Sex Scandal at Pagoda Phat Hue, Germany

Open letter to the Sangha Zaltho (reply); Wisdom Quarterly

The Pagoda is rich and growing, hosting stellar Buddhist teachers like Ajahn Brahm, Pa Auk Sayadaw and his students, but it is also tainted by controversy that are now keeping many away. Is there anything to the whispers? (PhatHue.com)

The accused: Thich Thien Son

PAGODA PHAT HUE, Germany - The rumors are out there, and who will be complicit in ignoring them? A charismatic Vietnamese Buddhist guru (with specially chosen head disciples) leads a German "cult" -- and everybody senses that their "eccentric" behavior could easily cross the line. Who will speak up? Is consensual sex with a monastic guru okay? Not for the monastic, and it cannot be profitable karma for anyone who seduces a monastic. (This should not be confused with the guilt and confusion of asking oneself, "Did I mislead him/her?" This is a question of fully intentional behavior to seduce, and if that conscious intention is not there, one should understand that it is the guru's doing). And what if it is the monastic doing the flirting/seducing? Run. Or maybe speak to Zen Master Brad Warner about "Sex, Sin, and Zen."

• Buddhism Forum - Discussion Forum

Offener Brief an die Zaltho Sangha - Deutsche Buddhistische...

(Dharma.de) Juni 2011 in einer Einrichtung der Frankfurter Pagode Phat Hue eine Veranstaltung leitet.... jedermann wußte, daß der auch so einen Hang zur Nondualität im Umgang mit seiner Sexualität hat. (Sexual Ethics, Zen Scandals, and Cults 8). 

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Dear companions,
You should be able to assume that just has an American Zen teacher of the case Eido Shimano and Zen Studies Society. It was widely discussed in recent months by the American public, closely monitored, and lessons learned from it.

Above all, there is a doctrine that says, when sexual misconduct is committed by someone who claims the authority of a [monastic] "Dharma teacher," there is only one way to solve the problem:
You have to challenge his/her authority by asking him/her to explain clearly and publicly what authority he/she abused.

The German publisher and blogger Guido Keller has recently turned to the Zaltho Foundation in the U.S. "to make sure that he [Claude Thomas Anshin] also knows... [dated 17-19 June 2011 in an institution of the Frankfurt Pagoda Phat Hue].

• The blog post can be read here: http://der-asso-blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/wird-claude-anshin-thomas-den-thich.html.

I quote from the reply he received:

Claude Thomas Anshin is aware of the information that you are presenting in your email regarding the Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Thien Son. Let me respond in short that in the face of deep suffering, it is those who are authorized and certified to teach to visit with those who are deemed unfit or immoral. It is in these critical times that it becomes quite necessary to not isolate this community..."

(Brad Warner/HardcoreZen.info)

The response of the Zaltho Foundation I feel -- and [by] this feeling I'm not apologizing -- as 'weasely,' albeit not as much as what you have heard of "Thich" Thien Son in the last few months can do...

The Buddhist laity can and must expect to see Dharma teachers that they also have an obligation to 'peer control' and that they have this obligation so as to take it seriously and accept it....
 
The cases Eido Shimano, "Thich" Thien Son and many others have shown that it is possible to draw a parallel with sexual misconduct and alcoholism. And as there is alcoholism in the social environment a co-alcoholism [codependent behavior?], there is also notorious repeated sexual misconduct and a supportive and aggravating environment supporting the problem behavior.
 
The announcement to "not isolate this community" is, in my opinion, precisely this kind of 'compliance' -- and the transition from 'compliance' for complicity is fluid. The statements of the Foundation on behalf of Zaltho Anshin Claude Thomas, in my view, is simply shameful. ... More

• Mr. Roger Shoshin Markwart, First Chairman of the Sangha Zaltho Germany, High Fell Street 17, 83233 Bernau and Mrs. Marion GenRai Luke, contact person for Claude Thomas Anshin in Germany, Hermann Nörrenberg-Str. 17, 51379 Leverkusen