This, from the Denver Post:

A”gile Group, a Boulder wealth-management firm, has frozen client accounts since last fall and warned investors, including former U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo and KOA talk-show host Mike Rosen, to expect heavy losses.

The firm, managed more than $1 billion in mutual funds, hedge funds and private accounts.

“What investors were told is that they are not apt to get any money back until 2010,” said Charles Brega, an attorney with Fairfield and Woods who is preparing to sue the firm.

Brega’s clients, mostly elderly investors who had $3 million with the firm’s mutual funds, were told they could expect a recovery of 5 percent to 10 percent at most.

Agile has failed to provide a detailed explanation about why the money was lost, Brega said. …Clients were told the firm had placed money with Bernard Madoff, accused of swindling investors out of $50 billion in the world’s largest Ponzi scheme, and Tom Petters, a Minneapolis businessman indicted on 20 counts of fraud that could cost investors up to $3.5 billion.

“Another potential victim of Agile’s collapse is Shambhala International, which is listed as an under-5-percent owner in the Agile Group, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission”

“90 percent of client funds gone”
By Aldo Svaldi
The Denver Post
Posted: 02/03/2009 12:30:00 AM MST

Now, besides thet obvious concern that this fund was promoting itself as safe, and diversified, but seems to have invested most of the clients” monies in not one, but two Ponzi schemes, and besides thet fact that association of this firm with Shambhala International and the Sakyong, (after all, the head of Agile Group was teaching on “Wealth and Livelihood” within the mandala), gave it a false imprimatur that all was well because it was “blessed” by Shambhala and Buddhist connections, what I don’t understand is how Shambhala International, who was seemingly so financially challenged since, at least 2003, and had mortgaged Marpa house and Karme Dzong not once ,but twice for the build-out at SMC, has millions to invest and lose in Agile Group.

This must have been monies invested from donations, big and small. On its face, nothing wrong with this, i.e. investing the money to make it grow, but to invest millions, while not paying your debt-load that was growing and growing, I just don’t get it.

I am still curious about who Shambhala International is. Is it a Corporation, with francise centers and trademark brand names throughout the country, ( a recent lawsuit was taken by Shambhala International regarding its trademark and may be still pending) primarly and separately now incorporate to protect and fund the Sakyong, family, household and staff, taking a portion of all the struggling centers meager profits from programs and letting the debt-load of Karme Choling and SMC increase and increase. ( See Bill Karelis report in Elephant Journal, August 2008,) Relying on big donors in the past to keep bailing out these centers, while probably millions over the years were invested and then lost in Agile Group?

An under 5% owner of a billion dollar fund, having to register with the SEC, means it was a lot of money.

Why is there not one word about this, when the Denver Post , the Boulder Camera, and even the Elephant Journal online, and other websites, thought it was very big news regarding Shambhala International?

To me this is an ongoing and important chapter in the “Navigating the Labyrinth” which concerns the financial structure and doings of Shambhala International and entities.

Much of this money lost was probably individual donations, big and small. And there should be a reckoning and an accounting and transparency. I always thought that the desperate appeals and fund-raising gambits over the years was to eliminate the debt-load. Not to be funnelled into a hedge fund to make Shambhala International rich.

How much was lost?

I am sure people do not remember now, and maybe it has been edited out but the real solid schism began with the 1999 seminary, When the Sakyong actually was teaching students , his new students, that “we, the older students “didn’t get it”, “didn’t help the Vidyadhara”, and basically was disrespectfulregarding the Vidyadhara students at that seminarY.

I remember getting my copy of the transcripts of that seminary because the St. J. Vt. Center was holding a class on them, and the brand , new back from seminary Sakyong students were quite delighted about telling us old dogs THAT FACT. I remember watching the dominoes fall, when those of us, who had confidence in the view, and in ourselves, refused to buy that particular trip, and some other older students, like sheep, went right along with that disparagement. One old Kasung actually got up at that 99 seminary class, and said, “you know” he’s right and I didn’t get TGS” either. It was heart-sickening. I am sure others remember.

It was so shocking I remember , to read those words in the transcripts, because my experience had always been respecting those older students who had gone before me, and looking up to them, .

Right after this the changes started, and of course the “new students” were primed to see us as obsolete, what did we know? We didn’t get it, that Sakyong had told them so.. So any protestations about keeping the lineage and transmissions intact, keeping the practice mandala intact, etc. was met with ” you need to get with the new, bigger and better program.”

It’s now all been rewritten over the years, about how we have been casting aspersions on the Sakyong, how stuck we are, how unappreciative, i.e. the revisionist history.

I would like to add that there would be no Sakyong or Mandala without the Vidyadhara AND his students.

Chris

It is good to hear from you again. I think you have re-surfaced with even more brilliance.

This is a painful subject. I lived in Nova Scotia for many years. I remember the subtle shifts. I remember when our beloved Sawang headed off to Asia in 1986. I remember when he took the mantle of leadership in 1990 through the ceremony at Karme Choling. I saw how utterly reluctant he was to take on the “job”. And I also saw, in Nova Scotia, in 1991, that he didn’t seem particularily interested in relating to the place. By 1994 he was being quiety addressed as Rinpoche by his servants. Where did that come from? By 1995, it was a done deal. All of a sudden he was Mipham. And he clearly was most interested in relating to his path.

From there the schism began. Sometimes, I would like people to remember that here would be no Sakyong or Mandala without the Vidyadhara.

I wish that the newer students would respect the elders of this church. But rather, we have gone down the insane road of spiritual materialism.

Omigod.

Following all of this discussion, I never thought of that. You are so right! It is a very serious concern. It is one thing, to have Shambhala Buddhism be so different from what the older students experienced of the “old ways” of teaching and forms, etc as we were so auspiciously fortunate to have received from Trungpa Rinpoche. It is another thing to have to worry about anything that might endanger Trungpa Rinpoche’s actual written heritage.

I really appreciate your diligent research and gathering of important information, the flow chart, and the need to understand how the finances are managed, etc. Re: Kalapa, perhaps this is a harmless and in fact benign or even helpful institution, but having experienced the major changes taken place so far, one is bound to want to be assured that certain things will be kept safe.

I find this forum to be so very helpful to people like myself, and presumably, to others of various points of view, trying to understand what is happening, to discuss the issue, and to UNDERSTAND the issues.

( I personally have been struggling to formulate and adopt a large view… trying to work with both worlds: mainly 1) bemoaning and being concerned about preserving Trungpa Rinpoche’s legacy, however that may be possible…it is so precious and profound. Also, interestingly, I am further provoked to intensify my practice and appreciation of Trungpa Rinpoche as my root guru. and to further understand his endlessly profound teachings.

And 2) As to what is happening now, I am learning to see it as something to accept from the outside, at least… as there are so many really good people involved… people that I do love and trust, many older students who are finding this as a milieu where they can continue to teach Dharma and Shambhala teachings. (and who also seem to appreciate what the Sakyong is doing.) I also appreciate the devotion that I have seen in so many of the Sakyong’s students which seems so strong and beautiful. )

So, Thank you Barbara, and all those who contribute to this forum!!!!!!

ginny

Or is there something even beyond those four possibilities?

“Fox News. We report, you decide.”

However, I found that in the article, there was a subtle judgement. It seemed that the underlying belief of the author was that shambhala and the sakyong are not to be trusted, and here is why. It might be better to just stick to the facts and let others decide for themselves what is trust worthy and what is not.

I have my own issues around the sakyong and the shambhala mandala, and while I recognize that partly they are my own issues, and partly they are valid issues that need to be addressed, I also see that if I want to address them I need to do so directly and with respect.

It might be better to interview people with a fresh mind, and be open to being wrong. perhaps there are ulterior motives at play, but perhaps not.

Keep going, keep digging, but please do so with maybe a little more respect and openness.

Thank you for your fresh mind and open observations. If you would like to read more on the current Sakyong’s ideas of the view of how to run and organization and a society please follow this link.

http://www.shambhala.org/int/webdocs/SocietyOrganization.html

I have found that rereading this letter to be very helpful in ways I haven’t been able to figure out yet.

Reading this document encourages me to welcome the steps that individuals like Barbara and others take.
That we are responsible to look into things and responsible to each other.
It also encourages me to work with my own patience, lack of, compassion, lack of – and to watch my actions – are they divisive or helpful, always a hard line and one we will never ‘get right’.

Sometimes I think of this document in relation to the shambhala code of conduct. (which is also not often talked about – and I don’t have a link to. Maybe someone on this site could – that would be a good article to read)

Alan, thank you for the gorilla!
Christine, thanks for a good hit of where you are, love.

kristine m

Everyone can support their own opinions, pro and con by quoting the Vidyadhara (or others), so why be hopeful and/or righteous because we read or hear something that supports our opinions?

I am pleased to have been informed by Ms. Blouin’s article, but, in truth, its integrity suffers for expressing not even an iota of appreciation for what the Sakyong has done with SI—which is too bad, because along with the negative side that some people experience, there is so much beauty. And if one doesn’t see it, it’s just sad. So the question for me is, can I trust that this article is a product of awareness/insight, or is it just the sound of another axe grinding? I think there is quite a bit of both, here. Ms. Blouin opines, ‘The “Lineage of Sakyongs”? But there isn’t one.’ Ms. Blouin sounds quite definite on this point. But why is that? She could very well be terribly wrong about this, but she is clearly without hesitation in declaring that this is so.

This, strangely, is at the core of so much divisiveness that occurs on this site. If you don’t agree that the “Lineage of Sakyongs” indeed exists to hold and nurture the Dorje Dradul’s precious terma, then you have no reason to rejoice in today’s situation in Shambhala–or allow it to mitigate your opinion, at all. And that’s a choice, not a conclusion.

Despite my obvious pro-Sakyongs point of view, I’m glad your site exists for the questions it raises, but to tell you the truth, the attitude it’s expressing reminds me far too much of the literature I receive daily from the RNC that attempts to prove that Obama is a terrorist. Honestly.

Grinding that axe can be awfully painful.

Good luck to all of us.

Alan Anderson