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Time for excuses
Hi all,
Reading about dharma wars online - among Buddhist teachers who teach online - made me realize that I've crossed a few lines myself over here. I've deleted the most offensive comments (which never included the names of those involved), and there isn't more that I can do but apologize to everybody.
I do think though it's time for a more general lesson about this. I hope it's clear that I'm preaching to myself as much as to anybody else on this one.
First of all: I'm a bit sick at people who criticize the leaders of the TS without getting involved themselves in the nitty gritty work of keeping our sections alive. My main motivation in explaining why I supported the Dutch section in their expulsion of two members was to support the board. They are hard working volunteers who put in long hours. They expelled people who had made it very hard for them to work together.
In general I'm one to support the underdog, but sometimes it's not clear just who that is. Is it the member who gets expelled (poor them), or the board who has to deal with keeping the section going while also trying to cope with society changing at a rapid pace because of the internet? In this case I supported and support the Dutch section. However, HOW I did that wasn't the best possible way.
Again, I apologize. I apologize for outing the bad about one of our former members. Again, though I did not name him, that had already been done by somebody else, so by association his character flaws as experienced by me were implicitly out in the open. For everybody to see. I should not have brought that all up.
I also apologize for getting confused about the names of people. It's one of my weaknesses that I'm very bad with names in general and in this case: I had not even met the lady I was talking about: I always assumed she was her (first) namesake, who I had met.
I repeat: my motivation was to defend the Dutch board and section - as I felt someone had to. I hope everybody realizes I did everything I did under my personal flag, not as a representative of the Dutch section of the TS Adyar. Which I'm not.
Reading about dharma wars online - among Buddhist teachers who teach online - made me realize that I've crossed a few lines myself over here. I've deleted the most offensive comments (which never included the names of those involved), and there isn't more that I can do but apologize to everybody.
I do think though it's time for a more general lesson about this. I hope it's clear that I'm preaching to myself as much as to anybody else on this one.
First of all: I'm a bit sick at people who criticize the leaders of the TS without getting involved themselves in the nitty gritty work of keeping our sections alive. My main motivation in explaining why I supported the Dutch section in their expulsion of two members was to support the board. They are hard working volunteers who put in long hours. They expelled people who had made it very hard for them to work together.
In general I'm one to support the underdog, but sometimes it's not clear just who that is. Is it the member who gets expelled (poor them), or the board who has to deal with keeping the section going while also trying to cope with society changing at a rapid pace because of the internet? In this case I supported and support the Dutch section. However, HOW I did that wasn't the best possible way.
Again, I apologize. I apologize for outing the bad about one of our former members. Again, though I did not name him, that had already been done by somebody else, so by association his character flaws as experienced by me were implicitly out in the open. For everybody to see. I should not have brought that all up.
I also apologize for getting confused about the names of people. It's one of my weaknesses that I'm very bad with names in general and in this case: I had not even met the lady I was talking about: I always assumed she was her (first) namesake, who I had met.
I repeat: my motivation was to defend the Dutch board and section - as I felt someone had to. I hope everybody realizes I did everything I did under my personal flag, not as a representative of the Dutch section of the TS Adyar. Which I'm not.
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