Silence Is Not the Answer

Recently I came across an article about Sogyal Rinpoche, the renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author of the classic “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.” The article, published on the website Dialogue Ireland, dealt with Sogyal’s alleged sexual misconduct with students and devotees and some of the media responses to the stories of abuse.

One reason the article grabbed my interest was its discussion of spiritual abuse, in this case by a famous and well-respected Buddhist authority. As one writer noted:

“[W]here a religious figure in a position of trust engages in a sexual act with a follower, that person’s status transforms a seemingly consensual act into an abusive one