Gabriel Mizrahi

He relocated to Nepal.

where he apparently still teaches independently and no charges were ever filed against him.

But some critics say that was basically him fleeing.

Either way, this whole thing sent shockwaves through the organization.

Wild story.

Yeah.

The details, by the way, are quite disturbing.

We will link to an article in the show notes if anyone wants to read more about it.

Also, there were two independent investigations, one by a law firm and one by a survivor organization called Buddhist Project Sunshine, and they both confirmed that there was a ton of abuse going on at this place, and apparently the power dynamics and accountability in this organization were ripe for this kind of thing to happen.

Tale as old as time, sadly.

So she goes on.

Eventually, the organization responded by hosting a year's worth of events focused on empowering women and challenging sexual misconduct and creating a new code of conduct with the stated goal of appropriately addressing sexual misconduct within Shambhala communities.

Oh yeah, this is another thing I read about.

So they apparently instituted a bunch of reforms, all the stuff she just mentioned, new ethical codes, clear reporting channels.

They've apparently moved away from a single guru-led structure and also away from apparently a heavy drinking culture, stuff like that.

To be completely fair, and please keep in mind, we're just learning about all of this ourselves.

The headline seems to be that some of this change is real and there might be some truly genuine people who stayed and want to make things better.

But a lot of people say that the change is uneven or it's not genuine.

They say a lot of the culture is exactly the same, problems are still handled largely internally, so a lot of victims are saying, we feel ignored, we even kind of feel re-traumatized by a lot of this, and a lot of people have just left the group.

Unfortunately, rather than receiving any kind of support or kindness when I reported the sexual assault, my assault was concealed, and mention of it was suppressed at every level.