KTD has all but delegitimized Ogyen Trinley Dorje as Karmapa as far as America is concerned.
The Karmapa controversy was a Tibetan issue.
Tibetans behaving as Tibetans do was no concern of us here.
“Look naturally at the essence of whatever occurs.”
Karma Chakme #buddhism
I had met both Situ Rinpoche and the Shamarpa.
They had one job in life and they failed.
Their failure came as no surprise to me.
“Whatever appears, bring it into your meditation.”
Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche #buddhism
Tenzin Chonyi violated a fundamental principle of how we govern ourselves.
Khenpo Karthar proved himself unworthy of the faith we had hitherto placed him in him.
And it is Ogyen Trinley Dorje that we hold responsible for this travesty perpetrated in his name.
Karmapa Chenno!
Tinfoil Ushnisha 
All I see is that people, including Venerable Rinpoches, make mistakes. To think that someone is too holy to make a mistake is stupid, to reject someone because they have made a mistake is also stupid.
I couldn’t agree more.
That being said the fact that KTD has delegitimized Ogyen Trinley Dorje as Karmapa here in America.
Bardor Tulku and Khenpo Karthar decided that the KTD employee had been terminated without cause.
Two of three board members had come to a decision.
Tenzin Chonyi refused to abide by their decision.
Bardor Tulku resigned in protest.
This is no mere mistake on Khenpo Karthar’s part.
Khenpo Karthar is my vajra master.
I am not his creature though.
What my vajra master did violated me as a person.
I have dedicated my life to the practice of that which Khenpo Karthar has taught me for over thirty years now.
That being said, I am an American, and this is America.
What Khenpo Karthar did is a travesty.
We are taking about so something that happened years ago though.
What remains to be decided is how we move forward.
Here in America, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, thanks to KTD, has lost his legitimacy as Karmapa.
It is Ogyen Trinley Dorje that has rejected us.
And this is on him, not us.
What I find unforgivable about that incident was that there were not three people on the board, there were five. There were two Americans on the board who were there specifically to represent our interests. But David Bole and Kathy Wesley both elected to vote with Khenpo Karthar instead of Bardor Tulku. We can debate whether anything might have changed if the majority of the board voted against Tenzin Choney. But of course we couldn’t publicly talk about or debate any of this because in a cult you have to just keep your mouth shut and follow the leader.
Both Bardo Tulku and Khenpo Karthar were in agreement that failure to mow Tenzin Chonyi’s lawn was not grounds of termination.
Tenzin Chonyi refused to respect their decision.
Bardor Tulku threatened to resign.
Khenpo Karthar left Bardor Tulku swinging in the wind.
Khenpo Karthar’s creatures attempted to cover up of the incident.
A KTD lama, our friend M, asked me to intervene.
I wrote about the incident for Elephant Journal.
If not for M the cover up may well have succeeded.
Before the Internet it certainly would have.
This was the actual sequence of events.
Khenpo Karthar betrayed us.
Khenpo Karthar’s creatures, with the exception of M, attempted to cover up what Rinpoche had done.
Khenpo Karthar had his reasons for betraying us.
Unfortunately for Khenpo Karthar they go against everything we believe in.
Here we are in 2014 and what happened has utterly delegitimized Ogyen Trinley Dorje as Karmapa as far as America is concerned.
We were lucky Tenzin Chonyi had not molested a child.
Khenpo Karthar would have covered for him all the same.
This isn’t rocket science.
We have seen this kind of behavior before.
Everybody knows exactly what Khenpo Karthar did.
It was no different than what happened here in Chicago with the Catholic Church.
Khenpo Karthar put the institution he served before our welfare.
And the Karmapa knowingly participated in the cover up of what happened.
As has Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, it should be noted.
I agree Jinzang! Thank you for saying so.
The Karmapa works on many levels or layers beyond physical institutions. So does KKR, ourselves, and others. That’s all I wish to say.
We used to believe the same of the Catholic Church.
Shit happens.
Shit generally does happen when you trade it all in for magical thinking. You know, something like KKR makes some choice terrible decisions in one thread, but then benefits beings in ways beyond the physical in other threads. Situ Rinpoche threw his crown in with all the other crazy politicians in India and then magically benefits others on other planes…
Shit gets nuts when we go bat-shit and get carried away with magical thinking. Tibetan Buddhism is a morass of magical thinking that our western mind frame is best served by avoidance.
Why go back to the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages within our practice of Dharma?
America was Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s to lose.
He has lost us.
His Holiness has nobody to blame but himself.
This isn’t rocket science.
Both Bardor Tulku decided that the terminated employee was to be given his job back.
Failure to mow Tenzin Chonyi’s lawn is not grounds for termination.
Tenzin Chonyi refused to rehire the employee.
Bardor Tulku resigned in protest.
This is where we were in 2010.
It’s Ogyen Trinley Dorje time.
We are done waiting on His Holiness to make KTD right with us.
The Karmapa lives very far away from KTD. I imagine he could get on Skype and try to clean up house, but he has tons of things to do other than focus on dharma centers in one country, a superpower but probably not a great source of income for his labrang. The Buddha would probably advise us to get our own act together rather than waiting for a Karmapa to get his act together.
Amen Brother!
Sometimes it’s not all about us (as painful as that can be to hear)!
Amen!!! Thank you Krishna!
I grew up in the catholic church with 12 years of catholic education. It was an experience, but it immunized me against cults and pie in the sky woo-woo excuses for irrational behavior. 😉
Khenpo Karthar’s behavior was not irrational.
He had his reasons for covering up what happened.
Just as Nixon has his reasons for covering up the Watergate break in.
Just as the Catholic Church had its reasons in covering for its pedophile priests.
Khenpo Karthar put the institution he served before our welfare.
In this his behavior was perfectly rational, and all to familiar to us all.
The mind works on many levels or layers beyond physical institutions. The Karmapa and KKR are it’s creations.
When a teacher points out the dharmakaya to you, you work on realizing that true nature completely.
That’s called practice and not some medieval alchemy we’re discussing.
We’re talking about Buddha nature here.
We’re also speaking about Bodhisattvas and not some scientific materialist view of Buddhism. If you want that, then rebirth isn’t real to you either.
Oh Okie, this ain’t dances with wolves, we’re talking about spiritual bypassing and magical thinking here.
If you like tell yourself what you need to hear about KKR and his terrible advice being bodhisattva action. Or that the money grubbing Ponlop is merely a display of ineptitude.
That’s some crazy disassociation from reality my friend. But hey, I don’t really care if you want to trade one samsaric model for another, that’s your trip.
The point is KKR and HHGK have failed us in many ways. Childish fairy tales don’t change the situation.
Ouch! Strong medicine. Perhaps we shouldn’t loose sight of the fact that one of the things that president’s day represents is our early struggle for freedom of self-determination.
It’s kind of ironic that some here feel a greater affinity with religious clerics who are not bound by any standard societal ethical code and instead defend them by writing:
“We’re talking about Buddha nature here.
We’re also speaking about Bodhisattvas and not some scientific materialist view of Buddhism. If you want that, then rebirth isn’t real to you either.”
This short quotation highlights a terribly dualistic (either/or) understanding of Buddhism which leads to the type of sophistic defenses one normally sees around cults, religious manics, and sorry to say, sex abusers. This is a useful response for shutting down anyone who asks: Why? There is always a neat way in blind religious thought of tying things up (such as the the quote above) that leaves us brutalized by the very lack of reflection, transparency, and critical thought that we have come to regard as a birth-right for everyone in he United States.
If KTD clerics are to reign over the American Karma Kagyu aided by such soft defense as presented above, then the crimes of negligence committed by KKR will only become worse, and they will stand as a justification for even worse behavior by his cadre blind “lama’ followers. So much for accounting for ourselves.
They’ve been failing people through beginning less time. Enlightenment doesn’t mean good administrative or leadership skills.
All you need to succeed would be the right teachings. The rest is practice.
You have Tibetans in charge of Tibetan Buddhism. That will never change. I went into the process with that full recognition. The rest of Americans complaining have not.
If you want a Vajrayana American system, then get enlightened. Become a Marpa. Go get the teachings and master them. Pass them on to other Americans.
I’m on it…!
Run! Go for the pass! No one will try to tackle
” I went into the process with that full recognition. The rest of Americans complaining have not.”
Huh? I need an Okie dictionary or someone versed in the Hermenutics of being a native born son from Oklahoma. Is he saying Americans don’t complain about Tibetan chauvinism?
All the peyote must have given you a short term memory…
Americans in the fields.They’re singing and happy
Toxic shit, what a joke all around.