Unlearning Heartless Buddhism : Why We Need to Reject the Guru Class
Context, just some thinking after reading about more aftermath of Tibetan Buddhism abuses and the trail of trauma it leaves behind, while our societies still portray it, as an alternative to other religions that have shown to be abusive systems
TL;DR:
Tibetan Buddhism—and the broader spiritual exotica we’ve imported into Western culture—doesn’t offer a path to healing, but a system of emotional denial and hierarchical control. We’ve allowed sociopathic authority figures to occupy the role of “teacher” for too long, romanticizing ideas like karma, reincarnation, and guru devotion without questioning their real-world consequences. It’s time to unlearn the whole framework—not replace it.
I think one of the reasons so many teachers in Tibetan Buddhism struggle to truly engage with suffering, despite building an entire system around it, is that many of them are profoundly disconnected from their own emotional lives.
Some, I would even argue, display traits that align with sociopathy or deep dissociation.
Many were raised in rigid, hierarchical environments where vulnerability was punished and emotional detachment was mistaken for maturity.
They were conditioned to conflate “mind training” with emotional repression, to confuse silence with wisdom, and to treat suffering not as something to confront with clarity and accountability, but as an illusion to sidestep.
The result is what I’d call “Heartless Buddhism” a doctrinal system built like a bunker.
Everything passes through layers of metaphysics and tradition, but rarely through the lens of lived, felt human experience.
Compassion is ritualized and abstract. When confronted with real suffering, trauma, abuse, grief, these teachers are often completely incapable of response.
Be them from western or oriental origin, the actions of ALL the Tibetan Buddhist “teachers” or “masters” have been a living demonstration on how NOT to be a Buddhist.
Not because the topics are complex, but because they’ve been trained to deny their own pain—and rewarded for doing so.
Trained to output platitudes instead of stepping down from their pedestal and meet the actual people that used to be at their feet’s.
Still, they hold the seat of “teacher.”
But the real question is: why have we, in the West and beyond, been so willing to give them that seat? Why did we so easily import and elevate a system built on feudal hierarchy, unquestioned authority, and metaphysical obedience?
It’s not just Tibetan Buddhism that should concern us—it’s the entire apparatus of imported religious exotic-new-age BS that’s been smuggled into our cultures under the banners of Karma, Yoga, Tantra, Reincarnation and countless other concepts.
Spiritual Commodities, now currency tokens used on bio’s as if they were legit.
These are not harmless lifestyle add-ons. They carry with them embedded worldviews that justify inequality, fatalism, and abuse, often dressed up as wisdom.
We need to stop romanticizing these traditions and start unlearning them.
Not by replacing them with another guru or “authentic” lineage, but by reclaiming our critical faculties and cultural agency. The so-called teachers have nothing to offer that justifies the pass they’ve been given. What we need isn’t more bowing—it’s more refusing.
Unlearning is political.