He's the latest, but by no means the first, eastern guru to lose their celebrity status to scandals in the last few years. Others include:
- Chogyam Rinpoche, founder of the Shambhala schools in the US and Europe, who died aged 48 from heavy alcohol abuse. He once, when drunk, crashed his car into a joke shop in Scotland, leaving him partially paralyzed, and was sometimes so drunk he had too be carried off stage during talks.
- Sogyal Rinpoche, founder of the Rigpa schools in the West, and author of the best-selling Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying. In 1994, a $10 million civil law suit was brought against him by former students, claiming he had used his position as spiritual leader to sleep with his female students. The claim included charges of assault and battery. It was settled out of court.
- Richard Baker-roshi, head of the San Francisco Zen Centre, which became a huge speculator in real estate under his leadership. Baker himself admitted to numerous sexual affairs with students.
- Bikram Choudhury, founder of 'Hot Yoga', who told Business 2 magazine: 'Nobody does hatha yoga in America except me. My name is Guru of the Stars! I'm beyond Superman. I have balls like two atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatonnes each. Nobody fu*ks with me.'
And so on. Jack Kornfield, the eminent Buddhist author, once took a survey of around 50 Zen teachers in the West, and found that over a third of them had sex with students. It is everywhere in western spiritual traditions - I was interested in joining a meditation school in London, only to discover through the net it was infamous for its tantra sex scandals.
This is in large part a result of the naivete of westerners when it comes to visiting Asian gurus. People who are deeply suspicious of western organized religion suspend all scepticism when it comes to smiling brown-skinned men telling them to let go of their attachments as they slide their hand onto their knee.
People in the West are so desperate for spiritual salvation they are prepared to blind themselves to the rogues and charlatans making millions of dollars through the New Age industry in the last 30 years.
A basic code of ethics perhaps needs to be established for any type of healer, be it psychotherapist, priest or guru.
6 comments:
it seems to me that you write about things you dont realy know...
I know sangha of Sogyal Rinpoche and Trungpa Rinpoche and think you look beter...
soory my english is not good...
Hi Yeshe,
I'm afraid I do know what I'm writing about.
This is a paragraph from the first chapter of 'Dragon Thunder: My Life with Chogyam Rinpoche' by his wife, Diana Mukpo:
"Over the Christmas holidays, I went to St. George’s Hall to attend a rally for the liberation of Tibet, sponsored by the Buddhist Society. The program went on for several hours, with one speaker after another. I found it quite boring. One of the last speakers on the schedule was the author of Born in Tibet, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who appeared onstage in the maroon and saffron robes of a Tibetan monk. I looked up at him from the audience, and much to my amazement, I felt an immediate and intense connection. Before he could say anything, however, he collapsed and was carried offstage. We were told that Rinpoche had taken ill, but I imagine that alcohol may have been involved."
You can read the excerpt here:
http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/978-1-59030-534-8.cfm?selectedText=EXCERPT_CHAPTER
Here is a link to an article in the Guardian about the law suit against Sogyal Rinpoche brought by an American woman. She claimed that she approached him shortly after her father's death, looking for spiritual consolation. Sogyal told her she would be "strengthened and healed by having sex with her"
I read The Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying and was deeply inspired by it when I was a teenager. I also visited the Ripga centre in Ireland, and would listen to tapes of Sogyal's teachings.
I find it depressing and disheartening that a teacher so many people looked to for guidance should turn out to be a humbug.
But I would never hide the truth about that person out of respect for Buddhism. If Buddhism is going to be a viable tradition in the West, then we have to be honest and transparent about the failings and abuses of teachers. As the Dalai Lama said: 'If you cannot find any other way of dealing with the problem, tell the newspapers'.
Sorry, here is the Guardian article:
http://www.flameout.org/flameout/gurus/sogyal_sexualhealing.html
hi jules,
may be sometimes things r not as they seem.there may be deep meaning wich are not so apparent.and we may be blinded by our strong inclination of wat is right and wat is not to turn sceptical about events like this
To Yeshe and gaki,
Yes, Jules knew what he was talking about. I was a devoted student of Trungpa and Osel Tendzin, the Vajra Regent, for four or five years in the 1980's. These kinds of things were no secret. They did not hide the harmful actions themselves, they just hid the teachings of the Buddha relating to these kinds of harmful actions (adultery, drinking alcohol, etc.)
Despite claims of compassion, Trungpa was also a meat-eater. Meat-eating is another uncompassionate action, rightly condemned in the Sarvastivadin Vinaya and the Mahayana Sutras, but irrationalized in the Vajrayana teachings.
(Incidentally, from what I have read, one of the two Karmapas, the one accepted by Trungpa's old students, is not only vegetarian but forbids the serving of meat in Karma Kagyu centers that accept him as the Karmapa.)
Gaki, you illustrate the mentality that was endemic in Vajradhutu (later transmogrified into Shambhala), i.e. the Vidhayadhara had a dozen fancy titles, several cool books, 10,000 devoted students and the power of presence, so everything he did must have been OK.
The lives and deaths of Chogyam Trungpa and the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin illustrated why the Buddha never taught devotion to a teacher (apart from Himself.)
HAAAAhaaha... every one seems to be right in one;s own reason of believe and attachment... and obviously ego....
Things like, being drunk, eating meat, or having sex might be true.... but the way of writing has some dislike to some religions...... looks like the blogger has his/her individual agenda or an agenda of a group.....
be it right, keep it true, do not judge because you do not know....
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