Buddhism, the Unspeakable Truth - "the law of silence"

The impulse to believe the absurd when presented with the unknowable is called religion. Whether this is wise or unwise is the domain of doctrine. Once you understand someone's doctrine, you understand their rationale for believing the absurd. At that point, it may no longer seem absurd. You can get to both sides of this conondrum from here.

Buddhism, the Unspeakable Truth - "the law of silence"

Postby admin » Sat Nov 05, 2022 11:47 pm

Buddhism, the law of silence, Known Now as ‘Abuse in Buddhism: The Law of Silence‘
A film by Elodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos
Photography Mathiew Mondoulet, Rammohan Pateriya
Editing: Nils Montel
October, 2022
https://tube.okcinfo.news/w/oeFXApgiULbdkUPjqM1Fcz


Élodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos present their documentary 'Bouddhisme, la loi du silence' [‘Abuse in Buddhism: The Law of Silence‘]
Sep 16, 2022

In this [89-MINUTE] clip, Élodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos present their documentary 'Bouddhisme, la loi du silence' [Buddhism, the law of silence] in English. Arte broadcast the documentary on September 13, 2022 in Germany and France. It can be watched online at Arte.tv, free of charge. [NOT AVAILABLE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA]

***

Élodie Emery & Wandrille Lanos Present ‘Buddhism: The Unspeakable Truth’
by Rob Hogendoorn
September, 2022

In a brief video in English, the French filmmakers Élodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos present their documentary ‘Abuse in Buddhism: The Law of Silence‘ [previous working title: ‘Buddhism: The Unspeakable Truth’].

The European network Arte broadcast the documentary on September 13, 2022 on television in Germany and France. It can be watched online at Arte.tv, free of charge. A subtitled English version of the documentary is available here [THIS VIDEO CANNOT BE VIEWED FROM YOUR CURRENT LOCATION.

Emery and Lanos filmed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, India, and Nepal, where they interviewed Western, Tibetan, and Nepalese sources.

In Belgium, they documented the criminal proceedings against the abusive Lama Robert Spatz (also known as Lama Kunzang) in Belgium. Spatz was convicted to a suspended prison sentence for the assault and abuse of children, which he appealed from Spain. The verdict on his appeal is expected on October 5, 2022.

At present, Spatz is the subject of a criminal investigation in France.

In Rotterdam, the filmmakers took Oane Bijlsma and Ricardo Mendes, two of the participants in a historic, widely published meeting, back to the hotel room where they met the Dalai Lama in 2018.

Dalai Lama meets alleged victims of abuse by Buddhist gurus
by Mike Corder
AP
September 14, 2018

Image
Four alleged victims of sexual, physical and psychological abuse by Buddhist teachers, Chris, Cecile, One Bijlsma and Ricardo Mendes, from left, pose with spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, center, after presenting him with a report titled #MeTooGuru, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Sept. 14, 2018. (Marlies Bosch/Stichting Bezoek Dalai Lama via AP)

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Four people who say Tibetan Buddhist teachers abused them physically or psychologically presented the Dalai Lama with written accounts from 12 alleged victims and appealed to him Friday in the Netherlands to address the problem.

A group using the hashtag “metooguru” gathered some 1,300 signatures on an online petition calling for a meeting with the spiritual leader so he could receive its collection of testimonies. He met with four representatives for about 20 minutes on the first day of a four-day visit to the Netherlands.

The Dalai Lama is the leader of one school of Tibetan Buddhism. Organizers of Friday’s meeting at a Rotterdam hotel hope the Nobel Peace Prize winner will use his moral authority to influence the faith more broadly.

“What we want from him is that he is very clear about the fact that religious leaders in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are not above the law,” said Oane Bijlsma, one of the four people who met the Dalai Lama. “That even if they claim that their tradition endorses behavior that is supposedly beyond good and evil, it can never be the case.”

The alleged victims, from the Netherlands and Belgium, said the Dalai Lama pledged to take action, including bringing up at a meeting of Buddhist teachers in November their reports of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

The Dalai Lama did not speak to reporters after the meeting. Members of his entourage did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The people he met with emerged from their audience expressing mixed reactions. One said she was a bit disappointed.

But Ricardo Mendes, who said he was physically abused as child being raised in a Buddhist sect in Belgium, said he was pleased the Dalai Lama appeared moved by the accounts they shared.

“He was like: OK, now I have maybe the material. I have real papers, real stories of real people that I can use to point fingers in the Buddhist landscape and say ‘This guy, this guy, this guy are behaving this way, and you should not follow them, and this is not Tibetan Buddhism.’”

That gave Mendes hope for the future.

“Maybe, maybe this is what is going to come out of this meeting, that he is going to have the ammo to actually fire,” he said.


The documentary demonstrates that the outcome of the Rotterdam meeting closely resembles that of the Dalai Lama’s conference with Western Buddhist teachers in 1993: when the chips are down, in spite of his verbal assurances, the Dalai Lama cleverly shirks responsibility for his endorsement of Tibetan Buddhist teachers he knows to be abusive.

On September 14, 2022, Emery and Lanos published their eponymous book, which provides much background and testimonies by victims and survivors of abuse and a behind-the-scenes look at the development of their documentary.

Robert Spatz and his organisation Ogyen Kunzang Chöling were endorsed by the Dalai Lama and the French monk Matthieu Ricard. In their book, Emery and Lanos describe their contentious interaction with Ricard and their vain attempt to interview the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.

Ricard retracted a two-hours interview with Lanos under a threat to sue. The Dalai Lama’s Office in India refused to grant an interview.

A brief description on the book’s back cover runs [my translation from the French]:

“Blinded by its enthusiasm, the West would have almost forgotten it: Buddhism is a religion, with its dogmas, its promises of salvation and its threats of hell. Hoping to reach enlightenment, the equivalent of grace in Christianity, the disciples of Tibetan Buddhism owe obedience and devotion to a master.

Also when he humiliates, hits, or rapes you.


During an eleven-year investigation, Élodie Emery and Wandrille Lanos collected the testimonies of thirty-two victims. They reveal a system that shielded, for 50 years, Buddhist masters endorsed by the Dalai Lama. Some are the subject of legal proceedings. Most are still active.”


Sexual abuse, mental manipulation and embezzlement: Tibetan Buddhism is shaken by serious scandals. A detailed account that lifts the veil on the unspiritual underbelly of a religion venerated in Europe.

His name is Ricardo Mendes and, as a young man, he lived through hell in a Buddhist community in Castellane, far from the ideal of wisdom advocated by its founder, Robert Spatz. Now in search of justice and having constituted himself as a civil party in a lawsuit, Ricardo tells how the Belgian lama incited his disciples to abandon their offspring to him, leaving the field free. Physical abuse, deprivation of food and freedom or rape of girls were the daily lot of unprotected children. However, these abuses are not an exception: since Tibetan Buddhism became a fashionable phenomenon in the 1960s, especially in Europe, sexual and financial scandals have multiplied, while its masters in exile have prospered. An international icon, the Dalai Lama himself has long covered up the secret activities of those who serve the expansion of his religion: with an economy based on charity, it must avoid too flashy affairs... The lama Sogyal Rinpoche, at the head of an empire after the publication of his best-seller The Tibetan Book of Life and Death, ends up being denounced by many victims for his immoderate taste for luxury, his violent authoritarianism and his sexual excesses. He thus symbolizes what the Dalai Lama calls "ethical problems"...

In the back rooms of monasteries

"People take charisma for a spiritual quality." Thanks to its revelations and the quality of its contributors, this edifying documentary helps to unravel the "flowery" Western view of exotic Tibetan Buddhism. It reminds us that this religion requires total devotion from the student, who must certify to his master that he will keep the initiations to which he must submit secret: an ideal ground for covering abuses of all kinds with a veil of silence. The research carried out by journalist Élodie Emery and documentary filmmaker Wandrille Lanos refines the perception of this spirituality which is adorned with so many virtues, including poverty. For Buddhism, a veritable multinational company, is expanding with its head offices, its by-products (including meditation), its subsidiaries (Buddhist centers for the wealthy), its communication strategies and agencies specialized in crisis management. With numerous testimonies, including researchers and abused followers who tell the story behind the scenes, this thorough account lifts the veil on the impostures of Buddhism, so popular in the West for its quest for inner peace.

Buddhism, the law of silence, Known Now as ‘Abuse in Buddhism: The Law of Silence‘
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