[Buddha-l] Another One Bites the Dust

[Sally McAra]

Here's a comment on the Sasaki scandal from James Ishmael Ford:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/monkeymind/2013/02/a-few-words-on-zens-sex-scandals-what-might-follow.html
Excerpt:
"So, I think we need teachers, but they need to be taken down a peg or
two. The analogy I've used in the past continues to hold for me. In
the Christian tradition the myth of Catholic apostolic succession and
bishops as magical successors in a lineage gives way to an Anglican
view, where the form of bishop is retained but seen as functional
rather than magical. We need Zen teachers in succession who see
themselves not as magical inheritors but as long time students
entrusted with a terrible and beautiful responsibility.

And, of course, that's happening. An unintended consequence, I guess,
of the current rash of sex scandals. Not, I suspect, that there was
anything much more in mind at the time than sex. And, so, for the
perpetrators the hurt of those who've been abused is also an
unintended consequence. I feel terrible that many people have been
hurt, some terribly, by this abuse of authority. And their healing is
primary.

But, if there's much good coming with this, it is that we will look at
teachers from now on with different eyes. Not completely, of course,
there are already those who say "real" teachers are incapable of
misbehavior. They are simply putting off their own sad discoveries
about what it means to be human..."


On 28 February 2013 10:08, Franz Metcalf <franz at mind2mind.net> wrote:
> Richard, Lance, Leigh et al.,
>
> Perhaps I am as "old-fashioned and conservative" as Richard, but I just cannot support the actions of *any* teacher, therapist, or guru who abuses his power by engaging in what can never be consensual sexual relationships with his students. Nor can I support an organization that covers up such actions, let alone one that do so systematically over the course of decades. If this is awakened behavior, I say the hell with it.



-- 
Sally McAra