5.2. Sex Scandals and Cover-ups: the Same as Other Religions
Like other religions, Buddhism suffers from the same impulse to hide events that tarnish the reputation of Buddhism. Note the similar trends in these examples:
For example, Lama Choedak Rinpoche, who we quoted from above regarding female ordination, runs the Tibetan Buddhist Society of Canberra, Australia. He has been embroiled in a sex scandal after it emerged that he had had affairs with several women from Canberra's Tibetan Buddhist Community in 2010. His initial responses and the reactions of Buddhist officialdom were revealing. When complaints about his behaviour first emerged within the group, he and senior Buddhists 'said talking to the media or telling new group members what had happened could be spiritually damaging and prevent other Canberrans from ''achieving enlightenment through buddhism''' - in other words, they told the complainers not to speak about the incidents11.
Sangharakshita founded the Triratna Buddhist Community, known until 2010 as fwbo (Friends of the Western Buddhist Order), one of the uk's largest Buddhist groups and perhaps the most well-known. But he only founded this order after being dismissed in 1966 from the English Sangha Trust due to concerns over his personal behaviour, including his receiving accusations of sexual misconduct. But that wasn't all. The "fwbo Files" almost prides itself on the wealth of problems surrounding Sangharakshita's sexual life even before 1966:
“He returned to England in 1964, having been, reportedly, expelled by the Indian authorities. According to this report, considerable concern had built up over rumours about Sangharakshita's sexual behavior with young male students of Buddhism. In particular, there was an Indian family that wished to prosecute Sangharakshita for having seduced their son. A very senior Indian politician, who was sympathetic to Buddhism and also something of an anglophile, intervened personally in order to protect the good name of Buddhism from the risk of being damaged by the publicity surrounding such a case. He persuaded the family to drop the case, on condition Sangharakshita left India. A post as resident monk at the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara in London was arranged for Sangharakshita. Christmas Humphreys, a prominent English Buddhist of the time, was closely involved in arranging this move, but he omitted to tell the Hampstead Buddhist Vihara of the full reasons behind the move, and he also took great care to keep the politician's name out of things, lest this politician be accused of colluding in a cover-up.”
The FWBO Files12
Two of his alleged junior male sexual partners from 1996 committed suicide.
Both of these instances reveal multiple people at high-levels "looking out" for Buddhism by suppressing the revealing of cases of sexual misbehaviour among the founder - not even mere laypeople - of major Buddhist movements. As these are the people who are scrutinized most widely, it stands without doubt that these represent only a small portion of the complete picture, and that many more cover-ups have remained in shadow.
More reading:
In "The Peacock vs. the Ostrich - Religious Behaviour and Sexuality" by Vexen Crabtree (2008) I conclude that the teachings of traditional religions, steeped in most cases in patriarchal dominance and sometimes in doctrines of celibacy, are the cause of so much sexuality-based strife.
5.3. Human Suffering: Paying the Price for the Sins of a Previous Life
There is a lot of suffering in the world. This fact leads Buddhists to look to Buddha for an answer, and leads Christians to look to Christ for an answer. Both claim that ultimately a blissful state can be attained with no suffering: that eventually everything will be alright. The psychological attraction of such beliefs is one of the greatest factors behind the success of religions that explain away suffering.
But, Christianity and Buddhism have both dehumanized suffering in history and have both led people to accept suffering when they should not. In Christianity, especially historically and within conservative Christianity, suffering is a test from God, a result of the sins of us and our ancestors. In Buddhism, suffering is the status-quo of life and in popular Buddhism a person suffers now for their transgressions in previous lives. Both Christianity and Buddhism explain away present evil as an unavoidable circumstance that we are better to accept than to combat.
“The poor, the powerless and the diseased are therefore assumed to owe their misfortune to moral transgressions in past lives, no matter how virtuously they may strive to improve their condition in this life. This mystification is applied also to whole peoples and nations. [...] "This retributive view of kamma is quite alien to canonical Buddhism, as Buddhist scholars and teachers have made clear on many occasions.”
"The Social Face of Buddhism" by Ken Jones (1989)13
The result is a depressive acceptance of social ills, taken as they are to be endured rather than cured. Anti-progressionist, such views have led the world into its darkest years. As with Christianity, when popular Buddhism informs, for example, a painfully disabled person that their present torture is a result of their own past actions or sins, the result is a harmful negativity and horrifies any compassionate person that such doctrines ever came to be. Karmic resolution and Christian sin are both harmful concepts with negative effects on society, especially on the weak and unfortunate.
5.4. The Social Vampirism of Monasteries
Buddhism monasteries in the UK, like many monks, cannot support themselves, and require donations from the (working) community around them. Traditionally, laypeople would (they believed) improve their karma by giving to monasteries. This system is very similar to Christianity, and has the same problem: It is merely a form of unsustainable vampirism whereby non-producers and world-rejectionists are encouraged in their mystical beliefs, by guilty laypeople who want to feel good about themselves. In reality, it is the non-producers who should feel guilty!
fonte:
www.humanreligions.info cryticism of buddhism
skerzo!! nun ve incazzate! 