--- In [email protected], Peter Sutphen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Thanks for the response! > -Peter
No problemo. But to get back to the original topic in the Subject line, I see celibacy as a great path for those for whom it is approp- riate. I just don't think it is appropriate for everyone. As regards Maharishi's celibacy or lack thereof, I have to admit it isn't a big concern of mine. As I said before, I could see a notarized state- ment from the entire Dallas Cheerleaders squad about their orgies with the man and it wouldn't change my opinion of him and all that I am grate- ful to him for one bit. Except that I'd probably want to ask him where he buys his Viagra. :-) I've run into quite a few spiritual teachers along the Way who had sex with their students. It messes with your mind, because somewhere in the back of that mind there's this little voice saying, "But wait...they're not supposed to DO that." But they do. More of them than you might think. Sometimes it as an integral part of a spiritual trip, as in traditional (non-Western, non-Newage) Tantric traditions that embraced sex, and each other. Sometimes it's as a clear reaction to and rejection of one's former life as a celibate monk, as in Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. I mean, that man messes with your head big-time. He was a recognized Tulku within a respected Tibetan lineage. And one day he just stopped wearing his traditional robes and started wearing Western clothing and boinking anything in sight. And then he moved to America and basically drank himself to death, writing along the Way some of the most remarkable commentaries on Tibetan Buddhism I've ever read. Go figure. And sometimes it's done illicitly, and denied when it's found out. For me, when I-slept-with-Swami-Mahananda stories come my way, I'd love to just let them go in one chakra and out another, without judging them. But I'm human, and Still Working On Things :-), so I find myself judging the teachers just like every- one else out there. But I try to do so based on the little I know about the story in question, and whether the relationship seemed to be mutually respectful and mutually beneficial. If that's the case, I have no problem with the teacher's behavior. It's not always the case. There are a lot of sexual games that are played in student-teacher relation- ships, and not all of them strike me as clean. The whole idea of "mutual consent" becomes suspect if the organization in question reveres its teacher almost as a god and is accustomed to doing every- thing he or she says without question. The issue of "mutual respect" is probably tougher, because few teachers get beyond trying to maintain that teacher-student relationship in bed, and really into a one-on-one, human-to-human relationship. And let's face it, some teachers have seduced their students and then dumped on them big-time. It's a complex issue, one with no easy answers. If I were still teaching regularly, I don't think I'd touch it with a ten-foot pole. It's really not that I think teacher-student sex is wrong on any cosmic level or "law of nature," it's just that I think I know myself well enough to know that I couldn't handle it myself with the degree of mutual respect and openness I demand of other teachers if I fall prey to judging them. Anyway, none of this requies any kind of response. The subject came up and I just thought I'd rap about it a little bit from a cafe on a Sunday afternoon. Unc To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
