[Buddha-l] authoritarianism, totalitarianism, religions

[Dan Lusthaus]

I have no desire to wade into this any more than to note the following.
Religions generally -- not just Asian religions, and certainly not Buddhism
exclusively -- are by nature authoritarian. This cannot be camouflaged or
ameliorated by claiming there are "masters" (how about "my master") who
treats me like a horse, and lets me have relaxed reins in terms of my degree
of participation (because, of course, in the West, few of us enter actual
monastic communities with the regulations, stipulations, controls, etc.
those typically require -- instead we've devised sort of monastic half-way
houses where we can psychologize and self-justify our submission to
authority by claiming it is lessons in humility, ego-reduction, faith, and
whatever). Our experiments with these halfway houses quickly revealed their
were seedbeds for all sorts of abuse. Not a new Western phenomena, but an
age-old one, institutionalized over many centuries.

Again, not just Buddhist. From today's NYTimes, concerning Irish
reformatories:

Report Details Abuses in Irish Reformatories
By SARAH LYALL
Published: May 20, 2009

LONDON - Tens of thousands of Irish children were sexually, physically and
emotionally abused by nuns, priests and others over 60 years in a network of
church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable
and the unwanted, according to a report released in Dublin on Wednesday.

The 2,600-page report paints a picture of institutions run more like
Dickensian orphanages than 20th-century schools, characterized by privation
and cruelty that could be both casual and choreographed.

(the rest, including a link to the report, at)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/world/europe/21ireland.html?hp

Members of an e-list such as buddha-hell must have a certain affection and
fondness for Buddhism, or they wouldn't continue to loiter in its nether
regions. That fondness inclines one to be defensive of that which one
idealizes. Conversely, one finds it deeply disturbing to learn unpleasant
truths about one's idols. A century ago reports like the one above were
being published and disseminated in Japan -- except they weren't about Irish
reformatories, they were about Tibetan monasteries, where pederasty (and
other problems) was institutionalized to a degree that Japanese traveling to
Tibet were scandalized and troubled -- not that the Japanese clergy has
lacked in major scandals and outrageous abuses and misbehaviors over the
centuries as well. Even so, what they saw in Tibet disturbed them.

See
http://www.japanese-religions.jp/publications/assets/JR33_a_Shimatsu.pdf
Yoichi SHIMATSU's "A Hidden History: Free Tibet, the Lost Crusade of
Buddhist Japan"
(a pdf)

Buddhism, esp. its actual, historical, institutional history, may NOT hold
the answer to all of life's problems nor the best prescriptions for how
things should be done. Mindless Buddhism -- regardless of the sentiments
motivating participation -- easily lends itself to these abuses.

Not only Nansen's cat was a victim of lethal pedagogy (and valorized for
decapitation); it was acceptable -- even highlighted in the edifying
narratives -- for Zen "masters" to lie in wait on the Temple wall for the
naughty students who snuck out at night to return from their partying,
meeting them on the wall with a heavy stick, knocking them off the wall to
their deaths -- setting examples ("Zen is a matter of life and death" -- no
joking!). Accepting that sort of pedagogy continues in present day Japan,
where annually a dozen or more elementary school children are killed by
overzealous corporal punishment inflicted by their teachers. Generally, the
teacher is not reprimanded; rather the "shame" falls to the parents for
having raised such a miserable kid deserving of such treatment. (A recent
case may have begun to challenge that tradition, but traditions die hard in
that part of the world.)

Because of the seriousness of such abuses (and more), these are not trivial
issues to be swept under the rug with wishful, romanticized sentiments. They
need to be thought about -- critically and deeply.

Dan