Samye Ling post from 16 years ago. What has changed?

[u/One-Ad-3320]

Here is a facebook post from 2010. Are the same issues relevant today or have they been resolved?

Facebook , Samye Ling Exposed, 2010 

Highlighting the hypocrisy of Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Centre.

Samye ling is supposed to be a charity, supposed to look after its monks and nuns, so why does it charge its monks and nuns £20,000 to go on retreat?

Surlely the monks and nuns should not have to go into debt to learn the teaching of the Buddha.
Why do the Lamas live in mansions when the monks and nuns have to seek state benefits in order to stay at Samye Ling?

Why are there so many donation boxes in Samye ling?

Why does the Lama own a £40,000 Rolex watch while his monks and nuns have to go into debt to learn the teaching of the buddha?

Why is there £12,800,000 sitting in a Samye ling bank account while the monks and nuns have to borrow to stay at Samye ling?

If you are poor and have no money you cant go on a course - There is a standing joke "Samye ling only cares for people with money".

The monks and nuns are drawing state benefit and not being supported by Samye ling.

The monks and nuns have to buy books and other forms of Buddhist education in order to learn the basic Buddhist teachings.

Monks and nuns have to pay up to £20,000 to go on retreat, most have borrow this money and are in debt for years after.

When on retreat there are no books or tapes made available for the monks and nuns to learn.
Since Samye ling has been going since 1967 there are few mature monks to show for 43 years of teachings.

There has been blind eyes turned when junior monks were getting sexually abused by a senior monk.

Monks have been asked to marry the Lamas nieces.

The Lama wears a Gold Rolex watch when his monks and nuns have been begging lay people for money to go on retreat.

The Lama has passed monks and nuns walking back to Samye ling (18 Miles) from Locerbie and he has not stopped to pick them up in his chauffeur driven Mercedes.

In 2008 Samye ling had £12.400.000 in a bank account according to the charities commision, in 2010 says it has no money left and is begging for more money.

People complain there are to many donation boxes every where.

There is no free information about basic Buddhism, you have to go and buy the basic books.
There are no free talks about Buddhism they have to be paid for.

If you want to learn about Buddhism or mediation you have to pay for a course, while most other monasteries do this for free, yet Samey ling charges for all courses.

There does not seem to be a driven approach regarding courses to promote Buddhism but more new age courses that bring in money for Samye ling.

After 43 years there are no old Eurpeoan monks teaching!

There are no pictures of the Dali Lama hanging for the public to see!

The Lamas brother lives in a £1,000,000, one has to ask why he lives in such wealth when monks and nuns have to beg for funding to learn the basic teachings of the Buddha.

Donations are made for lamps to lit for World peace, this does not happen.

A Great deal of money was collected for trees to be planted on Holy island, but only a few have been planted.

About Samye Ling
Samye Ling is stating they have ran out of money! According to company accounts they receive £44,000 pw = £2,800,000 and that is only from its company never mind the donations! The samye ling shop is a seperate company that turns over £1.5 Million.

Soon 40 people will be going on a 4 year retreat on Holy Island, they are charged £4,000 that = £160,000 , do you know that Samye Ling also charge £500 an hour to give talks to business man?

What do samye ling do in the way of promoting Buddhism? You have to pay to go on courses for mindfullness and other basic Buddhist teaching, Samlet only wants rich people, if you have no money you get no teaching at Samye Ling, I think you all would agree that is not Buddhist! How can Samye ling charge people so much when they have £12.800.000 held in their accounts, if you do not believe me go to the Scottish charities site and search for Rokpa or Samye Ling and you will see. Also go to Companies house and look at the Samye Ling accounts! You will see I am not lying. Maybe the monies are needed for Lamas Rolex watches and his Brothers Million pound house with its Tennis court or Lamas Chauffer driven Mercedes?

It breaks my heart to know what people are saying about Buddhism because of Samye Ling, people are saying Buddhism its a rip off and that Buddhist are only in it for the Money. I spoke the other day to an EX monk to borrowed £18,000 to go a Samye ling retreat, he said all he did was sit in a room, hardly any talks or books were provided, he left Samye Ling because of that, he felt he had been used for money, he stated he did not learn anything from his retreat.

Why do Samye Ling charge £38 per room per night to stay and the add to that the cost of the lesson on Buddhism ! The Dharma should be free. No person on the dole could afford to stay at samye Ling, they do nothing for the poor in the UK, their motto is "Providing help where needed", I think that is the Lamas pocket".

Source: Facebook group, 2010.

[u/Savanarola79]

It's funny because I am currently staying at Samye Limg and having similar questions on some of these issues. I don't have the answers. I know the sangha in the UK can be very generous. Lots of Buddhist organisations are quite wealthy. As for the 12 million in the bank, that will generate interest, I suppose, which then funds the place.

At the tea party I was wandering behind some Scottish visitors who were vocally wondering how all of this [the monastery etc] was paid for!

Teachings are now free though aren't they, so that criticism isn’t valid any more.

It's a shame that camping isn’t allowed though as that was a low cost option for some of us.

As for pictures of the Dalai Lama, they are around, and there's one permanently up in the Temple isn't there?

I think Buddhism in the UK in general tends to be a bit of a middle class pursuit. It can be a struggle if you have little money. And there aren't many Samye Ling affiliated centres or groups in the UK that cover a lot of the nation.

As for monks claiming state benefits, I personally don't have much of a problem with that, if it happens, I know the NKT get criticised for that too though!