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We may be in a critical phase in the transmission of the buddhadharma to the global culture. How we deal with power is one of the most vital issues.<\/span><\/p>\n First off, I don\u2019t agree with those who see power as evil, as something we should avoid.\u00a0 Power is always being exercised in our personal lives and in community so it is better to embrace power and openly reflect on it together.<\/span><\/p>\n However, I do<\/u> understand the reaction to flee when the complexity and difficulty of power becomes salient. I sometimes still yearn for a little cabin in the woods, less often now but \u2026 ah, waking up to the deep quiet, sipping coffee on the veranda in the dark, hours of zazen, a swim in a clear mountain lake \u2026 ah, but there I go again\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n Back to the issue of power, I agree with those who suggest that scandals and such are symptoms of an underlying issue, specifically, where can we optimally locate power such that the buddhadharma might fully bloom? Should power be located in the teacher, the community, or the individual?<\/span><\/p>\n The traditional place to locate power was in the teacher. Here\u2019s an example of a description of a retreat where power is located in one key person:\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n What\u2019s different in this blurb <\/span>(I am not making this up) <\/span>from other systems with traditional power is how undisguised and unabashed <\/i>the teacher-centered approach is. The power to change your life seems to lie in spending $15,000 for four days in Maui, hanging out with somebody really<\/i> special.<\/span><\/p>\n Come on. Such a retreat would seriously transform my credit card debt but apart from that, probably not so much.<\/span><\/p>\n That these events fill up shows how people are desperately <\/span>hungry <\/span>and how that hunger can be exploited.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember, \u201cStand on your own two feet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Disillusioned by hanging out and anticipating transformation (with or without scandal, with or without spending $15,000), what we often try next is to locate power in the community.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s one clear expression of community-based power that I stumbled across recently in an online forum (used with permission):\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n What we can do is to locate power in community, one that authorizes teachers and people in other leadership roles by calling for mutual accountability, ethical action, and an openness to speaking and listening to truth.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Clearly, there are advantages to community power, important and healthy stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, what also comes when power is located in the community is group-thinking which is inherently uncreative and attached to fleeting, contemporary norms as if they were universal truths. In addition, in order to project community- based power, lots of meetings are required and the group\u2019s focus can move from practicing awakening to attending committee meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n Sound familiar? If so, your community might be practicing community-located power.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s another danger that is expressed by the Japanese saying, \u201cThe nail that stands up gets hammered down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Power located in the community encourages a system of normalizing judgment that is exercised in the evaluation of our own and others\u2019 lives. This can control against abuses but also limits innovation \u2013 a vitally important ingredient in establishing the dharma here and now.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, the community can elevate itself such that compliance with the community\u2019s normative judgments becomes the goal of the practice. The communal \u201cwe\u201d becomes more important than the individual. Rather than an ego we develop what Pilar Jennings calls a \u201cwe-go.\u201d In community-located power, the we-go is idealized and awakening to true nature is equated with compliance to group norms. Dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n A third option is the post-modern approach. Here\u2019s an really Buddhist-sounding excerpt from Wikipedia<\/a>:\u00a0 <\/i><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n [Post-modernism] involves the belief that many, if not all, apparent realities are only social constructs, as they are subject to change inherent to time and place. It emphasizes the role of language, power relations, and motivations; in particular it attacks the use of sharp classifications\u2026. Rather, it holds realities to be plural and relative, and dependent on who the interested parties are and what their interests consist in.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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