I'm really glad I landed on this post. I spent a good part of last evening reading through a few other posts in this series. I'm not a Buddhist, but a few years back a friend of mine was sucked in to DJKR's vortex, and I've watched with a growing sense of dismay, the changes I've noticed in them since.
He didn't come across as glaringly repulsive as a figure like Trungpa, Sogyal etc, and I found myself having to pay careful attention in order to build some language scaffolding around the growing unease I experienced from engaging with his perspectives. Over a few years now two sets of patterns emerged, and thought to share them here.
Pattern 1:
Self-depreciation, followed somewhat predictably with sweeping absolute claims about Buddhism. It's intriguing how this somewhat cliched, textbook move, never quite grows old. Perhaps its elegance is in how it continues to disarm audiences, lowers resistance, while increasing perception of authenticity.
Eg - At the 2nd Global Buddhist Summit a month or so ago he opens with
“Organizers made a mistake in inviting me… I create havoc… I don’t know if I’m a follower of the Buddha…” followed by "Buddhism as the pinnacle of mind-science... not been challenged or disputed for 2500 years.....and will not be for centuries.”
It's a sharp move, for all its apparent charm and innocence, suspending genuine dialogical openness, and placing Buddhism beyond critique. I noticed you seemed to have caught on to this, the steps leading up to how DJKR places anything he wishes to defend beyond critique.
Pattern 2: (I feel you shed some excellent clarity in your article, on this)
A fairly consistent relocating abuse crises away from accountability into tantric metaphysics and lineage defense.
- Abuse allgation arises
- Response reframes into Samaya, view, Ultimate Truth, continuity of Dharma.
- Accountability becomes secondary.
- Students are asked to metabolize the crisis internally.
- Institutional structure remains intact.
I found this quite challenging to articulate this initially, because he's often using the language of empowerment to do it. Overtime, what I've come to suspect, is that it's not even that accountability becomes secondary, but more... unnecessary. It's not so much a denying of the abuse, as rendering it irrelevant. The sorrow, (for me at least) is not even so much that it's about the protection of Buddha dharma, but that it turns it in to untouchable dogma, untethered from responsibility, and eventually the Dharma becomes the delivery system for harm.
Your use of what I perceive as a very sharp, penetrating, subtle form of humour in how you portray him, is.... gorgeous, for lack of a better word, Thanks for these writings, I hope more people come into contact with them.
The scandals of Vajrayana don’t seem to be playing out in other Buddhist traditions. I know several remarkable women who are prominent teachers in the Theravada/vipasssna tradition who have had no occasion to be abused or misused though they lived in monasteries governed by males. No Western males victimized either. Please don’t speak so broadly in your use of the term Buddhism.
Hi Neil, I appreciate your engaging with my comment. Could you point out a concrete example/s based off my comment, where I am speaking broadly in my use of the term Buddhism?
Thank you for your clearsighted analysis of the crisis within certain Buddhist traditions. It is incredibly disappointing that seemingly enlightened teachers are abusing their position and that they are not held accountable. Frankly, I can’t understand how gurus who teach the dharma can behave that way. I mean, for God’s sake, the dharma is so clear about ethics. But then we have similar behaviour in other religious communities. It is all about the abuse of power over people who trust the teacher.
My question now: it is a given that many gurus are no longer to be trusted, but how about their books? Do I have to throw out Sogyal Rinpoche’s “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”? What is your position on that point? Which books would you throw out, which books would you keep?
Thanks, Renate, for the great comment and question. As far as the books are concerned, I have quite a lot to say and was just talking with a friend about an upcoming article on that very topic. To do research for Chapter 2 of this series, "The Crazy Wisdom Dharma Circus," I read six or seven books by Trungpa that I first read decades ago, as well as several biographies by his students and members of his inner circle. I talk about his books briefly in that chapter, but you'll have to wait a few weeks for a deeper dive into the topic, where I'll try to address your question directly. But if I'm honest, I'd love to hear what you or others think on the matter.
Thank you. I will read your chapter 2. I have a number of books by Chögyam Trungpa (though I haven‘t got around to read them yet). The whole crazy thing is somewhat hard to swallow, I have to say. Considering the way Trungpa behaved it is easy to suspect that the crazy behaviour was less wisdom and more outrageousness for outrageousness‘ sake, or plain and simple madness. But then even Christian saints could be outrageous. Anyway, I‘ll read all of your chapters. I am especially glad to see that you don‘t throw out the baby with the bathwater, that is you see the wisdom in the dharma. I have profited a lot from studying the dharma and applying the teachings in my life. It is the abusive gurus that are the problem.
Hi Stan,
I'm really glad I landed on this post. I spent a good part of last evening reading through a few other posts in this series. I'm not a Buddhist, but a few years back a friend of mine was sucked in to DJKR's vortex, and I've watched with a growing sense of dismay, the changes I've noticed in them since.
He didn't come across as glaringly repulsive as a figure like Trungpa, Sogyal etc, and I found myself having to pay careful attention in order to build some language scaffolding around the growing unease I experienced from engaging with his perspectives. Over a few years now two sets of patterns emerged, and thought to share them here.
Pattern 1:
Self-depreciation, followed somewhat predictably with sweeping absolute claims about Buddhism. It's intriguing how this somewhat cliched, textbook move, never quite grows old. Perhaps its elegance is in how it continues to disarm audiences, lowers resistance, while increasing perception of authenticity.
Eg - At the 2nd Global Buddhist Summit a month or so ago he opens with
“Organizers made a mistake in inviting me… I create havoc… I don’t know if I’m a follower of the Buddha…” followed by "Buddhism as the pinnacle of mind-science... not been challenged or disputed for 2500 years.....and will not be for centuries.”
It's a sharp move, for all its apparent charm and innocence, suspending genuine dialogical openness, and placing Buddhism beyond critique. I noticed you seemed to have caught on to this, the steps leading up to how DJKR places anything he wishes to defend beyond critique.
Pattern 2: (I feel you shed some excellent clarity in your article, on this)
A fairly consistent relocating abuse crises away from accountability into tantric metaphysics and lineage defense.
- Abuse allgation arises
- Response reframes into Samaya, view, Ultimate Truth, continuity of Dharma.
- Accountability becomes secondary.
- Students are asked to metabolize the crisis internally.
- Institutional structure remains intact.
I found this quite challenging to articulate this initially, because he's often using the language of empowerment to do it. Overtime, what I've come to suspect, is that it's not even that accountability becomes secondary, but more... unnecessary. It's not so much a denying of the abuse, as rendering it irrelevant. The sorrow, (for me at least) is not even so much that it's about the protection of Buddha dharma, but that it turns it in to untouchable dogma, untethered from responsibility, and eventually the Dharma becomes the delivery system for harm.
Your use of what I perceive as a very sharp, penetrating, subtle form of humour in how you portray him, is.... gorgeous, for lack of a better word, Thanks for these writings, I hope more people come into contact with them.
Thanks Stephen,
Appreciate your thoughts here.
The scandals of Vajrayana don’t seem to be playing out in other Buddhist traditions. I know several remarkable women who are prominent teachers in the Theravada/vipasssna tradition who have had no occasion to be abused or misused though they lived in monasteries governed by males. No Western males victimized either. Please don’t speak so broadly in your use of the term Buddhism.
Hi Neil, I appreciate your engaging with my comment. Could you point out a concrete example/s based off my comment, where I am speaking broadly in my use of the term Buddhism?
DARVO - Distract, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender - classic gaslighting. Seen these days in the "manosphere" whenever it is questioned.
Thank you for your clearsighted analysis of the crisis within certain Buddhist traditions. It is incredibly disappointing that seemingly enlightened teachers are abusing their position and that they are not held accountable. Frankly, I can’t understand how gurus who teach the dharma can behave that way. I mean, for God’s sake, the dharma is so clear about ethics. But then we have similar behaviour in other religious communities. It is all about the abuse of power over people who trust the teacher.
My question now: it is a given that many gurus are no longer to be trusted, but how about their books? Do I have to throw out Sogyal Rinpoche’s “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”? What is your position on that point? Which books would you throw out, which books would you keep?
Thanks, Renate, for the great comment and question. As far as the books are concerned, I have quite a lot to say and was just talking with a friend about an upcoming article on that very topic. To do research for Chapter 2 of this series, "The Crazy Wisdom Dharma Circus," I read six or seven books by Trungpa that I first read decades ago, as well as several biographies by his students and members of his inner circle. I talk about his books briefly in that chapter, but you'll have to wait a few weeks for a deeper dive into the topic, where I'll try to address your question directly. But if I'm honest, I'd love to hear what you or others think on the matter.
Thank you. I will read your chapter 2. I have a number of books by Chögyam Trungpa (though I haven‘t got around to read them yet). The whole crazy thing is somewhat hard to swallow, I have to say. Considering the way Trungpa behaved it is easy to suspect that the crazy behaviour was less wisdom and more outrageousness for outrageousness‘ sake, or plain and simple madness. But then even Christian saints could be outrageous. Anyway, I‘ll read all of your chapters. I am especially glad to see that you don‘t throw out the baby with the bathwater, that is you see the wisdom in the dharma. I have profited a lot from studying the dharma and applying the teachings in my life. It is the abusive gurus that are the problem.
How did Bodhidharma put it- nothing sacred, vast emptiness or was it vast folly?
I'm fairly convinced at this point that any institution is subject to this kind of corruption. Spiritual institutions may be even more susceptible.
I think the best practice is to stay away from all of them.
I spent half of my journey wishing I could have found a master or an institution near me thinking that's what was holding me back.
Now I'm happy I never found one.
🤔 popular isn't truth by default thankfully 🍻🙏🏼♾️
Lol!