Zen Groups Distressed by Accusations Against Teacher
The New York Times | February 11, 2013
Since arriving in Los Angeles from Japan in 1962, the Buddhist teacher Joshu Sasaki, who is 105 years old, has taught thousands of Americans at his two Zen centers...
...Mr. Sasaki has also, according to an investigation by an independent council of Buddhist leaders, released in January, groped and sexually harassed female students for decades, taking advantage of their loyalty to a famously charismatic roshi, or master...
...Because Mr. Sasaki has founded or sponsored so many Zen centers, and because he has the prestige of having trained in Japan, the charges that he behaved unethically...{were referred to an}...independent “witnessing council” of noted Zen teachers began interviewing 25 current or former students of Mr. Sasaki...
...In the council’s report on Jan. 11, the three members wrote of “Sasaki asking women to show him their breasts, as part of ‘answering’ a koan” -- a Zen riddle -- “or to demonstrate ‘non-attachment.’ ”
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