This is part 2 of a 2-part blog post of my article THE PROMISE AND PERIL OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION forthcoming in Psychoanalytic inquiry (2020).
Religious Beliefs and Inadequate Cultural Understanding of Teacher and Training
As Buddhism has migrated to the West, the image of the teachers or gurus, lamas, rinpoches, and roshis has been romanticized, inflated, and embellished through religious indoctrination, literature (teaching stories), and inadequate understanding of cultural context. The image of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher is further glorified through the belief that the Tibetan lama is a reincarnation of a previous gifted teacher. Some of these myths have also been encouraged by the Zen teachers who immigrated to the West from Japan. One is reminded of the fairy tale in which Little Red Riding Hood glimpses a hint of danger. She says: Grandmother, what big eyes you have.” And the wolf in disguise answers: “The better to see you with.” In the same way, the Zen roshi or the Tibetan lama or their assistants may justify sexual advances to a questioning student with “The better to help you understand Buddhist practice through our intimacy.”
The Western Buddhist teacher, whether lama or roshi, is identified by robes, status in the community, and ceremonial exaltation. Zen students are taught that the roshi has descended generationally from the Buddha himself. In fact, Zen communities often chant a fictionalized account of the teacher’s direct connection to the historical Buddha. Through this chant, called the Buddhas and Ancestors, the teacher is linked directly to the Buddha and presented as a living example of the Buddha’s mind. Students are taught that they cannot possibly understand the teacher’s actions because his/her Buddha mind is beyond the analysis or standards of contemporary thinking. The idealization of the teacher, and all things Buddhist, is one step in the direction of a community’s failure to recognize and address unethical behavior.
Buddhism has an exotic flavor of the Far East, and its image has been somewhat romanticized in the West. Once when practicing in Japan with a group of women, a Zen temple employee grabbed and held the breast of a rather well-endowed woman. As he spoke earnestly in Japanese, one of the women in the group asked, “What does this mean?” Roused from my shock and confusion by her question, I answered as I swatted away his hand: “It means the same thing in every language.” Sadly, the mystique of Buddhism and its exotic Asian roots, can make it difficult for Western Buddhism students to recognize predation.
Social Dynamics and Cult Characteristics
While not all Buddhist communities are cults, it is important to recognize how cult dynamics may emerge and endanger a Buddhist community. Below is a commonly used summary of cult characteristics[5] and additionally, a consideration of how they may operate in a Buddhist community. These social norms make it difficult for an adherent to point out problems in the community.
- Zealous and unquestioning commitment to a leader
When the mystique of the roshi or guru as a manifestation of the Buddha’s mind is strongly advocated, questioning the teacher’s actions tends to be discouraged. One may hear “How can we, as ordinary human beings understand the actions of a Buddha?” In 2018, when Buddhist Project Sunshine was initiated to expose the sexual predation, assault, and child sexual abuse that had occurred in the largest Western Buddhist organization, the Shambhala (Tibetan) Buddhist Community, the failure to report these assaults was attributed to the concentrated and singular authority of the most revered teachers of Tibetan Buddhism. Lama Tsultrim Allione, one of the first American women to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist nun and a former member of the Shambhala community said: “One is told that one must see the lama as the Buddha and that anything the lama does is perfect and that whatever might seem wrong with it, that is your impure vision.”[6] Central to this complete commitment to the teacher as Buddha is the implied threat that if the teacher is imperfect, all of the teachings are a lie.
- Discouraging dissent and analytical questioning
Over and over when studying at Buddhist centers one hears expressions that discourage analytical thinking such as: “Only don’t know,” “Beginners’ Mind (rather than expert’s mind),” and “Think non-thinking.” These expressions may provide valuable instruction for the actual time spent meditating, but sometimes these meditation instructions are over-generalized by members and become guidance for daily life off the cushion. Valuable discernments and worrisome assessments of problems may be shrugged off as distractions or “just thinking mind”. Similarly, as mentioned above, any wrong that a practitioner may see in the Tibetan lama’s actions are purported to be a product of the student’s own impure mind. A student who reports an abusive Buddhist teacher to another practitioner may be told to return to the meditation cushion to gain more insight, or that they are misinterpreting what happened.
- Use of meditation, chanting or breathing exercises
Almost all Buddhist centers offer either meditation, chanting, breathing exercises or a combination of all three. These methods promise to lessen stress, open the mind to different possibilities, and potentially reveal and lessen neurotic patterns and habits. In a wholesome learning environment, these methods can facilitate changes that increase healthier thought patterns. But what happens when there are secrets hidden by a Buddhist center’s leadership? What happens when the practitioner uses these methods to avoid painful thoughts? Then, these methods can be enlisted as a kind of brainwashing. The teacher and senior students can respond to legitimate concerns with the command “You need to meditate more!” Combine meditation, the powerful tool for going beyond thoughts and thinking, with the admonition to “only don’t know” and a zealous commitment to the roshi, rinpoche, guru, or lama and you have created a powerful tool with the potential to erase concerns about ethics violations and inappropriate activity.
- Leader/community dictates personal choices in clothing, occupation or relationships
Changing the students’ and leaders’ identities are another way to shift personality and attitude. Dress standards within a Zen group may influence individuals to adapt their physical appearance to that of the group. This phenomenon, normative social influence, has been well studied by social psychologists and sociologists. People who adopt the clothing styles and behavior of a group are more likely to conform to, rather than question, that group’s values. If you go to Buddhist centers you may see members wearing robes rather than customary Western clothing, and displaying the shaved head usually required of Asian Buddhist monastics. Additionally, women may be prohibited from wearing jewelry and/or make up. This loss of personal style may facilitate increased conformity to group norms.
Social psychological studies have shown the importance of the uniform in affecting conformity, communicating hierarchy, and changing behaviors within groups. Research on these effects shows how group participants witnessing uniforms and interpreting their significance within a group change their behaviors to represent the values the uniforms communicate. One example of this kind of behavioral change was documented in Zimbardo’s experiments on students dressed in prison garb.[7] In the experiments, the students dressed as guards became abusive with the students dressed as prisoners. This kind of change is more than a superficial change in appearance and behavior; actual physical changes in the brain can be detected in MRI studies of subjects conforming to group norms.[8]
- The group claims exalted status for itself
Religious groups tend to claim access to either a supreme being and its approval, a more favorable alignment with positive life outcomes, or meditation and practice as a way to not increase suffering. It seems that many members of religious groups, including Buddhists, believe that their perspective is the best. Furthermore, membership in a group may include a promise of a more favorable after life as contrasted with life in a hell realm as put forth by religious doctrine. I have heard a Tibetan teacher state that Buddhist practice is like getting an airline upgrade; you can reserve a better reincarnation for your next life by practicing Buddhism.
We find another expression of belief in exalted status in Zen, in a message repeated in daily chants—the Three refuges as recited after meditation[9]
I take Refuge in the Buddha
(Second verse repeat and add) —as the perfect teacher
I take refuge in the Dharma [teaching of the Buddha]
(Second verse repeat and add)—as the perfect teaching
I take refuge in the sangha [Buddhist community]
(Second verse repeat and add)—as the perfect life.
Through this chant (and others) one affirms the perfection and superiority of participation in Buddhist group activities.
- Group/teacher not accountable to legal authority
Only thirteen states and the District of Columbia have penal statutes that support the criminal prosecution of a clergyperson engaged in a sexual relationship with an adult congregant or parishioner. A member of a religious community is only protected legally in one of these thirteen states. These statutes, as enacted by Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia, describe the clergy misconduct violation as sexual relations between priest and congregant, “including most commonly, the specification that the misconduct occur within the confines of the counseling relationship”.[10] The New Mexico law prohibits sexual relationships between both mental health practitioners and their patients and clergy (who offer spiritual counseling) and their congregants under the same statute.
On the other hand, a sexual relationship between therapist and patient is criminalized in at least 26 states. The violation of vulnerability and trust between therapist and patient through sexualizing the mental health setting, pertains equally to spiritual counseling provided by religious leaders to congregants. The intimacy and trust required of Buddhist students towards their roshis or lamas may put them at increased risk for sexual (and financial) exploitation with insufficient educational resources or legal consequences provided in most states. Once these violations have occurred, there is little legal recourse and seemingly insufficient reason to publicize the violations.
- The End Justifies the Means
Much of the physical and mental discomfort endured through long periods of meditation and retreat is done in the service of awakening, enlightenment, or freedom from suffering. This attitude is much like the routine acceptance of the hard discipline necessary to develop skill in a craft or sport. Sometimes the benefits of Buddhist meditation are held up as worthwhile even when the Buddhist teacher is an alleged sexual predator in a community where dozens of women have testified about how they were harmed by this sexual relationship. This reflects a cult-like adherence to the notion that “the end justifies the means” and also reflects the zealous and unquestioning commitment to a leader. Evidence of harm to hundreds of women caused by a Buddhist community leader’s sexual predation have been defended by statements like: “But he was a good teacher. I got a lot out of my training.”[11]
- Group members expected to devote inordinate amount of time to group activities
Most often the officers and senior members of a Buddhist community have practiced for many years at the center, have committed to monastic training, and have made Buddhist practice the center of their lives. These senior members are expected to live in a residential community or participate in daily practices and longer meditation retreats. Commitment to and participation in the Buddhist center’s activities is a primary requirement to priest ordination, promotion within the hierarchy, appointment as a teacher, and a prerequisite for all leadership positions at a Buddhist center. The commitment to such very substantial amounts of time devoted to Buddhist practice is part of belonging to the community. However, such a commitment can restrict or delay other adult developmental tasks such as building a family, a career, or an education. One can see a cycle in which total devotion to Buddhist center activities tends to limit other relationships and responsibilities. Without other obligations and loyalties, one becomes ever more dependent on the Buddhist center for companionship, meaning, and a sense of belonging, thus further bonding Buddhist students to the community.
Additionally, the resulting web of overlapping relationships can compromise a committed Buddhist student’s ability to critique a teacher or community. Especially in a residential community, a student living at the center comes to understand that housing, financial stipend, health insurance, status in the community, job and future promotion may all depend on turning a blind eye to wrongdoing in the community. Too much is at stake to speak out.
In conclusion, while not all Buddhist centers are cults, it is crucial for Westerners to study cult dynamics. Each center needs to cultivate an honest and independent process for self-examination, teacher accountability, and critical evaluation. Without an effort to mitigate the tendency towards idealization of the teacher, Buddhist centers, with their demand for extraordinary loyalty to the teacher, their use of consciousness altering techniques (meditation, chanting and breathing exercises), their uniforms, and their explicit and implicit discouragement of dissent, can stray from their promise of enlightenment and wander into abusive practices that remain unrecognized and unreported.
Personal and Psychological Tendencies that Can Contribute to Supporting an Abusive Buddhist Teacher and Community
It can be understandably difficult to discern an abusive Buddhist community or teacher upon first joining. However, many members have continued to support the teacher and their community even after revelations of wrongdoing are known. Once a Buddhist teacher’s abuse has been exposed, their power structure will collapse if the community refuses to support them and their teachings. However, continuing community support, even after decades of known abuses and damage to the community, has been well documented in multiple centers. Cultural, spiritual, and social dynamics contribute to the denial of harm, but there are also personal dynamics that help explain why certain individuals continue to support an abusive Buddhist teacher even after misconduct has been exposed.
The Dependent Personality
According to the DSM V, the dependent personality can exhibit behaviors such as extreme passivity, devastation or helplessness when relationships end, avoidance of responsibilities, and severe submission. Another common characteristic of this personality type is inability to make decisions—even everyday decisions like what to wear—without the advice and reassurance of others. The eight criteria outlined in the Diagnostic manual help explain why some practitioners, with overly dependent personalities, have difficulty acknowledging their Buddhist teacher or community’s wrongdoing for fear of rejection or separation from their source of support.
- Has difficulty making everyday decisions without an excessive amount of advice and reassurance from others.
- Needs others to assume responsibility for most major areas of their life.
- Has difficulty expressing disagreement with others because of fear of loss of support or approval.
- Has difficulty initiating projects or doing things on their own (because of a lack of self confidence in judgment or abilities rather than a lack of motivation or energy).
- Goes to excessive lengths to obtain nurturance and support from others, to the point of volunteering to do things that are unpleasant.
- Feels uncomfortable or helpless when alone because of exaggerated fears of being unable to care for themselves.
- Urgently seeks another relationship as a source of care and support when a close relationship ends.
- Is unrealistically preoccupied with fears of being left to take care of themselves. [12]
A person with these personality traits, especially a practitioner residing at a Buddhist center, would be reluctant to leave even if misconduct were revealed. The feeling of belonging and support could outweigh a need to right the harm done, pursue justice, or leave a corrupt environment. The feared abandonment would be stronger (criterion 3) than a pursuit of justice. In the case of number five (criterion 5), an individual’s willingness to volunteer for unpleasant tasks would make them a prized community member. Additionally, if this person had difficulty making decisions about daily activities (criterion 1), a Buddhist community would help to make these decisions for them (eg, daily activity, profession, clothing, etc) thus increasing their dependency on the community.
The Narcissist and the Closet Narcissist
Analysis of what went wrong in Buddhist communities has sometimes focused on the teachers’ narcissism. The narcissistic Buddhist teacher may have an excessive need for admiration and exhibit self-centered, arrogantthinking and lack of empathy and consideration for other people. A narcissist leading a Buddhist community could produce great harm for those who were instructed to trust this living Buddha. But what about the practitioners’ continued engagement with the narcissist? How does a relationship with a narcissist keep Buddhists engaged despite the wrongdoing?
James Masterson describes both the narcissist and the “Closet Narcissist”–someone with a deflated, inadequate self-perception, a sense of depression and inner emptiness, who is in relation to the narcissist. Rather than guessing whether a Buddhist teacher had well developed narcissistic tendencies prior to becoming the leader, or whether the position in the community brought out the narcissism, let’s consider how community members, enacting closet narcissism, might relate to a narcissist and facilitate a narcissistic teacher’s continued misconduct. A follower may appear shy, humble or anxious, because his or her emotional investment is in the idealized other, which is indirectly gratifying (Masterson, 2004). [13] This idealized other could easily take the form of a roshi or lama. A closet narcissist would have difficulty perceiving or allowing for any flaws in their teacher because of their need to identify with this perfect being as a way to cope with their own sense of worthlessness. Acknowledging the teacher’s misconduct or imperfection could contribute to a closet narcissist, who has built their life worth around the teacher’s perfection, losing their sense of meaning, becoming depressed, or more seriously, decompensating.
Traumatic History and Dissociation
As described by the American Psychiatric Association, the process of dissociation involves a disconnect between a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of who they are. One can understand dissociation because there is a normal process of dissociation, experienced by most people—daydreaming, highway hypnosis, or “getting lost” in a book or movie. This process is not related to a traumatic experience. “During a traumatic experience such as an accident, disaster, or crime victimization, dissociation can help a person tolerate what might otherwise be too difficult to bear. In situations like these, a person may dissociate the memory of the place, circumstances or feelings about of the overwhelming event, mentally escaping from the fear, pain and horror.”[14] Dissociation during trauma can serve a purpose; the trauma is survived and the full terror is not experienced at that time. However, the traumatic experience may not be remembered or fully integrated into a person’s consciousness. In this case, a person may painfully relive a trauma rather than remember it.
Meditation can be used to further distance oneself from painful memories, thoughts, or experiences. One may practice letting go of the arising memory in favor of a dulled state and/or a flight from feelings. This is especially true when Buddhist practitioners are taught that meditation will solve all of their problems and that they must let go of their personal “self.” Arising painful memories and experiences are pushed aside in favor of following the breath or other meditative techniques. Buddhist practice used in this way is called spiritual bypassing. Declaring that all personal problems can be solved with meditation may discourage students from engaging in psychotherapy to strengthen their resources to explore previous trauma. Meditative techniques may be used to numb the practitioner or to encourage the practitioner to dismiss uncomfortable feelings through more time on the meditation cushion.
Conclusion
Buddhists
communities began practicing about 2500 years ago. The promise of liberation
through this practice continues. The tradition has traveled from India
throughout Asia and now to the West. For Buddhism’s potential to be fulfilled
we will need to apply wisdom, science, and our Western understanding of the
mind to our practice places. We cannot expect to be liberated by Buddhism if we
impose antiquated rules, superstitions, unwholesome idealizations, and
inappropriate cultural norms to our Buddhist communities. In the West, we have
developed a psychological science of mind, an understanding of group dynamics,
social norms, and balanced techniques of independent inquiry. For a healthy and
liberating translation of Buddhist practice, we will need to practice a more
transparent Buddhism in our own Western vernacular, under the watchful eye of
honest inquiry and scientific understanding. In this way, Western wisdom can
help fulfill Buddhism’s promise and minimize its perils.
[1] https://tricycle.org/magazine/bernhard-porksen/
[2] Sam Littlefair, Lion’s Roar, February 19, 2019, https://www.lionsroar.com/kusung-letter-sakyong-mipham-abuse-misconduct/
[3] Lion’s Roar, Sept. 6, 2018 https://www.lionsroar.com/independent-investigation-confirms-physical-sexual-emotional-abuse-by-sogyal-rinpoche/
[4] Carl Bielefeldt, On the Spiritual Discourses on the Mountains and the Water, www.thezensite.com/ZenTeachings/Dogen_Teachings/Shobogenzo/013sansuikyo.pdf
2. These guidelines were condensed from cult scholars Lalich Janja and Tobias Madeleine, Take Back Your Life (Bay Tree Publishing, 2006).
[6] Andy Newman, New York Times, July 11, 2018. “The ‘King of Tibetan Buddhism is Undone by Abuse Report”.
[7] PG Zimbardo – The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology, 2011 – Wiley Online Library
[8] Berns, Gregory; Jonathan Chappelow; Caroline F. Zink; Giuseppe Pagnoni; Megan E. Martin-Skurski; Jim Richards (August 2005). “Neurobiological Correlates of Social Conformity and Independence During Mental Rotation”. Biological Psychiatry. 58 (3): 245–253. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.04.012. PMID 15978553. Retrieved 15 November 2013.
[9] Berkeley Zen Center chant
[10] Adultsabusedbyclergy.org
[11]Dec. 18, 2014 https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/the-zen-predator-of-the-upper-east-side/383831/
[12] American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.
[13] Masterson, J. F. (2004). A Therapist’s Guide to the Personality Disorders: The Masterson Approach: A Handbook and Workbook. Phoenix, Az.: Zeig, Tucker, & Theisen, Inv.
[14] https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/dissociative-disorders/what-are-dissociative-disorders
