and has been.
I note in a recent document that Sangharakshita laments that a resigning member does not write to him as his preceptor. He clearly does not understand that where he has ‘cashed in’ his spiritual status for personal sexual gratification, no obligation remains on the part of the ordinand.
I have written about aspects of all these issues at some length but here is not the place in which to go into further detail. I do understand that many members believe (or is it hope?) that by remaining uncritical of Sangharakshita’s sexual misconduct and other aspects of TBC/WBO behaviour they are exhibiting a kind of spiritual strength. Unfortunately this is not the case, and they are merely exhibiting their indifference to the moral issues raised in these areas, and clinging cravenly to the identities given by their often lengthy membership of the TBC/WBO.
I hope you are able and willing to reflect on the truth of what I have written.
With my best wishes,
Andrew Skilton (ex-Sthiramati)
I would be most grateful if you would publish this letter in Shabda so that other members of the WBO/TBC are unambiguously informed of my
TBC/FWO but also many businesses such as Windhorse trading, Windhorse travels, Evolution shops,Wild mind etc etc.The system has not changed since the seventies:employ idealisticyoung people eager to be accepted in the community for less than minimum wage, make huge profit while declaring yourself a charity by reinvesting the profits in properties, trading abroad and salaries for ordained members who are thus bound to stay and follow the ideology of the organisation now controlled by a “College of preceptors”, basically senior ordained members all related somehow, Srimala, her brother in charge of India, her ex husband Sona and her lover Subhuti, Sangharakshita’s right hand.
Clear Vision is another business selling photos, audio tapes and videos online.For 3 pounds, while an automatic button advises you to donate another 10 pounds, you can purchase a photo of Sangharakshita’s mother in her kitchen..I thought family was the source of all evils according to him.Sangharakshita in swimming trunks on the beach with young men, including one he abused.
Clear Vision have special links with schools in which they teach children;Can anyone explain to me how the Education Ministry in Manchester can allow this?
Sangharakshita is banned from India for sexual abuse;How can h
How can Triratna be allowed there?
Dominique
The central government runs a department which oversees the activities in all schools nationally. Unfortunately, the schools themselves are answerable only to the local government offices and sometimes, as in all provinces, there is little connection at national and local levels. This discrepancy allows for proven perpetrators of sexual abuse to continue their work, even where the proof has been shown at national and local levels. What it boils down to is, neither local nor national government departments want to admit to having made mistakes.
The FWBO placed MASSIVE emphasis on gaining favour at national and local levels throughout the 70s and 80s. As a result, local and national advisors employed them. Now, in the subsequent melee, no one seems willing to admit their mistakes BECAUSE OF PARTY POLITICS
The good news is, after the FWBO Files, the FWBO have become so famous/infamous that people are becoming very wary of them (thats why, for instance, less men than women go to their classes nowadays-theyre frightened of getting abused!) However, because of the OLD Boys Network, the power games continue, and will DO SO UNTIL SANGHARAKSHITA DIES Then, wait for the blood on the carpet!! THE KNIVES ARE ALREADY OUT
When Sangharakshita dies, the myth of the “wise,enigmatic man” will develop,from Dennis,to Urgyen, to Rinpoche.(they tried that one some time ago, but obviously,it did not work out)
Witnesses of his past also disappear.Who knows these days how he conducted himself with Michael Dillon, writer of the life of Milarepa under the name Lobzang Jivaka.An article appeared in theTricycle review summer 2007 issue,,quickly reinterpreted by WBO/TBC but republished on Rev Danny Fisher dite on june 13 2009.It shows the real face of Sangharakshita.
Apparently, he was suspicious of Dillon, who lived in Kalimpong at the same time. While he did allow him to write about Ambedkar for the maha Bodhi Journal while he edited it (see the FWBO Files page ‘Sangharakshita and Ambedkar’-perhaps only doing so to undermine Amb without beign directly seen to do so), he is said to have treated him as a little strange and to have kept him at a distance. Perhaps it was Dillons indeterminate sexual status that S found troubling; he refused to grant him ordination(although, he could not have done so, since he himself did not receive ordination so perhaps it was this that made S uncomfortable) Havent seen the Fisher thing but that S should treat others with contempt is hardly surprising-it seems to be have been his normal modus operandi for most of his sick and perverse life
Google:” glbtg Michael Dillon in India.”An extract from Pagan Kennedy ‘s book:”The first man- made man”.published by Bloomsbury 2007.Dillon, an orphan from aristocracy ,had become the first person ever to undergo a medical operation from female to male.Harassed by tabloids,Dillon ,a navy surgeon,had fled to india because he had heard of a monastery run by an Englishman.He guessed it was a place where you could start a new life.During their stay together,Dillon confided to Sangharakshita about his operation.S.promised never to repeat such confidences.Dillon writes”I trusted him because he was both a fellow English man and a monk.Sangharakshita assigned him chores;Dillon became his secretary.Even though he had prestigious degrees he performed the menial work without complaint and regarded him as his guru.Sangharakshita expected him yo obey orders, eat whatever he was served and sleep where he was given a bedroll.
The Theravadans had refused to ordain him, because of his “third sex”.A Tibetan Rinpoche had agreed .Dillon asked Sangharakshita to translate for the ceremony.Sangharakshita fired back a letter in triplicate to the Rinpoche and other leaders in Sarnath.the letter revealed Jivaka’s real name, details of the sex change and many fake accusations;the Rinpoche handed Dillon the letter and explained that the ordination was off., too politically dangerous now;Through professor Guenther’s help,Dillon managed a meeting with the prince of Ladakh;”the prince gave me a look of compassion I will never forget”He assured him that one day he could be ordained as a full- fledged monk.He joined Rinzon’s monastery where he experienced happiness for the first time.He published “the life of Milarepa under his monk name Lopzang Jivaka.
It is of note that Lama Thubten Yeshe ordained an Italian hermaphrodite in the 1980s as a monk. At the time he said that, in Tibet, when people were born with ‘incomplete organs’ (as the Tibetans refer to such occurrences) special ceremonies were performed, ceremonies which led to those of indeterminate sex developing complete organs of whichever sex was deemed more appropriate. This strikes me as lot less painful than what Jivaka had to endure.
One wonders whether S’ unwillingness to ordain Jivaka was because he knew, even at that time, that his own ordination was a sham (as he was to admit decades later) and that he was therefore unqualified to become involved in the actual proceedings. Either way, his promise not to expose J and subsequent decision tot totally contradict himself and do the opposite is a clear indication of the awful character of this egotistic abuser of the Buddhist faith and human beings