Please let me warn you about the New Kadampa Tradition. It is a Buddhist cult

[cultwarning]

For the sake of your families and friends I need to warn you about how this group operates. They claim to be welcoming to everyone but they will take your money, your energy and they certainly won't be welcoming to you if you question them or disagree with them.

The "guru" or leader Geshe Kelsang Gyatso has not been seen for 6 whole years yet everyone involved is expected to worship him/ keep statues of him and ONLY read books by him and him alone.

The people who run the centres use people (especially rich and young people) and are deeply unpleasant people who expel people once they are exhausted and penniless.

Recently, a young psychologist has tried to leave the religion and has been subjected to defamation of character and people in the NKT have as gone as far as to set up a website (under a fake name) in order to destroy her reputation. They have used her father's death to make out that she has various mental illnesses, it is shocking how like scientologists they are behaving.

If you have a child or family member is attending these centres please point them in the direction of this comprehensive report on the way they operate as a cult.

newkadampatraditionreport.org/2019/08/04/a-third-and-final-version-of-my-writing-on-the-new-kadampa-tradition/?fbclid=IwAR3btZJyhz48yNlbdVQcFaQ-s6Ng3cg7G243P0Ss7m0XEZSzql_g18v4qwU

[RuffleCrow]

You're quite big on shame, aren't you?

There's nothing 'dangerous' in pointing out all religions start as cults. Just because they're all technically cults doesn't mean some aren't currently more dangerous than others. You should credit the people you're worried about with some intelligence.

[lisasimpsonssaxophone]

My friend was in a Buddhist cult for a couple of years. I don’t want to go into details because it feels wrong to share details of someone else’s life, but watching from the outside it was very, very scary. I don’t remember enough about the organisation she was involved with to know whether it was the same one, but it sounds very similar.

Something that always rubs me up the wrong way is when people are very anti-religion but then say ‘oh but Buddhism’s ok, that’s just about having a peaceful lifestyle isn’t it?’ As with all religions I’m sure there are plenty of Buddhists who benefit positively from it and aren’t in dangerous cults, but it just worries and angers me that people seem to assume Buddhism is ‘different’ from the others and somehow gets a free pass when people are criticising religion. I’ve never understood it.

I seem to remember even Dawkins in the God Delusion saying that Buddhism was excluded from his criticism because it’s really just a ‘way of life not a religion’. I really wish I could tell him about all the stuff I witnessed with my friend which was EXACTLY the kind of stuff he criticised other religions for in that book.

[lisasimpsonssaxophone]

I also feel like I have to add that although the CofE as a whole doesn’t necessarily qualify as a ‘cult’ in my eyes, I have seen some very cult-like evangelical CofE youth groups in my time. I went along with friends to a couple of meetings at their youth group when I was a teenager and it was terrifying.

[Armadillostoes]

Rufflecrow-Ignorance is always dangerous.

Your laziness/stubbornness doesn't change the factual reality that all religions do not start out as cults in the sense described. You don't know/understand the actual meaning of the word in that context.

Your suggestion that "intelligent" people wouldn't get drawn in is just laughable.

Your comment about shame is just weird and I suspect that you are projecting some if your own insecurities.

But as I say, the fundamental problem here is that you have no clue what you are talking about and no desire to find out. You have zero interest in whether your vacuous comments might be damaging. All in all, pretty sad.

[Likeazombi]

There was an article on BBC radio news a few days ago about a young woman who had been murdered by another member of the church she attended, which sounded very much like a cult to me, she was isolated from her family and university peers to the point that nobody had reported her missing until weeks later.
Nobody in the church had missed her enough to wonder where she was either..
Very sad story all round. Her name was Joy.
Church was the black Israelites or some such, something to do with 12 tribes and their descendents being the only holy people and all white people are devil's.
Just to point out there are probably very many more cult like organisations preying on vulnerable people than most of us realise.

[AyrshireAmbler49]

.

[Emmaforrest2019]

Some of these posts are hilarious!!! I mean, you lot need to ask yourselves why it took so long for you to ‘realise’ that you were in the midst of an evil cult??? So I guess you’re right and the scores of thousands of people who DON’T feel the need to whine either just move on or are perfectly happy with their choice of a path. I mean, really…..get some backbone and stop moaning.

[rightonthyme]

^Emma this is a zombie thread

[Rahrahrahrahannoyed]

Not all religion is a cult and I'm wary of things like that, I'm also a member of the Kadampa Buddhist centre and they are far from being cultist, thay are very open minded for one, which would go against this. If we come to them with a problem in life, e.g. about a person who is making our life hard they help us think about why that person has done that and that the person must have been experiencing some suffering etc. They are open to new concepts and we talk about other ways of life and consider if they might be beneficial. Nothing is hidden. There is no pressure to come back or remain. There is no passive aggressiveness it is a peaceful place with no agenda and they forgive people's human flaws. Honestly, it's far from a cult.
I pay a monthly subscription to attend teachings, but I'm not tied into it.

[Emmaforrest2019]

@rightonthyme ....apparently not! :)

[Emmaforrest2019]

@Rahrahrahrahannoyed ...they won't listen my friend - they need something or someone to take out their emotional deficits on......you’re wasting your time!

[alltoomuchrightnow]

Sounds like extreme people giving others a bad name
Buddhism is not a religion