White Plum Asanga Roundtables
These roundtables are for WPA members and their soon-to-be successors only. The videos are not for general distribution.
Healthy Boundaries and Right Use of Power
Led by Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts and Amy Tu Es Cela Hollowell
Presented September 24, 2021
CHAT TRANSCRIPT
Building awareness of power issues, skillful use of boundaries, dangers to teacher and sangha
Description from Hogetsu: “A roundtable discussion of power dynamics in Zen Centers and how it can all go wrong if the teacher is not aware of his/her responsibility to manage the power in an ethical way.”
Topics we covered:
- Overview of boundary work in general and in sanghas
- Short and long term effects of boundary violations
- Different types of violations
- When sangha enables teacher misconduct
- Politicization of the dharma
- Top-down and bottom-up violations – at the sangha participant level, not just leadership
- Ways to change the sangha culture to bring in awareness of boundaries and violations
- When is what the teacher is doing “crazy wisdom” and when is it abuse?
