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And we have no other means to discuss this with Ole directly in a meaningful way without risking the discussion will be blocked, or opponents will risk to be precluded.
Seems to me that if 'we have no other means to discuss this with Ole' that alone is enough to signal that you are in a situation that cannot support your practice.
If one isnt free to speak directly with a teacher whom one is supporting financially and to whom one bows, that just reduces you to the level of a child or despised slave.
Even if someone's lineage credentials are impeccable and ( I am speaking hypotheticaly here) even if the teacher was endorsed by HHDL himself, and could raise the dead, if troubling things are being done and 'discussion is blocked' and one cannot discuss this with the teacher directly, that sounds like an atmosphere driven by afflictive emotion, where one will be tense and tight inside.
An environment like this cannot support your practice. You will feel too tight and tense inside.
Authentic lineage credentials cannot by themselves guarantee whether a teacher is capable of supporting practice or is actually living by the Bodhisattva Precepts. One cant just submit to a teacher by trusting that because the teacher is an authentic lineage holder that everything he does is automatically the right thing.
Chogyam Trungpa was considered part of an authentic lineage, yet he generated many many problems with alcohol, sex and power.
(For more, read the memoir
The Double Mirror by Stephen Butterfield--written by a faithful Buddhist practitioner and student of Trungpas, who regretted how he himself kept silent too many times about situations that he considered dishonest and hurtful. Butterfield stated he loved the practices, saw even his health benefit in unexpected ways. He considered Trungpa to be teaching authentically. Yet to his great sadness, Butterfield reported that there were too many abuses of power, and he looked back and regretted how he himself failed to speak up. Interestingly, Butterfield did not indicate that Trungpa gave much attention to the Bodhisattva Precepts,which are and should be foundational for any Mahayana Buddhist, no matter what stage of practice they have reached)
So authenticity of lineage is
not by itself a guarantee that a teacher will be alright.
When one's mind and emotions are constricted by being unable to discuss important matters freely and direclty, this will undermine your practice, period.
No need to ask about lineage matters in this case. Fretting about lineage matters will just be a distraction from examining the effects of this situation on your own ability to practice.
Being 'unable to discuss this directly' and 'having discussions blocked' has the effect of turning adults into frightened children.
One cant practice or be kind to one another in such conditions.
One doesnt have to have a Ph.D in chemistry to know whether a house is on fire or if the flames hurt your hands. You just get out and call the fire department.
And above all, ask what comes first, the Bodhisattva Precepts, or serving the personality of a leader?
A great problem is that persons who have tried to disrupt discussions here and on other venues often use a strategy of making it seem one has to have a Ph.D in Tibetan studies before one has any right to question a teacher's behavior or qualifications.
Or, if one already happens to have extensive background in Tibetan lineage matters, the questioner is told 'Oh dont get lost in intellect'.
Either way, a method is found to discredit you and shame you into silence.
And lineage and succession disputes are too often used to confuse and bore people into giving up a discussion--which could be considered a way to darken the mind with intoxicants.
A way to stay within Buddhism and at the same time examine a situation is to ask to what extent a teacher or lineage is being faithful to the Bodhisattva Precepts.
If a teacher's lineage credientials are impeccable, yet he or she is not living by the precepts, they cannot support your practice and their sanghas will be full of discord and harm--thought at first all this may be kept hidden if they are clever enough to stifle open discussion --which is one reason why often troubled sangha members have had to come here to RR.com to have an open discussion--only to have
enforcers show up and try to disrupt!
For all Buddhist teachers in the Mahayana Tradition (which includes all Tibetan lineages) are accountable to the Bodhisattva Precepts. They should all have taken a vow to live by those precepts.
And so are all serious students. If someone fails to live by these precepts, that alone will mean they create an environment that cannot support your practice and where harm will be generated.
Here is one copy of the Bodhisattva Precpts
[
www.berkeleyzencenter.org]
Of the precepts the Pure Precepts state:
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I vow to refrain from all evil.
(Doshi) It is the abode and the source of all Buddhas, and the law of all Buddhas.
I vow to do all that is good.
It is the teaching of anuttara samyaksambodhi and the path of the one who practices, and that which is practiced.
I vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings.
It is transcending profane and holy, taking self and others across.
These precepts apply to all Mahayana Buddhists, including those in Vajrayana and apply no matter what stage of practice one has reached.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2009 11:44PM by corboy.