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Assignment based on Ethics in Tibetan Buddhism
Solution
Introduction
History
Tibetan Buddhism is a religion that was forced from its homeland when Tibet was conquered by the Chinese. Anciently it was believed that out of 1 in 6 Tibetan men were considered to be a Buddhist monk. The teachings of Tibetan Buddhism is combined with the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism along with Shamanic and Tantric and material having its existence from Bon, an ancient Tibetan religion. Various believe that Vajrayana Buddhism to be similar to Tibetan Buddhism, but it is Vajrayana and other vehicles are taught in Tibetan Buddhism. Towards the end of the 8th century, Buddhism felt a dynamic presence in Tibet and Trisong Detsen, a Tibetan King brought the religion from India by inviting two Buddhist masters directly to Tibet who translated the Buddhist text into Tibetan (Powers, J., 2007).
Special features
A plethora of features is practiced by Tibetan Buddhist featuring the spiritual practices and rituals like yogic techniques and mantras. The religion is seen to take the supernatural beliefs at their prominence. The concept of gods, spirits, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, are taken in Tibetan religions. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Bodhisattvas are portrayed as wrathful deities and godlike figures (Snellgrove, D. L., 1957). Therefore a strong artistic tradition, graphics, and paintings have been developed in Tibetan Buddhism as per the metaphysical context that is used as a beneficial tool for understanding society at all the necessary levels. The public prayer wheels, structures of various sorts, flags and pictures are considered as visual aids for understanding Tibetan Buddhism which acts as a reminder for the spiritual domain in this physical world. Tibetan Buddhism has a strong presence amongst the laypeople and the monastic communities.
The laypeople rather than concern over the inner spiritual life focus on the outwardly religious activities like a pilgrimage, repeated prayers, ritual practice at temples, prostrations with strong use of public flags and wheels. They celebrate various festivals and funerals among various ceremonies.
Sexuality is one of the major debating issues in the ethics of Tibetan Buddhism. In this ethics of Tibetan Buddhism, the most controversial issue seen is the cross-cultural encounters in North American and Tibetan Buddhism among the student and teachers (Buffalodharma.org., 2016). The relationship between the teachers and students of Tibetan Buddhism is seen to have sexual relationships and the question on their appropriateness will be questioned in this paper.
Issues
The most controversial issue in the general principles of the power structures and hierarchy has been questioned owing to the relationship between teacher and student.
Although the popularity of Tibetan Buddhism is seen to be growing the relationship between the student and teacher is highly misunderstood among people and has even generated intense controversial views.
According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, in order to achieve a full understanding of the concept, the students must have full faith and trust in their teachers. Therefore, it becomes the utmost responsibility of the teacher to uphold the integrity of this pious tradition and transmit knowledge appropriately. Similarly, it is the responsibility of the student to encounter the burden of carrying the lineage of the teachings. When both the teachers and the student accept the burden and essence of protecting the knowledge and teachings, they practice it faultlessly by transmitting them without any omission. The bad sexual behavior among the Buddhist teachers is highly encountered and is examination timely. Various scandals have been seen over the years dealing with the sexual exploitation of the students by their teachers. The Buddhist monks and teachers pledges towards abstaining from any type of sexual misconduct (Buddhism-controversy-blog.com, 2016).
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Problem and ramification
The Buddhist practitioner’s vows to refrain from all types of sexual behavior in the Buddhist monastic community and the nuns and monks are considered to be equal. But both of the teachers are seen to be engaged in homosexual acts. The teaching of the Buddha is upheld by the traditional mentors by engaging in such activities, but the disciplines especially the ones from the West find it difficult to comprehend and accept and become highly perplexed. As per their personal beliefs, the disagreement with their teachers and gurus and while insisting on the women or homosexual equality, a breach between the guru and devotion is seen.
This has led to a bad reputation of Tibetan Buddhism, especially among the Western disciplines. This is because of conflicts in understanding the teachings and knowledge of Buddha. This has led to issues like abuse of power, authority, trust, projections, idealization, and requirement of the teachers to retain objectivity and impartiality as all these concepts are relevant to the relationship between the Buddhist teachers and students. Therefore, it has been understood that there is a need to develop a code of ethics for Buddhist teachers.
This controversial issue has posed a strong idea against the teachings of Buddha and Enlightenment which is the concept of putting an end to the unwholesome desires and needs. On achieving Enlightenment, one cannot backslide and the Enlightened Beings are considered to be incapable of any sort of sexual misconduct. Therefore all the teachers involved in such practices are at risk of becoming an abuser. It is seen that the teachers might encourage all the unrealistic expectations which are largely false regarding the benefits of sexual relationships.
On the establishment of the monastic community, Buddha was hesitant towards admitting the nuns as he was concerned about the fact that the society was not disparaged and he felt strong compassion for all the living beings of the world. Therefore he rejected various methods he was teaching for the elimination of sufferings. During that time the coexistence of monks and nun with equal treatment would not have been accepted by Indian society. Therefore, this leads to lacking maturity amongst the monks in dealing with any type of woman in a particular nonsexist manner (Rinpoche, S., 2012).
Along with this are questions about the general principles of religious hierarchy and power structures in Tibetan Buddhism. There are many arguments for and against traditional dynamics or new modern reformulations. However, how these dynamics actually play out in Buddhist centers varies greatly from teacher to teacher and from one community to another. The only way to understand how these dynamics manifest in particular communities is to get to know that particular teacher and community directly and ask questions of long-time students active in that community.
The primary factor characterizing the Tibetan Buddhist student-teacher relationship is based on respect and appreciation. The whole concept of appreciation among the teachers and their kind gestures has its foundation to the recognition of wisdom, generosity, and compassion manifesting the great teachers.
The teachers and their students are highly educational in nature and should aim to create learning environments where both of them are sharing a cordial environment of mutual respect. But the teachers are taking advantage of their position and misconduct with their students which is highly painful to see. Abuse is anything where lying, pretense, and conceit are present. Furthermore, when the teacher pretends to have more knowledge than he actually has, he is committing a sin. The teacher and students must realize that there is no shortcut to enlightenment (Rig-?dzin-rdo-rje (Mkhan-po, 2001)
The Buddhist tradition has its genuine spirit and must share an environment full of affection and mutual respect in order to make the learning environment to be highly educational. The Buddhist tradition has always appreciated the kindness of the teachers for facilitating mutual learning and to improve the sincerity of the students. The students must appreciate the knowledge and education for genuine empowerment, however, the sexual misconduct has worsened the issue.
The teachers are asked to be kind and the students are asked to be highly efficient towards mutual learning. The students on being taught the Buddhist philosophy and Vajrayana principles, they must be able to grasp their intelligence and navigate all the ethical ambiguities and make their own decisions by consulting their teachers in order to be highly productive. Tibetan Buddhism was aimed at fostering maturity and independence and offer a supportive and warm environment. The Tibetan Buddhist student-teacher relationship is based on education, compassion, and mutual support.
The primary keys are respect and intelligence and students having honesty can have a common sense and are able to devote to their relationships along with thinking for themselves. It has been established that not every who is practicing Vajrayana is sycophantic and people teaching it are not expected to have a blind-cultic faith. These stereotypes are not applied to teachers and practitioners who are seen to refrain from sexual activities (Bell, S., 2002). The teachers must take personal responsibility and along with their decisions and mind and his must be preached as the fundamental teaching behind the karma and are responsible for our own lives (Thurman, R. A., 1995).
Traditionally, the stories of Vajrayana were seen to describe relationships between teachers, practitioners, and students exhibiting extreme devotion and high level of devotions. These stories depict the importance of maintaining the decorum and discipline irrespective of the hardship which can be presented in all types of learning and these stories provided a great hint of love, mutual respect, and trust which must take place between the student and the teacher (Levitt, H. M., 1999).
Although various Buddhist teachers were seen to exhibit extreme compassion and kindness leading to the creation of warm-hearted appreciation the issue of sexual misconduct has provided an extreme brand reputation to the religion. Although like any other field, the Tibetan Buddhists are seen to be varying to a great extent and are seen to be advocating a considerable amount of time for examining their teachers before committing to any type of long-term study (Craig, R. P., 1996).
Conclusion
The intelligent thinking, questioning, reasoning are valued by Buddhism along with examining the nature of teaching. This had made the Buddhist philosophy and its education to be highly protected from the extremist attitudes and cultish behavior due to well-developed intellect facilitation for a capacity of teachers as well as their students to think about themselves. This has also expanded the study from contemporary figures and ideas to the historical text, from a solo personality figure to the determination of its principles and this way is it able to create a broader resource for dealing with contradictions and questioning tradition. Therefore there is a need to adopt a critical as well as a constructive approach in order to provide genuine learning without any sexual misconduct with the Western or other students.
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Snellgrove, D. L. (1957). Buddhist Himalaya--travels and studies in quest of the origins and nature of Tibetan religion.
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Rinpoche, S. (2012). The Tibetan book of living and dying: a spiritual classic from one of the foremost interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Random House.
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Thurman, R. A. (1995). Essential Tibetan Buddhism. HarperSanFrancisco.
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Powers, J. (2007). Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Snow Lion Publications.
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Rig-?dzin-do-rje (Mkhan-po.). (2001). Dangerous friend: The teacher-student relationship in Vajrayana Buddhism. Shambhala.
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Craig, R. P. (1996). Student-teacher relationship: A Buddhist perspective. The Clearing House, 69(5), 285-286.
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Bell, S. (2002). Scandals in emerging Western Buddhism.
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Levitt, H. M. (1999). The development of wisdom: An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 39(2), 86-105.
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Buddhism-controversy-blog.com. (2016). Dalai Lama – Tibetan Buddhism:: Struggling With Diff•Cult Issues. [online] Available at: https://buddhism-controversy-blog.com/tag/dalai-lama/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
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Buffalodharma.org. (2016). Sexual Abuse by Spiritual Teachers | Mindfulness Articles | Buffalo Dharma. [online] Available at: http://www.buffalodharma.org/articles/sexual-abuse-spiritual-teachers [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].
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