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As I know that some atheists also self-identify as Buddhists of one tradition or another (as I did previously), I thought I’d point out a few ‘enlightening’ articles which explore issues surrounding some of the ongoing scandals involving sexual abuse, money making scams, cultic tendencies, etc. in the Zen Buddhist community.
What I’m suggesting is that it might be useful to consider every spiritual community, every Zen sangha, as a cult risk. —Kuzan Peter Schireson, Soto Zen priest
There are those who say we need to grow up and walk away from Zen teachers. I respectfully say you can. And you may well find a true and useful and healthful path. —James Ishmael Ford, Soto Zen priest
In forty-six years of Zen practice I’ve observed Asian (and now Western) swamis, tulkus, roshis, rishis, dharma heirs, lineage holders, and masters of various stripes, as well as their disciples, explain that the master’s fiscal extravagance, alcoholism, cruelty, sex addiction, violence, and even rape is – of all things – “a teaching!” —Erik Fraser Storlie
As I know that some atheists also self-identify as Buddhists of one tradition or another (as I did previously), I thought I’d point out a few ‘enlightening’ articles which explore issues surrounding some of the ongoing scandals involving sexual abuse, money making scams, cultic tendencies, etc. in the Zen Buddhist community.
What I’m suggesting is that it might be useful to consider every spiritual community, every Zen sangha, as a cult risk. —Kuzan Peter Schireson, Soto Zen priest
There are those who say we need to grow up and walk away from Zen teachers. I respectfully say you can. And you may well find a true and useful and healthful path. —James Ishmael Ford, Soto Zen priest
In forty-six years of Zen practice I’ve observed Asian (and now Western) swamis, tulkus, roshis, rishis, dharma heirs, lineage holders, and masters of various stripes, as well as their disciples, explain that the master’s fiscal extravagance, alcoholism, cruelty, sex addiction, violence, and even rape is – of all things – “a teaching!” —Erik Fraser Storlie
Why am I not surprised!
Once religion of any color starts getting itself organised there’s no end to the nonsense and shenanigans it can generate.
A good percent of the regular posters here are into Zen Buddhism, if/when they show up they have all kinds of riddles and anecdotes to discount your post.
A good percent of the regular posters here are into Zen Buddhism, if/when they show up they have all kinds of riddles and anecdotes to discount your post.
That’s great GAD. I love riddles.
But seriously, do you give any credence to those reports in the links attached to in the OP? I honestly don’t know. But nothing would surprise me.
A good percent of the regular posters here are into Zen Buddhism, if/when they show up they have all kinds of riddles and anecdotes to discount your post.
That’s great GAD. I love riddles.
But seriously, do you give any credence to those reports in the links attached to in the OP? I honestly don’t know. But nothing would surprise me.
Religion and philosophy are not truths that trump human nature they are management systems and we all know management fails up as much as anything else.
A good percent of the regular posters here are into Zen Buddhism, if/when they show up they have all kinds of riddles and anecdotes to discount your post.
That’s great GAD. I love riddles.
But seriously, do you give any credence to those reports in the links attached to in the OP? I honestly don’t know. But nothing would surprise me.
Religion and philosophy are not truths that trump human nature they are management systems and we all know management fails up as much as anything else.
“Management systems”? GAD you are so ZEN - in the most technocratic sense of course. Do you think that perhaps evolution might be a management system? I think it’s feasible.
A good percent of the regular posters here are into Zen Buddhism, if/when they show up they have all kinds of riddles and anecdotes to discount your post.
That’s great GAD. I love riddles.
But seriously, do you give any credence to those reports in the links attached to in the OP? I honestly don’t know. But nothing would surprise me.
I appreciate and understand that you call those accusations into question, Rob. However, unfortunately, there really is no room for any doubt in regards to the two most recent and prominent cases in question, i.e. that of Mr. Merzel and Mr. Shimano. The former has himself issued a public statement that the accusations are true, which has elicited a response from 44 Zen Buddhist priests/teachers (1); the latter continues with his strategy of denial, however the testimony of the large number of victims and the response of the clergy in the wider Zen Buddhist community (2) render the possibility of those accusations being groundless next to nothing. There are numerous other cases which are publicly documented and not at all difficult to find. In fact, for anyone who knows their way around the Buddhist ‘web scene’ they are almost impossible to overlook.
(1) Issued last week on his Big Mind website (since then replaced with a more recent announcement).
Owning My Responsibility A Personal Statement from Genpo Merzel
I have chosen to disrobe as a Buddhist Priest, and will stop giving Buddhist Precepts or Ordinations, but I will continue teaching Big Mind. I will spend the rest of my life truly integrating the Soto Zen Buddhist Ethics into my life and practice so I can once again regain dignity and respect. My actions have caused a tremendous amount of pain, confusion, and controversy for my wife, family, and Sangha, and for this I am truly sorry and greatly regret. My behavior was not in alignment with the Buddhist Precepts. I feel disrobing is just a small part of an appropriate response.
I am also resigning as an elder of the White Plum Asanga. My actions should not be viewed as a reflection on the moral fabric of any of the White Plum members.
As Genpo Merzel, I will continue to bring Big Mind into the world and to train and facilitate people who wish to study with me. I will not give up on, and will still be available for people who wish to continue studying with me as just an ordinary human being who is working on his own shadows and deeply rooted patterns.
With great humility I will continue to work on my own shadows and deeply rooted patterns that have led me to miss the mark of being a moral and ethical person and a decent human being. I appreciate all the love and support as well as the criticism that has been shared with me. Experiencing all the pain and suffering that I have caused has truly touched my heart and been the greatest teacher. It has helped open my eyes and given me greater clarity around my own dishonest, hurtful behavior as well as my sexual misconduct. I recently entered therapy and plan to continue indefinitely with it. I am in deep pain over the suffering I have caused my wife, children, students, successors and Sangha.
Sex-abuse scandals and other crap is by no means limited to the zen sects. There are lots of scams going on, for example, in the traditional Theravada sects in Thailand, where there is a brisk market for blessings, amulets, and other favors. None of which has anything to do with what the Buddha taught, which was that monks were not to even touch money.
Another famous drunkard and philanderer, Chogyam Trungpa, is somewhat of a franchise in the Buddhist world. He founded the goofy “Shambhala” movement and Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and is revered by many as if almost a god. I was party to a discussion on a Buddhist forum in which one poster too the stance that since none of us who had brought up Trungpa’s transgressions actually witnessed any of his well-documented antics, none of the accusations should be taken seriously. To which another poster replied that she had been there, that Trungpa had led her into what turned out to be a bedroom strewn with alcohol bottles, and that he had attempted to force her on the bed and have sex with her against her will. That shut the first poster up pronto.
But I’ll bet dollars to donuts that if I were to search for that first poster’s writings in other fora today, I would find him pulling the same “you weren’t there” argument somewhere else. That is how sheep operate.
Mark my words, one day in the not-too-distant future, all his bullshit will be forgotten and Trungpa will be regarded as a god, a Bodhisattva, an icon on par with Buddhaghosa, Dogen, and je Tsangkapa. He’s already half-way there.
Sex-abuse scandals and other crap is by no means limited to the zen sects . . .
Mark my words, one day in the not-too-distant future, all his bullshit will be forgotten and Trungpa will be regarded as a god, a Bodhisattva, an icon on par with Buddhaghosa, Dogen, and je Tsangkapa. He’s already half-way there.
Then there’s Ben Franklin, looking pleased on our $5 bills - widely known as a ‘Great Cocksman’.
“The hermit-monk Ryokan, long beloved in Japan both for his poetry and for his character, belongs in the tradition of the great Zen eccentrics of China and Japan. His reclusive life and celebration of nature and the natural life also bring to mind his younger American contemporary Thoreau.”
“Thirsty, I’ve filled myself with sake;
lying beneath the cherry blossoms -
Splendid dreams.” - Ryokan
“Why dash the hopes of the morning with a dish of tea?” - Thoreau
Unlike Washington, Franklin, Ryokan, MLK, Kennedy, Clinton, or you name them, I wonder if Thoreau ever had a drop of wine or a lover? I read somewhere that he once experimented with ether. Scientific curiosity?
None of this surprises me at all. Buddha said, “Question authority”, then, centuries later, much Buddhist practice is based on obeying and serving human idols. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but he loses his soul” and we end up with “prosperity churches.” Muhammed said, “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.” and….well, you know the rest. (I wish the guy would have shut up and left it at that)
Human nature is more powerful than belief systems….at least most of the time.
About a thousand years ago the famous Zen master Dahui said, “In modern times (circa A.D. 1130) Zen and Buddhism have become extremely degenerate. There are incompetent teachers who basically lack enlightenment themselves and have chaotic, unreliable consciousness. Lacking true skills, they take in students and teach everyone to be like themselves.”
(Dahui quoted from the book ‘ZEN ESSENCE - The Science of Freedom’ - translated and edited by Thomas Cleary)
None of this surprises me at all. Buddha said, “Question authority”, then, centuries later, much Buddhist practice is based on obeying and serving human idols. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but he loses his soul” and we end up with “prosperity churches.” Muhammed said, “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.” and….well, you know the rest. (I wish the guy would have shut up and left it at that)
Human nature is more powerful than belief systems….at least most of the time.
Actually it wasn’t specifically “question authority”, but “do not go by authority” when pondering matters of ethics, followed up with a recommendation of a useful way to ponder those same ethics. Close, though…
Actually, I have not heard of any rock-star sex scandals in the Thai Forest tradition, which, among all Buddhist sects and religions that call themselves “Buddhist”, tends to strive to practice as the original Sangha did. At the same time, folks become rockstars in that arena precisely on their practice and their morality, rather than on personal charisma.
But it just might be that there have been one or some and I haven’t heard of them…..
For anyone interested, I’ve documented a further ongoing sex scandal in the German Buddhist community on my blog in this post: Abbot Expelled from German Buddhist Order
None of this surprises me at all. Buddha said, “Question authority”, then, centuries later, much Buddhist practice is based on obeying and serving human idols. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but he loses his soul” and we end up with “prosperity churches.” Muhammed said, “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.” and….well, you know the rest. (I wish the guy would have shut up and left it at that)
Human nature is more powerful than belief systems….at least most of the time.
Unfortunately human nature is generally conformed by, and then subverts belief systems to its own ends.
“If somebody claims to be free and has not achieved the state of Moksha, the complete liberation, they are talking bullshit.”
About a thousand years ago the famous Zen master Dahui said, “In modern times (circa A.D. 1130) Zen and Buddhism have become extremely degenerate. There are incompetent teachers who basically lack enlightenment themselves and have chaotic, unreliable consciousness. Lacking true skills, they take in students and teach everyone to be like themselves.”
(Dahui quoted from the book ‘ZEN ESSENCE - The Science of Freedom’ - translated and edited by Thomas Cleary)
“There act of misleading human beings about the nature of what is divine in them produces for them the most intense suffering possible. Anybody who is tempted by desire for profit or whatever, by doing this creates for them self the worst possible karma.”
None of this surprises me at all. Buddha said, “Question authority”, then, centuries later, much Buddhist practice is based on obeying and serving human idols. Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but he loses his soul” and we end up with “prosperity churches.” Muhammed said, “Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.” and….well, you know the rest. (I wish the guy would have shut up and left it at that)
Human nature is more powerful than belief systems….at least most of the time.
Speaking of questioning authority, over a thousand years ago, Zen master Linji commented:
“What I point out to you is only that you shouldn’t allow yourselves to be confused by others. Act when you need to, without further hesitation or doubt. People today (a thousand years ago) can’t do this this - what is their affliction? Their affliction is in their lack of self-confidence. If you do not spontaneously trust yourself sufficiently, you will be in a frantic state, pursuing all sorts of objects and being changed by those objects, unable to be independent. You impulsively seek elsewhere, looking to others for your own hands and feet. This is already mistaken.” (end quote)
Is it human nature to look to others for instructions on how to live, what to think, how to feel, what to believe? Is it human nature to depend on others for advice on what is right and what is wrong? Do most people get this from their parents and the society they’re born into? If someone breaks away from childhood conditioning, do they end up needing some other authority to guide them and tell them how to live, what to think?
Is a cult an authority that tells you how to live, what to think, and warns you and threatens you about the dire consequences of breaking away? Is a cult an authority that strives to make you dependent on the cult leader, and a slave or servant to the leader’s teaching and demands?
(Linji quoted from the book, ‘ZEN ESSENCE - The Science of Freedom’ - translated and edited by Thomas Cleary)
