Josef wrote:Pero wrote:
Sorry guys but I think you're being a bit ridiculous. A lot of things are said on this board for example, imagine now for example if the DC or the two Karmapa's groups or students of various tulkus etc. started harrasing individual people because of it. It's hardly the same thing if one person makes a comment on something (and not directly to the person or group being commented on), no matter what it is, and quite another if a group intentionally (and with coordination) harrasses an individual.
I agree Pero.
The only point I think should be acknowledged is that muju does have to take some responsibility for his situation with the group in question.
If you tell me what responsibility I should take, and explain why, and your explanation makes sense, I will certainly take it.
I made no bones in my "Open Letter to Gyatrul Rinpoche" about the fact that I used harsh language at times to try to shake this group off.
In 2009, "Jetsunma" publicly claimed that I was actually a man named William Cassidy, aka "Tenpa Rinpoche." I do not know this man and I have never talked to him. Because Alyce Zeoli said this, her followers began to stalk me on Twitter. They interfered dozens of times each day with my ability to communicate with other people who are interested in Zen. I had to delete or change the name of my account many times to evade them.
During that year I said a number of things, some of them polite and others a little harsh-sounding, in order to get "Jetsunma" and her group to leave me alone. Nothing worked.
I myself observed "Jetsunma" and her monks and nuns mocking, insulting, and threatening many people -- not just me. Their main object of hate was Tenpa Rinpoche, but they also regularly attacked a former Kunzang Palyul Choling nun named Nydia Alexander.
Also, I saw "Jetsunma" many times insult and disparage a woman named Clara Llum whom I revere as one of my teachers, who happens to be a lineage holder in Jodo (Pure Land) Japanese Buddhism. These interactions were all on Twitter and in full public view.
In 2010 "Jetsunma" was able to convince an FBI agent that she was being stalked by William Cassidy. As far as I know, this was a falsehood. She also gave the FBI agent a number of my postings on Twitter, claiming that they were actually by Cassidy. As a result, my home in Oregon was invaded in a predawn raid by FBI agents, who handcuffed my girlfriend and I at gunpoint and confiscated our computers using a search warrant. I was not charged with anything, but the experience was traumatic for my girlfriend.
Nothing worked. Harshness, politeness, mockery, silence, changing the name of my accounts, deleting my accounts, going offline for a month. &c. Nothing worked, nothing. I tried it all.
What should I have done? Please tell me.
When I finally started getting very harsh with these people, it was simply because I hoped that maintaining enough harshness, for a long enough time, would eventually drive them off. It didn't. There was nothing I could do at that point except go offline completely. I chose to stay online. And since they weren't going to relent, I told them and everybody else exactly what I thought about their nonsense. My language tends to be direct.
I'm not an ordained monk. Hakuin called ordained monks who don't pursue Zen in an honest way "worthless rice bags." Ikkyu was renowned for his diatribes against the monks of his home temple. In Zen we have a tradition of using pungent and direct language to describe people who act like this group does.