[Buddha-l] Another One Bites the Dust

[Franz Metcalf]

Dear Denizens,

Sally McAra wrote

> 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..."

Yes, this is what Brad Warner has been thinking is the silver lining in all this. His latest is here <http://hardcorezen.info/joshutown/1721>. Warner is on thin ice (and knows it) when he writes about the choices of the victims and the need for more responsibility on their parts, but even I have to admit he has a point. There is no excuse, in my view, for Sasaki's behavior (or Eido Shimano's or Genpo Merzl's or Taizan Maezumi's or Seung Sahn's or Dainin Katagiri's, etc.). But, then again, people are just people. In the end, and for the good of the dharma, we must accept more responsibility as *sanghas*. That's why, much as Sasaki's behavior dispirits me, I'm perhaps more upset by his Oshos, the whole culture of denial and even procurement they all acceded to. That is just disgusting. As Sally says, to deny this is to put off "sad discoveries about what it means to be human," and "sad discoveries about what it means to be human" is practically the definition of dharma.

Franz