![]() In addition to leading dzogchen retreats, he is the author of Awakening the Buddha Within and Awakening the Sacred, and has translated into English a selection of Tibetan wisdom tales, published in a collection titled The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane. A dzogchen lineage holder, Lama Surya Das has twice completed the traditional three-year Vajrayana meditation retreat at Shechen Monastery in Dordogne, France. He spent nearly thirty years studying with many of the great spiritual masters of Tibet, including Kalu Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Gyalwa Karmapa, and Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche. Someone like Jack Kornfield should know better than to engage in juvenile, bullying behavior toward someone who is the victim of sexual assault.Lama Surya Das, the American founder of the Dzogchen Foundation, a lay practice center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was born Jeffrey Miller in Brooklyn, New York, in 1950. How much clearer can that be?Īs we have learned so many times over the years, first there is the crime, and then there is the coverup. “Sexual misconduct” is using your sexual energy to harm yourself or others. The third precept says that a disciple of the Buddha – male or female, lay or monastic – agrees to abstain from sexual misconduct. The Buddha’s teachings could not be clearer on this topic. ![]() The latter has happened to me many times, and often it was by a celebrity teacher. I am especially sad that people who could benefit from the Buddha’s teachings turn away from them because they have been sexually mistreated, or simply badly treated in any way. When a Buddhist teacher commits an act of sexual misconduct, it reflects badly on the beautiful teachings of the Buddha. Women can be particularly vulnerable to men with dynamic personalities. We are particularly vulnerable when it comes to our spiritual practice. Have you ever had a saleperson sell you something that you did not want or need? ![]() They can be very convincing even when trying to sell you a bill of goods. The passage that stands out to me is the “seeming competence of the speaker.” Some people have dynamic, forceful personalities. In the well-known and mostly misunderstood Kālama Sutta, the Kālama people go to the Buddha and ask him how to know if a teaching or a teacher are authentic:Ĭome, Kālāmas, do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of scriptures, by logical reasoning, by inferential reasoning, by reasoned cogitation, by the acceptance of a view after pondering it, by the seeming competence, or because you think: ‘The ascetic is our guru.’ But when, Kālāmas, you know for yourselves: ‘These things are unwholesome these things are blameworthy these things are censured by the wise these things, if accepted and undertaken, lead to harm and suffering,’ then you should abandon them. Very few of them understand dependent co-arising or non-self. Most Western teachers do not even teach rebirth or jhāna. Western Buddhism is full of what I call “celebrity teachers.” They are people who – for the most part – are popular because of their personalities, not their understanding of the Dharma or the depth of their practice. When I stood my ground, Kornfield called me a “demon” and referred to Das as his “close friend.” Kornfield is no saint. Kornfield tried to intimidate me and tried to force me to leave the Dharma event. I’d never met or had spoken to Kornfield. In fact, Kornfield singled me out to have a talk with me. ![]() The next day, Das sicced Kornfield on me during a Dharma event. I guess he finally realized he was never going to get anywhere with me, it took years to convey this message. ![]() One time I rejected Das’ invitation to give me a ride. In your article you speak of “Kornfield” and his “investigation.” Kornfield is a close friend of Das. But this paragraph about Jack Kornfield really stuck out to me: Most of this entry is about Surya Das himself. Apropos of my last blog entry about Lama Surya Das and his acts of sexual misconduct, I ran across this entry from a forum on Surya Das’ sexual abuse at Against the Stream (ATS) Buddhist Society. ![]()
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