This item contains descriptions of alleged child sexual abuse.

Two Nova Scotians are being called as witnesses in a court case alleging sexual abuse of a child at a Shambhala facility in Vermont.

The plaintiff is a Canadian man I’ll call Z. Z’s lawsuit names Shambhala USA, Inc. and John Weber as defendants. The alleged abuse occurred at 1983 in the Karmê Chöling Meditation Center in Barnet, Vermont, when Z was 15 years old.

Weber was then an art director at Karmê Chöling, creating graphic design elements for Shambhala’s in-house publications and also for various pins and such worn by Trungpa (the founder of Shambhala) and his guards.

Philip Moscovitch reported on the lawsuit in January, and discussed its long procedural history. As well, he wrote about his own visits to Karmê Chöling.

Last month, a filing with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia included the entire lawsuit filed in Vermont.

“The Plaintiff was harmed as a direct result of the actions and gross negligence of Shambhala USA, Inc. as well as John Weber,” alleges the lawsuit:

Shambhala USA, Inc., and its subsequent entities, were founded and created to honor principles of Buddhism, but instead it, and the individuals in leadership positions, lured children and young adults through a religious pretext so they could be victimized. Their victims, including the Plaintiff, faced additional rounds of abuse in the form of shaming — since the institutions that were supposed to have protected them then ostracized and shunned them if they or their parents spoke up or took any action to report the incidents. The institutions instead reminded them of their “sacred vows” they took to honor and protect the Sakyong, his delegates, and Shambhala, above all else, including their suffering. In addition, the institutions invented an internal process which required that the victims and/or their parents who reported any abuse, including sexual abuse, face their perpetrators and “forgive” them.

The lawsuit recounts the long history of debauchery at Shambhala events, including alcohol- and drug-fuelled parties that involved sex with multiple partners and between adults and children, as described in multiple investigative reports. The most recent of those reports was produced by the law firm Bauer Gravel Farnham, which looked specifically at Karmê Chöling.

The lawsuit says that Z “grew up” at Karmê Chöling, first visiting when he was 11 years old. While he lived with his mother during the school year, he otherwise stayed at Karmê Chöling.

As alleged, during one visit to Karmê Chöling when he was 15, Z arrived for a spring retreat on a day when staff had the day off and so no sleeping arrangements had been made for him. That evening staff were partying and Z found himself making out with a 25-year-old woman. “She invited him to stay with her that night, but [Z] declined. She then went off to her room to go to bed.”

As he had no assigned room, Weber invited Z to spend in the night in his room. The lawsuit goes into graphic detail of an alleged anal rape, which left Z unable to sit for several days.

The lawsuit says Z did not again see Weber at that spring retreat, but did have two subsequent encounters with him.

The first was two years later, in 1985, when Z was at a Shambhala event and saw Weber was a guard for an unnamed Shambhala leader. Others at the event told Z that it was well-know that Weber had “engaged in prior sexual acts with minors” and that Z should not “go near a room with Weber alone.”

The next encounter with Weber was in 1995 in Halifax, for Sakyong’s ‘enthronement.’ Weber was then serving as a guard for Mipham J. Kukpo. As the leaders and their guards were leaving the event, alleges the lawsuit, Weber turned back to AB and said “You’re weak, and will always be.”

Later, in about 2003, alleges the lawsuit, Z was encouraged not to report the rape to police. “Instead, Shambhala offered [Z] the opportunity to have a mediation meeting with his assailant, Weber. This is another example of Shambhala knowingly protecting its own interests and that of the perpetrators above those of victims, including when they were just children.”

The lawsuit against Weber and Shambhala was filed in 2020 in Vermont, and has been slowly making its way through that state’s court system through COVID delays and procedural issues.

None of the allegations included in the lawsuit have been tested in court.

However, earlier this year, the judge in the case issued Letters Rogatory (letters of request) to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia asking that two Nova Scotia residents be deposed as witnesses.

One witness is Ani Pema Chödrön, a Shambhalan nun who lives at the Gampo Abbey in Pleasant Bay, a community along the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton. Chödrön was formerly the director of the abbey but retired in 2020 just as the Shambhala child sexual abuse scandal was first making headlines.

Chödrön is one of the best known North American Buddhists, having appeared on the Oprah Show and in other high-profile settings. As early as 1993, Chödrön was asked about child sexual abuse in the Shambhala community, and she responded:

My undying devotion to Trungpa Rinpoche comes from his teaching me in every way he could that you can never make things right or wrong. I consider it my good fortune that somehow I was thrown into a way of understanding Buddhism which in the Zen tradition is called “don’t know mind”: Don’t know. Don’t know right. Don’t know wrong. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re going to make things right and wrong you can never even talk about fulfilling your bodhisattva vows.

The other witness is Halifax resident Dominique Le Grand, a meditation leader with the Halifax Shambhala community.

Neither Chödrön nor Le Grand are accused of wrongdoing.

Chödrön and Le Grand will be deposed later this month at a Halifax law office. Their expenses will be paid by Z’s legal team.