{"id":253,"date":"2011-03-13T20:55:06","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html"},"modified":"2011-03-13T20:55:06","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T20:55:06","slug":"book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/sexspiritual.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"sexspiritual.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/sexspiritual-thumb-350x508-21977.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"508\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span>Sexual scandals have given spiritual communities a bad name. And no tradition has been immune from their occurrence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Many websites document the sobering and continuing incidents of sexual involvement, as well as other abuses of power (google spiritual teacher and scandal).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This book does not get into the specifics of such incidents, but rather seeks to explain the dynamics of these relationships and to offer practical solutions for their prevention.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Edelstein debunks some of the myths around these boundary violations. First, they are not rare. In fact, they are disturbingly common. They are not all the product of creeps, charlatans, or power hungry posers (although some incidents clearly are). They are not between consenting adults either.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>We get stuck on the idea that spiritual teachers are somehow beyond normal human considerations and due to the super-normal human status could not commit base acts such as sexual exploitation. You just can&#8217;t conclude they are frauds if something happens.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Edelstein points out that, &#8220;It is entirely possible for a spiritual teacher to be wise, compassionate, empathetic, and inspiring, and at the some time sexually exploitative.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This well-written book explores this conundrum in an insightful and structured way.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Rather, they emerge out of the intimacy and power differential of the spiritual teacher-student relationship and in this way resemble the dynamics of psychotherapy relationships.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In my field of psychotherapy, there is a large literature on the ethical boundaries around sexual contact with patients. Relative to the spiritual context, the incidence of sexual boundary violations in psychotherapy is more rare. This is largely due to training in ethics and a longstanding awareness of these issues (as well as legal sanctions in some states). These safeguards are absent in most spiritual contexts.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sex and the Spiritual Teacher is an invitation to start these conversations.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/sexandthespiritualteacher.com\/\">Edelstein also has a website devoted to the topic<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sexual scandals have given spiritual communities a bad name. And no tradition has been immune from their occurrence.&nbsp; Many websites document the sobering and continuing incidents of sexual involvement, as well as other abuses of power (google spiritual teacher and scandal). This book does not get into the specifics of such incidents, but rather seeks&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-shelf","category-recommended"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sexual scandals have given spiritual communities a bad name. And no tradition has been immune from their occurrence.&nbsp; Many websites document the sobering and continuing incidents of sexual involvement, as well as other abuses of power (google spiritual teacher and scandal). This book does not get into the specifics of such incidents, but rather seeks&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-13T20:55:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/sexspiritual-thumb-350x508-21977.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"Sexual scandals have given spiritual communities a bad name. And no tradition has been immune from their occurrence.&nbsp; Many websites document the sobering and continuing incidents of sexual involvement, as well as other abuses of power (google spiritual teacher and scandal). This book does not get into the specifics of such incidents, but rather seeks&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html","og_site_name":"Mindfulness Matters","article_published_time":"2011-03-13T20:55:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/sexspiritual-thumb-350x508-21977.jpg"}],"author":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html","name":"Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein - Mindfulness Matters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/sexspiritual-thumb-350x508-21977.jpg","datePublished":"2011-03-13T20:55:06+00:00","dateModified":"2011-03-13T20:55:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/sexspiritual-thumb-350x508-21977.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2011\/03\/sexspiritual-thumb-350x508-21977.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/03\/book-review-sex-and-the-spiritual-teacher.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book Review: Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/","name":"Mindfulness Matters","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Arnie Kozak","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8","name":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","caption":"Dr. Arnie Kozak"},"description":"Recognized as an innovator in the field of mindfulness-based psychology, Dr. Arnie Kozak is northern New England's leading expert in the field. Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}