What’s Their Experience of This?

In the 8th year of training in the Monastic Academy network, a guest named Hannah stayed at the California center for a few weeks. She told others of her intention to ‘seduce a monk’ (although no one at the center at the time was a monk) and she pursued sexual relations with three of the center’s residents. One of them ignored her advances. One of them rejected her advances. The third rejected her as well, but she was more persistent with him.

In the middle of the night, Hannah got into his bed without his knowledge and took her clothes off. He eventually convinced her to leave without any sexual activity. A few days later, Hannah shared with another guest how she planned to seduce him on a beach. The other guest told her not to do this, but Hannah followed through on her plan, and he eventually consented on the beach as she had hoped.

They returned to the center, and told everyone what had happened. She was glowing and bragged to the group that she had seduced a monk. Romantic relationships were not allowed between trainees at the center. The teacher of the California center called Head Teacher Soryu Forall and asked him what to do. Soryu said, “We need to know their experience of this. Please have them both write their understanding of what happened.”

Hannah and the resident chose not to follow these instructions, and instead wrote a letter together as an act of solidarity. They claimed that their relationship had brought them great meaning, growth, and happiness. Despite that, they said they would end their relationship during their period of training with us since it was inappropriate in that environment.