Die Wahrheit des tibetischen Buddhismus

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Sexuelle Skandale der Lamas und Rinpoches

über die Dalai Lamas

Bevor der Buddhismus in Tibet eingeführt wurde, hatten die Tibetaner "Bön" als Volksglauben gehabt. Bön verehrt Geister, Gespenster und Götter, um ihren Segen zu erhalten. Bön gehört also zu lokalen Volksglauben.

Während der chinesischen Tang Dynastie, führte der tibetische König Songtsän Gampo den Buddhismus in Tibet ein und machte ihn zur Staatsreligion. Der sogenannte "Buddhismus" ist aber tantrischer Buddhismus, der sich in der Spätzeit des indischen Buddhismus ausbreitet. Der tantrische Buddhismus wird auch "linkshändigen Pfad" genannt, weil er die tantrische sexuelle Praxis macht. Um zur tibetischen Kultur zu passen, wird der tantrische Buddhismus mit "Bön" gemischt. Er wird dann noch exzessiver wegen dessen Glaubens an Geister und Gespenster.

Der tantrische Meister Atiśa lehrte die tantrische Sex heimlich. Padmasambhava lehrte sie dann aber offen. Der tibetische Buddhismus weichte nicht nur von buddhistischen Lehren ab, sondern auch von buddhistischer Form. Der tibetische Buddhismus gehört nicht zum Buddhismus und muss "Lamaismus" genannt.

   
                  SOUL BETRAYAL (1)

SOUL BETRAYAL

 
Source: Down the Crooked Path

by Anne A. Simpkinson
Sexual abuse by spiritual leaders

violates trust, devastates lives, and tears communities apart.

No denomination or tradition is immune.

 
In the early 1980s, Jeanne Miller was a typical suburban mom. She did community work, served as PTA president, and helped produce plays in her school district just outside Chicago. She was also a devout Catholic. "My mother died when I was 14, and I went to boarding school," she recalls. "For a critical time in my life, the Church -- the nuns -- raised me and was my family."

This sense of family began to disintegrate in 1982 when another mother confided that one of the parish priests had, during a swim at a nearby lake, tried to strip off her son's bathing trunks when he was in the water. Thinking the accusation unbelievable, Miller initially proceeded, she admits, "to disprove what this woman had said." But instead of being reassured when she called the head of religious education at the parish, she was told that the church had a file of complaints against the priest. When she contacted the archdiocese, she was rebuffed by a chancery official, who told her that her motherly instincts were working overtime. She could not prove her allegations, he said; nothing was going to be done.

I can't even describe how devastated, angry, and hurt [I felt]," says Miller, who ultimately discovered that the priest had provided alcohol and marijuana to the 13- and 14-year-olds he took with him to a lake house each Tuesday on his day off, let them drive a boat and his car, lied to parents -- and tried to fondle her own 14-year-old son. Miller contacted police and filed a lawsuit, mainly to force the church to deal with the priest's behavior.

"We didn't want him removed. We just said, `Do something, find out what is wrong here, provide some counseling. Care about us.'" Instead, the church's law firm began fighting the lawsuit. Miller's legal bills grew steadily until she could no longer afford to continue the battle. She agreed to a small financial settlement -- $15,000 -- which didn't begin to cover the $35,000 legal bill.

"We were a Yankee Doodle Dandy family," Miller says. "We believed if you were good and gave to others, others would give back to you. We never expected the Church to come down on us like that."

Miller is not alone in the shock, betrayal, anger, and grief she experienced. One of the first to bring a lawsuit against the Catholic Church and a leading figure in the abuse-survivor self-help movement, Miller has helped bring awareness to the issue of abuse by spiritual authorities. The problem, however, is vast. For example:

In July 1994, two lawsuits were filed against Swami Rama, the spiritual leader of the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. The civil suits followed decades of reports of sexual improprieties, including a 1990 magazine article that detailed instances of sexual misconduct and several individuals' efforts to alert Himalayan officials to the abuses.

In October 1994, Yogi Amrit Desai, spiritual director and founder of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, resigned after admitting to inappropriate sexual contact with three women. At the time, he told senior Kripalu officials that there had been no other instances of sexual misdeeds. Eight months later, two more women came forward, and the then 62-year-old spiritual teacher admitted that he had had sexual contact with them and one other woman.

In July 1995, Harry Budd Miles, a 65-year-old retired Methodist minister, was sentenced to five months in jail after pleading guilty to charges of child abuse and perverted practice involving a Boy Scout in the 1970s. According to court documents, the Maryland minister had engaged the boy in kissing, fellatio, and masturbation in his church office, the basement of his home, and his summer house over a five-year period.

In December 1995, what is thought to be the first lawsuit against a Buddhist teacher was settled through a mediation process. The civil suit, filed initially in November 1994, against best-selling author and Tibetan lama Sogyal Rinpoche alleged that over a period of 19 years he had induced female students "to have sexual intercourse with him . . . by preying upon their vulnerability and belief that they could only achieve enlightenment by serving the sexual and other needs of Sogyal, their enlightened master." In addition to intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of fiduciary duty, the complaint included a count of assault and battery.

In April 1996, 59-year-old Episcopal Bishop Edward C. Chalfant began a one-year disciplinary leave of absence after admitting to an extramarital affair with an unmarried woman. According to diocesan spokesperson Mary Lou Lavallee, following that announcement additional people came forward. Based on information provided by them and upon further consideration, the diocese's standing committee and the national church's Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning recommended that Chalfant resign, which he did in May, ending his 10-year tenure as Bishop of Maine.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, a rash of news articles detailing accusations and lawsuits against Catholic priests for molesting youngsters -- generally teenage boys -- unleashed a flood of revelations concerning sexual misconduct not only by Catholic priests but by spiritual authorities in virtually every religion. Regularly since then, reports of years-old as well as current sexual improprieties have surfaced, forcing religious organizations and churches to create codes of ethics, procedures for handling allegations, guidelines to deal with victims, and educational programs for clergy and spiritual teachers.

Hardly a month goes by without news of a priest, rabbi, minister, roshi, or swami being disciplined for, resigning because of, or charged with sexual misdeeds. Still, data that could precisely measure the prevalence of sexual abuse by spiritual authorities is difficult to come by. What research exists focuses solely on Christian denominations and is either years old or statistically "soft." For example, a nine-year-old survey of evangelical ministers conducted by the research department of Christianity Today magazine and published in the 1988 Leadership Journal found that 12 percent of clergy surveyed admitted to having sexual intercourse with someone other than a spouse; 23 percent stated that they had been "sexually inappropriate" with someone other than their spouse. A 1991 national survey of mainly Protestant pastors by a group at the Center for Ethics and Social Policy, Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California -- described by its researchers as "small and not scientifically controlled" -- uncovered similar findings: About 10 percent of those surveyed had been sexually involved with a parishioner. Another study published in the winter 1993 Journal of Pastoral Care found that only 6.1 percent of Southern Baptist pastor respondents admitted to having sexual contact with a person either currently or formerly affiliated with their church. In that same survey, however, 70 percent of respondents said they knew of pastors who had had sexual contact with a congregant.

A.W. Richard Sipe, a former Roman Catholic priest and current Baltimore, Maryland, psychotherapist, suggests that nearly 50 percent of Catholic priests break their vow of celibacy by engaging in some form of sexual activity. In his 1995 book, Sex, Priests, and Power, he estimates that 6 percent of priests have sexual contact with youngsters -- 2 percent with children under 10 years and 4 percent with adolescents. But, he writes, "sexual abuse of minors is only part of the problem. Four times as many priests involve themselves sexually with adult women, and twice the number of priests involve themselves with adult men."

Looking at the situation from another angle, the United Methodist Church sponsored a 1990 study that examined sexual harassment -- unwanted behavior ranging from suggestive looks and unsolicited touching to attempted or actual assault and rape -- within its ranks. Of the clergywomen surveyed, 41.8 percent reported unwanted sexual behavior by a colleague or pastor; 17 percent of laywomen said that their own pastors had harassed them.

Nevertheless, many researchers and professionals in the field are wary of citing statistics. According to Roman Paur, executive director of the Interfaith Sexual Trauma Institute in Collegeville, Minnesota, statistics regarding clergy sexual misconduct are "fundamentally guesses" because there is no hard research to back up the numbers. Father Stephen J. Rossetti, vice president and chief operating officer of St. Luke Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland, for example, says that while he respects his colleague's work, he is not confident of the source of Sipe's figures. Yet interviews with clergy, victims, and other professionals offer clinical and anecdotal evidence that challenge several popular perceptions related to clergy sexual misconduct:

That most sex-abuse cases involving priests are pedophilic. In fact, only about one-third of priests who sexually abuse children are pedophiles (that is, they molest a prepubescent child). The rest sexually abuse adolescents, generally boys. The precise clinical term for their behavior is ephebophilia. Although few would dispute the fact that sexual violations against youngsters of any age are detestable, the distinction has important clinical implications related to prognosis and treatment. The term "pedophile priest" is an unfortunately memorable but often inaccurate appellation.

That Catholic priests become sexually involved with adolescent boys, whereas all other religious authorities become involved with adult women. Stephen Rossetti says he's seen enough cases of Protestant clergy abusing minors and Catholic clergy abusing women to believe that it happens both ways. He uses the generally accepted estimate of 2 to 7 percent when speaking of Catholic priests who molest minors, and he points out that this is the same percentage as in the general population. That fact carries no comfort for survivors such as David Clohessy, a St. Louis political and public-relations consultant and national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). "It doesn't matter whether just as many priests [abuse] as plumbers do," he says. "You can't take solace in that." • That clergy misconduct involves only heterosexual men abusing women and children. According to social worker Melissa Steinmetz of the Holy Cross Counseling Group in South Bend, Indiana, sex abuse is not a males-only transgression. Because the feminist movement was largely responsible for awareness of sexual abuse, the original focus was solely on male perpetrators. But, says Steinmetz, experience has shown that some women, too, are guilty of abuse, especially of preadolescent and adolescent boys. "Probably there will always be more male sex offenders," says Steinmetz, but she notes that keeping the focus exclusively on male perpetrators does a disservice to the adolescent male victims of female offenders.

Pat Liberty, an American Baptist minister, also reports that she is beginning to see some grassroots organizations springing up for survivors of abuse by women religious and to hear about complaints against lesbian clergy. But regarding the latter, she says, "Gay and lesbian folk are not going to come forward to tell their story. They know that they are not going to get a fair hearing, because the Church will get lost in the gay and lesbian stuff rather than dealing with the power abuses and the other things that are at stake."

Despite the lack of reliable figures and the misconceptions, most professionals agree that the problem is far-reaching not only in Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish congregations but in Buddhist sanghas and Hindu ashrams as well. Abuse by spiritual leaders is nondenominational, and the dynamics between clergy and parishioners, between gurus and devotees, between spiritual teachers and students, bear striking resemblances to one another. From profiles of the perpetrators and victims to the impact on the spiritual communities and their ways of dealing with the situation, clergy sexual malfeasance is an ecumenical reality, one that has probably been with us as long as civilization and one that is not about to go away.

Through time immemorial, human beings have sought protection, salvation, and solace from deities -- from Shiva and Shakti, from Jesus and Jehovah, from Aphrodite and Zeus. For nearly as long as we have been petitioning and praising the gods, we have identified in our tribal ranks those who seem particularly attuned to or knowledgeable about guiding us in our search.

Anson Shupe, a sociology professor at Indiana University/Purdue University, reasons in his book In the Name of All That's Holy that if the priesthood emerged as a profession during the transition from a hunting-and-gathering to an agricultural society, then the ancestor of the priest is the shaman. Because Shupe believes that the shamanic craft is not without a certain amount of manipulation and sleight-of-hand, he theorizes that "clergy malfeasance, or something we moderns could recognize as such, is probably as old as practiced religion itself."

What is new, however, is the media coverage of abuse by spiritual authorities. In the not-too-distant past, a kind of embargo existed against publicizing what might at the time have been considered the "sexual shenanigans" of those in positions of leadership. Some offices carried such respect and weight that the persons occupying them were granted immunity from the scrutiny of their private lives. Sex scandals were seen as reflecting poorly on hallowed institutions -- the presidency in the case of John F. Kennedy's affairs, or the Catholic Church in the case of priests who might have been caught in flagrante delicto. Incidents were winked away or dealt with quietly.

Recalls Philip Jenkins, professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University and author of Pedophiles and Priests: "I had a police friend in New York who would -- pardon the expression -- talk about all the times he had `cut loose a faggot brother,' by which he meant he had arrested a priest or brother for a homosexual act and had let him go with a warning." For decades, it was impossible to write about church scandals due to publishers' fears of losing advertising dollars or of being boycotted. "Think what that must have done to people in the priesthood and in the seminaries," says Jenkins. "For a tiny minority who did have tendencies to any kind of sexual misconduct, it must have given them a sense of invulnerability."

That shield of immunity was shattered in the mid-1980s with the Gilbert Gauthe case. Gauthe was the pastor of St. John's Parish in Henry, Louisiana. According to journalist Jason Berry, who broke the story in a local weekly newspaper and who detailed Catholic priests' abuse of children in articles and a book, Lead Us Not into Temptation, church officials were aware of Gauthe's sexual propensities as early as 1974. Almost 10 years passed, however, before he was finally relieved of his priestly duties. Soon thereafter, in October 1984, Gauthe was indicted on charges relating to sexual abuse of minors and child pornography; a year later, the judge in his case agreed to a plea bargain. Gauthe pleaded guilty to 33 charges and was sentenced to 20 years without parole. He also lost a subsequent civil suit, which awarded $1.25 million to a boy who claimed to have been molested and the boy'sparents.

Since that time, gallons of printer's ink have splashed details of cases across the pages of newspapers and magazines. According to Marie Fortune, founder and executive director of the Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence in Seattle, Washington, the prevalence of sexual misdeeds by those in spiritual authority is due to the fact that most organized religious groups -- both traditional and nontraditional -- are "fundamentally patriarchal in their history and contemporary in expression and practice." In her new book, Love Does No Harm, the United Church of Christ minister says that this paradigm, which is sometimes seen as "normative, even ordained by God," supports and reinforces a dominance/submission model -- with men dominant and women submissive. This power imbalance is then combined with a cultural assumption of male sexual access to women and children. The result: sexual abuse in epidemic proportions.

Shupe offers a different explanation of the problem: "The sociological reality is that all religions are hierarchies of social status and power." This power, he says, is undergirded by the "loyalty and respect of rank-and-file believers who are taught or encouraged to expect that their leaders possess in large measure some special discernment or spiritual insight and have benevolent, ethical treatment of believers always uppermost in their mind." It is this inherent structure of "trusted hierarchies," Shupe explains, that offers ample opportunities for abuse.

Spiritual authorities -- whether rabbis or roshis, priests or pastoral counselors, ministers or swamis -- all hold a special position in their spiritual community. Zen Buddhists, for example, bow to their teacher as a sign of respect. Some Hindu devotees stand as their guru enters the room and wait until she takes her place at the front of the room, often on a flower-bedecked dais or elaborate throne-like chair, before settling in for satsang (a spiritual gathering). Catholics are taught that a priest is "called" by God to his vocation. One California woman who was abused by a priest owns a missal, a gift for her First Communion. In it, a section reads: "My child: Someone has said it is a sign of salvation to have a great love for Priests. Why is this so? Because the Priest takes the place of our Blessed Lord on earth. . . . Jesus loved you so much. He wanted to be always near you. He wants to do many things for you. He does them all through His Priest."

While Catholics are taught that priests are representatives of Jesus on earth, devotees are often led to believe that their guru is a god, a perfected being, or Realized Self. In his 1971 book, Guru, Swami Muktananda declares: "The Guru is an actual embodiment of the Absolute. Truly speaking, he is himself the Supreme Being." The word "guru," derived from Sanskrit, means "one who brings light out of darkness." Generally, the term is translated as "teacher." Many religious traditions -- including Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam -- use the teacher-student relationship as a vehicle through which to impart spiritual knowledge and experience.

Speaking on an episode of the PBS series Searching for God in America, Islamic scholar Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University argued strongly for having a spiritual teacher. Practices such as meditation, invocation, and concentration require the guidance of someone who has experience in them, he explained. But Nasr also cautioned against choosing a teacher too lightly; potential students need to exercise "a sense of discernment," he said.

Many believe that Americans sorely lack this quality. Our cultural conditioning encourages a fiercely independent, anti-authority stance, but the shadow of that self-sufficient lone ranger is a gullible idealist wearing rose-colored blinders. Yvonne Rand, a Buddhist teacher in the San Francisco Bay area, says that this tendency to "give ourselves away" is the source of enormous difficulty in the American Buddhist community -- so much so that the Dalai Lama, the Nobel Prize-winning leader of the Tibetan people, is said to be "particularly worried" and "deeply concerned" about the issue. He advises students to get close to the teacher, "spy" on him or her, watching carefully for at least three years to see if the person's teachings are congruent with how he or she behaves.

This advice can also apply to seeking a church. While there are numerous variables that go into finding a good fit, it is often the personality of the pastor or spiritual teacher that attracts parishioners and disciples. One personality trait to be wary of, experts warn, is charisma. Writing in his latest book, Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus, British psychiatrist Anthony Storr compares the original Greek meaning of "charisma" -- "gift of grace" -- with sociologist Max Webber's use of the term as "a special magical quality of personality by virtue of which the individual possessing it was set apart from ordinary men and women and treated as if endowed with supernatural or superhuman powers." In the former, the pastor's power is derived from a spiritual source; in the latter, his power comes solely from the force of his personality.

Charisma can be evident in the popular pastor whose dynamic sermons and impeccable people skills fill the pews and church coffers every week as well as in the guru whose mere presence induces altered states of consciousness. The problem comes, however, in mistaking a spiritual leader's persona and talents for holiness. This dilemma has been particularly troublesome in some Buddhist groups and Hindu yoga communities where religious practices -- meditation, yoga exercises, extended periods of prayer, chanting, and even silence -- can induce trance-like states of consciousness in which participants are highly suggestible and thus vulnerable. Furthermore, because of Westerners' inexperience with the mystical side of religion, they often become overly impressed by siddhis (psychic powers) and equate them with sainthood.

Biofeedback researcher and pioneer Elmer Green, formerly of the Menninger Foundation, part of the well-known midwestern psychiatric research and treatment center, has been involved for decades in investigating the mind's ability to control bodily functions, emotions, and consciousness. He has conducted many experiments on psychically gifted individuals, Indian yogis, and a Native American medicine woman. In his estimation, paranormal abilities have nothing to do with spiritual development. For example, in the early 1970s Green conducted experiments on Swami Rama of the Himalayan Institute. Green found that the Indian swami was able to produce, among other things, an atrial flutter at will (a condition in which the heart rate flutters at four or five times its natural rate but doesn't pump blood), create a difference in temperature between the left and right sides of the palm of his hand, go into a sleep brain pattern while staying conscious and able to report what was being said in the room, and give indications of psychokinetic abilities. The swami's abilities, however, seem to have been matched by the size of his ego. In fact, Green recalls Swami Rama saying, "The greatest problem a person can have is ego. And nobody knows that better than I." Says the professionally active, 78-year-old Green: "There's a Hindu adage: `Go through the garden, but do not eat the fruit.' Swami Rama enjoyed the fruit."

Some of that forbidden fruit was sex with female devotees. According to a 1987 dissertation, a 1990 Yoga Journal article, and court documents related to two lawsuits filed against him, Swami Rama apparently chose to sexually exploit a continuous stream of female followers beginning almost as soon as he arrived in the United States.

Accusations of Swami Rama's sexual liaisons with female followers swirled around his community for years. In 1974, four Minneapolis yoga students sent a letter to their teacher, a Swami Rama devotee, accusing the swami of sexual misconduct, falsification of his background, and financial improprieties. In the summer of 1975, a small group of disaffected students tried to alert disciples to these issues by setting up a "Truth Booth" at the entrance to Carleton College, where Swami Rama's organization was running a summer yoga retreat. In the early 1980s allegations again surfaced, and in 1990 Yoga Journal published an article that detailed instances of sexual abuse by the swami. Finally, in July 1994 two civil lawsuits against Swami Rama, the Himalayan Institute, and one current and two former institute officials were filed. Testimony given in sworn depositions taken last year indicates that one of the defendants, Rudolph Ballentine, M.D. -- a member of the institute's board of directors in the 1970s and institute president from 1987 to 1993 -- received verbal reports and letters referring to instances of sexual relations and sexual harassment between the swami and female disciples, including his personal assistants, for years. In case after case, Ballentine discounted the allegations on the basis of the swami's denials and Ballentine's own judgments about the character and motivations of those reporting the abuse.

Since the suit -- which is still pending -- was filed, Swami Rama has left the country and has not returned. Says one former devotee: "I think he intentionally misrepresented himself. He played the game very, very carefully." Sadly she concludes, "Instead of being a real guru, which is the light that dispels darkness, he was a maya [illusion] maker."

It may be tempting to point a finger at a particular group of perpetrators and say, "It's all their fault. If we could only round them up, maybe even jail them, we could eradicate abuse." In reality, this is neither a wise nor a feasible course of action. The reason abuse has persisted for so long and cuts across denominational lines is because the dynamics underlying it are universal -- varying only in the degree to which we are aware of them and in our ability to deal with them.

One of these dynamics is transference. The concept, which originated with Freud, refers to the process by which we transfer past feelings onto individuals in the present for the purpose of reliving and resolving painful experiences. Transference does not allow you to see the person as he or she is; rather, you see that individual through a screen of projections.

Father Stephen Rossetti explains that authority figures such as clergy are often figures of transference, and as a Catholic priest he experiences it every day. Simply walking down the street, "half the people love and a few people hate me, and they don't even know me," he says. "They don't know Steve Rossetti."

Virginia Wink Hilton, a Costa Mesa, California, psychotherapist, agrees. In her opinion, a person who idealizes the minister, priest, or spiritual teacher or who has erotic feelings for him is not really seeing the clergyperson. The feelings are not for the minister but come out of unconscious material. If a clergyperson doesn't understand this, Hilton says, "it puts him in enormous jeopardy."

Hilton compares the transference that psychotherapists experience to that which a minister might encounter in his parish. Transference in a therapy setting is fairly clear and well-defined, she says: Psychotherapists meet with clients an hour a week, at the same time, in the same location. Ministers and priests, on the other hand, are "weaving in and out of the lives of parishioners all the time." The situation becomes complicated because of the play of both parties' unconscious dynamics and unmet needs roiling below the surface of their social personas.

For example, people may desperately crave a relationship with someone who is smarter, kinder, more spiritual, and more compassionate than they feel they are because they believe that association will quell their anxieties and afford them a measure of security in a seemingly unpredictable and dangerous world. They want heroes and saints to inspire, soothe, love them. Says one experienced spiritual seeker: "I've worked with enough New Age heroes in enough groups to know they aren't heroes; they aren't saints. But people don't want to see that. People want a hero. They want somebody who is a thousand times better than they are. They want a Pope."

In this way, disciples and parishioners can transform spiritual authorities into omniscient experts, the expectations of whom far exceed the leader's knowledge or experience. The basic function of a religious authority is spiritual direction, assisting individuals in forging a relationship with the Divine. But often there are pressures for them to do and be more. Yvonne Rand explains that students of Buddhism might go to their Zen teacher and ask him about their marriage, how to raise their children, what to do about their jobs. "Pretty soon the teacher starts to think, `Oh, I really know a lot about everything.' Pretty soon the student starts projecting all-knowingness on the teacher, and the relationship gets way out of balance."

This human propensity to desire a savior, an unconditionally loving parent, a hero, or a saint can devolve into a dark pursuit with painful consequences. For example, if yoga devotees believe that the guru knows best, they may gradually allow the guru to guide not only their spiritual process but every aspect of their lives. This unbounded devotion can feed the guru's sense of power and can fuel a sense of grandiosity or invincibility. The guru may begin to sound like the Pope delivering opinions ex cathedra. He may also begin to feel that rules that apply to others don't apply to him. As Anthony Storr writes, "It is intoxicating to be adored, and it becomes increasingly difficult for the guru not to concur with the beliefs of his disciples." Furthermore, Storr reasons, "if a man comes to believe that he has special insights, and that he has been selected by God to pass on these insights to others, he is likely to conclude that he has special privileges." Often those privileges are sexual.

Some female parishioners and devotees all too willingly cooperate because they have turned the priest, minister, or guru into an object of adoration, flirtation, and sexual desire. One meditation teacher says that women approached him even in the middle of the night on retreat. Another male ashramite recalls one young woman who later accused her spiritual teacher of sexual misconduct: "She was a sexy young thing, for sure. I remember sitting in the room and thinking that. But she wasn't giving me any attention." Her attention was riveted on the guru.

Despite these sexual come-ons, Peter Rutter, a Jungian-oriented San Francisco psychiatrist, argues that it is up to the spiritual leader to maintain the proper sexual boundaries. The task is difficult, admits Rutter, who has written two books on the subject of boundary violations, but he suggests that the ultimate protection against abuse is the leader's understanding of the harm he can inflict and his empathy with the woman.

Not all spiritual authorities have that capacity. Sometimes what psychologists call a personality disorder compels a person to exploit, manipulate, and hurt those in their spiritual care. While publicly charming, ebullient, devoted, hard-working, and inspiring, this leader proves himself cunning, slick, seductive, and cruel in private. Involved in multiple, simultaneous relationships, he can sweet-talk his victims into compliance -- "Our love is special and holy" -- or bully them into submission. United Church of Christ minister Marie Fortune, in her book Is Nothing Sacred?, details the havoc and pain wreaked on individual women and the congregation by the sexual misconduct of one of the church's pastors. Fortune notes that sexual predators go to great lengths to choose women whose current circumstances might make them vulnerable: for instance, the death of a parent, a divorce, problems with children, or an illness. The situation that sends Fortune "over the edge" is one in which a congregant approaches a minister for help in dealing with childhood sexual abuse. Often that confidence is seen by the minister as a "green light" to seduce the person. One clergyman whom Fortune heard about told his victim that the way to heal from childhood sexual abuse was to re-enact the experiences with him. "I am amazed at the creativity that perpetrators have," Fortune says, "the manipulation of theology and scripture and ritual, the moral rationalization they bring to bear: `No, there is nothing wrong with this because God's love for you is flowing through me, and this is a holy kiss.'"

Because of the innocence and vulnerability of the victims, perhaps the most heinous crime perpetrated by sexual predators is the abuse of children. Trust, innocence, and sense of self all shatter, leaving behind shards of fear, shame, distrust, and self-loathing.




Die Dalai Lamas

»Die Dalai Lamas werden von ihren Anhängern als fortgeschrittene Mahayana Bodhisattvas angesehen, mitfühlende Wesen, die sozusagen ihren eigenen Eintritt in das Nirvana zurückgestellt haben, um der leidenden Menschheit zu helfen. Sie sind demnach auf einem guten Wege zur Buddhaschaft, sie entwickeln Perfektion in ihrer Weisheit und ihrem Mitgefühl zum Wohle aller Wesen. Dies rechtertigt, in Form einer Doktrin, die soziopolitische Mitwirkung der Dalai Lamas, als Ausdruck des mitfühlenden Wunsches eines Bodhisattvas, anderen zu helfen.«

?Hier sollten wir zwei Dinge feststellen, die der Dalai Lama nicht ist: Erstens, er ist nicht in einem einfachen Sinne ein ?Gott-König?. Er mag eine Art König sein, aber er ist kein Gott für den Buddhismus. Zweitens, ist der Dalai Lama nicht das ?Oberhaupt des Tibetischen Buddhismus? als Ganzes. Es gibt zahlreiche Traditionen im Buddhismus. Manche haben ein Oberhaupt benannt, andere nicht. Auch innerhalb Tibets gibt es mehrere Traditionen. Das Oberhaupt der Geluk Tradition ist der Abt des Ganden Klosters, als Nachfolger von Tsong kha pa, dem Begründer der Geluk Tradition im vierzehnten/fünfzehnten Jahrhundert.«

Paul Williams, »Dalai Lama«, in
Clarke, P. B., Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements
(New York: Routledge, 2006), S. 136.

Regierungsverantwortung
der Dalai Lamas

?Nur wenige der 14 Dalai Lamas regierten Tibet und wenn, dann meist nur für einige wenige Jahre.?

(Brauen 2005:6)

»In der Realität dürften insgesamt kaum mehr als fünfundvierzig Jahre der uneingeschränkten Regierungsgewalt der Dalai Lamas zusammenkommen. Die Dalai Lamas sechs und neun bis zwölf regierten gar nicht, die letzten vier, weil keiner von ihnen das regierungsfähige Alter erreichte. Der siebte Dalai Lama regierte uneingeschränkt nur drei Jahre und der achte überhaupt nur widerwillig und auch das phasenweise nicht allein. Lediglich der fünfte und der dreizehnte Dalai Lama können eine nennenswerte Regieruagsbeteiligung oder Alleinregierung vorweisen. Zwischen 1750 und 1950 gab es nur achtunddreißig Jahre, in denen kein Regent regierte!«

Jan-Ulrich Sobisch,
Lamakratie - Das Scheitern einer Regierungsform (PDF), S. 182,
Universität Hamburg

Der Fünfte Dalai Lama,
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso

Der Fünfte Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso

?Der fünfte Dalai Lama, der in der tibetischen Geschichte einfach ?Der Gro?e Fünfte? genannt wird, ist bekannt als der Führer, dem es 1642 gelang, Tibet nach einem grausamen Bürgerkrieg zu vereinigen. Die ?ra des fünften Dalai Lama (in etwa von seiner Einsetzung als Herrscher von Tibet bis zum Beginn des 18. Jahrhunderts, als seiner Regierung die Kontrolle über das Land zu entgleiten begann) gilt als pr?gender Zeitabschnitt bei der Herausbildung einer nationalen tibetischen Identit?t - eine Identit?t, die sich im Wesentlichen auf den Dalai Lama, den Potala-Palast der Dalai Lamas und die heiligen Tempel von Lhasa stützt. In dieser Zeit wandelte sich der Dalai Lama von einer Reinkarnation unter vielen, wie sie mit den verschiedenen buddhistischen Schulen assoziiert waren, zum wichtigsten Beschützer seines Landes. So bemerkte 1646 ein Schriftsteller, dass dank der guten Werke des fünften Dalai Lama ganz Tibet jetzt ?unter dem wohlwollenden Schutz eines wei?en Sonnenschirms zentriert? sei; und 1698 konstatierte ein anderer Schriftsteller, die Regierung des Dalai Lama diene dem Wohl Tibets ganz so wie ein Bodhisattva - der heilige Held des Mahayana Buddhismus - dem Wohl der gesamten Menschheit diene.?

Kurtis R. Schaeffer, »Der Fünfte Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso«, in
DIE DALAI LAMAS: Tibets Reinkarnation des Bodhisattva Avalokite?vara,
ARNOLDSCHE Art Publishers,
Martin Brauen (Hrsg.), 2005, S. 65

Der Fünfte Dalai Lama:
Beurteilungen seiner Herrschaft I

?Gem?? der meisten Quellen war der [5.] Dalai Lama nach den Ma?st?ben seiner Zeit ein recht toleranter und gütiger Herrscher.?

Paul Williams, »Dalai Lama«, in
(Clarke, 2006, S. 136)

?Rückblickend erscheint Lobsang Gyatso, der ?Gro?e Fünfte?, dem Betrachter als überragende, allerdings auch als widersprüchliche Gestalt.?

Karl-Heinz Golzio / Pietro Bandini,
»Die vierzehn Wiedergeburten des Dalai Lama«,
O.W. Barth Verlag, 1997, S. 118

»Einmal an der Macht, zeigte er den anderen Schulen gegenüber beträchtliche Großzügigkeit. […] Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso wird von den Tibetern der ›Große Fünfte‹ genannt, und ohne jeden Zweifel war er ein ungewöhnlich kluger, willensstarker und doch gleichzeitig großmütiger Herrscher.«

Per Kvaerne, »Aufstieg und Untergang einer klösterlichen Tradition«, in:
Berchert, Heinz; Gombrich, Richard (Hrsg.):
»Der Buddhismus. Geschichte und Gegenwart«,
München 2000, S. 320

Der Fünfte Dalai Lama:
Beurteilungen seiner Herrschaft II

?Viele Tibeter gedenken insbesondere des V. Dalai Lama bis heute mit tiefer Ehrfurcht, die nicht allein religi?s, sondern mehr noch patriotisch begründet ist: Durch gro?es diplomatisches Geschick, allerdings auch durch nicht immer skrupul?sen Einsatz machtpolitischer und selbst milit?rischer Mittel gelang es Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso, dem ?Gro?en Fünften?, Tibet nach Jahrhunderten des Niedergangs wieder zu einen und in den Rang einer bedeutenden Regionalmacht zurückzuführen. Als erster Dalai Lama wurde er auch zum weltlichen Herrscher Tibets proklamiert. Unter seiner ?gide errang der Gelugpa-Orden endgültig die Vorherrschaft über die rivalisierenden lamaistischen Schulen, die teilweise durch blutigen Bürgerkrieg und inquisitorische Verfolgung unterworfen oder au?er Landes getrieben wurden.

Jedoch kehrte der Dalai Lama in seiner zweiten Lebenshälfte, nach Festigung seiner Macht und des tibetischen Staates, zu einer Politik der Mäßigung und Toleranz zurück, die seinem Charakter eher entsprach als die drastischen Maßnahmen, durch die er zur Herrschaft gelangte. Denn Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso war nicht nur ein Machtpolitiker und überragender Staatsmann, sondern ebenso ein spiritueller Meister mit ausgeprägter Neigung zu tantrischer Magie und lebhaftem Interesse auch an den Lehren anderer lamaistischer Orden. Zeitlebens empfing er, wie die meisten seiner Vorgänger, gebieterische Gesichte, die er gegen Ende seines Lebens in seinen ›Geheimen Visionen‹ niederlegte.«

(Golzio, Bandini 1997: 95)

Der Dreizehnte Dalai Lama,
Thubten Gyatso

Der Dreizehnte Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso

?Ein anderer, besonders wichtiger Dalai Lama war der Dreizehnte (1876-1933). Als starker Herrscher versuchte er, im Allgemeinen ohne Erfolg, Tibet zu modernisieren. ?Der gro?e Dreizehnte? nutzte den Vorteil des schwindenden Einflusses China im 1911 beginnenden Kollaps dessen Monarchie, um faktisch der vollst?ndigen nationalen Unabh?ngigkeit Tibets von China Geltung zu verschaffen. Ein Fakt, den die Tibeter von jeher als Tatsache erachtet haben.?

Paul Williams, »Dalai Lama«, in
(Clarke, 2006, S. 137)

?Manche m?gen sich vielleicht fragen, wie die Herrschaft des Dalai Lama im Vergleich mit europ?ischen oder amerikanischen Regierungschefs einzusch?tzen ist. Doch ein solcher Vergleich w?re nicht gerecht, es sei denn, man geht mehrere hundert Jahre in der europ?ischen Geschichte zurück, als Europa sich in demselben Zustand feudaler Herrschaft befand, wie es in Tibet heutzutage der Fall ist. Ganz sicher w?ren die Tibeter nicht glücklich, wenn sie auf dieselbe Art regiert würden wie die Menschen in England; und man kann wahrscheinlich zu Recht behaupten, dass sie im Gro?en und Ganzen glücklicher sind als die V?lker Europas oder Amerikas unter ihren Regierungen. Mit der Zeit werden gro?e Ver?nderungen kommen; aber wenn sie nicht langsam vonstatten gehen und die Menschen nicht bereit sind, sich anzupassen, dann werden sie gro?e Unzufriedenheit verursachen. Unterdessen l?uft die allgemeine Verwaltung Tibets in geordneteren Bahnen als die Verwaltung Chinas; der tibetische Lebensstandard ist h?her als der chinesische oder indische; und der Status der Frauen ist in Tibet besser als in beiden genannten L?ndern.?

Sir Charles Bell, »Der Große Dreizehnte:
Das unbekannte Leben des XIII. Dalai Lama von Tibet«,
Bastei Lübbe, 2005, S. 546

Der Dreizehnte Dalai Lama:
Beurteilungen seiner Herrschaft

?War der Dalai Lama im Gro?en und Ganzen ein guter Herrscher? Dies k?nnen wir mit Sicherheit bejahen, auf der geistlichen ebenso wie auf der weltlichen Seite. Was erstere betrifft, so hatte er die komplizierte Struktur des tibetischen Buddhismus schon als kleiner Junge mit ungeheurem Eifer studiert und eine au?ergew?hnliche Gelehrsamkeit erreicht. Er verlangte eine strengere Befolgung der m?nchischen Regeln, veranlasste die M?nche, ihren Studien weiter nachzugehen, bek?mpfte die Gier, Faulheit und Korruption unter ihnen und verminderte ihren Einfluss auf die Politik. So weit wie m?glich kümmerte er sich um die zahllosen religi?sen Bauwerke. In summa ist ganz sicher festzuhalten, dass er die Spiritualit?t des tibetischen Buddhismus vergr??ert hat.

Auf der weltlichen Seite stärkte er Recht und Gesetz, trat in engere Verbindung mit dem Volk, führte humanere Grundsätze in Verwaltung und Justiz ein und, wie oben bereits gesagt, verringerte die klösterliche Vorherrschaft in weltlichen Angelegenheiten. In der Hoffnung, damit einer chinesischen Invasion vorbeugen zu können, baute er gegen den Widerstand der Klöster eine Armee auf; vor seiner Herrschaft gab es praktisch keine Armee. In Anbetracht der sehr angespannten tibetischen Staatsfinanzen, des intensiven Widerstands der Klöster und anderer Schwierigkeiten hätte er kaum weiter gehen können, als er es tat.

Im Verlauf seiner Regierung beendete der Dalai Lama die chinesische Vorherrschaft in dem großen Teil Tibets, den er beherrschte, indem er chinesische Soldaten und Beamte daraus verbannte. Dieser Teil Tibets wurde zu einem vollkommen unabhängigen Königreich und blieb dies auch während der letzten 20 Jahre seines Lebens.«

Sir Charles Bell in (Bell 2005: 546-47)

Der Vierzehnte Dalai Lama,
Tenzin Gyatso

Der Vierzehnte Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso

?Der jetzige vierzehnte Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) wurde 1935 geboren. Die Chinesen besetzten Tibet in den frühen 1950er Jahren, der Dalai Lama verlie? Tibet 1959. Er lebt jetzt als Flüchtling in Dharamsala, Nordindien, wo er der Tibetischen Regierung im Exil vorsteht. Als gelehrte und charismatische Pers?nlichkeit, hat er aktiv die Unabh?ngigkeit seines Landes von China vertreten. Durch seine h?ufigen Reisen, Belehrungen und Bücher macht er den Buddhismus bekannt, engagiert sich für den Weltfrieden sowie für die Erforschung von Buddhismus und Wissenschaft. Als Anwalt einer ?universellen Verantwortung und eines guten Herzens?, erhielt er den Nobelpreis im Jahre 1989.?

Paul Williams, »Dalai Lama«, in
(Clarke, 2006, S. 137)

Moralische Legitimation
der Herrschaft Geistlicher

Für Sobisch ist die moralische Legitimation der Herrschaft Geistlicher ?außerordentlich zweifelhaft?. Er konstatiert:

?Es zeigte sich auch in Tibet, da? moralische Integrit?t nicht automatisch mit der Zugeh?rigkeit zu einer Gruppe von Menschen erlangt wird, sondern allein auf pers?nlichen Entscheidungen basiert. Vielleicht sind es ?hnliche überlegungen gewesen, die den derzeitigen, vierzehnten Dalai Lama dazu bewogen haben, mehrmals unmi?verst?ndlich zu erkl?ren, da? er bei einer Rückkehr in ein freies Tibet kein politische Amt mehr übernehmen werde. Dies ist, so meine ich, keine schlechte Nachricht. Denn dieser Dalai Lama hat bewiesen, da? man auch ohne ein international anerkanntes politisches Amt inne zu haben durch ein glaubhaft an ethischen Grunds?tzen ausgerichtetes beharrliches Wirken einen enormen Einfluss in der Welt ausüben kann.?

Jan-Ulrich Sobisch,
Lamakratie - Das Scheitern einer Regierungsform (PDF), S. 190,
Universität Hamburg