“Should a Buddhist university really be doing such things?”
A three-year, three-month, three-day silent Buddhist retreat takes an unusual twist, ending in death in the desert mountains of Arizona. Previously.
posted by Gordion Knott
posted by Gordion Knott
The Michael Roach situation sounds in every way like a classic cult and typical of the West's fetishizing Eastern religions. He seems like a charismatic narcissist cult leader, zigzagging from diamond businessman millionaire, robe wearing pseudo-monk with enmeshed female consort, wilderness retreat control freak to Armani suited, disco dancing with Russian model hedonist, while dragging his devotees' minds into various states of mental and social confusion. Related reading by Len Oakes:The Charismatic Personality and Prophetic Charisma as well as Eric Berne's Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups, which analyzes the social dynamics of the members of a cult.
Christie McNally sounds like a classic cult devotee, as well as a cult leader herself, previously pathologically enmeshed with Roach to the point of 15 feet proximity for years (yikes). Whatever it was they had going on, it doesn't sound remotely Buddhist but more like a folie à deux, some sort of profound co-counter dependence.
She stabbed her husband 3 times in the torso but didn't know a knife could cut. What? Looney tunes right there. Her husband, Ian Thorson, had a history of violence with her so she, who considers herself to be her husband's holy teacher, takes him to a cave where he starves to death? Wtf?! Seriously nuts. Roach kicks her, his ex velcro-partner, and her new husband out of a lengthy meditation retreat with a 1 hour notice to get off the property/retreat center she helped found? Huh, sounds like he's having a hissy fit, vindictive jealousy-paranoia attack. Lethal mix.
My condolences to the family of the man, Ian Thorson, who died.
The current Dalai Lama, whose lineage has its own scandals, may verbally chasten manipulative/scandal-ridden Tibetan Buddhist teachers/cult leaders, such as Sogyal, a notorious serial sexual abuser, but then condones by going to the centers, endorsing their books, various photo ops etc. There are tens of millions of dollars being given by Westerners (here over 4 million just to one center alone) to these often grossly lavish centers, packed full of golden statues, ritual relic holders to be venerated, huge icons, Big Brother style pics, as well as the increasingly luxurious Tibetan communities or wealthy monasteries (with the tax free status of any religious group in the United States) connected with them.
In the 70's I was previously involved with Tibetan Buddhism and it is my opinion that it may have at one time, perhaps a thousand years ago, when Atisha arrived in Tibet, tried to be authentically Buddhist, but rapidly devolved into a nightmare shamanistic-theocracy mashup, based on the indigenous shamanism of Tibet, Bon, but then heavy on the monastic control of an entire country with no printing presses (except hand carved wood blocks printing only religious texts), almost no popular or secular literature, pretty much country-wide illiteracy (still still less than 25% literacy in 2003), no use of the wheel except for ritual purposes (prayer wheels), all travel up until 1959 was on horseback, no electricity, no phones, no tv, no radio, no plumbing, no secular education, no hospitals, no secular universities, Tibetan Buddhism was the state religion, almost no contact with the outside world, no newspapers, no magazines, no secular books, almost no study of science and that almost only by the wealthy or the politically connected central Lhasa families, not least a language in which the word for woman, key-min, means inferior birth.
Then when the leading proponents of Tibetan Buddhism came West in 1959, straight out of this Medieval, feudal culture with serfs, Trungpa, Sogyal and Kalu, they were all involved with sexual abuses/manipulation of their devotees, who they encouraged to worship them, kowtow on the floor to them, as living Buddhas.
A young Tibetan lama, also named Kalu, talks here recently about his having been sexually abused "by other monks", his life being threatened by his "tutor" and his disillusionment with the Tibetan Buddhist scene.
If Buddhism does take root in the West I think Stephen Batchelor
's approach, Buddhism Without Beliefs, seems to be not only a healthier, saner, wiser approach but authentically Buddhist, even without some of the typically traditional beliefs, such as reincarnation (some of his online audio talks). There are excellent, non-cultic Buddhist meditation centers without gurus/devotees, such as the Vipassana meditation centers, that teach Buddhist meditation, for free, with videos on YouTube, no clap trap, no gold icons to worship, no tantric sex bs.For those who are spiritually inclined it is, imo, important to maintain critical thinking as well as some understanding about how a cult works, not just about the cult leader but to be honest in oneself about the impulse to be a devotee.
