Alex Wilding

It has, again, as far as I have seen so far, just been a matter of personal attacks. Schofield has, for example, been attacked for being transgender. Now look, I'm an old, white, middle-class, straight, cis male, and I will admit that sometimes I find the way today's media focuses on the question of whether people are or are not transgender is a little bit strange. But hey, each to their own.

It has, again, as far as I have seen so far, just been a matter of personal attacks. Schofield has, for example, been attacked for being transgender. Now look, I'm an old, white, middle-class, straight, cis male, and I will admit that sometimes I find the way today's media focuses on the question of whether people are or are not transgender is a little bit strange. But hey, each to their own.

When it comes to the content of such an article, surely the gender orientation of the writer is no more relevant than whether he or she is black, white, brown, tall, short, or anything else. It's the facts that matter in it. Fact-based criticism might be interesting, but irrelevant personal insults certainly aren't.

When it comes to the content of such an article, surely the gender orientation of the writer is no more relevant than whether he or she is black, white, brown, tall, short, or anything else. It's the facts that matter in it. Fact-based criticism might be interesting, but irrelevant personal insults certainly aren't.

Along with the general claims that the article is rubbish, that it is mean, or that the author is transgender, we also find the tired excuse that Trungpa was a mahasiddha, implying that anything he did the collapsing drunk on stage, the animal cruelty, the obvious egomania, was in some mysterious way enlightened and enlightening, actually good for the people subjected to it.

Along with the general claims that the article is rubbish, that it is mean, or that the author is transgender, we also find the tired excuse that Trungpa was a mahasiddha, implying that anything he did the collapsing drunk on stage, the animal cruelty, the obvious egomania, was in some mysterious way enlightened and enlightening, actually good for the people subjected to it.

This same William Cassidy wrote very recently, and I quote, Trungpa Rinpoche was a Mahasiddha. His conduct cannot and should not be judged by ordinary eyes. End of quote. I say that that is precisely the poisoned chalice, the noose that he and others who share his view are putting around their own necks. Calling someone a Mahasiddha is in fact empty of any serious meaning.

This same William Cassidy wrote very recently, and I quote, Trungpa Rinpoche was a Mahasiddha. His conduct cannot and should not be judged by ordinary eyes. End of quote. I say that that is precisely the poisoned chalice, the noose that he and others who share his view are putting around their own necks. Calling someone a Mahasiddha is in fact empty of any serious meaning.

Attaching that high-sounding name to someone does not excuse cruelty or abuse. Attaching it to a narcissistic egomaniac is beyond ridiculous. Cassidy supported his opinion with the claim that if someone thinks that they are a Vajrayana practitioner but has a low opinion of Trungpa, they should know that they have utterly failed and evidently don't have the slightest idea of what is entailed.

Attaching that high-sounding name to someone does not excuse cruelty or abuse. Attaching it to a narcissistic egomaniac is beyond ridiculous. Cassidy supported his opinion with the claim that if someone thinks that they are a Vajrayana practitioner but has a low opinion of Trungpa, they should know that they have utterly failed and evidently don't have the slightest idea of what is entailed.

Do I need to say any more about that view? My position is that if anyone wants to have such an astonishingly high opinion of Trungpa or of any other supposed guru, that is their affair. They may be happy with it, and they are, of course, free to express that opinion in public.

Do I need to say any more about that view? My position is that if anyone wants to have such an astonishingly high opinion of Trungpa or of any other supposed guru, that is their affair. They may be happy with it, and they are, of course, free to express that opinion in public.

But what is quite ludicrous, bizarre and arrogant, stupid and unworthy of any Buddhist of whatever type is to insist that other people should or even must share their view.

But what is quite ludicrous, bizarre and arrogant, stupid and unworthy of any Buddhist of whatever type is to insist that other people should or even must share their view.

If every Vajrayana practitioner is supposed to shut down their intelligence about every and any guru who they've never met and with whom they have no spiritual connection, but who is idolized by one or another random dude on the internet,

If every Vajrayana practitioner is supposed to shut down their intelligence about every and any guru who they've never met and with whom they have no spiritual connection, but who is idolized by one or another random dude on the internet,

If that means that the Vajrayana practitioner is supposed to abandon all ethical judgment and therefore, let it be said, all basic Buddhism, just because that random dude says so or says that the teacher is a Mahasiddha, well, words actually fail me. But enough of that.

If that means that the Vajrayana practitioner is supposed to abandon all ethical judgment and therefore, let it be said, all basic Buddhism, just because that random dude says so or says that the teacher is a Mahasiddha, well, words actually fail me. But enough of that.

I mention it in such detail here because it is something that has recently erupted across the Tibetan Buddhist corners of the internet, and because the structures illustrated by this particular case are, sadly enough but unsurprisingly, really quite widespread. Some listeners might by now have wondered about what a Mahasiddha is in any case. You may even have heard of the 84 Mahasiddhas.

I mention it in such detail here because it is something that has recently erupted across the Tibetan Buddhist corners of the internet, and because the structures illustrated by this particular case are, sadly enough but unsurprisingly, really quite widespread. Some listeners might by now have wondered about what a Mahasiddha is in any case. You may even have heard of the 84 Mahasiddhas.