Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Do I trail trouble behind me?

Yesterday I followed a link and came acroiss a Buddhist discussion board called BuddhaChat.

"Ah!" I thought. "Another chance to learn and to meet nice people who are engaged on the journey."

This morning, up early again, I started to read posts on the site and who should I come across but the self-styled "Zenmonk Genryu". He has managed, once again, to find a platform for his ideas. And there is the problem. Many of the thoughts that he posts are so much in line with my own that, for quite some time, on New Buddhist, I was taken in. The problem arises, however, when we begin to learn something of how he behaves in the real world. I have had enough conversations with some of those on whom he has fastened to have to believe that he is a dangerous and poisonous conman.

At the same time, I have been continuing my contribution to an Enneagram development group. Posting my belief that the Enneagram is a blunt and less-than-useful instrument unless we have an end in view, I seem to have raised something of a storm.

Perhaps I need to spend some time in Noble Silence.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a long long thread on the now defunct BuddhaChat - depicting his sick behaviour and preying on women over the internet.

It's a pity that when the site went down so much of those records were expunged. Interestingly, or probably not, he is now on many other internet media sites, still "posing" as a genuine Zen monk.

Credible letters from his ex Sangha clearly disown him and do not call him a monk, so in effect he is a poser/fake.

It's sad but now I see that it is oh too common, Simon.

Gassho.

Anonymous said...

You really should stop this nonsense. My name is Franke, I was in the Dutch White Plum Sangha and was present when Genryu was ordained in Ameland in 1991. Genpo was part of a hate campaign against him because he spoke out about Genpo's abuse of students. He is, whatever you and the uninformed think, a real monk. Ask anyone who has been a member or White Plum for some time or teachers such as Al Rapaport who know him and stop paying attention to internet hate campaigns.

Anonymous said...

There are women I personally know who were targetted by him, including Luzdeluna, a long time Buddhist forum contributor. So no, Genryu, your past will not be forgotten.