IN MARCH 1993, a group of twenty-two Western Buddhist teachers representing different lineages met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, to discuss the transmission and adaptation of Buddhism to the West. One of their central topics was ethical teacher conduct. Participants reflected on differences between seeing the teacher as a living buddha and as a human spiritual friend, hierarchical and democratic models of authority, and Tibetan monastic versus American lay teacher trainings.
This conversation was prompted by several high-profile cases of sexual abuse and ethical misconduct by Asian and American teachers over the years. In 1983, for instance, married Japanese Zen teacher Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Los Angeles Zen Center, apologized for having affairs with several female students and entered treatment for alcoholism. In 1989, it was revealed that Osel Tendzin, the American dharma heir of Chögyam Trungpa, had engaged in unprotected sex with a number of his students despite knowing he was HIV positive. One student and his girlfriend later died of AIDS, as did Tendzin.
As American Zen priest Bodhin Kjolhede explained about the 1993 event, “Several of our presentations addressed the grave problem of ethical misconduct on the part of Buddhist teachers. Many of us, including the Dalai Lama, have grown increasingly alarmed in recent years at the abuse of alcohol, sex, power, and money by roshis, senseis, lamas, rinpoches, and tulkus as well as some teachers in the Vipassana and other Theravadan traditions.”
At the end of the conference, the teachers formed the Network of Western Buddhist Teachers and issued an “open letter” which stated that “No matter what level of spiritual attainment a teacher has, or claims to have reached, no person can stand above the norms of ethical conduct.” It encouraged students to confront and, if necessary, publicize teachers’ unethical behavior, and to acknowledge the “beneficial insights” that could be gained from non-Buddhist frameworks such as psychotherapy.
While the open letter suggested that Western teachers were at the forefront of tackling Buddhist sexual misconduct, signatories of that letter, and their students, have in the thirty years
