In 2008, the instrumental Western Zen teacher Robert Aitken unsealed documents indicating that as early as 1964 the “Zen Master” and main teacher at the Zen Studies Society, Eido Shimano, had sexually violated two women resulting in their psychiatric hospitalization. In 2010, the Shimano archive went online with this and other powerful evidence for five decades of sexual predation.
In 2013, Sherry Chayat, “Shinge Roshi,” the “dharma
heir” of Eido Shimano wrote, “we…remain grateful for…his five decades of inspiring teaching."
One student reported that when Sherry informed ZSS
students of Shimano’s abuse in May of 2010, she explained that he still had the
“true dharma eye” and “lived in the absolute.”
But then, in 2012, right before she thanked her
teacher for his inspiring teaching, Sherry told Professor Jeff Shore that
her teacher was a “manipulative sociopath.”
What’s going on here?
It seems as if Sherry is alternating masks. She puts on the mask of the
wronged victim, concerned lest others share her fate, when that mask “saves
face.” But she puts on the mask of the “Zen Roshi” and devoted disciple when
she wants to assert her continued authority. When that mask becomes a problem
again, because it associates her with the man who gave it to her (a man who
used his mask to rob others of their dignity and sanity), she switches masks
once again.
Keith Johnstone, one of the “pioneers of improvisational theater,” has something to teach us on this subject. He created and studied improv exercises which
induce participants to enact various social roles, and penned an interesting
chapter on masks in which he describes how a theater mask induces the
wearer to embody the social role suggested by its face and character, as if in
a trance. The suggestion is so powerful as to be irresistible. Interestingly, Johnstone cites the masks used
in Tibetan Budddhist ritual tantric practices as an example of this
trance-inducing power.
The movie The Mask also explored the dis-inhibiting effects of a mask in a light and
humorous way. But the famous Stanley Milgram's experiment showed how easy
it was to make others do terrible things when condoned by an authority, and
the Stanford prison experiment showed
the dis-inhibiting effects of the mask of authority on the person assuming
authority. The humor went dark there.
I see the group dynamic induced around my former
teacher (Ken McLeod) as a trance with a twist. Because Ken was simultaneously
aware of the unconscious forces behind Eastern practices he had learned and the tendency in modern Western
culture to be suspicious of masks, he developed a highly refined “maskless
mask.” This was the mask of the ordinary unassuming guy, not seeking power or
advantage, a mask well-known to politicians and sales people.
Interestingly, Ken adopted and
adapted some of Johnstone’s exercises in his work with groups. The participants
would take up certain poses and positions of power in a game environment—strictly
speaking physical masks are not necessary—to explore group and power dynamics. A friend of mine, though, who practiced Johnstone’s work in an actual theater
group for years, with all of its exhilarating and embarrassing moments, quickly
noted a peculiarity and a dead giveaway to anyone trained to see the power
dynamic at work in Ken’s group rather
than just in the games: Ken never participated. He watched. In fact, I
believe he has never participated, ever in his life, in these games. Ken sat off to the side, wearing the teacher’s mask, and just directed, observed and
experimented on others.
Off with the masks!
