u/BuddhistThomas

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Drupon Rinpoche gives a very heartfelt and moving explanation of the difficulty he's faced. This challenge seems to lie at the root of many of the modern-day issues facing lamas and the dharma.

Towards the end, he also addresses the difficulties that sincere Western dharma practitioners face. This post is a little longer than average, but I found it gripping, well-written and full of insights. Here it is:

MY GREATEST CHALLENGE

The greatest challenge and that which has laid the heaviest weight upon my shoulders has been my struggle to disentangle money from the Dharma.

Everywhere you look, you see people using the Dharma for financial gain, which erodes the Dharma and people’s faith in it.

Attempting to avoid doing this myself and to create circumstances where this becomes difficult, I have had to step on many toes and anger many people. But I just close my eyes and do what I must, regardless of who becomes upset with me.

It is not that I am squeaky clean and have only ever taken money in ways that are 100% in accord with the Dharma. But I am careful. Kunga, who is always with me when travelling, etc, noted that I refuse more offerings than I accept. This is not out of some pious motivation. I am afraid to take people’s money because they treasure it so highly. They sweat blood and tears for it, lie for it, fight for it, and families even abandon each other over it. So you can’t take it from people as if it’s not a big deal and not expect that to cause all sorts of strife and ill-feeling.

Someone may be moved by a moment of faith and want to make an offering, but if the lama or Dharma organisation fails to meet their expectations or worse, they will not only think negatively about that one lama but will also likely feel averse to Buddhism as a whole.

It’s not only the donor one needs to consider; what about their family? How might they feel about the family money being given away? There are so many things to consider. That’s why I hardly dare take people’s money. In Thrangu Sekhar retreat centre, I have made a rule that the students are not allowed to make offerings to me. One of the reasons for this is that I don’t want them to have even the slightest impression that they are paying for the Dharma. The Dharma is priceless, invaluable, there is no price you could put on it.

Then there’s the harm it does to the recipient, the lama. Countless lamas, tulkus, geshes, khenpos and so on have been ruined by offerings. Many of them start out excellently. They live in the temples, study and practice, and maybe start to show signs of progress in the Dharma. This attracts students. Then maybe the Dharma-motivated lama helps the students, teaches them, or simply gives them a gift. In return, especially if they are Chinese, the student will want to repay that kindness by giving the lama an envelope stuffed with cash. The lama has probably never had much money before but they have just been taught how they might acquire it.

Now, their previous Dharma motivation becomes tainted by expectation. This means the lama can no longer be frank and forthright with their students; they don’t want to upset the apple cart. So they ingratiate the students and shower them with praise and gifts. The result is that the lama spoils the students, and the students spoil the lama. The Dharma ends up nowhere to be seen.

Recently, a newish acquaintance of mine who had aspirations to receive guidance from me in the Dharma expressed the wish to make quite a substantial offering to me. In reply, I asked her if she intended to become a student of mine or a sponsor. I said if it is the former, it would be better not to complicate our Dharma relationship with money. Obviously, she said she intended to become a Dharma student.

People will say in reply to this, ‘But people gain merit from making offerings.’ While there is some truth to that, the merit is contingent on the person not later giving rise to regret or boasting of their virtuous act, which both eradicate the merit. In truth, it should be the lama who is seen to be holding that which is so precious: the Buddha Dharma that brings everything beneficial in the short term and the ultimate happiness of enlightenment in the long term. And anything a student receives of this should fill them with a gratitude that overwhelms any gratitude they might expect to receive for having offered something material. But we’ve all seen the sponsors of the monasteries, Dharma centres and the lamas, swanning about, full of themselves, expecting special treatment and almost always receiving it. How much benefit do you think this type of person will accrue from their ‘offerings’?

Besides, the teachings on this are very clear: material offering is the lowest form of offering, inferior to the offering of service and the offering of Dharma practice.

I fully understand the bind that lamas find themselves in, the bind in whose grasp I also find myself. While asking people for money is not really in accord with the Dharma, and taking everything that is offered poses all sorts of risks, still, the practitioners, monastics etc., under the lama’s care need to be housed, fed, educated, etc etc.

In Tibet the monks and nuns were and are mainly supported by their families. There is also the custom of going on alms once in the summer and once in the autumn, where the laity offers flour and butter, etc., and the monastics will most likely receive enough to feed themselves for the year. This way, there is not a great financial burden on the monastery heads, which is very different from the situation in India and Nepal.

One of the biggest obstacles for the Dharma in India and Nepal is that the lamas need to provide for the monks and nuns. Traditionally the laity would support the Sangha – provide provisions, build temples and so on. But when the Tibetans came to India, they had no Buddhist infrastructure in their new home. The number of local Buddhists was next to zero, and the Tibetans were penniless refugees. Many wonderful lamas who escaped started to build temples and a community of practitioners. These lamas had to look abroad to South Asian countries and the West for the resources to make this happen.

This set a precedent: the better lamas, whom people have faith in, travel to teach and basically fundraise to support the monks and nuns back home, while the junior lamas stay behind to teach the even more junior monks and nuns. This situation is far from conducive for re-establishing the Dharma in India and Nepal.

The situation for the Sangha in the West is even worse, however. At least the monks and nuns on the Indian subcontinent have someone looking out for them. Western monks, nuns and lay practitioners, for the most part, receive very little support from the laity or the Buddhist institutions. The number of places where they can go to dedicate themselves full-time to study and practice without needing to pay is next to non-existent. Even when they travel to India and Nepal, there is rarely much support from the monasteries and so on. The people in this region believe that all Westerners are rich and that they should offer support rather than receive any. The same applies to monks and nuns who come from Taiwan and other Asian countries with Chinese Buddhist communities.

So, when I talk of the weight that has fallen upon my shoulders, this is mainly what I mean. When the retreat centre here was first built, a guesthouse was also built as a means to provide for the retreat lamas. Gradually, Western and Chinese Buddhists came, expressing their wish to receive teachings from me and do retreat. At that time I had nothing to do with the management of the retreat centre. I simply had to teach the monks in retreat.

It soon became apparent that the situation for the international students was untenable. They were sincere in their wish to truly assimilate and practise the teachings, but that cannot be done in a year or two and there is no way they could afford to pay to stay in a guesthouse indefinitely while dedicating themselves to study and practise full-time. So, I decided I would turn the guesthouse into a retreat centre and take on the burden of providing for all the practitioners myself.

It is uncertain how long I can keep this up for, but I’ve always told the retreatants that we are in it together: if we remain happy and comfortable, we will do so together; if we go cold and hungry, we will do so together. Whatever the case, we will never fundraise or ask for help. We will accept what is offered in faith if we know the person can afford it but we will never work intentionally to make money.

For me, this is not something new. When I was twenty years old, I made a promise to my two lamas, Lama Senge and Drupon Rinpoche Karma Sherab. I begged them for meditation instructions and vowed that I would never amass money but would only live simply. At that time, I offered them every single thing I owned apart from the shabby robes on my back, even my daily recitation prayer text I offered. I think it is thanks to their blessing that I have been able to keep this promise. Now, I am in a position where I could have quite a healthy bank balance if I wanted to, but the thought of going down that path never so much as enters my mind. I own very little. And aspire to die penniless.

This short clip is Drupon Rinpoche offering advice for how to listen to Dharma teachings. It was posted on Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre’s Facebook page. It seems this teaching was just given yesterday. I appreciated his insights as I watched it, and thought like minded people in this Subreddit would too.

Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BLeFaUbki/?mibextid=wwXIfr

It is encouraging to see the Mindfulness Association's retraction and attempt at reconciliation. Let's hope this marks the beginning of a new chapter of growth and mutually beneficial activity for all parties.

I will post the letter they disseminated here for documentation and discussion because the earlier dispute had also circulated publicly.

The letter:

RETRACTION AND APOLOGY FROM MA TO MEMBERSHIP 2026.05.19

We hope that this email finds you well.

Thank you for your patience while we have been navigating the complexities around our email of 12 December 2025 concerning Rokpa Trust, its centres at Samye Ling and Scarborough, and Drupon Rinpoche.

With hindsight, the current board would not have sent that email. We wish to take this opportunity to clarify and formally withdraw the statements and implications contained in that communication as no evidence has come to light to substantiate the concerns we raised. This applies to all individuals connected with Rokpa Trust (including trustees) at the centres mentioned above. We regret that we did not engage more extensively with Rokpa Trust directly about this matter at the time.

We recognise that this has caused unintended harm to the reputation and standing of Rokpa Trust. For this, we offer our sincere and unreserved apology.

We also acknowledge that it was inappropriate to name Drupon Rinpoche in that communication. He has no connection with Mindfulness Association and has never been involved in any Mindfulness Association teachings or courses. We offer Drupon Rinpoche our sincere and unconditional apology for the harm caused to his reputation and the upset caused to him and to his students.

We wish to reaffirm that we have never received any formal complaints from our tutors or members regarding their physical or psychological safety at any of Rokpa Trust’s venues whilst attending Mindfulness Association courses. Consequently, there is no basis for us raising concerns with any safeguarding authority.

We are deeply grateful for the kindness and care we have received over many years, both personally and on behalf of the many participants who have benefited from staying at Samye Ling, Holy Isle and other Rokpa Trust centres where courses have taken place. We remain grateful to the lineage that has so profoundly informed and inspired the teachings of the Mindfulness Association. For this reason, we are committed to repairing our relationship with Rokpa Trust, so that future participants may continue to benefit from its venues and from a shared intention to be of benefit in the world.

The past months have been both a challenge and an opportunity for growth and learning within our organisation. We are looking with fresh eyes at our governance and decision-making processes and seek to navigate this moment in the spirit of our practice taking compassionate responsibility for our human fallibility and holding care for all involved.

Kind regards,

The MA Board