CMV: the unethical behavior of many mahayana teachers shows that practicing mahayana will not bring you closer to enlightenment
First, I want to say that this post is NOT meant to be anti-mahayana. Im not doubting the mahayana texts and teachings, only the practices. I actually like mahayana teachings more than theravada, and I REALLY hope that your replies can convince me that practicing mahayana will get me closer to enlightenment.
There have been quite a few Tibetan and zen teachers who were involved in scandals, generally revolving around sex or money. I seldom hear about this happening with theravadin teachers. Yes, there are a lot of scandals happening in theravadin countries, but the monks involved in those are generally not meditation teachers with years of practice: I never hear about Thai forest masters or Burmese vipassana teachers being involved in scandals (the only exceptions I can think of are two teachers in the Mahasi lineage in the Netherlands, who have sexually assaulted their students).
The prevalence of scandals in mahayana is causing me to doubt the validity of mahayana practice. Of course we shouldn't assume that all teachers are fully enlightened, but I believe that somebody who is close to enlightenment would not act like the teachers involved in scandals do. The teachers who are involved in scandals (usually) follow the same teachings and practices as well-behaving mahayana teachers. Let me clarify this with the following (fictional) story:
Bob and Tony are two Americans interested in zen buddhism. Because of their interest, they both decide to go to a monastery in Japan to study under a famous zen master. They both follow the same routine, listen to the same teachings and practice the same kinds of meditation. After many years of practice, Bob and Tony return to the US to become zen teachers. They both gather a large amount of students. Bob turns out to be a good teacher, who always behaves ethically and helps many people with their practice. Tony, on the other hand, abuses his position as a teacher to sexually assault female students and earn a lot of money in dubious ways.
It is clear that despite many years of practice, Tony is nowhere close to enlightenment. And if all this practice didn't bring Tony any closer to enlightenment, why should we assume it worked for Bob?
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