The blinders of religious doctrine and superstition.

Recently, a person who uses the name “Zapp” commented on my post, “The funeral of Ösel Tendzin. Deliver us from cults.”

Originally published Saturday, July 24, 2021, in my other blog “Koan Conversations.” https://www.koansconversations.com/2021/05/the-funeral-of-osel-tendzin-deliver-us.html

Zapp says, “The AIDS epidemic of the mid-eighties was an unprecedented catastrophe, a deadly mystery that blindsided the world. In that climate of sheer ignorance and terror, no one possessed a cure or truly understood the virus. To condemn a spiritual leader for attempting to combat the unknown with the only tools he had—faith and practice—is to project modern understanding onto a time of global panic. Hindsight is 20/20. The Vajra Regent did not kill anyone; the AIDS pandemic did. To claim otherwise is a wrongheaded and infantile simplification of a devastating historical reality.”

Zapp, I would like to defend myself from the accusation of being “wrongheaded and infantile.” Let me refresh your memory with a few facts. 

Regarding the known, published scientific knowledge about HIV, your statement “no one possessed a cure or truly understood the virus” is inaccurate. The medical community recognized AIDS as sexually transmitted in late 1982/early 1983. The CDC reported clues in March 1983 that AIDS could spread through sexual contact, and issued guidelines noting transmission via sexual contact and blood, solidifying the understanding of sexual transmission alongside other routes like contaminated blood. They confirmed their findings in 1984.  I was actually in conversation with the research team at Moffitt Hospital, UCSF, which developed and publicized the safer sex guidelines at about the same time. I was dating one of the doctors. They didn’t waste time. So respectfully, you’re wrong. 

With respect to the Vajra Regent, by his own admission, he knew he was infected with HIV and did not take measures to protect his partners.

“. . . [I]n December 1988, the most harmful crisis ever to strike an American Buddhist community unfolded when Vajradhatu administrators told their members that the Regent had been infected with the AIDS virus for nearly three years. Members of the Vajradhatu board of directors conceded that, except for some months of celibacy, he had neither protected his many sexual partners nor told them the truth. One of the Regent’s sexual partners, the son of long-term students, was infected, as was a young woman who had later made love to the young man.

“Two members of the Vajradhatu board of directors had known of his infection for more than two years, and chose to do nothing. Trungpa Rinpoche had also known about it before his death. Board members had reluctantly informed the sangha (community) only after trying for three months to persuade the Regent to act on his own.

“‘Thinking I had some extraordinary means of protection, I went ahead with my business as if something would take care of it for me,’ Tendzin reportedly told a stunned community meeting organized in Berkeley in mid-December.” (Katy Butler, Encountering the Shadow in Buddhist America, Common Boundary Magazine, 1990 May/June) 

So, Zap, I hate to break it to you, but Thomas Rich was responsible for the death of at least one person who had put their trust in him as a Buddhist teacher. Given that he was known to be sexually promiscuous, this is a low estimate. I took care of one man who died of HIV/AIDS complications, who’d spent a lot of time at RMDC, and the Regent’s sexual activities were well known. I have compassion for the man.

For me, there is a deeper question and concern: what do we do about it? I have been practicing for almost 50 years. How do I serve the community and friends I love? I have to be honest. I try to be very careful when I speak about abuse, as well as observing the precepts as faithfully as I can. I take no joy in reporting the massive failures of those who have willingly assumed the burden of leadership in our communities. 

Sexual abuse and exploitation of students haven’t stopped. A young woman I know well was raped last year by a Nagpo Lama in Dharamsala, India, where I have been living and practicing for more than a decade. She was in great pain, and her practice was harmed. She filed charges, and the lama wound up in jail until some rich students bailed him out. His students are also aware of the rinpoche’s sexual habits, but choose to remain silent and enable him. 

I hesitated to call you out, but I cannot allow the blinders of religious doctrine and superstition to let you either lie or remain ignorant. We have to be honest. Let’s try to continue our practice as best we can.