The Zen Studies Podcast
The Zen Studies Podcast
Domyo Burk
91 – Unethical Buddhist Teachers: Were They Ever Really Enlightened?
30 minutes Posted Mar 1, 2019 at 9:00 am.
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The list of supposedly-highly-realized Buddhist teachers who have abused their power and acted in harmful ways – particularly in the realm of sex – is long, and getting longer all the time. Unethical and selfish behavior is incompatible with our Buddhist ideal of true enlightenment, and transgressing teachers are often exactly those held up as especially inspiring examples of realization and practice, so what does all of this say about realization and practice? Were the teachers ever really enlightened?