This is my third and final post during my 2023 sabbatical month. I’ll be back soon with a full episode, but in the meantime I wanted to share two past episodes with you that multiple listeners have said were important to them.
First, Episode 91 – Unethical Buddhist Teachers: Were They Ever Really Enlightened? In this episode I discuss the alarming frequency of situations where highly respected Buddhist teachers have demonstrated a repeated pattern of abusive or unethical behavior (usually involving crossing sexual boundaries with students). In many cases these teachers were – and in some cases still are – revered as being deeply realized and accomplished practitioners of Buddhism. What’s going on here? I describe a reality that can’t be easily boiled down to simple answers like, “These teachers were enlightened and therefore what they did was compassionate and skillful, even if it doesn’t look like it,” OR “Their behavior proves these teachers were never enlightened.”
The second pair of episodes I want to point out is Episode 135 – Grief in Buddhism 1: Buddhist Teachings on Grief and the Danger of Spiritual Bypassing and Episode 136 – Grief in Buddhism 2: Some Buddhist Practices Helpful for Facing and Integrating Grief. A few people have told me that the pain of their grief was compounded by the sense that there was no place in Buddhist practice for such a powerful, all-consuming emotion – that practice is aimed at getting over painful emotions and as long as you’re still feeling so much, your practice must be lacking. They said my episode helped them see working with grief as a very legitimate and important part of our practice.
