Ethical Considerations and Controversies in Tibetan Buddhism

This essay provides a comprehensive examination of ethical issues within Tibetan Buddhism, focusing on the historical context and special features of the religion. It delves into the controversial aspects, particularly the power dynamics and the teacher-student relationship, including instances of sex...Read More

Ethics in Tibetan buddhism
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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 2
History.......................................................................................................................... 2
Special features............................................................................................................2
Issues...............................................................................................................................3
Problem and ramification................................................................................................. 4
Conclusion....................................................................................................................... 8
References.....................................................................................................................10

Introduction
History
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
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).
Special features
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.
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.
Issues
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).
Problem and ramification
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 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, pretense 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)
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 Tibetnan 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).
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).
Conclusion
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.

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].
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].