The New Kadampa Tradition ~ International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU) now has many rules, checks, and safeguards in place to try to avoid wrong doing and heavy handedness. However, individual centers are run by humans who inevitably make some mistakes. There have been occasions of unfairness, fear-mongering, and gaslighting, all of which have been pointed out by former members of the NKT who have named themselves the “New Kadampa Tradition Survivors”. We apologize to them sincerely for any harm that has been caused. We also try to address their criticisms on this site, and invite people to contact the Education Council Reps in the NKT office directly with any specific questions or concerns — we promise we will look into them.
The NKT also owes some gratitude to the “NKT Survivors” for pointing out legitimate causes for concern. It means that the organization (which is not deliberately trying to do harm) has tried harder not to repeat the wrong-doing; and a lot of the Survivors’ criticisms have resulted in improvements in the Centers, managers, and students, as well as more safeguards, accountability, and transparency. The Survivors are therefore responsible for helping the NKT to improve.
Most of these criticisms are about events that occurred a number of years ago. It doesn’t excuse those behaviors, of course, but it does show that the organization has improved. We are optimistic that there have been considerably fewer causes of concern in recent years. This can be seen in the absence of any new criticisms the NKT Survivors are making (apart from a few rather strange comments about Venerable Geshe Kelsang’s passing). New material tends to be memes of regular Kadampas wandering around, chatting, standing in front of shrines, or teaching, etc, with the addition of quotes.
(Image courtesy of Nagarjuna Center in Argentina, a typical NKT Center.)
I’ve been watching this new site for a couple of weeks now, reading all the comments as well as the articles.
I remember when I first came across claims that the NKT was a cult back in the 90’s after the Dalai Lama stuff. It shook me, except it had no bearing on my own experience. So I looked into all the things that cults are supposed to do, and found nothing sinister like that in this organization.
I have found annoying and deluded people in various Centers, doing annoying and deluded things; but I don’t think that counts as being a cult – they’re just being human. Kadampas by and large are normal, kind, introspective, care passionately about the world and its people and animals, are good-humored, funny. Etc. People including me are always bringing their family or friends along to classes and my non-Buddhist friends will call me whenever anything goes wrong as they know I’ll be able to help a bit (thanks to Buddha’s teachings). The survivors say that there is a honeymoon period after which we all get brainwashed. I have not seen that myself. It seems a bit far-fetched anyway to say that 100s of thousands of Kadampas around the world in all their different walks of life and so on are all brainwashed. The most vocal survivors say they don’t realize they are brainwashed, lol. Well, that sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. And, again, where’s the evidence?
What I have noticed from looking at survivors’ comments in other places (where Kadampas are not welcome to reply) is that although some of them have had bad experiences in the NKT, these experiences are not cult-like – they involve things like being asked to leave their Centers, which is not necessarily great, but doesn’t make the NKT a cult either. I agree that some managers and teachers have tried to rule with guilt and fear, but they are a minority and have slowly but surely been winkled out — they are really not what this tradition of Mahayana Buddhism is about at all. The vast majority of managers and teachers are gentle, kind, and caring. The 2 sexual scandals involving deputy spiritual directors were a huge shock and almost destroyed the tradition. But they were also 25+ years ago, they were dealt with, and this tradition has been pretty squeaky clean in that department ever since. We learned our lessons early, I think.
Some survivors have legitimate concerns. Some survivors repeat the same criticisms over and over again, rarely substantiating them; and it sometimes seems to me that whatever the NKT says or does it will never be enough to satisfy them. Some survivors would like the NKT to be totally destroyed – they say things to that effect a lot, and it’s pretty intense and unkind. Social media is bizarre with the things people feel they can say pseudononymously or anonymously – things they would not want to say face to face to any individuals. What’s new though? – this is the world we now live in. I’m glad this site is around to correct the misinformation and help people with the shock they get when they first hear that the tradition that is helping them so much and all their sweet friends has apparently been brainwashing them as opposed to teaching them Dharma and how to master their own minds. I hope this site will encourage them to trust their own experiences and/or to ask probing questions.
As a Florida student, I know something about one of the most vocal people on the survivors’ sites, perhaps the most vocal, at least you can’t miss him. I think it’s worth sharing because, unlike other survivors who deserve to be heard out, this person has no personal experiences of the NKT but clearly a massive axe to grind.
Kelsey NKTworld aka Thomas N. Tiedt, is a 73-year-old living in Sarasota Florida who went to a few NKT classes between 2004 and 2008. For undisclosed reasons, he took an enormous loathing to the organization and has been slandering it fairly viciously ever since. He would like it to be wiped off the face of this earth and expresses this in different ways – the other day he said he wanted pest control to spray the NKT into non-existence. But he knows incredibly little about this organization or tradition. None of what he says is based on personal experience. He was a very occasional attendee at the Center — I was there the whole time (and am still there) and saw him a handful of times, if that. He seemed to enjoy the teachings at the time. I wrote and asked the teacher there at the time if she might remember him, and she says she only does vaguely. He had no bad experiences in the Sarasota Center — by his own admission. (“I personally was not damaged by Gyatso/NKT, looking back over the years my 2004-2008 involvement, it taught me much about authentic and fake. I choose authentic.”) And he never went to any other Centers or Festivals.
However, for some reason, Thomas N. Tiedt has taken it upon himself to tell the world that the NKT is an evil rapacious cult. There has literally never been any reasoning with him, people have tried. Whatever anyone says, good or bad, he coopts to his narrative of a money-grabbing cult of demon worshippers. He is basically a troll. Why he has taken to such huge hatred for the NKT for over 18 years, I cannot say, and wish I knew. One of his author bios says that he’s been a Buddhist for 50 years (he doesn’t act like one) and he was clearly triggered by the protests against the Dalai Lama’s ban of Dorje Shugden at around the time he came to classes. He also said the other day that Heart Jewel “is the only Gyatso book I recommend against relying upon”, and “I’ve read and have all Gyatso books. Other than Shugden, after comparing them to hundreds of others (as well with massive other literature) they are largely snippets of Tibetan Buddhism. As general readers they are fine.” So perhaps he studied Tibetan Buddhism and is under the erroneous and self-aggrandizing impression that he is protecting Tibetan Buddhism or something like that.
However, whatever his motivations, this still doesn’t really explain why Thomas N Tiedt has been so consistently and persistently vicious about us, writing a website and whole self-published books that, luckily, not many people seem to read. Which doesn’t surprise me as I tried looking at one of his books and literally could not find a grain of truth, sincerity or kindness in it. It made me feel sick to the stomach. I don’t know what else he does with his retirement days in Florida, but his output on the NKT is formidable. His vitriol just seems to grow stronger. He also uses a lot of aliases – I noticed a couple of very similar one-star reviews on Trust Pilot recently, with the same strong and particular expressions that he uses, that other people don’t use.
The whole thing with Tiedt is weird. It’s as if destroying the NKT has become his pet project, including goading on the survivors. An unhealthy obsession.
I also think he may actually get in the way of people taking seriously any reasonable criticisms made by survivors because by being so absurdly over the top about everything, and by almost always being in the mix with his endless snide comments, he probably causes people who would otherwise be sympathetic to the survivors to shut down. He tars them with the same brush. But I’m not sure that he cares. And I don’t think they know they’re being used.
This is not gaslighting him or victim-blaming, by the way. As mentioned, Thomas N. Tiedt/Kelsey NKTWorld didn’t have any bad experiences.
I don’t suppose Buddhism gets to be free from all the discriminations and phobias — racial discrimination, religious discrimination (such as Islamaphobia or anti-Semitism or witch trials), sex discrimination, etc. Calling the New Kadampa Tradition a demon-worshipping money-grubbing cult falls into this category of discrimination. It is human nature to make outrageous blanket statements about what we don’t understand, or, for whatever reason (including karma), we don’t like. Even when thousands or millions of people legitimately have a different experience and disagree.
Thomas Tiedt needs better hobbies.
Agreed. Legitimate grievances are one thing and need to be addressed. This has to be an ongoing human resources process, as in any organization. There need to be safeguards in place and the ability to talk to the managers about anything at a Center, freely without fear of repercussion and with hope of redress. My understanding is that the NKT managers are committed to the process of fully democratizing the tradition in keeping with Geshe Kelsang’s wishes and Internal Rules, and are trying to make sure that the culture in this organization is always one of love, never of fear. Of course this is a work in progress because we are talking about people. Likewise, individual practitioners are committed to cherishing others in keeping with Buddhadharma. The NKT is actually a very kind organization, full of people who care a great deal about other people and are doing their best to make their lives meaningful and helpful. It sets high standards for itself, arguably too high at times.
But on social media, in this current age, you’re always going to get haters. That is a whole different ball game to those who have had legitimate grievances.
I visited the survivors’ FB page recently and found most of their recent posts to be weird, vicious, and disconnected from anything that’s going on in the NKT. In an echo chamber people like your stuff and so you can repeat it ad infinitum. Even if it has been addressed or debunked.
Mainly, ad hominem attacks are the order of the day. Whatever these obsessive critics such as Kelsey NKTWorld and the meme guy want to say about the NKT, there is no equivalent group of Kadampas sitting around all day regurgitating endless ad hominem attacks about them. All you find on the NKT Facebook groups is Kadampas talking about how to practice meditation and Buddhism. (Ad hominem attacks are prohibited by the group rules in any case.) On the other hand, on the survivors’ group these days any Kadampa is a target for the hate-driven messages of these few posters. They seem to have nothing good to say about anyone who chooses to be in the NKT. If anyone tries to stick up for anyone or anything, they don’t want to know. They are likely to reply to this comment by trying to pick a million holes in me.
Yesterday, on Sunday, I attended an NKT meditation class where I learned more about how to recognize my delusions, including hate, and learn to look past delusions to people’s Buddha nature, their innate goodness and kindness. This message or one similar to it was delivered no doubt in hundreds of Kadampa Centers all over the world today, and loads of people enjoyed a supportive meditation class in which they learned how to be kinder, happier, more resilient, less identified with their delusions, and more connected to their Buddha nature. The prolific posters on Facebook completely discount what is actually going on in the NKT to focus only on the same clickbait – that the NKT is an evil rapacious cult of sex obsessed demon worshippers etc, and would be better off annihilated. All of which accusations are addressed on this site.
This visit to the survivors’ page reminded me of extreme right-wing or left-wing chat groups online. People can say anything they like about religion or politics on social media when they are talking only to each other and hidden behind a screen. This is a wide problem in our society in general, not just for the NKT. Therefore, I appreciate those of you who provided this info site. Beyond this, what is there to do about those who want to misunderstand and distort everything they encounter other than remember the Bodhisattva’s precept of aspiring bodhichitta, not to abandon love for any being, and leave them to it. While simultaneously enhancing a culture in which people with actual things to say can say them.
I think saying anything about any over the top caricaturist, like Kelsey/Thomas, true or false, is like a red flag to a bull — so I think Florida Kadampa was pretty brave to speak up, i dread to think what is now being said about Florida Kadampa. Doesn’t mean FK shouldn’t have done it. But it will provoke a reaction because for decades most Kadampas have just pretty much sucked it up, all the accusations of being a cult, demon-worshippers, money-grabbing, non-Buddhist, and a host of other hurtful and cruel lies. It strikes me that if Kelsey/Thomas was accused of any of these things, he’d freak out, but he seems quite happy to serve it up. Anyway, all of this is addressed on this site, so thank you. Kadampas are not allowed to talk in survivors’ groups. This site gives all those Kadampas an opportunity to speak up.
My experience (following 15 years of regular and intermittent attendance at a centre) is that the communities of people at the centres are genuine, caring and loving. However, I felt unable to ask questions about the protests against the Dalai Lama, as well as previous sexual scandals, however historical. I had to evaluate why I did not feel able to ask those questions and ultimately it prompted me to leave. It does seem that if you are not able to pay for your centre card, pay for retreats etc you will not be able to fully participate in centre life. In this way it does feel like a money driven venture unfortunately. While I understand that members freely and happily give up their time to provide whatever the centre needs, it does do survivor testimonies a disservice to say that this does not result in cult like behaviour. If you feel coerced to give so much of your time, energy and money that you are burned out, you should not be encouraged to give even more. In the end, it did feel that there was not enough transparency within the group, and while I was very sad to leave, it was the best decision.
Dear FB,
Thank you for sharing your experience, it is very helpful.
We are really sorry that you felt unable to ask questions while you were attending classes at a Kadampa Centre. We are genuinely trying to make it more comfortable for people in all Centres to speak up whenever they want to. Some Centres may be better at this than others.
We are also sorry that you had the experience that people cannot attend all Centre activities if they are not able to afford a Centre card. I think this happens. Even though most Centres have a policy in place that no one is turned away for lack of funds, and at some Centres some of the more well off students contribute to a fund for away retreats and so on, in an informal way, to allow those with a lower income to attend, the system is not fool-proof.
We agree — students should never be coerced into working for a Centre. Managers all need to be skillful and respectful in encouraging volunteers, on whom all the Centres depend, without pressurizing them. Again, we are really sorry for any occasions on which pressure has occurred, including to you.
It is a work in progress, but the NKT is truly committed to increasing transparency and becoming fully democratic.
Thank you again and wishing you all the best.
Thanks for your considered reply. I do hope your efforts result in a better experience for all attendees, residents and practitioners going forward.
Wishing all the best for you all.
Your response is really appreciated, thank you!