I can not get away from all the stuff on sex out there in the buddhblogospher. Heck, this stuff is almost as juicy as the bible. So and so got but hurt because they were screwing so and so, and that girl got some special transmission outside the scriptures and I am blowing the whistle because I didn't etc, etc.
I haven't even read anything but a skimming of the articles, but I get the gist. People followed human nature. They did what any other dominant animal does when the opportunity arises.
I can't seem to help but too think that this drama is all because of the mythical and totally worthless idea of Dharma Transmission. Think about it…. No one cares if the local McYoga teacher at the gym gets around. But if Babba Ram Hass is getting some strange, the whole community is in an uproar. It seems like that as soon as someone has something "Special" to give a way or withhold that the trouble starts.
My idea: Make it as worthless as a dead cats head. Lets burn the whole institution to the ground. Than it might have some value again. But until the scabs get over the idea that people screw each other for stuff, Zen and any other Contemplative tradition with some kind of transmission is irreparably broken. Well. accept maby hermits. Hermits are still cool. unless its a horney hermit… Than you might be screwed.
7 comments:
Don't know if you can blame it on some organizational quirk like Dharma Transmission.
- It may be more due to what organizations do with their problem employees when they can't fire 'em.
Mumon, I don't think it isn't really the "Dharma transmission." I don't think that is somting someone can bequief or withhold anyway, not really, unless your talking about a piece of paper, but the folks chafing after that are fucked anyway....
the point wanted to make and did so badly at is that ALL organizations suffer from corruption. The causes vary. But you can pretty much narrow it down to greed, anger, and stupidity. Eliminate those three things, and we can have fine groups of folks that are slightly less likely to molest each other. Slightly.
Doh! Don't mind the double negative. That should read: "I don't think it is really the dharma transmission"
Well Jordan, as a hermit, I cannot but nod my head in grim satisfaction at your comments. It seems to me that a lot of former Christians and Jews here in the West have self-righteously marched off and founded the very thing they claim to oppose. To wit: a priest-ridden cult. My own teacher also fell short of what I consider enlightened (or even sane) behaviour. And that's my bar: if you're not at least as enlightened as me, you don't get to tell me what to do. It's a very low bar, and I expect all teachers to clear it.
I think it's important to remember that sex is not the only problem here, and that sex is in fact not a problem. Unless it is, of course; I'm not making alibis for actual abuse. But the idea that so-called "transmitted" human beings might fall in love, even unwisely, even with inconvenient people, doesn't offend me. But there's lots of abuse happening in Zen contexts that isn't sexual, and nobody seems to care much about that at all.
Except me. When it comes to fellow humans claiming "divine right" over me, I must reply, in the words of Bernie Taupin (via Elton John), "I didn't sign up for you". I'm not anti-monastery, or even anti-teacher; some people find enlightenment in those places. But those things are not Zen, and those people hold no patent on the Path.
Nice to see you back, J!
Robin
Rusty Ring: Reflections of an Old-Timey Hermit
Thank's Robin. Ten more months and I have to get a real job… Boo.
People have compared teaching zen to selling water by a river.
I would compare any spiritual teaching to "selling water to water."
Good luck!
Thanks Aaron.
Today I see most spiritual teachings as poison. To be fair, sure, they can be used as a cure. But most people are too stupid to know how. Even if someone finds a good teacher, they don't know how to listen. And most people just listen to bad teachers anyway. So now people are selling poison as a cure and taking a cure as poison.
I know I have been the worst at this. Thankfully I think I may see a way through it via the means whereby principal. But I was lucky enough to be equipped to listen.
Peace out,
Jordan
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