No One Likes it When They Find Their Idols Broken

So, I'm thinking T&A Tuesday, while a sort of cute name and a cute idea, ought not be a regular feature. It's kind of demeaning, don't you think? Maybe I'll bring it back once in a while, but weekly gratuitous sex is a little much. Also, there's too many cute themed names going on around here and the content feels a little stale to me. So, I'm going to try to get back to my previous state of writing about what's on my mind at any given time.

These tits serve to illustrate a point. Source.

Right now, I am very disappointed. Last night I decided to do some reading on the Rinzai Tradition of Zen Buddhism. I was curious if Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi, Leonard Cohen's Zen teacher, was still alive. He is, and he's apparently been sexually harassing his female students for the past forty years or so. What's more, it's not like it was some kind of big secret. It was rather well known in the Zen community, and much like the things that went on in the Catholic Church, nothing was really done about it. To their credit, I think that the people in the Zen community did try to solve the problem. They got the old man a mail order wife from Japan (there are so many issues with that, but it was an attempt), and they tried to put things in place where he couldn't harass anymore women. Sadly, it seems that their prime operative was to save face and avoid any bad press for the faith, so they let Joshu Roshi continue to teach, kind of like the priests who were never punished for their sexual misconduct.

Looks rather unassuming, doesn't he? Source.

All of this has left me sad, disappointed, and disillusioned. I came to Zen because of Leonard Cohen. Not the best path to enlightenment, but it is what it is. I always thought that Mr. Cohen was a great guy, and if this Joshu guy taught him, then he must be okay too. Today, those assumptions lay shattered on the living room floor. If Joshu's misconduct was so well known in the Zen community then Leonard knew. How could he not? He was Joshu's personal assistant for five years at the Mount Baldy Zen Center. If this has been going on since the 60s Cohen's "Everybody Knows" takes on a whole new meaning, now doesn't it? Especially the line "you've been discreet, but there were so many people you just had to meet without your clothes, and everybody knows." Sure, maybe it's about and unfaithful woman, but now I'm not so sure.

From Cohen's time at Mount Baldy. Source.

I am sure of this: If Mr. Cohen was aware of Joshu's actions and chose to follow him on a spiritual journey anyway, that's really unfortunate. It makes me wonder about the sincerity and motivations of all of the people involved. I came across an article this morning by Brad Warner, another well known Zen practitioner that basically said we shouldn't be so quick to "lynch" Joshu over this matter. Beg pardon? I don't feel that outing his deplorable actions while in a place of power is a lynching. It's getting justice for the women he victimized. Mr. Warner's article cited a quote from one of these women that said "I 'suffered Roshi's abuse' - and it was the closest I ever got to god". That's not okay. That's what we call "Stockholm Syndrome". That's what it looks like when someone in a place of power takes advantage of someone who is emotionally (or perhaps spiritually?) vulnerable. If the accusations are true, Joshu's actions were manipulative, opportunistic, and maybe even predatory. As bad as all that is though, what's worse is that EVERBODY KNOWS and no one - not even my man Mr. Cohen - did anything to stop it.

Why is it that every artist or writer who reminds me of my father is,
in essence, little more than a dirty old man? Source.

If the price of enlightenment is silently turning a blind eye - is anyone really enlightened after all?