Re: Zen is not in the Helping Profession
I think Brad has some valid points, but I also agree with KvonNJ's assessment of Brad's stance as self-aggrandizing and shirking responsibility. I think the issue is that human beings are not perfect and whether we go in one direction or another, there's going to be a particular set of imperfections that come with it. Either we have a Zen free of the ills that beset large institutions but also full of teachers who take on authority positions and do whatever with students without anyone or any standard to call them out for it, or a Zen that becomes somewhat institutionalized and takes on some of the accretions of institutional dogma, pandering, and materialism.
I honestly think there's something to be said for either side, but I'd rather err on the side of some form of accountability for Zen teachers. I think of all the young people attracted to Zen looking for direction who don't have any way to check on the legitimacy of Zen Master Rama Lama Ding Dong who invites them on a hot tub retreat with him. Some people are going to end up on the wrong end of Roshi Ding Dong's, er, dong, anyway, but I know that when I was in college I tended to do some research into things I was getting into, to see if institutions and organizations were connected to any larger network of legitimacy. Of course, these very authorizations and organizations can be suspect themselves, and/or not that effective at weeding out charlatans, but at least they're a starting point for research.
I think Brad may have a bit of an agenda when it comes to this sort of thing because he sleeps with students, or at least has done so in the past. The helping professions and these organizing bodies frown on that. I agree with Brad's assessment of how Zen teachers work with students as far as it goes that teachers are not experts and the work is a mutual effort (most modern schools of therapy posit the same thing, that client and therapist are "collaborators") but I disagree with his arguments that a relationship between teacher and student is non-hierarchical. No matter how much you might try to make it non-hierarchical, it is so by its very nature. That's uncomfortable for some folks, but that uncomfortability can't erase the fact.
I agree that Zen teachers are not "helping professionals" in the sense that they are not trained or licensed to help people with anything outside of the spiritual path. A lot of American Zen teachers take a self-help approach and start offering their thoughts and techniques in areas where they have no training and limited understanding and could do some harm. And some people seem to find an easier way into a therapy career by means of donning some religious hat than actually training to be a therapist.
However, one area in which I think Zen teachers are in the same exact boat as "helping professionals" is the nature of the power differential in the relationship between the teacher/therapist and student/client. For those who undergo education and training in the therapy field, there is extensive training in understanding these dynamics, and how to maintain proper and non-harmful boundaries between therapist and client. I think Zen teachers often do not understand these dynamics, and either neglect them out of ignorance or naivete, or ignore them out of greed and self-serving ends, often with the same result.
People project a lot onto authority figures. And Zen teachers become authority figures, no matter how much they might not want to be. People project "mommy" or "daddy issues" onto Zen teachers just as they do therapists. People misinterpret the intimacies of the relationship with a teacher and experience unhealthy or misplaced sexual attraction to Zen teachers just as they do therapists. The difference is that therapists are trained how to deal with these projections and "transference," and their own "countertransference," while Zen teachers are not. This is not to say there are not therapists who neglect this education or ignore it or make mistakes in spite of their best efforts. But a lot of harm is prevented just through the fact it is widely taught to be mindful of proper boundaries in the therapeutic relationship.
I will make my own bold statement and say that a sexual relationship between someone who came to a Zen teacher looking for a teacher and that teacher will never, ever, be one that is starting from a healthy place. Because the attraction and magnetism comes from the sexual allure of perceived power, and the dynamic that plays out between someone who is relating to someone they see as so much more powerful and knowing than them, and someone who is receiving that adulation, kicks up a lot of dust and dirt. It can be very sexually alluring (human sexuality is all about power dynamics, dominance/submission, etc., just study our closest animal relatives) but an emotional hornet's nest. There is no way to form an equal partnership out of a relationship that started out of someone's attraction to someone they saw as someone who could guide them and show them the way (i.e. someone projected onto as a parental figure).
No matter how well-intentioned someone may be, I think that without the proper education and training, instinctive sexual and emotional responses take over, and so without any sort of regulating body holding people accountable, and with the ongoing mystique of the Zen teacher as someone with some sort of occult power or mysticism, more often than not there would be impropriety coming up in teacher/student relationships. With some form of people coming together, looking at what they do and talking about it, at least there can be some awareness, some standard, some forum. I'm definitely on the side of it being better to have it than not, though there certainly are costs and "trade-offs."
I think Brad has some valid points, but I also agree with KvonNJ's assessment of Brad's stance as self-aggrandizing and shirking responsibility. I think the issue is that human beings are not perfect and whether we go in one direction or another, there's going to be a particular set of imperfections that come with it. Either we have a Zen free of the ills that beset large institutions but also full of teachers who take on authority positions and do whatever with students without anyone or any standard to call them out for it, or a Zen that becomes somewhat institutionalized and takes on some of the accretions of institutional dogma, pandering, and materialism.
I honestly think there's something to be said for either side, but I'd rather err on the side of some form of accountability for Zen teachers. I think of all the young people attracted to Zen looking for direction who don't have any way to check on the legitimacy of Zen Master Rama Lama Ding Dong who invites them on a hot tub retreat with him. Some people are going to end up on the wrong end of Roshi Ding Dong's, er, dong, anyway, but I know that when I was in college I tended to do some research into things I was getting into, to see if institutions and organizations were connected to any larger network of legitimacy. Of course, these very authorizations and organizations can be suspect themselves, and/or not that effective at weeding out charlatans, but at least they're a starting point for research.
I think Brad may have a bit of an agenda when it comes to this sort of thing because he sleeps with students, or at least has done so in the past. The helping professions and these organizing bodies frown on that. I agree with Brad's assessment of how Zen teachers work with students as far as it goes that teachers are not experts and the work is a mutual effort (most modern schools of therapy posit the same thing, that client and therapist are "collaborators") but I disagree with his arguments that a relationship between teacher and student is non-hierarchical. No matter how much you might try to make it non-hierarchical, it is so by its very nature. That's uncomfortable for some folks, but that uncomfortability can't erase the fact.
I agree that Zen teachers are not "helping professionals" in the sense that they are not trained or licensed to help people with anything outside of the spiritual path. A lot of American Zen teachers take a self-help approach and start offering their thoughts and techniques in areas where they have no training and limited understanding and could do some harm. And some people seem to find an easier way into a therapy career by means of donning some religious hat than actually training to be a therapist.
However, one area in which I think Zen teachers are in the same exact boat as "helping professionals" is the nature of the power differential in the relationship between the teacher/therapist and student/client. For those who undergo education and training in the therapy field, there is extensive training in understanding these dynamics, and how to maintain proper and non-harmful boundaries between therapist and client. I think Zen teachers often do not understand these dynamics, and either neglect them out of ignorance or naivete, or ignore them out of greed and self-serving ends, often with the same result.
People project a lot onto authority figures. And Zen teachers become authority figures, no matter how much they might not want to be. People project "mommy" or "daddy issues" onto Zen teachers just as they do therapists. People misinterpret the intimacies of the relationship with a teacher and experience unhealthy or misplaced sexual attraction to Zen teachers just as they do therapists. The difference is that therapists are trained how to deal with these projections and "transference," and their own "countertransference," while Zen teachers are not. This is not to say there are not therapists who neglect this education or ignore it or make mistakes in spite of their best efforts. But a lot of harm is prevented just through the fact it is widely taught to be mindful of proper boundaries in the therapeutic relationship.
I will make my own bold statement and say that a sexual relationship between someone who came to a Zen teacher looking for a teacher and that teacher will never, ever, be one that is starting from a healthy place. Because the attraction and magnetism comes from the sexual allure of perceived power, and the dynamic that plays out between someone who is relating to someone they see as so much more powerful and knowing than them, and someone who is receiving that adulation, kicks up a lot of dust and dirt. It can be very sexually alluring (human sexuality is all about power dynamics, dominance/submission, etc., just study our closest animal relatives) but an emotional hornet's nest. There is no way to form an equal partnership out of a relationship that started out of someone's attraction to someone they saw as someone who could guide them and show them the way (i.e. someone projected onto as a parental figure).
No matter how well-intentioned someone may be, I think that without the proper education and training, instinctive sexual and emotional responses take over, and so without any sort of regulating body holding people accountable, and with the ongoing mystique of the Zen teacher as someone with some sort of occult power or mysticism, more often than not there would be impropriety coming up in teacher/student relationships. With some form of people coming together, looking at what they do and talking about it, at least there can be some awareness, some standard, some forum. I'm definitely on the side of it being better to have it than not, though there certainly are costs and "trade-offs."
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