Other reasons why it can be difficult to report an abusive teacher
Above I listed some reasons why it is unrealistic to advise people to 'observe' a guru or teacher for years if need be, before deciding the teacher can be trusted--one can, after those years have passed, become socialized and lose ability to take any objective stance. A teacher's bad behavior can start to seem 'normal' even acceptable after one loses perspective--a process recognized by American social psychology research findings, (Milgram's obedience to authority experiment and Zimbardo's Prison similation experiment and the Stanford Cookie experiment)
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Other factors that make it difficult to find outlets to report abuse that are not recognized in this fatuous advice to 'report the teacher to the police and by name if necessary'
A guru or rinpoche if famous, brings REVENUE to the locality. All the students and retreatants bring customers to the nearby hotels, hostels, cab drivers, cafes, food markets.
Mayors of small towns, especially in isolated areas with lots of beautiful wilderness but plenty of local poverty will be desperate to support a person or project who brings in visitors and money.
This reluctance can affect the local police departments and local newspaper. A visiting rinpoche or dharma center can make a town or neighborhood more lively and wealthy. THe locals will earn much needed income renting out rooms.
Any woman who dares to state that an income generating guru has used her will be up against the economic miracles brought to the locality by this same guru.
A guru is a money tree, a wish fulfilling gem of income revenue. So what if he screws around?
There is an additional bias:
When older men misbehave sexually, a lot of younger men admire this. The younger often feel reassured when they see that an older man or an older and overweight man with eyeglasses and otherwise awkward manner is still generating sexual turmoil.
The younger men (this can include town mayors and police authorities) see this and feel reassured that they too can look forward to an active old age.
So a guru whose behavior reassures male anxieties about getting older, a guru who is bringing in money and visitors and fame and wealth to a town or neighborhood and its businesses--folks will be more apt to believe him and tell the women he has harmed to shut up and not make trouble.
All this is a very formidable barrier to breaking silence.
And as noted on the Dialogue Ireland page concenrning Sogyal Rinpoche and here on this thread concerning Ole Nydahl, there is no shortage of spin experts and trolls who show up to disrupt discussions. About two to three years ago this thread on Ole was bombarded with trolls, and day after day, and the person who originally started this thread (Emma C--thank you!) was repeatedly dumped on in a multitude of nasty ways.
Tibetan Buddhism has all the perks and resources for the powerful. You dont get to see the full truth of this until an underdog appears and dares to speak up against entrenched privilige or the underdog states that the powerholders are abusing their prerogatives at underlings expense.
Then, suddenly, the renowned Mahayana compassion is gone, and the renowed Tibetan Buddhist logic is used to state that you dont inherantly exist, therefore what you report has no inherant existence and that therefore you are the one who has the problem, not the randy Vajrayana guru who can do no wrong because 'wrong' is non inherantly existing....blah, blah, blah.
They only panic when there is a threat of losing PR and money. Somehow the existence of money and fame are never given the Emptiness treatment.
Your suffering as a used and discarded consort is illusory. But the exchange of USD or Euros against the Indian Rupee---that is Dharma and and we all bow down.