“Recommendations for Genpo Merzel, the Kanzeon Zen Center Board”
by Danny Fisher
This via Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly Online:
As part of its effort to act “as an archive for open letters sent to Kanzeon Zen Center regarding Genpo Merzel” in the light of Merzel’s recent disrobing as a Zen priest, SweepingZen.com has published a letter, signed by 44 Zen teachers, outlining recommendations for how Merzel and the Kanzeon Zen Center (for which he’d been guiding teacher) should proceed. View the letter here.
I would add one point: Encourage the teachers and senior students to take legitimate questions from students seriously.
When I was a resident there in the 90s, legitimate question concerning how the center was run were routinely squashed (some students were even asked to leave because their questions hit too close to home).
I believe it was exactly that dynamic – using power to avoid uncomfortable questions – that led to the current situation.
Thanks for the letter, but something very important is missing. How many women has been exploited by Genpo Merzel or perhaps even been sexual misused? The relationship between that kind of teacher and a student can be compared to the relationship between therapist and client, with the only exception that you surrender to the spiritual teacher, which makes it even worse what Merzel has done.
You need to take care of these women as a community and offer them anonymous help and also in this way find out how many woman he has exploited during the years.
Hope you will take action
[...] past posts on all that’s been going on related to Genpo Merzel, see this post, this post, this post, and this [...]
[...] on all that’s been going on related to Genpo Merzel, see this post, this post, this post, this post, and this [...]
[...] that’s been going on related to Genpo Merzel, see this post, this post, this post, this post, this post, and this [...]