#32 Zen Buddhism in the West: practice, communities, and abuse of power – Christopher Hamacher

In recent decades, various forms of Buddhist practices have become more and more popular. The stories of profound life transformations through Buddhism are plentiful and the benefits of Buddhist forms of meditation are continuously reported by both practitioners and researchers. However, compared to other religious communities, Buddhism and in particular Zen Buddhism has been considered rather immune from allegations of sectarian scandals such as teacher abuse of authority and trust for econo...