Saturday 21 August 2010

Exerpts

We will listen to stakeholders’ suggestions on how we can improve our work and will
encourage inputs by people whose interests may be directly affected. We will also
make it easy for the public to comment on our programmes and policies.

Staff will be enabled and encouraged to draw management’s attention to activities
that may not comply with the law or our mission and commitments, including the
provisions in this Code.

INGOs are founded on the rights to freedom of speech, assembly and association in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We seek to advance international and
national laws that promote human rights, ecosystem protection, sustainable
development and other public goods.
Where such laws do not exist, are not fully implemented, or abused, we will highlight
these issues for public debate and advocate appropriate remedial action.
In so doing, we will respect the equal rights and dignity of all human beings.

The Charter’s purpose
This Charter outlines our common commitment to excellence, transparency and
accountability. To demonstrate and build on these commitments, we seek to:
· identify and define shared principles, policies and practices;
· enhance transparency and accountability, both internally and externally;
· encourage communication with stakeholders; and
· improve our performance and effectiveness as organisations.

Human Rights and Personal Freedom

Although this is mostly an illusion people hold very strongly to this. In reality ordinary life people are abused and mistreated by their employers on a daily basis and accept it because they need the money to get the basic things of life. The freedom comes at the end of the day when they aren't working. This is why I say its an illusion.
However people are very passionate about this topic. This is because of the history of oppression and slavery in our countries. Therefore I will post some links showing the power of worldly peoples feelings on these topics. This is the culture we are introducing Dharma to. It is very different from Tibetan culture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights - America was created by many oppressed people leaving their countries for a new life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery - the root of intense anti oppression and control ethics
http://www.survivalinternational.org/ - tribes losing freedom
http://www.amnesty.org/ - we can see the intensity people feel about the topic of human rights and freedom here
International Non Governmental Organisations Commitment to Accountability - a declaration of ethics that worldly organisations commit to (see charter). This is the standard worldly people expect at a minimum

We need to understand this ethic and the way to make our communities work within this powerful culture. My opinion is that if you ask people what they want rather than trying to get them to do what you want its very close to exchanging self with others. In this way people might volunteer for a work area they enjoy rather end up doing something they don't like for example. People chose to come to Dharma & join in so we don't need to control them. Because they are making the right choices without our input. All they need is our support and gratitude. They are going in the right direction so why do we want to grab the steering wheel off them? Or take over organising their personal schedule? The reason why Shantideva and Geshe Ben Gungyal were able to accomplish such great things is because they were given the freedom to choose what they do with their time.

Examples of administrative techniques in various monasteries

http://shargadenpa.org/administration quote "Later he was elected unanimously by the monks as a new administrator of Gaden Shartse Monastery, along with nine other eligible candidates, where he served with sincerity for 6 consecutive years. He and all other administrators were allotted suitable duties for limited periods of time, with a rotation of the duties yearly."

This is an interesting approach whereby one has to do a good job to stay in office. Also the rotation of jobs ensures that things do not get 'stuck' in such a way as one person being blamed or remaining in the same position if their strategy is not working well.

http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/video/mystics-and-cold-warriors/ Quote Historian Webster G. Tarpley "This was feudalism. It was the minorial system that you had in Europe in the dark ages. One monastery had 25,000 serfs. It was a monstrous system of theocratic desperatism and tyranny, not at all spiritual. It was probably the closest thing to hell on earth you would have. Again with any minor infractions, just lopping off the hand of the offended. And if you protested against this, you'd be told if you're a slave, if your a serf or even if your just a woman, that was your own fault because that was your misdeeds in your earlier lives that were coming back to haunt you, bad karma. So therefore social reform was impossible. It would have been frustrating divine retribution to give anyone a better deal."

This is interesting because although we claim to only take the teachings and to use Western culture, nevertheless we can see that on a much smaller scale this culture is influencing us. There is a wrathfulness within, a fear to say how you feel and a clash between people who want a better deal and the impossibility of reform. We do not lop off hands but we cut peoples heart strings with our punishments, threatening or administering expulsions or bans. And often it is for very minor infractions. So my question is - is the culture of tyranny well and truly removed in modern western Buddhism or is it still there? And if we are strict and hard is it because it is right and beneficial? How can Tibetan culture not be within our organisation? Everything we have comes from Tibetan people. Therefore we can makes requests and prayers that we will be allowed to practice these holy teachings whilst using our own western democratic style administration techniques, so that they feel comfortable with our culture.
Administration thus can be more with people setting up a system, seeing if everyone is comfortable with it, listening to feedback, being unafraid if someone is finding it uncomfortable and encouraging them to speak. Then revising the system. Slowly modifying it over and over with various open debates. This is the normal western way. Many businesses have meetings where everyone can speak freely and even debate quite passionately with no fear of punishment or reprisals. They dont lose their job for pointing out problems. Many good ideas come up and the organisation evolves into something that works for everyone. This is western administrative style.

http://www.westernshugdensociety.org/dalai-lama/what-has-the-dalai-lama-achieved/ Quote re Dalai Lama "(5) his sanctioning or instigation of many violations and abuses of human rights, including threats, coercion, intimidation, excommunication, physical violence and even murder.
But the fundamental factor underlying the present crisis lies within the very nature and function of the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government as a feudal theocratic system – with its endemic mixing of religion and politics, its translation of religious ideas into government policy, its deep confusion over the roles of religious leader and head of state, and its retrogressive view of the position of the Dalai Lama as the 'God-King' of Tibet."

I ask here again has this culture influenced us? Are we doing things like this? Are we saying that religion and administration are the same thing? In Tibet the monks could disagree with all the teachings openly in courtyard debates but they would be forced to agree with political positions and silently watch as people are harmed with various techniques of coersion, threats, intimidation, excommunication. Those who didnt conform were booted out of their monasteries and shunned.
When people disagree on administrative issues is it tantamount to questioning Buddha himself? Do we use coersion, threats and excommunication to enforce political/administrative methods or silence people? Why do we not use these techniques when Dharma is debated? Surely the Dharma is far more important than managerial strategies. Surely if we say the Dalai Lama is doing incorrectly we need to show a better way rather than falling into similar patterns. If we are all doing it maybe it is an effect of self grasping. The question is how can we rectify so it doesnt become mixing Dharma with policy.


We need to consider the following - a political system and an administrative system are both techniques for organising running a community of people. Therefore if we say administration is infalliable and holy then we are saying that something that is not Dharma is holy. This is the thing that always leads religion in the wrong direction in history. Geshe Kelsang clearly stated the difference in one of his talks at a festival where he explained that his area of expertise is Buddhas teachings and not other topics such as computers and so forth. He then encouraged people to disagree with him on other topics such as how to use a computer. This saying managerial techniques are infalliable acts of Buddha is like saying that taking the fish from the road and putting it in the lake is infallible through the power of our intention. The intention is the Dharma a perfect wish to cherish others. The putting the fish in the lake is the administrative/political technique - in other words, when it comes to external objects and practical scenarios, nothing is inherently correct. If we hold to the view that administration is not a mixed bag, but infalliable divine decision and the word of Buddha we are creating the beginnings of what led to this system in Tibet. The system that meant that the Dorje Shugden ban could not be questioned and administrative techniques of those leading the Tibetan community could not be questioned, without reprisals.

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html#notes Quote - Such may have been the case in the selection of the 17th Karmapa, whose monastery-in-exile is situated in Rumtek, in the Indian state of Sikkim. In 1993 the monks of the Karma Kagyu tradition had a candidate of their own choice. The Dalai Lama, along with several dissenting Karma Kagyu leaders (and with the support of the Chinese government!) backed a different boy. The Kagyu monks charged that the Dalai Lama had overstepped his authority in attempting to select a leader for their sect. “Neither his political role nor his position as a lama in his own Gelugpa tradition entitled him to choose the Karmapa, who is a leader of a different tradition…” As one of the Kagyu leaders insisted, “Dharma is about thinking for yourself. It is not about automatically following a teacher in all things, no matter how respected that teacher may be. More than anyone else, Buddhists should respect other people’s rights—their human rights and their religious freedom.”

So we can see we follow the teacher in Dharma but when it comes to administration it is different. This is because the teachers area of expertise is the Dharma. Our understanding is that we view the teacher as having omnicient wisdom, clairvoyance etc. But we have to remember they are also as an ordinary being because Je Tsongkhapa said this is our traditional way, to demonstrate how to live from the point of view of an ordinary human being trying ones best. Also the reason why they become an emanation of Buddha himself is because they speak Buddhas words. However when it is time to discuss other topics it is different. When a teacher is reading out a Sutra you can feel as if you are there...2500 years back in time sat before Buddha himself, and recieve the same power of blessings that those people did who actually attended. However when you are sat with your teacher discussing if to put the fish in the lake or not there is no lineage for this activity. At this time they are representing the Sangha and demonstrating how to live as a human being. Therefore at this point they will be showing a mixture of abilities in administration and so forth. If it comes to the point where the slightest comment on administrative topics is seen as disagreeing with Buddha then we are saying administrative policy (and then if Buddhism comes to dominate our country, political policy) is equivalent to the Sutras.


Summary
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In all our future lives when we encounter Dharma we will also encounter these situations. Our main issue therefore is to prepare for our future lives so that we ourself resolve the connection between the meditation session and the meditation break as well as the connection between Dharma and administration of a community or country. The simplicity of meditation and the complex scenarios that develop outside of it. And most importantly how we will deal with these situations we see in the future Dharma communities and Dharma countries. If we are seeing the karma of our current approach we can learn and move forward.

Thursday 19 August 2010

So much to do and so few volunteers!

How do we increase volunteers? Volunteers largely come from our community of long term Dharma practitioners increasing in size, or at least staying the same size. Usually if the amount of volunteers is reducing it is because our community of long term devotees is becoming smaller. Therefore we need to ask ourself why people are leaving or not sticking around.
The bucket analogy is a prime example. If our bucket has a hole in it no matter how much we try to fill it we will be fighting a losing battle. In the same way if we keep working to get volunteers whilst maintaining an atmosphere where long term people are not comfortable, the options will become fewer and fewer as each long term person jumps off the ship. It is hard to get someone to the point where they are devoted. Harder than it is to fill a bucket with water. So we need to make sure our bucket has no holes in it because the contents are much more precious. If we drive people away by telling them they are lazy and selfish for not volunteering more we are throwing them out of the bucket. Is it not better to care for them and accept the small amount of work they do? Surely every bit helps?
In short we can ask ourself - if all the people who have left the community due to being pressured to do extra voluntary work were still here, how big would our community be? And how much work would be getting done? We need large communities and the only way to get this is to remove the causes that are making people leave. The solution therefore is patience, tolerance, gentleness and compromise. Not stubbornness, scolding, frustration, controlling, pressurising.
If someone who is doing 10 hours a week is forced into an argument where they seemingly have no valid excuse for not taking on extra - they will leave. One volunteer is lost and the opposite has been accomplished.

The Bumbling Novice

This is a document depicting a traditional style of teaching which is wrathful which I heard many times in the past but which is less common recently. I believe this style of discourse can be very useful because many obstacles are named explicitly without any specific person being accused of anything. This is because the discourse is towards a large group.

We are all bumbling novices, newcomers to spiritual practice, walking around with a head full of arrogance and advice for others. Yet our understanding of everything remains intellectual. We are surrounded by holy objects. Negative actions towards any of the Three Jewels incur heavy negative karma but nevertheless we barge into any situation involving these with the naive enthusiasm of an elephant, charging towards its object, knocking aside everything in its path. Then as we stand completely oblivious to those who we trampled, we look to see we even damaged the object of our desire!
Through this we need to see that when we deal with anything regarding the Three Jewels we need to take the utmost care. Whenever we talk to visiting people about the Dharma we need to not be like this elephant, in a great rush to give as much information as possible trampling down the person in the process.
When we are deciding or doing work on something that will affect the welfare of the Sangha we need to be slow and thoughtful, consulting others and taking time to ensure that no bad karma or difficulty is created. If we are like the elephant, quoting various sources haughtily before we do something clumsy that causes damage, even if it out of a genuine enthusiasm, we have not fully understood the importance of caring for the Three Jewels. We should check over and over before we make any difficult decision. If we do something that harms a Sangha community as we sit and see the damage develop, it will become a torment to us, and all we will be able to do is close our hearts and developed a glazed look. It is far better to consult with the community to decide together rather than to ask people to follow your advice or simply give it the nod, because if it was your idea alone the burden will be all on yourself if it goes wrong.
It is important to not misrepresent the Three Jewels also, by claiming to be Sangha or a representative of Buddha, and then harming others. We need to be careful once we represent the holy Sangha of Buddha Shakyamuni. If we cause others to lose faith and give up the practice of holy Dharma, the karma we will experience is inconceivable. Why do we not take immense care? It is because our understanding of karma and the dangers of these downfalls is only intellectual.
When we become old our arrogance will reduce and our foolish deeds will plague us like vultures swirling over a weakened animal. No longer able to fend off our responsibility for our own actions they will stare us down when we are at our most vulnerable, at the time of our death. As we desperately try to deny these karmic seeds water, our foolish intellectual arguments will be like wind in the ears of the henchmen of death. The fear we feel will open up the doorway to our heart and out it will all pour, regret, guilt, shame, and self doubt. We will descend into terror, panic and insanity. This is what we always do and why moral discipline protects us. This is why humility protects us. We do not reach old age with a legacy of destruction, surrounded by haunting images of people we have harmed, gathering around us like a plague of ghosts.

As the author of this website I wonder if I am being that elephant and if this deed will come to haunt me. Often when we have any doubt we quickly brush it away by checking we have a pure intention then carry on. But then it occurred to me that if I do this then my real intention is to protect myself. By 'working to develop a pure intention' I am simply engaging in an attempt to ensure my own welfare rather than considering how my actions will affect others. So what does it really mean to do something for others? When is a pure intention correct and when is it that our motivation is still selfish.
What of those who show us what not to do..........are they not the lifeguards and those who pull us back from the precipice to hell? Are they not Buddha himself?

We need to as ourselves honestly, am I nurturing the faith of others or destroying it.
A classic example to consider is this. Recently it was considered that the policy of the Teacher Training Program is that it is for life. Once you have completed all the books you continue to study them. This rule was enforced like the elephant charging. It was seen as inherently correct from its own side. Then a complete reversal was made with the new policy of sponsored people being able to stop the Teacher Training Program. Now this is seen as the inherently correct way to do things. Yet they are the opposite. So how can they both be correct? That to leave the study program is wrong and to stay on it is wrong?
Therefore we need to enforce and rules to the best of our ability but when it comes to a time by doing so someone will be knocked or injured we need to consider that if injuring people ultimately leads them to abandon Dharma, is it sufficiently important to ram them with our inherently existent rule. Especially if the rule might be changed in a few years time. When the rule is changed we might look around and think how that person could still be here accumulating merit for many years if we had not rammed them with our ultimatums so aggressively. Is it not better that a person remains in the Dharma with their small occasional transgressions of the rules rather than they are treated with the care and gentleness of a bull in a china shop. If we are forcing these rules too heavily and driving people out of Dharma centres we are putting the rules before keeping people in the Dharma. We are putting something that could disappear before our own dear mothers. Therefore it is my advice that we always be gentle and walk through anything with care and compassion for all concerned. If our main focus is to keep people enjoying rather than being an enforcer, people will naturally want to cooperate because they will come to love us.

Saturday 14 August 2010

The Importance of Controlling and Eliminating the Cult Smear

I would like to ask Geshe-la, the current spiritual director and also the NKT office team members to examine a document I have formulated and consider the ideas within. Perhaps some ideas are of some use please read to the end even if you don’t think all the ideas are helpful some others might be. I will put a summary at the start & then detail so then anyone who is busy or if Geshe-la finds a lot of reading difficult then the summary at the top will give the essence. For those who don’t want to waste their precious human life I want to encourage you to not discount the reading as a waste of time as destroying the cult smear is a great task & is not a waste of our precious human life. Please find some time if you can. Thank you!



My document is to:

1) Remove the cult smear
2) Reduce & eliminate the creation of new disgruntled former NKT members/residents



Both of these aims will be removing any obstacles to the flourishing of the tradition and in doing this I hope create auspiciousness.




Summarised document
-----------------------------

The essential points of the document are as follows.


If we practice 7 spiritual ethics we will overcome all potential abuse problems. Listed below are the 7 spiritual ethics in summary. I composed these myself & they can be edited. This document was composed for any & all religious groups to use & is in no way a critique of any one group. I myself have done the opposite of these ethics due to my own incompetence due to inexperience in spiritual ways of life.



The religious ethic 1: To have a feedback system where the feedback is valued & considered properly & addressed both by the leader & its administrators. Again a feedback system that is not just a token gesture but genuine. Listening to feedback is a great protector of religious groups. If 1 out of 10 people are finding a problem then when you convert 1000 people, 100 of them will have a problem. So it is crucial to solve these problems & address these issues in the early stages. Otherwise it will develop that an increasing number of former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.

http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=1,5,13,134&pageid=37
http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=1,5,13&pageid=766

Religious ethic 2: Do not take large amounts of money from individuals. Find an ethical way to fundraise that is not this method. Do not lavish the leaders & admins with luxury whilst the new boy grinds away in a servile manner or vice versa. Do not spend fundraised money on other than you declared it was for.

Religious ethic 3: Do not speak ill of the non believer. They are sponsoring your spiritual life, building your halls of worship, making the clothes you wear & providing a society in which all the things you need are given with ease. They are also supporting your religious freedom. Do not say they are degenerates, lower beings, foolish etc. Always keep respect gratitude & valuing of the community. Keep good relations with neighbours and the community without any conversion agenda. Do not chastise people who want to read news & go outside & socialize.

Religious ethic 4: Do not coerce or pressure people in any way to convert so they then have to 'leave'. Do not let people take commitments/vows/contracts when they are not ready. People who have converted must be treated well if they choose to leave and not be put under any pressure to stay. They must be as free as a bird. Once they are outside they must continue to be treated well & respected with gratitude for their contribution before they left. If the philosophy is very different from world view then the person should be supported as they go back to their previous world view as it can be disorientating. Even traditional religions hold a strong view of the world & it is hard to move to a non religious view.

Religious ethic 5: Do not treat new people & visitors different from converts. If you wouldn’t do it to a new person don’t do it to a convert & vice versa. Do not treat rich young able people differently from sick elderly poor people. If you wouldn’t invade a new person’s privacy don’t invade the privacy of a long time devotee. Following this guideline solves a huge range of issues explained in the more detailed explanation. This is the summarised version.

Religious ethic 6: As a leader admit your mistakes. We are all on a spiritual journey together & seeing how you overcome problems will help us do the same. Purity is about your intention so if you are open to feedback on how to do things administratively this does not damage people’s faith in you as long as you have a good intention of cherishing & respecting other people both converts & non converts. Do not hide your faults & shortcomings. Do not discourage feedback by showing distress. If you are distressed by information, people who work for you will hide it from you. Do not teach arrogance by chastising people. Because then they will copy you. Do not be distant from your disciples as misunderstandings will develop if people cannot contact you. Do not dictate policy rather ask people for ideas. Of course the teaching cannot be edited but to administrate enforced control of people’s activities & speech leads to rebellion & harm to everybody, yourself, your admins, current members & former members.

Religious ethic 7: Do not pressure other sects to follow your methods; each sect has their own way. If another sect is pressuring you then show them this document. The only time to interfere in another sects business is if members of the other sect ask you for help. At that time help in accordance with their wishes if it is ethical. Do not belittle other sects as you do not know if they have secret more advanced instructions that surpass yours. If another sect is being unethical they will culminate many ex followers raising protest. Therefore the issue will automatically be resolved between the sect & its ex members. Therefore there is no need to criticize other sects as nature will take its course. The sect will have to adapt & stop upsetting people. If you think your sect is better than other sects you might be able to say this without it corrupting your heart but when everyone starts copying you & saying it and it becomes the norm what will happen? Offense, arrogance will become rife.


Summary of summary

One can check here if the 7 ethics refute the cult smear using this very concise document listing 10 healthy religious behaviours & their 10 opposites http://exitsupportnetwork.com/artcls/mindctrl/know_if.htm

Other groups have attempted also to make ethics documents. Here is an example: http://csp.org/development/code.html



Thank you for reading the summarised ethics document



===========================================





The extensive ethics document

Detailed explanation of the 7 ethics with research info

Introduction

In creating this document I consulted former members of the following religious groups. Without revealing my own religious background I asked them if the ethics solve the problems within their own groups, which many of them claimed were cults. This document is not specifically written for one group but to remove the grievances of former members of all organisations.

Ex Mormon
Ex Jehovahs witnesses
Ex Scientology
Ex Brahma Kumaris
Ex Fairfield life
Ex International Churches of Christ
Ex Christians
Ex MISA (Movement for Spiritual Integration Absolute)
Ex Diamond way Buddhists
Atheists
Ex Soka Gakkai
Ex Jesus Morning Star



(I also read 7000 posts in new Kadampa survivors yahoo group (to save you a depressing job))

The religious ethics document is designed to remove the 10 characteristics of a cult in any religious organisation. In detail below are the 10 characteristics, the 7 ethic refutations & what happens in the 7 ethics are applied & ignored respectively



How the ethics refute the 10 characteristics of a cult

This document is in 3 parts

A) The 10 characteristics of a cult
B) Removing the cult smear with the 7 ethics
C) Background research information

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The 10 characteristics of a cult are(Rick Ross):

Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
The group/leader is always right.
The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

Removing the cult smear with the 7 ethics
-----------------------------------------

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

The religious ethic:

The solution to this is to have a feedback system where the feedback is valued & considered properly & addressed both by the leader & its administrators.

Would this solve it? Let’s try an example out. In any religious organization where celibates are running the show if they have a sex scandal this is damaging so let’s apply my solution.

Feedback ignored- always someone speaks up in the early stages. By discounting their evidence the person with the hidden scandal will rise in the organization & later when in a high position it will almost always come to light. At that time a lot of people will be affected. Most people will remember this scandal & think of how the person was hiding it, putting on a clean face. There will then develop 2 groups. The people trying to move on from the scandal & the people exposing it.

Feedback listened to- before the person gets power the scandal is told. The person exposing it is LISTENED to & an investigation is done that establishes the truth. The accused clearly understands the catalogue of disasters that will come if they are dishonest & in caring for the reputation of the organization cooperates with investigation.

Example 1 http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=1,5,13,134&pageid=37

Example 2 http://www.kechara.com/support/contact/

Example 3 http://www.sfzc.org/zc/display.asp?catid=1,5,13&pageid=766
---------------------------------------------------

2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

The religious ethic:

Again a feedback system that is not just a token gesture but genuine. Listening to feedback is a great protector of religious groups. If 1 out of 10 people are finding a problem then when you convert 1000 people, 100 of them will have a problem. So it is crucial to solve these problems & address these issues in the early stages.

--------------------------------------------------------

3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.

The religious ethic

Do not take large amounts of money from individuals. Find an ethical way to fundraise that is not this method. Do not lavish the leaders & admins with luxury whilst the new boy grinds away in a servile manner. Do not spend fundraised money on other than you declared it was for.

So the outcome:

Advice ignored: Amongst the entourage of the leader, accountants & admins with time people naturally leave any organization & a few are unhappy. Those people produce financial information they were privy to that is an embarrassment. All the raised money ends up being spent on defending the group in legal circles. People come away in debt & with a feeling of having being used for their money. Due to their debts they cannot move on as it is a constant reminder so they stay bitter & naturally begin to warn others.

Advice listened to: Although some people may become unhappy in certain circumstances and leave the organization they will not feel like they were used for their money. They can move on & not have any debts to remind them of the organization.

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4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.

Religious ethic

Do not speak ill of the non believer. They are sponsoring your spiritual life, building your halls of worship, making the clothes you wear & providing a society in which all the things you need are given with ease. They are also supporting your religious freedom. Do not say they are degenerates, lower beings, foolish etc.

Always keep respect gratitude & valuing of the community. Keep good relations with neighbours and the community without any conversion agenda. Do not chastise people who want to read news & go outside & socialize.



Advice ignored: The larger community will always find out from former members that they are being spoken of as lesser or lower. The group will get a bad reputation in wider society for doing this. Without interaction with the community

Advice taken: The group is respected in society as a whole and is accessible & unmysterious. The help they give to the community with no agenda is admired and neighbours as well as friends and relatives of members feel comfortable.

----------------------------------------------

5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.

Religious ethic

Do not coerce or pressure people in any way to convert so they then have to 'leave'. Do not let people take commitments/vows/contracts when they are not ready. People who have converted must be treated well if they choose to leave and not be put under any pressure to stay. They must be as free as a bird. Once they are outside they must continue to be treated well & respected with gratitude for their contribution before they left. If the philosophy is very different from world view then the person should be supported as they go back to their previous world view as it can be disorientating. Even traditional religions hold a strong view of the world & it is hard to move to a non religious view.

Advice ignored: Members who inevitably leave develop mental health problems as they struggle to rebuild their belief system alone without any support. The lack of support brings them to believe they were being used because the friendships dissolved when they changed their beliefs. Feeling used & dumped they become resentful & bitter. Former members fill the internet with bitter propaganda against the group. People are hesitant to recommend the group as they feel that those they recommend might be pushed into a situation or used & dumped. The group gets a bad reputation. Members go through the motions because they are being forced to stay and have conflicting emotions/dual personality. They later speak of how they felt unable to leave online which scares off newcomers.

Advice taken: People go but they often come back & feel happy. They write on the internet that although it wasn’t for them it was a good experience & they would recommend it to others. People invite their friends to the group feeling confident that they will be looked after and not pressured to adhere to anything. The group becomes a valuable resource that people can come & go with confidence using at their own pace. People who are there are enjoying & want to be there.

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6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.

Feedback ethic

---------------------------------------------

7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.

Follow the feedback ethic & you don’t end up in this situation

-------------------------------------

8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".

Religious ethic

Do not treat new people & visitors different from converts. If you wouldn’t do it to a new person don’t do it to a convert & vice versa. Do not treat rich young able people differently from sick elderly poor people. If you wouldn’t invade a new person’s privacy don’t invade the privacy of a long time devotee. This ethic prevents pressure to be perfect controlling people, competitiveness, rivalry, gossiping, invading peoples personal space & reduced etiquette.

Advice ignored: Converts are like slaves whilst new people are lavished & praised. Converts criticized & being judged on their personal life whilst new people are treated with tolerance & respect. Converts come away feeling used & like the love teaching is hypocrisy.



Advice taken: During the early stages of the organization using this guideline of measuring converts and new people some inequalities in respect for people & valuing people are noticed. They are corrected & the organization becomes healthy with people feeling treated well & happy. Then later, when it is bigger there are not big problems. It also prevents convertees getting special treatment because the equality extends to that a new person could be a potential elder in the future & the convertee was once a new person & also a beer drinking hedonistic normal person.

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9. The group/leader is always right.

Religious ethic

As a leader admit your mistakes. We are all on a spiritual journey together & seeing how you overcome problems will help us do the same. Purity is about your intention so if you are open to feedback on how to do things administratively this does not damage people’s faith in you as long as you have a good intention of cherishing & respecting other people both converts & non converts. Do not hide your faults & shortcomings. Do not discourage feedback by showing distress. If you are distressed by information, people who work for you will hide it from you. Do not teach arrogance by chastising people. Because then they will copy you. Do not be distant from your disciples as misunderstandings will develop if people cannot contact you. Do not dictate policy rather ask people for ideas. Of course the teaching cannot be edited but to administrate enforced control of people’s activities & speech leads to rebellion & harm to everybody, yourself, your admins, current members & former members.

Advice ignored: People endlessly seek to prove the leader doesn’t have the qualities he claims. The leader comes to be seen as someone engaging in deception to arouse faith. Members enforce rigorously more & more ridiculous rules because of things they saw the leader do or say and all sorts of administrative problems arise. Because some of these strange policies conflict with member’s wellbeing the leader is then deemed responsible for mistreatment of members and someone who teaches one thing whilst behind closed doors teaching to be heartless to members. The admins hide calamities from the leader and mistreatment. Forcing members to follow strange policies becomes the norm. In the end the group is more famous for these strange rulings that the philosophy they originally taught. Admins become like controlling, uncaring dictators.

Advice followed: Overexcited members tell you to tie your shoes the way the leader does because he is never wrong & is divine etc but they are laughed off because the majority have a good open relationship with the leader. People feel able to express their views & feelings to the leader. Administrators are able to make practical & sensible decisions rather than following policies which are inflexible. Strange policy clashes don’t arise & the emphasis becomes less on administration tactics & more on the philosophy itself. Administrative problems are quickly resolved.

It is inportant to also remember that when you give advice or ideas, if your student is very devoted they will often become very excited and when delivering your idea or advice will present it as a command written in stone. Enforcing it vigourously and giving it huge significance. This is simply a mixture of loyalty and excitement but can lead to disaster because you are then presented as an uncompromising dictator. So it can help to add a removal of this dynamic into your advice.

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10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible

Religious ethic

Do not pressure other sects to follow your methods; each sect has their own way. If another sect is pressuring you then show them this document. The only time to interfere in another sects business is if members of the other sect ask you for help. At that time help in accordance with their wishes if it is ethical. Do not belittle other sects as you do not know if they have secret more advanced instructions that surpass yours. If another sect is being unethical they will culminate many ex followers raising protest. Therefore the issue will automatically be resolved between the sect & its ex members. Therefore there is no need to criticize other sects as nature will take its course. The sect will have to adapt & stop upsetting people. If you think your sect is better than other sects you might be able to say this without it corrupting your heart but when everyone starts copying you & saying it and it becomes the norm what will happen? Offense, arrogance will arise in the disciples because they are human beings. Allow open debate of scriptures without chastisement.

Advice ignored: The group gradually transforms into people who are haughty & arrogant, looking down their nose at others. Newcomers sense this & the group gets a bad reputation in society. The habit of being big headed will filter into every area of the group’s routine. The leader might say we are simply acknowledging that these teachings are better but the members being human will be prone to self importance and thus these problems will grow. They will start lecturing others with a know-it-all attitude & become bad listeners, believing that newcomers have nothing to offer knowledge wise. They will come across as controlling dictator type people, and being bad listeners be deemed uncompassionate & uncaring. Other sects will have no respect for the group & relations with them will deteriorate.

Advice taken: The group maintains good relations with other sects. All people are valued as sources of knowledge. Newcomers feel welcome & listened to. Members are good listeners & are seen as caring & considerate. Many people gain spiritual insight from their listening & socializing skills.

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Background research info- optional reading of various forum discussions



Examples of invading privacy & personal space i.e. not following ethic 5

Example of effects experienced by Mormons(you can remove these names & put the word group/organisation to make it non specific) that practicing this ethic would prevent. An ex Mormon said this on an ex Mormon forum about my ethics list:

” There are a couple of aspects that may be implied in your list but are not stated explicitly:

1. Absolution of all personal boundaries of the members. The Mormon church is strongly of the belief that nothing is out of bounds in the members' lives from interrogating teenagers about masturbation to openly questioning (and expecting answers) regarding the sex lives of married couples to requiring full disclosure of your personal affairs to humiliating requirements of public confession of sin.

2. To exacerbate the above, the church also believes that it "owns" the individual members. Leaders think nothing of conducting sexually explicit interviews with youth in the absence of parents - or even parental consent. Where one spouse may be a little wobbly in his/her belief in the cult, the church will jump into very personal, private family matters. There are many stories on this board about families being destroyed because a church leader stepped into the middle of a marriage, discounted and belittled the doubting spouse and directing the believing spouse to seek divorce.”



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Document on scientology & how people there gave up responsibility to the leader because it was comfortable to not be in charge of their own lives http://www.scientology-cult.com/enslaving-a-mind-chapter-seven.html



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Comment from an ex Christian “I don't think your ethics are conducive to traditional religion; they are conducive to ideal religion. Traditionally, religion is an authoritative hierarchical bureaucracy.”



Comment from an anti ‘guru’ proponent: “I don't really have much to say about your proposed ethics, other than to make a couple of observations. First, if a group of people observes them, they would not, in my opinion be a religious group at all - and that is a good thing. A group which functioned by those rules would look very much like the schools of the time of Socrates and Plato, I think.”



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A list of extreme reactions to totally abandoning a philosophical/spiritual outlook suddenly that could arise when people abandon Buddhism. This is an example of some of the info on which I based a case for supporting mentally ill & healthy people who decide Buddhism isn’t for them. Supporting & helping such people is talked about in ethic 4.

The links below talk of high demand groups. I believe it is more a case of how heavily you immerse yourself into a belief system before you decide it’s not for you. I.e. the demands you make of yourself are high.

http://exitsupportnetwork.com/recovery/emotdiff.htm

http://exitsupportnetwork.com/recovery/spirdiff.htm



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This is the opinion of a member of the hindu yoga group brahma kumaris whom I told I followed Tibetan Buddhism:

“I do not know much about your groups specific issues but politics to the point of medieval skullduggery are NOT new to Tibetanism. Indeed, it is fair to say that as late as WWII they were engaged in all the same stuff as Medieval Rome was; e.g. tribalism, wars of succession, material acquisition, territorialism, political intrigue, murderous assassinations and the general suppression of the Tibetan people in awful poverty.
There was not, was never unity amongst all the different school. Some of this conflict was real and material, some of it "spiritual". The Yellow hats, Dalai Lama's lot, were no enlightening angels. Even within the superficial fronts, there is division between those that want to preserve the traditions of 'business-religions' in aspic and those that realise that they do not always work and the tools need to be improved and adopted to suit different environments. There are followers caught up in the romance of the ancient, and those attempting to modernize within the spirit of it. We see the same things too.”



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This is a popular published list of the 21 things a Jehovahs witness will never tell you created by former witnesses. Documents like these I used to form the list of 7 ethics. By studying such documents I aimed to cover everything that could possibly go wrong in a religious organisation or lead to bad feeling. Feel free to see if the 7 ethics counter these 21.

1. Joining us is a one-way street. We will pretend to intensely love you while you walk in. We will openly despise you if and when you choose to walk out.
2. We love to say only we are from God. We love to point out that everyone and everything else is from Satan.
3. Flattery is one of the tools we use to win you over. We like to make you feel special, so that you continue to ‘feel good’ about studying the Bible with us.
4. We also frighten. We don’t want you to realize this, but we subtly and effectively use Fear as an ingredient in many of our teachings. You see, nothing else controls as Fear does!
5. Eventually, we will only accept you if you ‘disown yourself’ and submit entirely to what we call ‘Jehovah’s Organization’.
6. You will only be allowed to have friends who are Jehovah’s friends. The Governing Body decides who Jehovah’s friends are. This practice also ensures that if you ever consider leaving the Watchtower, you will have to deal with a terrible social vacuum in your life, because all your Witness friends will have nothing to do with you.
7. We love to have mock humility. We have immense pride in saying we are the most humble lot. We want you to be proud and have this humility too.
8. While we theoretically believe that acts of kindness should not be publicized, you will notice that we actually crave the adulation and praise that result from publicizing our own self-proclaimed acts of godly devotion.
9. As an extension of the previous point, while we say JWs are not men pleasers, you know better!
10. We take great pleasure in contemplating the destruction of billions of people who have not responded positively to the message we preach. We routinely portray (in pictures) the painful deaths of unbelievers at Armageddon in our publications, and we find such artwork tasteful.
11. To a sane mind, the previous point may fall into the same genre of hate and destruction found in certain other groups that foster world terrorism, but of course, we don’t want you to realize that.
12. Our own congregations, outside the symbol of love and harmony, are as full of gossip, slander, distinctions, prejudice and even hate, as any other part of Babylon the Great, the false religions we condemn.
13. We would have you believe that the brothers love each other. In actuality, rivalry is widespread amongst congregation members, as each tries to out-do and outshine the other. After all, there are 'privileges' on offer, and these will only be yours if you tow the Watchtower line.
14. The more hours you put into field service, the more 'spiritual' you will be called. Of course, on the face of it we appear to say that even service that is comparable to the widow's mite is precious to Jehovah, but know us for a long enough time and you will know that is not true.
15. You may not realize it is disparaging, but it is not uncommon of us to categorize believers as Bethelites, Special Pioneer, Auxiliary Pioneer, Elder, Ministerial Servant, Spiritually Weak or a Marked Person.
16. Naturally, the circuit overseers, elders and other prominent members of the congregation are attracted to those members who are materially well-off. We will never expressly state this, but observe us closely, and you will find that's true.
17. Please say good-bye to a good education, rewarding career etc. You are in the Watchtower now.
18. Look closer, and you will discover that we are an MLM organization. The rewards and privileges that you yourself enjoy in the organization is proportional to the ‘value’ you bring into it, in terms of new converts, hours spent etc. And your money is important to us.
19. You can bequeath any such wealth that you own to us, be that gold, financial securities, property, real estate. We welcome it all.
20. Our love for you, the esteem and value that we hold for you, all actually comes with at a heavy price, with many strings attached. But we hope you never realize that.
21. We have many organizational secrets which we don’t want you to know. Those who have ‘left us’ often know these secrets. That’s why we forbid you from ever speaking with them. Similarly, we will try and do everything possible to convince you that the internet is a Satanic trap, so you never read online the things we don’t want you to read and know.



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Feedback on pressure to be perfect problem in Mormon Church from an ex Mormon. I used feedback like this to help in composition of ethic 5, to not treat old timers different from new people/visitors e.g. you wouldn’t place impossible demands on a newcomer & interrogate them asking very personal questions to check they are meeting them:

“A lot of times, the elderly are ignored and those who really need some love and attention don't get it. For a lot of us, the feeling that we are not good enough comes from our failure to meet the impossible demands that the church places on us. We were required to be perfect. Men are expected to have high paying jobs that provide the luxuries of a model Mormon life style and support their stay at home wives and however many children the Lord sends him. They also are expected to magnify a church calling, do home teaching, attend meetings (not just on Sunday), be a worthy priesthood holder, never even think about looking about porn or masturbating. The list goes on and on.

For women it’s just as bad. Women are expected to be happy mothers and homemakers even if they don't have the personality for it, because God said all women should be stay at home moms with as many children as they can handle without flipping out. Women have the responsibility to set the spiritual thermostat in their homes. Women should be perfect house keepers, mothers, and hold a church calling and attend meetings, and be perfect cooks. The list goes on and on here too.

There were many things that we were told we should be doing in the church. It was actually impossible to do all of them, there simply wasn't enough time. Whenever things went wrong in our lives, many of us would think something like, "Oh, this wouldn't have happened if I had just been more righteous and written in my journal every day like I was supposed to!"

We could never measure up and be "good enough" to feel really accepted by our peers at church and by ourselves. At least that was my experience.”



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This is the feedback of a member of the rational response squad i.e. anti religion squad. I researched these people to find out why society is largely anti religion & also put solutions to their grievances in the 7 ethics to the best of my ability:

“To me, the distinction between religion and cult is almost entirely artificial. A cult is a small religion. A religion is a big cult. You could argue the Christianity is a Jesus cult, obviously. What would be left of any religion that honestly and genuinely allowed for critical inquiry? Faith and dogma are antithetical to questioning and critical inquiry. It seems to me that you've eliminated the possibility of religion from your list of suggestions with the inclusion of suggestion #2 (feedback). Even the so-called moderate and liberal religious groups don't like you asking pointed questions and challenging people's beliefs. They call such free-thinkers 'arrogant', 'militant', 'aggressive', etc. This is their defence mechanism against critical inquiry. This is their dogma: No one has a right to challenge what you believe when it comes to 'religious' beliefs.

If you break that dogma, and honestly and genuinely apply questioning and critical thinking, what you end up with is called 'reason' and 'science'.

So, to answer your original question, no, religion cannot withstand your document(the 7 ethics). Something that could withstand it (i.e. kept the ethics) would no longer really be a religion.

Thursday 5 August 2010

Rapid Expansion and Growth

Up until I attended the Summer festival 2010 I had a certain opinion of this but my view was changed at the festival.
Previously I saw that there was growing emphasis on fundraising and voluntary work & I was concerned that in the future the tradition could become a group of people who engage in lots of work & thinking about money but with a completely ordinary mind. Although there isnt a danger of this now because the teachings are of the highest quality, it was a concern.
At the festival I was told that sponsored people will not be doing group study of Buddhist texts via the foundation or teacher training programs and that this is a new policy. This set off alarm bells for me that the amount of listening to Dharma, contemplating it as a group, discussion etc is reducing and being replaced with fundraising and long hours of work.
Then something happened that transformed my view of this.
It was in no doubt that this is from Geshe-la and we have all seen him teach & his sincerity. So then I began to think, why is the tradition more & more focused on work & fundraising.
The following was my conclusion.
Kadampa Buddhism has a certain set of views of the world. When someone sincerely practices it they will reach certain conclusions and their actions will reflect that.

Equanimity
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It is easy to think as a Kadampa Buddhist who is a beginner that the entire tradition revolves around the people who have taken refuge in Buddha and that there is a hierarchy. If we are given an important job we almost feel as if we are moving from the position of stranger to friend. In other words when we meet a Kadampa Buddhist Lama like Geshe Kelsang we can think that we are more important to him than other people IE that HE has a concept of friends and strangers. Then we can become indignant and feel betrayed if we lose our position or are suddenly not treated with the special status we believe our teacher viewed us with. With any genuine Kadampa Spiritual Guide, there will be this happening because such a teachers view will be that its not who does a job its that the job is being done well and people will find problems that they are not being viewed as more important than others.

Great compassion
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A qualified Kadampa Spiritual Guide will be familiar with the Lamrim deep in their heart. If they sincerely love every single living being equally they will find it unbearable that people do not know that Dharma exists. They will also find it unbearable that others are suffering needlessly. When people with exhaustible compassion are thinking, 'Now every country has at least 5 centres we can relax & just watch these centres will grow.' The spiritual guide will be thinking........this is just the warm up phase. This is because this teacher has deep familiarity with Lamrim. They wont slacken their efforts until every single person in this world at least knows whats on offer. Its not a matter of forcing Dharma on people it is a matter of choice. People cannot make any decision about Buddhism because 90% don't even know what it is. This teacher will not stop until everyone knows what Dharma is and that it exists in this world.
Because the ratio of people who know what Dharma is in this world is currently less than 10% this is why the priority is work and fundraising. Because our Kadampa Teacher is regarding those 90% people who don't know what Buddhism is as important as a self cherishing person regards oneself. He is finding what they are experiencing, unbearable. Therefore of course he is dynamic & dramatic. If he wasn't, could we really say that he cherishes all living beings? He has an experience of love and is acting upon it.
I can honestly say that I socialise with many everyday people and 99% do not know what Buddhism is. A Lamrim spiritual guide will be seeing these people as bound for hell realms for aeons. He will be seeing his own mothers losing out on an opportunity because of a lack of information exchange and then falling into hell. This is the Lamrim belief. So this is the reason expansion is so heavily emphasised. Because our teacher has totally immersed his mind with Lamrim and has tools that previous teachers did not such as aeroplanes and computers that can translate Dharma into 100 languages with a few button presses.
This is the understanding I came to at the festival.

Recognising the Obstacles
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But there are obstacles that can arise. The main obstacle is the conclusions people will reach from seeing this. To an ordinary mind it looks very fanatical. People look like all they do is work to raise money and many people will misinterpret this. People will believe that Buddhism is about giving all your money and getting into debt as well as working long hours. In other words it will be seen as people being used & accepting it. Modern people are very extreme in being anti servitude, and when they see a process that looks undemocratic and like a dictatorship they will not even stay around long enough to learn what the Dharma is and we would have simply accomplished moving people from having a neutral opinion of Buddhism to a negative opinion of Buddhism.
Of course a workforce to publicise Buddhism & spread information needs to be controlled and dictated instructions. But when the messages become like a dictatorship of every single detail of that persons life for example that they are not allowed to do group study or dramatically sacking people for doing anything other than total obedience, this will not be accepted by modern people. Because freedom from oppression and creating a society where everyone is equal is a fundamental ethic of the modern world. People have worked for many generations to overcome the previous state of their countries which were oppressive feudal dictatorships. Oppressive leaders in the history of our countries bled the money out of the population as they worked like slaves in extreme poverty. Modern Buddhism needs to have an understanding of this ethic that modern people hold to. The ethic of democracy, freedom of speech and all people being equal. If our tradition accords with this and it does not appear to be a group of very servile people unable to say how they feel, living in poverty in an oppressive environment then this obstacle will not function. But it is important how we appear and this is a conclusion people have already stated. If we don't have this obstacle it will make a big difference & Buddhism will develop a very good reputation to those 90% people