stripping the gurus - Brahma Kumaris Info

116 STRIPPING THE GURUS
simply the transplanting of pre-existing despicable behaviors into
a context in which they may appear to be acceptable.
In the present context, then, since Akong was never one of
Trungpa’s disciples, Chögyam’s poor behavior toward the former
cannot be excused as any attempted “skillful means” of awakening
him. Merwin and his wife were likewise not disciples of Trungpa.
Thus, his disciplining of them for not joining the Halloween party
arguably provides another example of the guru humiliating others
only for his own twisted enjoyment, not for their spiritual good.
We will find good use for this “contextual comparison” method
when evaluating the behaviors of many other “crazy wisdom” or
“Rude Boy” gurus and their supporters, in the coming chapters.
* * *
Allen [Ginsberg] asked Trungpa why he drank so much.
Trungpa explained he hoped to determine the illumination of
American drunkenness. In the United States, he said, alcohol
was the main drug, and he wanted to use his acquired
knowledge of drunkenness as a source of wisdom (Schumacher,
1992).
[Trungpa’s] health had begun to fail. He spent nearly a year
and a half in a semicoma, nearly dying on a couple of occasions,
before finally succumbing to a heart attack (Schumacher,
1992).
Before he died of acute alcoholism in 1987, Trungpa appointed
an American acolyte named Thomas Rich, also
known as Osel Tendzin, as his successor. Rich, a married father
of four, died of AIDS in 1990 amid published reports
that he had had unprotected sex with [over a hundred] male
and female students without telling them of his illness (Horgan,
2003a).
Tendzin offered to explain his behavior at a meeting which I
attended. Like all of his talks, this was considered a teaching
of dharma, and donations were solicited and expected (Butterfield,
1994).
Having forked over the requisite $35 “offering,” Butterfield
was treated to Tendzin’s dubious explanation: