Re: Five Mountain Zen Order & Paul Lynch
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2012 4:39 pm
"I think this thread could use less hyperbole and more facts. What's really going on here?"
hear, hear.
But c'mon. We're never going to get a straight answer out of these people. Can't everyone see that? They are showing you how they behave. Here. Evasion, puffery, false piety, passive aggressive attacks, dodges, feints, continually shifting names, allegiances. How can this in any way be considered a serious Buddhist organization? (Well, actually, it can't.)
I wish I had a clear list documenting every single name change Paul Lynch has himself adopted in the last 3 years, never mind his organizations, of which I've tracked at least 5.
In 2008, even by Lynch's own admission he left his only actual bona fide teacher in controversy (never mind the multiple dozens he's claimed to have "studied with" - there's no dispute he sat on cushions in rooms with plenty of people over the years. Anyone who practices for any time ends up meeting a lot of teachers; only a shyster would claim them then as his teachers.)
That one real teacher revoked his only qualification to teach - a provisional designation, NOT dharma transmission. The title for that designation is Ji Do Poep Sa Nim. After Moore told him he could no longer consider himself authorized as that, Lynch led so-called retreats in Second Life using that title, and elsewhere for the next year. And that was the only thing he claimed for that first year.
Here, (http://www.zenforuminternational.org/vi ... =73&t=2740), in June 2009 Paul Lynch is suddenly calling himself "sensei" and said to be engaged in "advanced koan studies with James Ford." He usually also included the names of John Tarrant and Robert Aitken, to further puff up the claim. While sensei only means teacher in Japanese, in the US, and especially in rinzai lineages in the US, it is used a specific designation of a certain attained transmitted degree or level. Lynch knows this, and that's why he used it.
I and others have asked Ford about this. He says simply, that's not true. Lynch shouldn't have said this. He was NEVER his student, seirous or otherwise. They had met and that was all. When someone asked Lynch on Facebook why he said this when Ford says its not true, Lynch said "Find one place I ever said this." I really think Lynch has some psychological or cognitive issues, because even at that time there were at least 20 places you find this claim, including on some of his own (many many) websites. He likes to self-promote, clearly.
It's also why for years he often used the term 'inka' talking about his qualifications to teach; in the Rinzai tradition it means transmission. In the Korean, it doesn't. He gave students Rinzai style rakusu, no longer the traditional Korean style he had always used. The implication here is explicit. "I am an authorized Rinzai teacher."
Then in 2010, he adopted some Chinese Dharma name, and started calling himself 'Chanshi' out of the blue, using very ill-fitting cheap Taiwanese Kasa/Okesa, ie Buddha Robes. I mean, cmon people.
Later he simply started saying Sonsanim, I guess figuring now that he'd created enough supposed distance with all the other name changes no one would bother to notice he never received transmission in the first place. When you actually know that only Seung Sahn ever really went by Sonsanim and his heirs don't generally ever use that title (certainly not calling themselves that), it makes it even more grotesque.
He then created an online university, with web savvy Al Billings and Jiun Foster as his right hand man. The 4 year tuition was listed as something like $40,000 - later this was amended to say that everyone would receive a "scholarship" so the actual cost was a fraction of that, $2000 or something. Maybe you happen to have watched television at some point? Late at night, or on a Sunday morning? When they sell you some widget , and tell you the price is $99, "but if you order right now, the price is only 19.99", right? If something has no intrinsic value - and an unaccredited online degree clearly has zero - then one dollar is still a manufactured value. Maybe you start to see why Lynch has an interest in manufacturing his own value.
Lynch gives Foster fake transmission - then Foster and Billings LEAVE AND FORM THEIR OWN ONLINE UNIVERSITY AND ORDER!! You can't make this stuff up.
Lynch changes the name of his bullshit college, and manages to attract that motley bunch I referred to. These are all people who got caught up in some fantasy about robes and bowls and accoutrement and Asian Dharma names etc, some type of evangelical zeal for Buddhism (that will not last I guarantee you), and Lynch starts giving them titles and their own Zen centers INSTANTLY. Which is what drew them to a fake teacher in the first place - they follow this same pattern, all of them, from Foster on down.
Some 20 year old kid, who says he's a master of 20 martial arts, becomes "National Vice Abbott", and later more; other guys are made "Bodhisattva Monks", abbots and what not. Lynch needs to build a network of influence and money making on the only model he knows - Kwan Um. Seung Sahn built that thing up remarkably quickly, attracting some pretty capable folks quickly due to his charisma and ability (I know it has struggled more recently with him gone.) Lynch is doing this pale imitation at every turn, meanwhile just lying all along the way to try to get the freaking balloon to inflate. It's really actually incredibly pathetic.
So, somehow he got connected to these Vietnamese folks, and this older clearly nearly defunct organization. Clearly no one involved there has the first idea about the internet, or cared to do any research about Lynch at all. he said he was this that and the other, which is his specialty. They say ok, wow, a Dharma brother, we'll bring him in. He's enthusiastic and willing and this thing is dead on the vine anyway, so great. In the last few months he went from just saying he's on the board or whatever, to folding his obviously failed online college into theirs, gives himself a doctorate and one to his "barely legal" Vice Abbot, who gets to now add Dr. to his totally inflated credentials - just like his teacher, might I add. It is absolute ridiculous. And at some point, laws either have been or will be broken. Lynch clearly has ZERO regard for the truth or for reality. he will say or do whatever it takes to be seen as a Zen authority, and to make whatever admittedly pathetic living he's making having gone all in to the Zen fantasy as he has. It's clear money isn't his main motivation. Power is what he craves - admiration and influence. To be the "Great Zen Master." That's all he wants. His students want that too - and no doubt he's promising transmission, as he gave to Foster within months of simply declaring himself a zen master out of the blue. It is frankly all just disgusting.
hear, hear.
But c'mon. We're never going to get a straight answer out of these people. Can't everyone see that? They are showing you how they behave. Here. Evasion, puffery, false piety, passive aggressive attacks, dodges, feints, continually shifting names, allegiances. How can this in any way be considered a serious Buddhist organization? (Well, actually, it can't.)
I wish I had a clear list documenting every single name change Paul Lynch has himself adopted in the last 3 years, never mind his organizations, of which I've tracked at least 5.
In 2008, even by Lynch's own admission he left his only actual bona fide teacher in controversy (never mind the multiple dozens he's claimed to have "studied with" - there's no dispute he sat on cushions in rooms with plenty of people over the years. Anyone who practices for any time ends up meeting a lot of teachers; only a shyster would claim them then as his teachers.)
That one real teacher revoked his only qualification to teach - a provisional designation, NOT dharma transmission. The title for that designation is Ji Do Poep Sa Nim. After Moore told him he could no longer consider himself authorized as that, Lynch led so-called retreats in Second Life using that title, and elsewhere for the next year. And that was the only thing he claimed for that first year.
Here, (http://www.zenforuminternational.org/vi ... =73&t=2740), in June 2009 Paul Lynch is suddenly calling himself "sensei" and said to be engaged in "advanced koan studies with James Ford." He usually also included the names of John Tarrant and Robert Aitken, to further puff up the claim. While sensei only means teacher in Japanese, in the US, and especially in rinzai lineages in the US, it is used a specific designation of a certain attained transmitted degree or level. Lynch knows this, and that's why he used it.
I and others have asked Ford about this. He says simply, that's not true. Lynch shouldn't have said this. He was NEVER his student, seirous or otherwise. They had met and that was all. When someone asked Lynch on Facebook why he said this when Ford says its not true, Lynch said "Find one place I ever said this." I really think Lynch has some psychological or cognitive issues, because even at that time there were at least 20 places you find this claim, including on some of his own (many many) websites. He likes to self-promote, clearly.
It's also why for years he often used the term 'inka' talking about his qualifications to teach; in the Rinzai tradition it means transmission. In the Korean, it doesn't. He gave students Rinzai style rakusu, no longer the traditional Korean style he had always used. The implication here is explicit. "I am an authorized Rinzai teacher."
Then in 2010, he adopted some Chinese Dharma name, and started calling himself 'Chanshi' out of the blue, using very ill-fitting cheap Taiwanese Kasa/Okesa, ie Buddha Robes. I mean, cmon people.
Later he simply started saying Sonsanim, I guess figuring now that he'd created enough supposed distance with all the other name changes no one would bother to notice he never received transmission in the first place. When you actually know that only Seung Sahn ever really went by Sonsanim and his heirs don't generally ever use that title (certainly not calling themselves that), it makes it even more grotesque.
He then created an online university, with web savvy Al Billings and Jiun Foster as his right hand man. The 4 year tuition was listed as something like $40,000 - later this was amended to say that everyone would receive a "scholarship" so the actual cost was a fraction of that, $2000 or something. Maybe you happen to have watched television at some point? Late at night, or on a Sunday morning? When they sell you some widget , and tell you the price is $99, "but if you order right now, the price is only 19.99", right? If something has no intrinsic value - and an unaccredited online degree clearly has zero - then one dollar is still a manufactured value. Maybe you start to see why Lynch has an interest in manufacturing his own value.
Lynch gives Foster fake transmission - then Foster and Billings LEAVE AND FORM THEIR OWN ONLINE UNIVERSITY AND ORDER!! You can't make this stuff up.
Lynch changes the name of his bullshit college, and manages to attract that motley bunch I referred to. These are all people who got caught up in some fantasy about robes and bowls and accoutrement and Asian Dharma names etc, some type of evangelical zeal for Buddhism (that will not last I guarantee you), and Lynch starts giving them titles and their own Zen centers INSTANTLY. Which is what drew them to a fake teacher in the first place - they follow this same pattern, all of them, from Foster on down.
Some 20 year old kid, who says he's a master of 20 martial arts, becomes "National Vice Abbott", and later more; other guys are made "Bodhisattva Monks", abbots and what not. Lynch needs to build a network of influence and money making on the only model he knows - Kwan Um. Seung Sahn built that thing up remarkably quickly, attracting some pretty capable folks quickly due to his charisma and ability (I know it has struggled more recently with him gone.) Lynch is doing this pale imitation at every turn, meanwhile just lying all along the way to try to get the freaking balloon to inflate. It's really actually incredibly pathetic.
So, somehow he got connected to these Vietnamese folks, and this older clearly nearly defunct organization. Clearly no one involved there has the first idea about the internet, or cared to do any research about Lynch at all. he said he was this that and the other, which is his specialty. They say ok, wow, a Dharma brother, we'll bring him in. He's enthusiastic and willing and this thing is dead on the vine anyway, so great. In the last few months he went from just saying he's on the board or whatever, to folding his obviously failed online college into theirs, gives himself a doctorate and one to his "barely legal" Vice Abbot, who gets to now add Dr. to his totally inflated credentials - just like his teacher, might I add. It is absolute ridiculous. And at some point, laws either have been or will be broken. Lynch clearly has ZERO regard for the truth or for reality. he will say or do whatever it takes to be seen as a Zen authority, and to make whatever admittedly pathetic living he's making having gone all in to the Zen fantasy as he has. It's clear money isn't his main motivation. Power is what he craves - admiration and influence. To be the "Great Zen Master." That's all he wants. His students want that too - and no doubt he's promising transmission, as he gave to Foster within months of simply declaring himself a zen master out of the blue. It is frankly all just disgusting.