Ahhhh, The Memories

Boy, does this bring back some memories. Yes...yes I do have a small amount of redneck in me....I am hick enough to admit it. Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Exploring the Shifting Dynamics of Action Oriented Buddhism in the West Part 1

The 'Hardcore' dharma movement; it's certainly a hot new buzz phrase these days, and it is indeed bringing to light a new examination and focus on a few the different emerging and existing Buddhist practices now gaining momentum in the West. These extremely direct and driven types of practices are nothing new to the West, and have been around in varying forms for the last 30 years or so. While these practices vary from the existential and technological to the bare, direct and ultra utilitarian, they all share the same pattern of shifting the emphasize of Buddhism away from the softer, and what some would say 'New Age' commercial endeavors, to an action, and perhaps goal oriented tradition. At the center of this revival, if you will, is Daniel Ingram, author of 'Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book', and the driving force behind the websites Interactive Buddha and The Dharma Overground.

But Ingram isn't the only name popping up, nor is his style and focus the only ones around that lean heavily towards this very direct approach. Indeed, the popularity of Zen in the West originated from a strong desire of many drawn to Buddhism in the 60's and 70's, to practice and attain understanding beyond what the traditional lay practitioners would normally endeavor to do. Some would argue that the early parts of the counter culture movement encouraged a sense of individual empowerment and reinforced an exploration of truth beyond the standard spiritual, cultural and political paradigms of the day.  Zen offered that kind of spiritual directness and practice orientation that many in the counter culture wanted, which the various other popular Eastern spiritual fads and trends of the day could not. In many way I see Ingram's Theravada style expose and structured course of focused action, with many new and compelling differences, as a parallel or alternative to the path that some forms of Zen in the West have paved.

This is not to say that Theravada hasn't had it's share of progressive teachers emerge over the past 30 years. There have been quite a few popular men and women that have attempted to showcase the Theravada tradition as a much more accessible and approachable tradition. Indeed, many teachers in the West have made exceptional strides to present the vipassana style of mediation as a practical, effectual and beneficial practice for the non monastic community. There have been some criticisms both from traditionalists and progressives that the path this vispassana movement has taken, has veered into something more of a feel good, soft idealistic novelty rather than a directed or traditional effort.  However, no one can deny the impact they have had propelling Theravada, and more importantly vispassana to the general consciousness of the Buddhist, but moreover, the general 'spiritual' communities.

The word 'hardcore' has been used to describe a couple of different teachers, as well as this focus oriented movement in general; however, in vision and in practice, there are many fundamental differences that set both the teachers and the ideals apart. While the 'goal' of these directed practices remains relatively the same*, it is these differences that make them so unique and interesting, and that is what I want to explore. (*I need a big asterisk by "relatively the same" as the wording and understanding of this goal diverges quite drastically from teacher to teacher.)

A few items of note:
 
When I say 'Action Oriented Buddhism', I am not using it as a means to stand in opposition to traditional forms of Buddhism. Quite conversely, I see it as a sharp return to most of the original traditional foundations of teachings, albeit presented in a much different way. However, I would be lying to say there isn't a sharp cultural, and to a lesser extent economic and gender, gaps that exist. Rather, the point of many of these types of practices, can be seen as a sharp backlash against the New Age hegemony that some fairly popular authors and self proclaimed gurus have incorporated into their books, speaking tours and general talking points, and more importantly into their presentation and commercialization of Buddhism.

I just finished reading through Daniel Ingrams' online book, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book which prompted me to write this. It's definitely an interesting read if you have the time. Mr. Ingram promotes himself as an arahat, and this has caused quite the stir. Unfortunately, it is pretty clear that history has shown that most of the people that have claimed to be enlightened in such a promotional fashion have usually turned out to generally be nothing more than con-men or charlatans. This fact has fed into the wariness of the general public towards those that are so outwardly promoting this attainment. However, I am reserving my own personal opinion in this matter, as to focus on his material, and the manner in which he presents it. This taboo is one aspect that I'd like to discuss further, but since these types of things are neither verifiable nor particularity relevant to this subject, it is something that people will have to decide for themselves.

While I am not going to talk about the growth, impact and progression of the various Tibetan Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna forms of Buddhism have had, there has certainly been more than a few progressive teachers and icons that have opened up new understandings of these extremely popular, sometimes esoteric traditions. I am just too ignorant of them to say anything meaningful.

In Part 2, I want to look at the other various types of this Action Oriented Buddhism, comparing its differences in respect to presentation and emphasis on material. Many of these movements, although some are merely just persona driven, gather very different types of followers and bases of support. One very interesting aspect to all this is the explosion of new followers to Buddhism who don't fit the typical stereotypes usually encountered. Indeed, this direction of diversification has spawned some conflict and growing pains, and the days of Buddhism being the sole domain of Asian communities and affluent white urban liberals are gone. Many of those who are beginning to flock to a few of these different aspects of this Action Oriented Buddhism are more likely to identify culturally to things such as heavy metal music, rural living, a blue collar and working class life style, boorish and vulgar humor, tattoos or many other cultural traits not seen before in the vast majority of Buddhist practitioners.

I hesitate to say this is a Western Buddhism movement, as that description is far too broad and too riddled with cultural and social pitfalls to be of any use. These trends are an aspect of Buddhism in the West, but it is not itself Western Buddhism.

I am very constipated this morning, plugged up like a Buick in a storm drain.  I also realize this may in fact be the most boring god damn thing I have ever wrote. :-)

Not One Either

Gniz, over at Reblogging Brad Warner made a post today that asks a very important question about Zen practice. He writes:

"Has anyone truly seen through this, in a way that allows them to transcend it? I've met one person who appears to be somewhat "different" in this regard, but I'm not sure that he's done it either. The problem with this stuff is that you can't know if it's really possible unless you've done it yourself.

The other question is, is it worth it? For me, I'm not sure that the end result would be worth all of the effort. And besides, there are delusions that I honestly would rather hang onto for awhile. For instance, my relationship with my wife. I'd rather stay in delusions and have what we have then let it go and be free. Honestly that's true.

What is the delusion you've chosen to hang onto? Is it okay with you? Is that such a bad thing"

Because I am lazy, I'm just going to copy what I said in the comments section.

'But then you know some clever Zen guy will probably come here and comment, "But did you ever really have those things you love to begin with."

It ain't that easy though, and it ain't the truth. Because the point of Zen has never been to swim in this tranquil sea of unity and oneness, oblivious to anything else. Not that I like doing quotes, but Hung Po said "The Enlightened man is capable of perceiving both unity and multiplicity without the least contradiction between them!"

I look at it this way, my dad used to take my fishing to this pond every Saturday for about a year. We never did catch anything, but we enjoyed our Saturdays together tremendously. It was a wonderful ritual. One day he finally told me that he always knew there were no fish in that pond. At first I was upset and mad, but then he asked if the fun we had spending time together was really dependent on catching fish. Back then of course I said yea, it did....but now I know I'd go fishing with him in that crappy little pond again any day of the week if I could.'

I think there is a not so subtle difference between illusion and delusion. When I used to dress up as a kid for Halloween, I had so much fun because of the illusion I was creating with my costume. The more convincing the costume, the better! But when we are playing dress up, walking around begging for candy, we knew that these are just costumes; we never really believed that we or anyone else were actually a witch or a ghost or in my case for five years in a row a Zombie Charlie Brown. At the same time, we completely understood that the other kids dressing up and the candy and our costumes and the exciting atmosphere of that night, are all very important to this event, and are all quite real. The other witches and ghouls and skeletons are just as important to making Halloween fun as my silly costume was.

Sexual Depredation, Criminal Abuse, Authoritarian Manipulation and Ultimate Betrayal

Over the past few months, a number of indictments, convictions and other assorted reports of sexual deviancy and monetary fraud perpetrated by certain 'teachers' within Sanghas inside the United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain have been brought to the fore of the Buddhist community, as many people have begun to take notice of these actions and deeds. And with these cases, a number of blogs have brought up the issue of institutionalizing, at least in the Zen tradition, some oversight of teachers, by setting forth ethical standards and guidelines for their members to abide by. While it is sad to know that a few depraved and repugnant Buddhist teachers would defile their tradition and duty, and furthermore disgrace the foundations of human decency and prey upon innocent people, it is good to know the community is beginning to seriously address these issues.

(Sorry in advance for the length of this article, I've been working on it for awhile. I realize while the first part is about abuses by spiritual teachers in general, the second part is very Zen centric.)

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The Endless List of Transgressions

Tricycle magazine most recently reported that Eido Shimano Roshi, a renowned Japanese teacher in the Rinzai tradition, abbot of the Dai Bosatsu Zendo and a member of the board of directors of the Zen Studies Society has been called to answer for 40 years of multiple allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct against female students under his study. Due to the diligent work on this case by some persistent and resolute bloggers, Robert Aitken Roshi was prompted to write an open letter to Shimano on May 20, for him to "come forth and make a statement in response to these accusations." Tricycle reported on July 19 that Shimano had stepped down from his position on the board of directors of the ZSS, but remains abbot of the Dai Bosatsu Zendo. So far, no other information has been made public, and no charges have yet been filled in any of the cases. You can find more information about all the allegations at The Shimano Chronicles. While this is good news that significant progress has been made, it is disheartening to know it took 40 years for these disgusting abuses to come fully to the public light.

In an equally disturbing case, the self styled Buddhist Guru and cult leader, Micheal Lyons, aka Mohan Singh was convicted of rape in British court last week, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Over the past 4 years, dozens of women, both the United States and Great Britain, have come forward accusing Lyons of sexual misconduct, rape and fraud. Lyons, while actively involved in his 'religious' operation, would tell his female followers that his "organic penis" could cure everything from depression to cancer. As with the allegations against Shimano, Lyons was able to perpetrate his crimes for years, despite pleas and warnings from his past victims. In a bit of a disturbing forum thread on the anti-cult website Rick Ross, you can read accounts of some of the acts Lyons committed in 2005 and 2006, straight from the mouths of some of the victims. Even with these heart breaking detailed accounts of Lyons criminal acts, he was able to continue his cult for quite a time, until he was finally arrested by British authorities. For many years, Lyons had falsely claimed as having close ties with Penor Rinpoce and the Dalai Lama, which turned out to be complete fabrications.

In March of this year a Thai monk near Chicago Illinois was charged with battery after he inappropriately touched an adult parishioner.

In June of this year, another monk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Net Khai, was charged with secretly video taping hundreds of women while they bathed inside the pagoda where he stayed.

In 1988, Korean Zen master Seung Sahn,the founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen, was alleged to have had multiple sexual relations with several of his students. While the sexual relations alleged were reported as consensual, the acts were described as widespread and "compromised the sanctity of the teacher-student relationship."

Andrew Cohen, a self professed Guru and Spiritual Teacher, who is closely associated with Ken Wilber and the Integral Theory project, has been accused by multiple former students of cruelty and mistreatment while under his study. While some defend his methods of teaching, others have likened his organization to a devotional cult, with disciples who are broken through ridicule, scorn and continuous verbal deprecation.

James Arthur Ray, another self professed new age spiritual Guru, was arrested on three counts of manslaughter in February of this year, after a sweat lodge ceremony he ran as part of a spiritual retreat, ended up killing three and injuring 18 more. He also has been implicated as being a major contributing factor in the suicide of one of his former students, Collen Conaway.

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What can be done, if anything? Words from the community.

While I could go on for quite awhile naming the countless Guru's, spiritual advisers, Zen Masters, Rinpoches and other Buddhist and non-Buddhist teachers egregious violations of decency against their students over the past 25 years, I wanted to focus a bit on what some of the other Buddhist bloggers had to say about their thoughts on Eido Shimano, the issue of teacher misconduct in the Zendo and also this idea that is emerging of creating an institution to oversee its member Zen teachers by setting rules of ethics and conduct.

Gomyo, a Buddhist priest living in Japan, on his blog Hoodie Monk had this to say:

"Now it seems the eBuddhists have finally decided the time is right call out the fakers and abusers among the clergy, and I've decided it's time to get back online.

Maybe it was the fact that the Catholics finally decided to acknowledge all the harm caused by their pedophile priests or maybe it was Robert Aitken Roshi's open letter to Eido Tai Shimano to answer the many reports of his alleged sexual abuse of students that brought about this change of heart....

But then there is this praise of Aitken Roshi for his open letter:

Wow! It's a big step to challenge a colleague publicly, Roshi. Well, I think on the whole it's good to bring the issue of Zen teachers abusing students out into the open.

I'm slow to rise to anger, but when senior students of disgraced teachers tell me that what their teacher did to female students was actually a "teaching that the unenlightened women somehow didn't understand", I tend to give them an tongue lashing they don't easily forget. So maybe it just matters who it is that does the questioning. After all, the one thing all good followers need is a good leader. I guess maybe it took someone with the stature of Aitken Roshi to make a similar challenge for all the eBuddhist followers to recognize the validity of such a move. Thanks for joining us out here in the cold Aitken Roshi. Your presence is warming. Nine bows."

James Ure of the Buddhist Blog had this to say about the Shimano issue:

"This is extremely serious. This trusted monk was supposed to show people how to liberate themselves from suffering--not increase their suffering!! What an appalling perversion of Buddhism!! And he allegedly did it multiple times over DECADES!! He not only allegedly abused them but he has also lead people astray from the path, which is a very egregious action in Buddhism. And if other Zen teachers knew of these transgressions and did nothing about it are just as culpable in my view. A lot of Buddhists believe it is rare to find the path of the Buddha and to lead people astray from it is to hold the enlightenment of fledgling beings in the palm of your hand and then tossing that into a deep, dark and muddy hole. The karma that such a false leader incurs must be enormous."

James Ford, a Soto Zen priest, on his blog Monkey Mind, talks a bit about the idea of an institutional oversight organization:

"At this point the only larger institutions to emerge that have ethical codes with teeth are the San Francisco Zen Center and the Kwan Um School of Zen, both institutions having experienced very rough times around sexual conduct of teachers pretty early on. It would be very good if we can find a pan-lineage organization with some teeth, as well. As I said, maybe that will be the AZTA.

My rough analogy for this deconstruction is that we’ve shifted our understanding of the Zen teacher in a manner somewhat similar to the shift from a Roman Catholic understanding of its priests to an Anglican understanding of its priests. The myth of apostolic succession has been seen through and replaced with the understanding that it is a good, if imperfect symbol. The Zen teacher is a construct of medieval China and has been adapted in our own times to stand as a person with many years of training and authorization by another such within a broad community of practice. Whatever the titles (and I’m living proof they’re inflated), the reality is that among the Zen teachers who are mostly meditation teachers, there may be some genuine masters. The titles won’t tell us who they are, and it really doesn’t matter all that much.

First, institutions to which Zen teachers and communities are answerable to are emerging. Back to that possible direction for the AZTA. But more important right now, the SFZC and the KUSZ with actual codes of conduct and mutual accountability show that it can be done."

Brad Warner, author of three books on Zen and a Zen teacher himself, on his blog Hardcore Zen talks a bit on his concerns about James Fords ideas:

"So James Ford seems to think the solution to the problem is that we should have a large Zen institution in the West (specifically the US) that has an ethical code with teeth. I hope I’m not misrepresenting his position. Any even if I am, I feel like there are many who believe this. If there weren’t, then SFZC and the Kwan Um School wouldn’t have those toothy ethical codes.

But I have to completely disagree. Because the Holy Roman Catholic Church is a gigantic institution with a very toothy ethical code and still sexual abuses of all kinds continue. Sure, when ethical abuses occur there are consequences. But only when the code is properly enforced by ethical people. And I’ve seen too many instances where that has broken down to believe that the simple existence of a big institution with an ethical code with teeth will always prevent abuses, or even prevent most abuses, or even prevent the worst abuses.

In the case of Zen, there is also something much more fundamental at stake, and that is the very existence of Zen itself. I don’t believe Zen can really be practiced at all unless its teachers are totally autonomous and not beholden to institutions"

Nathan over at Dangerous Harvests continues on this thought of a Zen Institution:

"I'm not sure where exactly Ford is getting his information from about all of this. He very well could be right. I will say, though, that my own center, Clouds in Water doesn't fall into the groups Ford mentions, but does have a pretty rigorous structure for dealing with ethical violations, both of the student-teacher variety, and between members regardless of status. The development of this began long ago, but the "teeth" if you will, was added after our own teacher scandal situation, which resulted in the departure of our former leader. I can't imagine that we are the only other example, besides SFZC and Kwan Um that has developed healthy oversight mechanisms to serve their communities.

However, I do think that whenever large institutions get heavily involved in anything, creativity and uniqueness of expression get challenged. And if you look at famous Zen teachers and students throughout history, there's an awful lot of creativity and uniqueness to be found, and also plenty of examples of free agent types who were shunned by the majority of people, but who's stories have lived on and inspired people hundreds of years after those who shunned them have died and disappeared completely. Mediocrity might make for a certain kind of longevity, but it doesn't inspire people to awaken to their true nature.

With that said, I still think a free for all isn't really helpful. The very forms of our practice - the chanting, bowing, zazen postures, etc. - provide a base to spring off of. They might not all be necessary for any given individual to awaken in this life, but they do seem akin to learning the scales in music. What this means in terms of providing leadership for Zen at a national level - I don't really know. For every James Ford advocating for strong national oversight, there are probably as many Brad Warners out there, even if they wish to deny any linkage with him." - Nathan also has a Part 2 worth reading.

Algernon on his blog Notes from a Burning House, who runs a small Zen sitting group himself in New Mexico has this to say:

"Preying on the vulnerable is pretty disgusting, and it is natural to feel some anger arise. The history of Zen Buddhism in the States includes several incidents where people anointed with the position of a Zen Master have abused their power, not limited to sex, although the sex scandals are powerful. (We so easily forget how much harm can be wrought by careless sex.) It also scares people away from the dharma, which perhaps increases the harm done by such actions.

In the west, this history gives rise to a natural question: is there a need for a large institution to hold Zen teachers accountable for actions like this? Can we leave this to the organizations that support a particular teacher's work? Or should the various schools and traditions band together and make one large institution that is empowered to act when a teacher gets weird?

This is something we are good at: making institutions and conducting hearings."

Edit: Barbara O'Brien took up this topic on her blog today. She says:

"For my part, I think that if senior students of a Zen center or monastery can't bring themselves to sanction a teacher who is a sexual predator, I think we need to spend some time reflecting on why. Most Zen centers I know of are managed by some kind of board of directors, made up of senior students, who have the authority to relieve a teacher of his responsibilities at that center if something really awful is going on.

So, before coming up with a code or hiring the Zen police, I'd like to look at why it took such a long time for the teacher in question to be sanctioned. I read that just this month he resigned from the board of directors of his Zen community. Maybe one of the rules should be that teachers should not sit on the board of directors, so that the directors can be more independent of the teacher's influence."

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My two cents:

No question, there is a problem, and it is more common than we hear about or think. While not as rampant and widespread as the problems the Catholic church faced, it does happen and it does destroy lives. Firstly, shame on those who take advantage and abuse their students; students who put their trust and faith in a teacher with the expectation that they will guide them honestly and with integrity. Glad to see these guys getting called out for the scumbags they are, and good riddance.

Secondly, the Catholic church, a very large and old institution, with a very rigid power structure, for all its might, could not control or stop the rampant sexual abuse occurring in its parishes. The Catholic church is just as guilty as the priests who molested those children, by moving them from parish to parish, and covering up the abuses when they became known to the higher members of the church. I'd like to think a Buddhist organization would be better, but could it? One of the underlying problems with the Catholic church is this untenable requirement of its clergy to be celibate. This is unnatural, and from the evidence over the last hundred years, it seems to attract men who already have underlying issues with their sexuality to begin with.

People are people, and for the last two thousand years, there has been this layer of sociopaths that seem to permeate in small doses through-out society. These people are good at playing the role of authority and leader and what makes them so dangerous is they lack even the smallest particle of empathy to control their own twisted desires. They are masters at deception and manipulation, and I don't think we will overcome these bad apples popping up in our society anytime soon. In my opinion, a rigid power structure would not hinder someone hell bent on deceit and abuse.

In many ways, I liken it to stringent gun control laws. Washington DC used to have a complete ban on any firearms within the city limits for many years. If you were caught with a gun, it was an automatic felony. But for all its efforts, DC always ranked as one of the deadliest cities for firearm murders in the country for a twenty year span. People who strongly desire to do malicious acts don't give two shits about a gun control law. They are going to get a weapon and use it, ban or no ban. How is a strict set of ethics, that do nothing more than mirror the local, state and federal criminal laws already on the books for the most part, going to deter people determined on doing harm? And of course we can say that we need to remind teachers that a sexual relationship with a student, even if consensual is not appropriate. But what would that stop? It seems to me, if you have to set rules for a Buddhist teacher to follow, then they shouldn't even be trusted in the first place.

I favor more towards what Nathan seemed to talk about, a local solution. Buddhist communities need to take the lead on doing what can be done to control this problem. And one of the ways is through education, getting the word out for students to not give trust out so easily and not to let their guard down. And more importantly, when accusations of abuse are leveled at a teacher, it must be reported, investigated and dealt with immediately, by either the local community or by law enforcement if there is evidence that criminal misconduct has occured. Certainly, we wouldn't want to create an atmosphere of distrust and wariness with the students, but it is absolutely inexcusable that people such as Eido Shimano and Micheal Lyons go unhindered for years abusing women, even after the first victims came forward.

I think this is a very important topic that needs attention, and it is refreshing to see the community begin to discuss it in earnest.

Here a list of a few links you might find interesting, dealing with cults, abuse and religious issues. The last link is definitely worth a look.

thezensite: critiques of zen
Rick Ross - A excellent website dealing with Cults.
Religion News Blog
Here is a rather enlightening thread on Zen Forum International dealing with Shimano and sexual misconduct. I think you might find some of the comments from some of the teachers there very interesting given recent current events.

Buddha and Jesus Cartoon

Some Buddhist Blog Statistics

Yesterday, the Blog Directory over at the Blogisattva Awards, passed the 300 website/blog mark entered into its database. I had a few moments to run some of the data about these sites through a quick parsing program, to see what some of the stats were like. Here are some of the statistics of what I found.

Items of Note:

• There are one or two duplicates.
• Several sites could fit into two or more Categories, however the main theme of the site was chosen by the submitter.
• There are hundreds of more sites not yet on this list, mostly Sangha Websites and Non-English language Buddhist sites, but also a great number of other individual types. I'd guess, just in standard English language Buddhist blogs (like the kinds broken out in the second table) the number that haven't been added to the directory yet maybe close to a 100.

All Websites Combined

Type of Site	Count
Academic Blogs	7
Buddhist Resources	20
Buddhist Schools/Universities	8
Group Practice Blogs	13
Link/Feed Sites	7
Monastic Blogs	18
News/Journal Websites	3
Online Magazine/Review Sites	8
Ordained/Lay Teacher Blogs	37
Non-English Language Sites	4
Other/Misc Blog Sites	8
Personal Practitioner Blogs	135
Photo/Music/Artistic Sites	9
Sangha Websites	8
Buddhist Organizations	9
Buddhist Podcasts	6
Total	300

Blogs by Type

What interests us the most at the Blogisattvas are, oddly enough, the blogs themselves. We broke out these blogs by type from the rest of the directory. Of the 300 sites, 210 of them were English language Buddhist blogs. I'm sure a couple were left out that probably could have fit in this category, such as the online magazines and photo/art blogs. (No teaching or other types of credentials are verified, so the categories for teachers, monastic and academic are directly from the submitters.)

Type of Site	Count
Academic Blogs	7
Group Practice Blogs	13
Monastic Blogs	18
Ordained/Lay Teacher Blogs	37
Personal Practitioner Blogs	135
Total	210

Blogs by Tradition

To keep this table simple, the no answer, various, non-sectarian and unaffiliated were combined into one category. Also, I didn't break out the various type of Tibetan traditions, and some of the odd ones were added to a larger segment such as Mahayana and Theravada.  (Please note, these are loosely grouped traditions based on the information that was submitted.)

Tradition	Count
Mahayana	5
Nichiren	4
Pure Land	5
Theravada	21
Tibetan	31
Triratna	3
Various/Unaffiliated/NA	63
Zen/Ch’an	78
Total	210

I think there are a number of items of interest that stick out for me, from the information shown in these tables. The first is the large number of 'Teacher' and 'Monastic' blogs, which are 26% of the total blogs out there. I think this shows a that there are a large number of teacher/monastic Buddhists who are using the current technology of the day to reach out to the general public. (I realize not all Nuns and Monks are teachers.) In some cases, this is more of a platform to promote their books, teaching seminars or Sanghas, (nothing wrong with that) however the majority of them are discussing dharma teachings with some regular frequency.

What is even more interesting is, of the 18 monastic blogs, 8 of them are of the Theravada traditions and 6 are of the Tibetan traditions. Looking at the total number of blogs by tradition, these numbers are extremely high in percentage to the number of Zen blogs. (see below) I am curious as to why that is, given 17 of the 37 Ordained/Lay teacher blogs are Zen, which is much more in line with total amount of Zen blogs. I assume it is simply because the Theravada and Tibetan traditions are more monastic oriented, at least as far as those that would blog in English, then the Zen traditions.

The second thing that struck me was the large number of Zen blogs compared to all of the other traditions. Including the 'Various/unaffiliated/NA' category, Zen blogs make up 35% of the total sites. If you take away the miscellaneous category, Zen blogs make up 50% of the blogs out there. Again, I am curious as to why Zen seems to be the blogged about more, at least in English, than the other traditions at such a greater rate.

Be the Game, Not the Car

My brother and I used to place the game Monopoly almost religiously as kids growing up. We took a somewhat ritualistic approach to the game, in the manner the pieces were set up and the times and places we played. My brother, though, had a rather strange custom; he always had to be the car, for him, no other token would do. It became such an event with him proclaiming that he was the car before any of us even began to sat down to play, he would pout and though a hissy fit if anyone attempted to claim the car before he did. It was fun to tease him about it, pretending to want to be the car, just to see him get upset and throw a tantrum.

One day, just because I was part evil child, I decided to hide the car before we played just to see what he would do. And as expected, he threw a fit, and rummaged through all the boxes and furniture to find the missing car. After about a half hour of us protesting his delaying the game, he finally sat down with a huff and said “Fine, I’ll be the stupid iron.” The entire game, he huffed and he murmured and generally displayed a look of disgust and dismay. I asked him why he was so upset; ‘the game wasn’t any different, only the little token that represented him’ I asked.‘ “I’m always the car! It’s not the same, it’s not fun!” he hissed back. Feeling bad for him, I pulled the little car token out of my pocket and handed to him……and then he beat the ever living shit out of me.

I guess the moral of the story is, never hide a Monopoly piece from a partially pyschotic sibling with anger issues. I think there might have been another lesson to the story too, something about attachment and suffering, but I was too busy holding a paper towel on my bloody nose to care.

Two Cool Blogs, Jundo vs Gniz and Ric Flair

I figured I’d start with the good stuff first. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve discovered two blogs that I had not known about before, and I have to say they are both very cool reads. The first one is Bookbird, a lady from Australia ,who writes with a lot of passion and heart, but also writes about things as they are. She doesn’t sugar coat her posts, and that is quite refreshing to see these days. The second is Jayarava, who blogs about the Triratna tradition, which is one tradition I know very little about.

 Next is the ugly…..if you want to see drama, I mean like Lifetime’s Movie of the Week staring Meredith Baxter Birney kind of drama, head on over to Gniz’s - Reblogging Brad Warner. The hostility between Gniz and Jundo is palpable, and is a bit disturbing. There are quite a few nasty accusations going back and forth, and while I usually enjoy good drama, I really wish they could find a way to rise above the anger. Whether or not you feel a teacher should be held to a higher standard of moral conduct than the students, I think many of us would agree that seeing a teacher rise above the fray and setting an example would be the wise thing to do. However, you can’t expect someone to stand by idly if someone is making direct accusations you don’t feel are true. I don’t know who is in the right or in the wrong; all I know is the hostility doesn’t speak well for those expressing them in such a childish manner with anonymous ID’s. That’s my domain! (Update: It seems Jundo admitted to the anonymous posts on his Shambhala Sun video? Fuck this, I'm staying out of that drama-fest.)

Edit: Just as a quick addendum, Nathan from Dangerous Harvest, as usual, had a great comment about this whole situation. Personally I very much like the concept behind the Treeleaf Zendo and would love to see it thrive and succeed. I think Brad is wrong about how much can be learned online, not to mention the fact this kind of thing fills a gap for many, many folks with no Zen Center near them. Honestly, I do not find the cuss words and insults that a Zen teacher may use in poor taste; they are only human just like everyone else, and to believe otherwise is just silly. In this situation, however, I think it was the anonymous comments and the way he used them, as well as the defensiveness of Jundo that kind of turned some people off. (I'm NOT taking sides in the back and forth here since I don't know all the details; so I'm not saying the criticism is or isn't warrented. Gniz probably has a point and Jundo probably has a point, I don't know.)

After blogging online for the last 5 years, I’ve finally learned to only respond to criticism that I feel is important, and ignore the rest. And trust me when I say there has been more than a little written about me that has been less than kind; but I dish it out, so I think it’s fair that I learn to take it. Online, one has to learn to live with harsh words towards them as nothing more than a nuisance, even though it does hurt and it is personal. However online isn’t face to face, so the norms of tasteful conduct, whether we like it or not, play by much different rules.

And damn you Nathan for being the voice of reason..again. And Jundo, I hope you and Treeleaf do continue to succeed. Ok, now I am done. :-P

Lastly, yes, that is indeed a Ric Flair squirrel on my new banner. While I am not proud of my photo-shop skills, I think it looks at just the right amount of tacky to offset the serious Buddha, no? My friend Adam from Flys Like a Crow, said my new banner should say, “The Reformed Buddhist, serving up dharma and fucked-up pictures of creepy internet urchins since 2007.” I love it! And a wonderful picture was included.

Top 50 Buddhist Blogs Award is a Scam

Nate over at Precious Metal already mentioned all this, but this 'Top Fifty' Best Buddhist Blogger thing going around is nothing more than a sneaky way for blogs to place ads that link back to these "sponsor" sites, that in turn pay them for any clicks that are generated to that place. Basically they find a niche that is blogged about like Golf, Politics or Buddhism and run a Google page rank to see which sites have the highest hits. They then send these stupid badges and this pretty email(see below) pretending that they have won some great award, but in actuality, its a way for them to drive clicks to the site paying them.

Here is where they tried to scam Law Bloggers last year.
Here is where they tried to scam Economist Bloggers this month.
Here is where they tried to scam Horse Bloggers this month. (Really, Horse Blogs? Geez)

I could go on, but I think you all get the picture. Pretty clever if you ask me.
Here is the email I received:

Dear Kyle,

Congratulations! Emma Lee here, and your blog, The Reformed Buddhist, has
received our 2010 Top 50 Buddhism Blogs award!

You can see your name amongst our winners here at:
www.onlineschools.org/top_buddhism/#The_Reformed_Buddhist

Winners were chosen through a scoring system led by internet nominations,
which came from your reader base!

You can let your readers know you won by embedding the badge code to one of
the different awards graphics found at:
www.onlineschools.org/top_buddhism/badges/.

If you choose not to accept the award, please let me know, so we can give
your spot to the next person on our list.  Dennis and I work hard to put
these awards together, with zero outside financial assistance, and we don't
want these awards to go to waste.

Please do not hesitate to call or email if you have any questions. Many
questions can be answered at www.awardingtheweb.com/about or
www.awardingtheweb.com/disclaimer.

Again, Congratulations, and I hope to see your badge soon!

Cheers,
Emma Lee
2065529587
www.awardingtheweb.com

Well Emma, it is a shame that you lied about your true monetary intentions on your site. I give ya credit for inventing a clever way for high traffic blogs to advertise your sponsor ads, but you can take this award and...ohhh...give it to this douche bag.

Oh yea, I almost forgot, you can go fuck yourself too.

/sigh

Poo Trap

So, as you can see, I've been doing some renovations on the site. Alas, my photo-shop skills are about as good as my writing skills, sloppy and misguided. Anyway, while I continue to renovate a bit, I thought you all may enjoy this commercial for the Poo Trap!