Zen in the West, Sex & Institutions

The analysis, addressed directly to me, but also elsewhere on the web, is pretty negative. Some had to do with conspiracies of one sort or another to suppress the terrible truth, hints at what that truth might be hanging heavy in the air. Some were more concerned with the ineffectiveness of emergent institutions, particularly the AZTA suggesting that the actions I mentioned were too little too late. And, anyway probably only motivated by fear of litigation or, more vaguely, of damage to the AZTA’s reputation. A few took this all as more evidence that Zen is flawed at its core, and the informed would best move on to other practices and traditions.

There is no doubt Zen institutions in the West have handled sex and sexuality badly. There are many reasons for this, general and specific. I’m not going into specifics in any detail. Well, I don’t think I’m going into anything in great detail, it isn’t what blogs are made to do.

At the beginning, we all live in glass houses. My own teacher has been accused of misconduct. And as I think about what that has been, it raises the issues of what exactly is misconduct, who gets to say, and who gets to say what happens as a consequence. I think anyone can see there is a range of opinions around sex, what is appropriate and what is not. And I’ve rarely met anyone who seems to be above the fray. Absolutely, myself included. But, bottom line, I’m reluctant to cast stones.

And, maybe its mixing metaphors, but there have to be lines. Absolutely, there have to be lines.

I personally am impressed how the current leadership of the Zen Studies Society has decided to address their issue head on. Only those of us with long and intimate relationships with teachers can know how difficult it can be to hold our teachers accountable for their actions. (And without the proper institutional support it is impossible.) Many, many factors are involved. And let me say those who would limit it to issues of power just don’t understand. It all is in fact so complex and so hard that I know they may not succeed. But so far, as best I can see, they are trying hard and are making some good choices on how to proceed. And seem willing to follow through no matter the consequences. Good on them.

But at this moment I’m more interested in the bigger picture and what the consequences of what’s going on are for Zen in the West.

Here I see the lack of larger institutions that oversee teachers and communities is a major problem. Not just about sex, but it is a good placeholder for all the complex issues of human relationships.

Now, as I’ve said elsewhere, the AZTA isn’t even a professional organization. It is basically a listserv and an annual gathering of peers without bylaws or, codes of conduct. This year’s meeting is significant for the fact it has authorized the exploration of some sort of code to which members subscribe. Frankly, I’m not sure the Association will survive the process. And it’s not just because people don’t want to be held accountable, at least not most. The issues are complex and have as much to do with a cherished sense of autonomy within lineage as anything else. But I hope we will achieve a code. It would be good for us and it would be good for the larger community.

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.

Returning to that list of contributing factors leading to all the problems: No doubt a real problem is the relative isolation of Zen teachers within their communities. Related to this is the authority of the teacher within relationships so easily shifting from one kind of intimacy to another, without much by way of institutional support, is probably the biggest contributing factor to all sorts of ethical malfeasance. All this supported by how Zen teachings can be an easy slide into forms of antinomianism. Which, I’m sure, is part of why there’s been such a lack of attention to the ethical life in Zen communities until fairly recently.

Most important, however, I feel, has had to do with the myth of the Zen master as a perfect master whose every action is teaching. At least that can be argued for the first generation of Zen practitioners in the West. But not so much so, these days. A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the ensuing decades and anyone who wishes can learn much of the actual history of Zen, its disciplines as well as its unique concepts of Dharma transmission and the place of the Zen teacher within that transmission. For most, observers and practitioners alike, including contemporary second and third generation teachers, the myth has been thoroughly deconstructed.

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.

And out of all this some interesting things are beginning to emerge.

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.

But, that only shows possibilities. I am uninterested in the particular spiritual disciplines offered by either of these lineages. And currently the Japanese-derived Rinzai schools and the many different lineages carrying the Harada Yasutani koan curriculum (which means so much to me) have not been able to cohere into mutually accountable organizations. So, for them, for us, the AZTA is particularly important. Or, can be.

But, there’s something else floating out there that is important for the midterm, and perhaps for the long haul.

As one teacher friend pointed out the average age of the American Zen teacher is somewhere in her or his early sixties.

What I think we’re looking at is a dying off of Zen in the West within the next twenty years.

I don’t think Zen will go away. But it will be a much smaller thing than it currently is.

What will survive will no doubt be chastened. Our apparent inability to adequately deal with the koan of sex will inform this next generation.

Their teachers will have seen what was bad, so much, and what was good, so important.

It is with some regret that as I’ll be part of the great dying off I won’t get to see what happens.

But I have hopes. For something vital, something that carries the amazing disciplines of just sitting and koan introspection and with spiritual directors who have been taken down a peg or two but who can and should be treasured for what they can do.

And, I’m sure they’ll come up with new problems of their own making, no doubt.

But that’s another chapter yet to be written…