Just because some senior teachers may fall into scandal does not mean the Dharma is wrong, it means their understanding was wrong or their delusions or negative karma got the best of them.

Gen Tharchin said our primary refuge should be in the Dharma, not the person. The reason for this is simple. If we put our primary refuge in the person and they do something stupid, we will lose everthing. But if we put our primary refuge in the Dharma and the person does something stupid, the conclusion we reach is their story is a cautionary tale encouraging us to not do stupid things or to not hold on to wrong understandings. Instead of losing everything, we will become more motivated to do things correctly. Their downfall becomes their most powerful teaching.

And let’s be honest with ourselves, our tradition has had its fair share of pretty awful scandals. We don’t need to run away from these, minimize them, sugarcoat them, or worse deny them. We need to have the courage to own them, call a spade a spade and declare wrong is wrong, even when committed by people within our tradition. Indeed, I would say we especially need to do this if we want our tradition to survive, much less thrive. At the same time, we also don’t need to exaggerate our mistakes, self-flagellate about them, or become despondent about them. We simply admit them, learn from our mistakes, make amends, and move on. This is just as true for the tradition as a whole as it is for us as individuals.

We have also left a wake of some really hurt people by unskfillful things we have done or how some people have been treated. Sure, they made mistakes too along the way, but that doesn’t absolve us of our own mistakes. We need to own them, admit them, and do our best to repair any damage we may have caused.

Yes, we need to defend our tradition, sometimes even in wrathful ways, but we don’t have to harm living beings in the process of doing so. Sometimes (I would say most of the time, if not all of the time) the best way of defending our tradition is by responding with patience, acceptance, understanding, compassion, and wisdom. We need to show love for these people, not scorn. We need to be grateful for their criticisms, not retaliate in kind.

Just because we are defending something precious does not give us license to betray the teachings by harming those who seek to harm us. This doesn’t mean we do nothing or allow false accusations to stand, but we don’t protect our principles by violating them. It is like those who called for suspending democracy or engaging in torture during the war on terrorism in the name of supposedly defending it.

As a tradition, we need to have the courage to learn from our mistakes. And by and large we have done so. Things are so much better now than they were before. But we still have a long ways to go. Admitting that is not a criticism, it is an act of love for the tradition. Owning up to our mistakes and making amends for them are crucial parts of how we cause the Dharma to flourish for generations to come.