Connecting Survivors of Guru and Teacher Abuse
Heartwood offers a safe, compassionate space to heal and connect after physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and sexual abuse in Buddhism. We are a community-based center in Evanston, Illinois committed to providing holistic health and meditation services. Our center was conceived in 1999 as an organization where practitioners work together in a collaborative environment, and support one another to exemplify a network of health and wellness. Services from Heartwood are offered at no cost to survivors in need.
From 2014 to 2021, Heartwood was under the spiritual guidance of a prominent Tibetan Buddhist guru. After this experience resulted in financial exploitation and deception, Heartwood disassociated itself from further guru leadership. As the Heartwood community recovers from this trauma, we seek to uphold ethical responsibility inherent in Buddhism that directs us to refrain from committing harm, including all forms of abuses of power.
Heartwood is a 501c3 non profit. All donations are tax deductible.
Who We Are
Even though our individual needs and interests vary, we believe it is essential for survivors to have the option to learn and heal with those that share a similar story. Heartwood’s Connecting Survivors of Guru and Teacher Abuse launched in October 2021. Participants connect monthly in a virtual community meeting. These peer-led meetings are closed to the public. We welcome all people of every race, color, sex, nation of origin, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression of profession, education and walk of life.
Our Advisory Board
Willa Blythe Baker is a teacher and writer, and the founder of Natural Dharma Fellowship and its retreat center Wonderwell Mountain Refuge. She is the author of several books, including most recently The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom. She has written articles for Lion’s Roar and Buddhadharma magazines on sexual misconduct in Buddhist communities, and is an ally of survivors.
Ann Gleig is an associate professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press, 2019). She collaborating with Dr. Amy Langenberg on a study of sexual abuse in American Buddhism, titled Abuse, Sex, and the Sangha, which will be published with Yale University Press.
Amy Paris Langenberg is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Eckerd College. She is the author of Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom (Routledge, 2017). She is collaborating with Dr. Ann Gleig on a study of sexual abuse in American Buddhism, titled Abuse, Sex, and the Sangha, which will be published with Yale University Press.
Carol Merchasin is a lawyer (retired) and former partner in the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius where she was the director of Morgan Lewis Resources, providing training on harassment and discrimination as well as investigation services for clients. Ms. Merchasin is an experienced investigator who has conducted dozens of workplace investigations. Ms. Merchasin was a pro bono investigator for Buddhist Project Sunshine where her investigation revealed sexual misconduct within Shambhala International. She is currently assisting several sanghas in bringing allegations of misconduct to light.
Damcho Diana Finnegan is co-founder of Dharmadatta Community, a Spanish-speaking intentional Buddhist community. Her PhD thesis explored gender in Buddhist narratives, and she is working on a book on Buddhist practice centering the experience of women. She is an ally of survivors, and is committed to working to eliminate the conditions that make abuse so common in Tibetan Buddhist communities.
Linda Modaro, a former Acupuncturist and Qi Gong Master, teaches Reflective Meditation to an online international audience. After a split in her former sangha, she founded Sati Sangha and collaborates with Nelly Kaufer, the founder of Pine Street Sangha. Together they co-authored, Reflective Meditation: Cultivating Kindness and Curiosity in the Buddha’s Company which is a matured feministic conversation about Buddhist teachings in relation to power, culture and conditionality. Along with the Reflective Meditation community, they have over 1000 dharma talks on their Reflective Meditation podcast. Linda is a sincere friend and ally of survivors.
Guiding Principles
During these community meetings, we follow these guiding principles that we created together,
- Confidentiality and safety are our top priorities.
- This is a religious and spiritually neutral space. This is not a suitable space for teaching and telling.
- We are here to be present and support one another in finding our voice.
- It’s always okay to become dysregulated.
- How we respond to each other and ourselves is with kindness and understanding.
- Our shared purpose is to build community – it is okay and encouraged to connect outside of our set time together.
Heartwood is a 501c3 non profit. All donations are tax deductible.
Participants
Survivors represent several Buddhist traditions that to date include, Theravada, Zen, and Vajrayana. We currently have 13 survivors meeting regularly, and we are adding a second group.
Allies are also invited to attend and participate. Ally participants bring diverse expertise and experience from within and outside the Buddhist community, dedicated to supporting survivors. This support includes providing resources and referrals, and helping survivors motivated to respond to their abuse find their voice through legal advocacy, and media outreach. Allies also help survivors explore the contextual and cultural factors that influence guru and teacher abuse.
Intended Outcome
Our shared hope is to prevent survivors from feeling shame, stigma, and loneliness. Guru and teacher abuse does not discriminate. All practitioners are at some risk of experiencing misuse
or abuse of power. At Heartwood, we believe that survivors of guru and teacher abuse deserve a healthy and safe community to process their experience through the healing potential of human relationships. Survivors and allies work together to find a foundation for well-being and become equipped to cope with the short-term and long-term challenges of surviving abuse.
Additionally, a new group is forming for BIPOC survivors of guru and teacher abuse.
To learn more, email Nancy Floy at nancyfloy@heartwoodcenter.com. Our meetings are by referral only, if you know someone interested please have them get in touch.
I am Hina, and I am a certified mindfulness meditation teacher as well as a mindful self-compassion teacher. I hold a master’s in health and wellness coaching and am certified by the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches.
I was born in India, and have lived in the US and Singapore. I am a mother of two young adults.
I would like to offer you a warm welcome to Heartwood and into this safe space for survivors of Guru and Teacher abuse. I consider confidentiality, privacy, respect, and deep compassion as the foundations for this community where we can each hold space and be held in mutual respect and understanding.
In addition, I would also like to welcome friends from the Indian community who would like to share our voices in regards to the many forms of cultural appropriation and its impact.
Bad Buddhist Podcast
As part of our endeavors to offer free services and resources for survivors of guru and teacher abuse, we recommend the Bad Buddhist Podcast. This podcast takes a critical look at Vajrayana Buddhist practice in America today and discusses the issues facing this path as it integrates into our modern Western society. Confronting issues of sexual, physical, and financial abuse within American sanghas, through interviews, stories and some shared truth, the Bad Buddhist Podcast sheds light on broken systems within Buddhism and tries to figure out why they’re not working and how they can be readapted into more beneficial and healthy patterns. They try to answer the question: What do you do when being a good Buddhist isn’t good enough?
Additional Resources & Articles
Heartwood Hosts its First Gathering of Survivors of Abuse by Buddhist Teachers
Three Women Accuse Upstate Buddhist Leader of Rape
Sexual Ethics and Healthy Boundaries in the Wake of Teacher Abuse
Click this link for a great list of helpful resources: https://bostonzen.org/resilient-sangha/resources/