Hypocrisy in the Catholic Church and Zen Buddhism

[Jhanananda]

Hypocrisy in the Catholic Church and Zen Buddhism
Pedophilia and alcoholism in the Catholic Church and Zen Buddhism, a Dialog between Jeffrey S. Brooks and Stuart B. Skadden at the GWV Fall Retreat 2011 in the Gila Box Wilderness
http://youtu.be/nacdLgYWOcc

[Econetic]

These sorts of problems will always assail some priests for as long as religious traditions exist on this world.  However, I don't see this as a weakness of religion per se.  Rather, it seems to me that the flourishing of both positive and negative mind-states will always result as an inevitable result of a working religious initiation.  Religious fraternities need to sit down and work out how to manage these issues better. 

Why do I say this?  The Old Testament tells us that man was created out of Sin, which is introduced in Genesis.  The Book of Genesis outlines the creation of a world within a human being, once divine spirit has been breathed into them.  This new, divine man is born-again - Christ is within him, or her, and Adam and Eve (solar/lunar etc.) are created.  We also see the birth of evil and good lineages  - Cain and Abel.  And now suffering ensues as they are cast out of the paradise of ignorance, out of the idyll of the ordinary man.

If you look to that other Genesis tale, the Enlightenment of the Buddha, Buddha recalls sitting beneath a rose-apple tree as a child, whilst his father worked the garden (sounds like a regular Eden, full of Princes who know no suffering).  He eventually recollects his former lives.  My view is that this is the same as the arising if the lineages of Abel and Cain, which are also named, much like Buddha's former existences.  In other words, a multiplicity of positive and negative states of being now arise as part of the religious experience.  Buddha comes to understand suffering in all its variety - the fermentations etc.  Christ suffers as he ascends the mount.  They each reach redemption.  One has Mara, the other Satan.

My point is that Genesis and Majjhima Nikaya 36 tell us that people undergoing religious transformation will experience enhanced emotional states, and it seems to me that this fact has been forgotten within mainstream religions, and as a consequence, it is as if religious novices have been  abandoned to face these things on their own. 

Perhaps there are no longer any High Priests who know what to expect, and hence who know how to guide, and watch over, people to prevent such abuses from occurring. 

[Jhanananda]

Thank-you Econetic, for posting your comment to Hypocrisy in the Catholic Church and Zen Buddhism. The take away message that I would like the individual to get is no religion has valued its mystics, and religions always descend to the lowest common denominator, such as marginalizing its mystics while becoming a haven for pedophiles.

So, if we are going to use Genesis as our model, then we have free will to either lead a righteous life, which is the contemplative life, or to lead an evil life, which is one based upon the 7 deadly sins.  If we lead a righteous, contemplative life, then we will begin and end every day with the religious experience, which, in a Abrahamic context, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, (shakena).

The problem is priests become entrenched, and lose sight of the righteous, contemplative life, and become threatened by those who have not lost sight of the righteous, contemplative life, so they marginalize those who lead a righteous, contemplative life, which are the mystics, while making the experience of the Holy Spirit fantastic, so that no mere mortal can experience it.  And, that is how religion all over the world has become.

Now, if we take this to Buddhism, as you did, then we see that in Siddhartha Gautama’s story the dhamma was dead, the dhamma wheel was upturned in mud, there were no enlightened teachers in his day, so he had to figure it out on his own.  I believe this is true for every age that does not understand and value its mystics.

I would not call the genuine religious experience “enhanced emotional states.” However, I will agree that the religious experience is ineffable, compelling, fulfilling and transformative.  My argument is as long as religion fails to recognize that the contemplative life is the righteous life, and the righteous life is not just a moral life, but a moral life that is also mindfully self-aware, and seeks direct communion with the spiritual dimension through the practice of meditation, and that experience is ineffable, compelling, fulfilling and transformative.  And a mystic is one who has cultivated the religions experience, so that person should be honored, and revered, not marginalized.

Thus, it is clear to me that there are “no longer any High Priests who know what to expect, and hence who know how to guide, and watch over, people to prevent such abuses from occurring. “

[Jhanananda]

Kevin Wallin, Connecticut Priest, Indicted In Suspected Crystal Meth Drug Ring

Is this just an isolated incident, or was the Connecticut priest, Kevin Wallin, the bag-boy for the way the Catholic Church has made its money for thousands of years? How does the church maintain its wealth. If it is not from large donations from drug dealers, then they will have to move drugs themselves. It reminds me of what was behind the Buddhist Temple massacre in Phoenix 22 years ago.

When a Prominent Monsignor is Arrested After Allegedly Trying To Sell Large Shipments Of Crystal Meth; or when a Buddhist abbot of the largest Buddhist temple in North America is trafficking in large amounts of heroine, then we might be willing to believe that organized religion and organized crime go way back in history.

But then the Opium Wars show that the English Crown was fighting for control of opium centuries ago. It means the drug war is just the hegemony wanting control of drugs so that their investments in the pharmaceutical industry are assured.

After all, the Medici Family controlled the papacy for centuries, Medici means doctor, or pharmacist.  Perhaps they controlled the opium trade in Europe.

The House of Medici or Famiglia de' Medici (/ˈmɛdɨtʃi/ MED-i-chee; Italian pronunciation: [de ˈmɛːditʃi]) was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of the Tuscan countryside, gradually rising until they were able to found the Medici Bank. The bank was the largest in Europe during the 15th century, seeing the Medici gain political power in Florence — though officially they remained simply citizens rather than monarchs.

The Medici produced four Popes of the Catholic Church—Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), Pope Pius IV (1559–1565), and Pope Leo XI (1605);[1] two regent queens of France—Catherine de' Medici (1547–1559) and Marie de' Medici (1600–1610); and, in 1531, the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici. The grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de' Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt.

Their wealth and influence initially derived from the textile trade guided by the guild of the Arte della Lana. Like other signore families they dominated their city's government. They were able to bring Florence under their family's power, allowing for an environment where art and humanism could flourish. They fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance along with other families of Italy, such as the Visconti and Sforza of Milan, the Este of Ferrara, and the Gonzaga of Mantua.

The Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe. There are some estimates that the Medici family were the wealthiest family in Europe for a period of time. From this base, they acquired political power initially in Florence and later in wider Italy and Europe. A notable contribution to the profession of accounting was the improvement of the general ledger system through the development of the double-entry bookkeeping system for tracking credits and debits. This system was first used by accountants working for the Medici family in Florence.

[Jhanananda]

I do not have it out for any particular religion; however, I expose hypocrisies in the organized religion to show that they are clearly part of a religious scam to support a self-serving priesthood and entrenched hegemonic government at the expense of the masses; and it is often the mystics of every age who end up persecuted, because they have to expose the lies that every religion depends upon, simply to express their liberation and enlightenment.

Vatican properties used as brothels, where priests pay for sex.