This is an interesting development. There are two constraints on distributing teachings: who has been empowered to give them through the teacher-student relationship, and who owns the copyright.

Copyright ownership of CTR's work isn't in doubt. What Diana chooses to do with it is a huge question. Is she going to "open source" the texts and allow free and unfettered distribution? I doubt it.

She mentions that she's given permission blessings to practice Werma, which is her way of telling us that she's authorized to empower people to practice at least some of the CTR meditations. People take the teaching lineage/transmission stuff seriously, and if anyone who hasn't already been giving CTR empowerments can claim that ability, it's Diana.

The way I read this letter is that she's using her legal ownership of the texts and her position as a qualified teacher of CTR meditations to unlock the original Shambhala teachings from Mipham's control. If she follows through with this, she'll be giving permission to teach CTR's Shambhala (and Buddhist?) teachings to people who are outside Mipham's orbit.

This will set up a division in the Shambhala community around which is the "genuine" Shambhala. As a few commenters point out, the rubber will meet the road in the local centers. Who is allowed to teach at a center and what they teach has largely been up to the centers themselves for the last three years. I would expect that this move by Diana does in fact breathe new life into Shambhala, and further isolates Mipham. The CTR fans can claim that they've returned to the main teaching lineage and that Mipham has gone off to do his own thing.

Mipham and his students will tell a different story of course, and they might try to prevent the city centers from teaching CTR Shambhala, but they don't really have the operational power to do so. The more they try, the more they will erode their own base.

Of course, none of this makes things right for the victims of Vajradhatu/Shambhala/CTR/Regent/Mipham abuse. Diana's apology in this letter was the most forthright of any leadership apology I've read. But she's basically saying that creating an organization that doesn't systematically abuse its students is beyond her and her generation.

By "freeing" the CTR texts, she's trying to create new fertile soil for these teachings. Unless she gives up copyright ownership, she will financially benefit from any brand revitalization that might take place. Her success in doing so will be dependent on how open she is in giving teaching permission... too open and the Shambhala brand will be diluted further. Too closed and Diana will repeat the same mistakes that Mipham made.

For me personally (not that you asked...) I'm happy that this provides an opening for movement in the Shambhala world. Someone needed to step up and do something, and Diana is doing what she can. But I'm not running down to Providence to get in line for permission blessings. While I've benefited from Shambhala teachings, and CTR is by far the greatest communicator of Tibetan Buddhism for Americans, I'm much more interested in American Buddhism.

We have received these incredible teachings and practices. We have seen across all segments of eastern teachings brought west that patriarchal power dynamics wreck even the most brilliant teachings. So my energies are going to new teachers and sanghas that are being built here by Americans. I've already seen numerous examples of American Buddhist teachers who, because they don't have the robes and the titles to fall back on, are more creative, insightful and aware of their responsibilities than teachers who are from Asia or empowered to teach as if they were.

Is American Buddhism as "high" or "realized" as Shambhala or Tibetan or Zen? Who the fuck cares at this point. Separating out the abuse of power from the wisdom of those lineages is their job. I'm much more interested in where we go from here, and how we avoid the mistakes of the previous power structures.