stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

A WILD AND CRAZY WISDOM GUY 113
In the middle of that scene, [for Dana] to yell “call the police”
—do you realize how vulgar that was? The wisdom of the
East being unveiled, and she’s going “call the police!” I mean,
shit! Fuck that shit! Strip ‘em naked, break down the door!
Anything—symbolically (in Clark, 1980).
Yes. “Symbolically.”
Further, regarding Wilber’s intimation that the guru’s actions
were an isolated “mistake”: When a former resident of Trungpa’s
community was asked, in 1979, whether the “Merwin incident” was
a characteristic happening, or a singular occurrence, she responded
(in Clark, 1980):
It is a typical incident, it is not an isolated example. At every
seminary, as far as I know, there was a confrontation involving
violence.
In any case, the regarding of such actions as Chögyam’s versus
Merwin, as being simple “mistakes,” certainly could not explain
away the reported premeditated means by which disciples were
“kept in line” within Trungpa’s community:
We were admonished ... not to talk about our practice. “May
I shrivel up instantly and rot,” we vowed, “if I ever discuss
these teachings with anyone who has not been initiated into
them by a qualified master.” As if this were not enough,
Trungpa told us that if we ever tried to leave the Vajrayana,
we would suffer unbearable, subtle, continuous anguish, and
disasters would pursue us like furies....
To be part of Trungpa’s inner circle, you had to take a
vow never to reveal or even discuss some of the things he did.
This personal secrecy is common with gurus, especially in
Vajrayana Buddhism. It is also common in the dysfunctional
family systems of alcoholics and sexual abusers. This inner
circle secrecy puts up an almost insurmountable barrier to a
healthy skeptical mind....
[T]he vow of silence means that you cannot get near him
until you have already given up your own perception of enlightenment
and committed yourself to his (Butterfield,
1994).
The traditional Vajrayana teachings on the importance of loyalty
to the guru are no less categorical: