Comments on: The Aitken-Shimano Letters

By: JudyJones

JudyJones — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:38:48 +0000

Let's hope that ever person who was hurt by this abuse of power reaches out for help from independent sources and begins to get support and healing.

Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Associate Director, snapjudy@gmail.com

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the nation's oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. It has been around for 21 years and has more than 9,000 members across the country. Despite the word "priest" in the title, SNAP has members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers.)
http://www.snapnetwork.org/

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:12:56 +0000

Typo. should be http://www.shimanoarchive.com

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:11:17 +0000

There have been recent additions to the ShimanoArchive < Httep://www.shimanoarchive.com>

Most notable is the article that was written for publication in the Village Voice by Robin Westen.
http://www.shimanoarchive.com/PDF's/19820400...

By: Kobutsu Malone

Kobutsu Malone — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:35:20 +0000

The Robert Baker Aitken archive on Eido Shimano is now up on the net in its entirety. The downloadable pdf files were made directly from the hardcopy documents supplied by The University of Hawai’i at Manōa – Robert Baker Aitken Archive. Some redactions of survivors’ names and identifying information has been implemented as a courtesy to protect the privacy of the women involved.

http://www.hoodiemonks.org/ShimanoArchive.html

By: Shmendrick Mensch

Shmendrick Mensch — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 20:26:36 +0000

Besides advocating increase skepticism in the nature and value of "transmission" in Zen Buddhism, people should make vetting a so-called teacher a regular practice; "transmissions" have proven extremely unreliable and it is too easy to misinterpret one's own hopes and dreams, or a "teacher's" charisma for something more.

In general a good internet search is going to turn up some extremely questionable "teachers."

One particular site I revisited lately is http://www.rickross.com

From the site's homepage.

"An Internet archive of information about cults, destructive cults, controversial groups and movements. The Rick A. Ross Institute of New Jersey (RI) is a nonprofit public resource with a vast archive that contains thousands of individual documents. RI on-line files include news stories, research papers, reports, court documents, book excerpts, personal testimonies and hundreds of links to additional relevant resources. This Internet archive is well-organized for easy access and reference."

There is probably some kind of rule of thumb to consider: The more the teacher or system asks you to put your absolute trust in the master or guru, the more you need to be careful.

This is kind of thinking is put a bit more skillfully by others. For example read the Kalama Sutra — on of Buddha's sermons that many Buddhist Dogmatist hate for people to read. Also read a more interpretation, "The Right to Ask Questions" by Larry Rosenberg
this link a copy of that articles works as of 31 March 2010 http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/rosenb...

By: Anarchobodhi

Anarchobodhi — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:05:47 +0000

There is more information surfacing about Eido Shimano:

http://genkaku-again.blogspot.com/2010/02/eido-ta...

By: Institutional Zen & Me « Mist and Mold

Institutional Zen & Me « Mist and Mold — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:05:38 +0000

[...] (Update 3/12/2010: Stuart Lachs and Vladimir Keremedschieff have just posted related information about letters Robert Aitken Roshi wrote concerning problems with “Zen master ethics” at the Buddhist Geeks Digital Magazine.) [...]