Expert: Alex Wilding - 4/6/2008

Question
Please can you help me out. I have recently been reading stuff about buddhism and it makes more sense to my morals and beliefs about how I should lead my life than anything that I have ever encountered. I have been struggling with life, responsibilities, morals, personal ethics and hope for any change or future for my life - directionless.
I went to visit the Manjushri, Kadampa Meditation Centre (NKT) in Ulverston ( parents live locally there).
I have read on the internet that some people consider NKT a cult. I read about their disagreements with HH the Dali Lama and I cannot understand how this fits with tolerance of other beliefs. I realise I am ignorant, all I know is how I think I should behave towards others and how I need to learn to change my selfish behaviour. I do not want to be told rights and wrongs (I think I can work that out - anyhow if I wanted a set of rules with no freedom to think I would be happy baptistised R.C.)  I respect peoples beliefs as it can bring them inner peace. I thought I had found something that could help my journey. Now I find it confused with politics and debate between groups.  Can you please tell me why NKT is considered wrong? I know very little. I only want to listen to wise words that can make me a happier, more tolerant, more compassionate human being.

Claire

Answer
Dear Claire,
Well the NKT question is troubling, there is no doubt!
I'll begin with an obvious point - Buddhism is run by humans, that includes "high lamas", so there will be mistakes made.
I think it also helps to take a bit of a hint from the teachings on emptiness, and leave aside any attempt to sharply classify any group into those that teach "genuine Buddhism" and those that are "misleading cults". Every group will have some good, some bad, but the proportions do differ, so rather than say that one group is OK, another is not-OK, it's more helpful to *weigh* the good and the bad, and see whether a group, teacher or tradition is something that you want to work with or not.
If you've been reading about the NKT on the net, you will probably already know many of the problems, and if you can visit their centre you have a chance to test at least some of the claims.
Things that, for me, weigh against the NKT include for instance, the extremely agressive campaign they mounted to discredit the Dalai Lama in the mid-nineties. They did claim that the Dalai Lama was trying to "ban" the worship of their protector whereas, as is well known, he only asked that those who held to that protector should not take teachings from him. Perhaps the NKT had a genuine grievance, but the approach they took was uncomfortable. The issues surrounding that protector are (surprise, surprise) both complex and highly political (in the sense of internal Gelugpa politics).
They have broken away from the Gelukpa lineage where they began - again, not an encouraging act.
I visited a local NKT group a few times in about 1997, in north Wales (I'm in Sydney now). The ordinary students were really nice, kind people, but it became clear that the large number of teachers the NKT had generated, although they had really done their homework thoroughly on one or two of Kelsang's books, they had no width or depth to their knowledge. There was a feeling that reading anything other than Kelsang's books was not approved of - at one stage I believe this was a formal policy, but I think they have backed off from that now.
They also have an "ordination" for monks and nuns, but the ordination is not done in the way the tradition and scriptures say it should be done, so it is in fact something new, not a Buddhist ordination. There are very strict traditions about that: perhaps you have read how difficult it has been to re-introduce a full nuns' ordination to Tibetan Buddhism? The lineage of that ordination had been lost in Tibet, but has recently been reintroduced from Chinese traditions where it still existed. (Tenzin Palmo is one figure who has been involved in that - have you perhaps read "Cave in the Snow"?) The NKT "ordination" however is, so I understand, not part of any such tradition.
It is also telling, it seems to me, that there are now support groups that have been formed for people who have left the NKT.
This is a partial list of "black marks", but I am sure they have some good points and some good practitioners; I am equally sure that places that I would judge to be much better are also never going to be perfect.
But where do you yourself live? If you go to Ulverston, it's not a million miles further up to the large Kagyu centre Samye Ling. Have you been there, or considered it?
I hope this helps a bit - write back if you think I might know anthing else that might help.
All the best
Alex Wilding