Buddhist Teacher Student Relationship and Ethics in Tibetan Buddhism

The assignment content highlights the need for a code of ethics for Buddhist teachers to address concerns about sexual misconduct and power dynamics in Tibetan Buddhism. The content emphasizes the importance of respect, intelligence, and mutual support between students and teachers, while also acknowledging the risks of abuse when teachers take advantage of their position. It is crucial for both parties to create a cordial environment of mutual respect, honesty, and open communication. The content also touches on traditional dynamics in Tibetan Buddhism, emphasizing the need for critical thinking, questioning, and reasoning. Ultimately, the goal is to establish a genuine learning environment free from sexual misconduct and power abuse.

Ethics in Tibetan buddhism
[Document subtitle]
December 6th, 2016
Timothy Brassard
26940897
Reli 362 2/A
Marc des Jardins
Tibetan Buddhism is a religion which was forced from its homeland when Tibet was
conquered by the Chinese. Anciently it was believed that out of 1 in 6 Tibetan men were

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considered to be Buddhist monk. The teachings of Tibetan Buddhism is combined with the
teachings of Mahayana Buddhism along with Shamanic and Tantric and material having its
existence from Bon, an ancient Tibetan religion. Various believe that the Vajrayana Buddhism to
be similar as Tibetan Buddhism, but it is Vajrayana and other vehicles are taught in Tibetan
Buddhism. Towards the end of 8th century, Buddhism felt a dynamic presence in Tibet and
Trisong Detsen, a Tibetan King brought the religion from India by inviting two Buddhist masters
directly to Tibet who translated the Buddhist text into Tibetan (Powers, J., 2007).
A plethora of features are practiced by Tibetan Buddhist featuring the spiritual practices
and rituals like yogic techniques and mantras. The religion is seen to take the supernatural beliefs
at their prominence. The concept of gods, spirits, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, are taken in Tibetan
religions. In the Tibetan Buddhism, the Bodhisattvas are portrayed as wrathful deities and
godlike figures (Snellgrove, D. L., 1957). Therefore a strong artistic tradition, graphics and
paintings has been developed in Tibetan Buddhism as per the metaphysical context that are used
as a beneficial tool for understand the society at all the necessary levels. The public prayer
wheels, structures of various sorts, flags and pictures are considered as a visual aids for
understanding the Tibetan Buddhism which acts as a reminder for spiritual domain in this
physical world. Tibetan Buddhism has a strong presence amongst the lay people and the
monastic communities.
The lay people rather than concerning over the inner spiritual life focus on the outwardly
religious activities like pilgrimage, repeated prayers, ritual practice at temples, prostrations with
a strong use of public flags and wheels. They celebrate various festivals and funerals among
various ceremonies.

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The sexuality is one of the major debating issues in the ethics of Tibetan Buddhism. In
this ethics of the Tibetan Buddhism, the most controversial issue seen is the cross cultural
encounters in the North American and Tibetan Buddhism among the student and teachers
(Buffalodharma.org., 2016). The relationship between the teachers and students of the Tibetan
Buddhism are seen to have sexual relationships and the question on their appropriateness will be
questioned in this paper.
The most controversial issue in the general principles of the power structures and
hierarchy have been questioned owning to the relationship between teacher and student.
Although the popularity of the Tibetan Buddhism is seen to be growing but the relationship
between the student and teacher is highly misunderstood among people and has even generated
intense controversial views.
According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, in order to achieve full understanding of the
concept, the students must have full faith and trust in their teachers. Therefore, it becomes utmost
responsibility of the teacher to uphold integrity of this pious tradition and transmit knowledge
appropriately. Similarly, it is the responsibility of the student to encounter the burden of carrying
lineage of the teachings. When both the teachers and the student accept the burden and essence
of protecting the knowledge and teachings, they practice it faultlessly by transmitting them
without any omission. The bad sexual behavior among the Buddhist teachers is highly
encountered and is examination timely. Various scandals have been seen over the years dealing
with sexual exploitation of the students by their teachers. The Buddhist monks and teachers
pledges towards abstaining from any type of sexual misconduct (Buddhism-controversy-
blog.com, 2016).

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The Buddhist practitioner’s vows to refrain from all types of sexual behavior in the
Buddhist monastic community and the nuns and monks are considered to be equal. But both of
the teachers are seen to be engaged in the homosexual acts. The teaching of the Buddha are
upheld by the traditional mentors by engaging in such activities, but the disciplines especially the
ones from West find it difficult to comprehend and accept and become highly perplexed. As per
their personal beliefs, the disagreement with their teachers and gurus and while insisting on the
women or homosexual equality, a breach between the guru and devotion is seen.
This has led to bad reputation of Tibetan Buddhism especially among the Western
disciplines. This is because of conflicts in understanding the teachings and knowledge of
Buddha. This has led to issues like abuse of power, authority, trust, projections, idealization and
requirement of the teachers to retain objectivity and impartiality as all these concepts are relevant
to the relationship between the Buddhist teachers and students. Therefore, it has been understood
that there is a need to develop a code of ethic for the Buddhist teachers.
This controversial issue has posed a strong idea against the teachings of Buddha and
Enlightenment which is the concept of putting an end to the unwholesome desires and needs. On
achieving Enlightenment, one cannot backslide and the Enlightened Beings are considered to be
incapable of any sort of the sexual misconduct. Therefore all the teachers involved in such
practices are at risk of becoming an abuser. It is seen that the teachers might encourage the all
the unrealistic expectations which are largely false regarding the benefits of sexual relationships.
On establishment of the monastic community, Buddha was hesitant towards admitting the
nuns as he was concerned of the fact that the society was not disparage and he felt a strong
compassion for all the living beings of the world. Therefore he rejected various methods he was

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teaching for elimination of sufferings. During that time the coexistence of monks and nun with
equal treatment would not have been accepted by the Indian society. Therefore, this lead to
lacking of maturity amongst the monks in dealing with any type of women in a particular
nonsexist manner (Rinpoche, S., 2012).
Along with this are questions about the general principles of religious hierarchy and
power structures in Tibetan Buddhism. There are many arguments for and against traditional
dynamics or new modern reformulations. However, how these dynamics actually play out in
Buddhist centers varies greatly from teacher to teacher and from one community to another. The
only way to understand how these dynamics manifest in particular communities is to get to know
that particular teacher and community directly and ask questions of long-time students active in
that community.
The primary factor characterizing the Tibetan Buddhist student teacher relationship is
based on respect and appreciations. The whole concept of appreciation among the teachers and
their kind gestures has its foundation to the recognition of wisdom, generosity and compassion
manifesting the great teachers.
The teachers and their students are highly educational in nature and should aim to create
learning environments where both of them are sharing a cordial environment of mutual respect.
But the teachers are taking advantage of their position and misconducting with their students
which is highly painful to see. Abuse is anything where lying, pretence and conceit is present.
Furthermore when the teacher pretends to have more knowledge than he actually has, he is
committing a sin. The teacher and students must realise that there is no shortcut to enlightenment
(Rig-ʼdzin-rdo-rje (Mkhan-po, 2001)

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The Buddhist tradition has its genuine spirit and must share an environment full of
affection and mutual respect in order to make the learning environment to be highly educational.
The Buddhist tradition has always appreciated the kindness of the teachers for facilitating mutual
learning and to improve sincerity of the students. The students must appreciate the knowledge
and education for genuine empowerment, however the sexual misconduct has worsened the
issue.
The teachers are asked to be kind and the students are asked to be highly efficient
towards mutual learning. The students on being taught the Buddhist philosophy and Vajrayana
principles, they must be able to grasp their intelligence and navigate all the ethical ambiguities
and make their own decisions by consulting their teachers in order to be highly productive. The
Tibetan Buddhism was aimed at fostering maturity and independence and offer a supportive and
warm environment. The Tibetan Buddhist student teacher relationship is all based on education,
compassion and mutual support.
The primary keys are respect and intelligence and students having honesty can have a
common sense and are able to devote to their relationships along with thinking for themselves. It
has been established that not every who is practicing Vajrayana is sycophantic and people
teaching it are not expected to have a blind-cultic faith. These stereotypes are not applied to
teachers and practitioners who are seen to refrain from sexual activities (Bell, S., 2002). The
teachers must take personal responsibility and along with their decisions and mind and his must
be preached as the fundamental teaching behind the karma and are responsible for our own lives
(Thurman, R. A., 1995).

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Traditionally, the stories of Vajrayana were seen to describe relationships between
teachers, practitioners and students exhibiting extreme devotion and high level of devotions.
These stories depict the importance of maintaining the decorum and discipline irrespective of the
hardship which can be presented in all types of learning and these stories provided a great hint of
love, mutual respect and trust which must be take place between the student and the teacher
(Levitt, H. M., 1999).
Although various Buddhist teachers were seen to exhibit extreme compassion and
kindness leading to creation of warm-hearted appreciation but the issue of sexual misconduct has
provided extreme brand reputation to the religion. Although like any other field, the Tibetan
Buddhist are seen to be varying to a great extent and are seen to be advocating a considerable
amount of time for examining their teachers before committing to any type of long-term study
(Craig, R. P., 1996).
The intelligent thinking, questioning, reasoning are valued by the Buddhism along with
examining the nature of teaching. This had made the Buddhist philosophy and its education to be
highly protected from the extremist attitudes and cultish behavior due to well-developed intellect
facilitation for a capacity of teachers as well as their students to think about themselves. This has
also expanded the study from contemporary figures and ideas to the historical text, from a solo
personality figure to the determination of its principles and this way is it able to create a broader
resource for dealing with contradictions and questioning tradition. Therefore there is a need to
adopt to a critical as well as constructive approach in order to provide a genuine learning without
any sexual misconduct with the Western or other students.

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References
Snellgrove, D. L. (1957). Buddhist Himalaya--travels and studies in quest of the origins and
nature of Tibetan religion.
Rinpoche, S. (2012). The Tibetan book of living and dying: a spiritual classic from one of the
foremost interpreters of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Random House.
Thurman, R. A. (1995). Essential Tibetan Buddhism. HarperSanFrancisco.
Powers, J. (2007). Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Snow Lion Publications.
Rig-ʼdzin-rdo-rje (Mkhan-po.). (2001). Dangerous friend: The teacher-student relationship in
Vajrayana Buddhism. Shambhala.
Craig, R. P. (1996). Student-teacher relationship: A Buddhist perspective. The Clearing
House, 69(5), 285-286.
Bell, S. (2002). Scandals in emerging Western Buddhism.
Levitt, H. M. (1999). The development of wisdom: An analysis of Tibetan Buddhist
experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 39(2), 86-105.
Buddhism-controversy-blog.com. (2016). Dalai Lama – Tibetan Buddhism :: Struggling With
Diffi·Cult Issues. [online] Available at: https://buddhism-controversy-blog.com/tag/dalai-lama/
[Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].

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Buffalodharma.org. (2016). Sexual Abuse by Spiritual Teachers | Mindfulness Articles | Buffalo
Dharma. [online] Available at: http://www.buffalodharma.org/articles/sexual-abuse-spiritual-
teachers [Accessed 6 Dec. 2016].