Holding Power Wisely: Ethics, Boundaries, and Care in Buddhist Teaching Relationships

Holding Power Wisely is a two-day, residential applied ethics workshop for Dharma teachers, teachers-in-training, and others who hold positions of spiritual teaching authority within Buddhist communities.  Teachers may also send students with possible teaching responsibilities on their development horizon.

Since teaching relationships carry inherent power, even when grounded in sincere intention and deep practice, the asymmetry of teacher–student roles creates conditions where vulnerability, projection, emotional dependency, desire, grief, or confusion can arise—overtly or subtly—often during challenging periods of personal difficulty or transition.

Without shared language, training, and trusted peer support, these moments can escalate into boundary violations that cause real harm to individuals, sanghas, and the wider Buddhist community.

What This Workshop Offers

Participants will have the opportunity to

• Understand how power imbalance functions in everyday teaching contexts
• Recognize early signs of boundary erosion, transference, and ethical risk
• Explore how care, vulnerability, and authority can become entangled
• Hear teachers speak candidly about challenges they know from direct experience
• Develop skill in naming concern early, rather than allowing risk to remain hidden
• Learn when and how to seek confidential support, inside and outside one’s community
• Examine the impact of teacher misconduct on students and sanghas
• Develop a network of helpful on-going guides among attendees
• Explore prevention, accountability, and repair grounded in Buddhist ethics and contemporary understanding of harm

What This Is — and What It Is Not

This workshop is preventative, educational, and supportive and focused on care for teachers as human beings as well as protection of students. The workshop aims toward clarity, responsibility, and wise use of power.

This workshop is not a replacement for formal reporting or accountability structures, nor is it a forum for public disclosure or exposure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the intended participants

This workshop is intended for Dharma teachers, teachers-in-training, monastics, senior practitioners with teaching roles, and others who hold positions of spiritual authority that includes intimate contact with sangha members.

Is this workshop for people who have caused harm?

This training is designed as a preventative and supportive space. It is for people who care deeply about ethical integrity and who want tools, language, and support to navigate complexity before harm occurs.

Is the space confidential?

Yes. Clear guidelines will be established to support trust and safety.

What is the overall intention of this training?

To care for teachers as human beings, protect students from harm, and strengthen sanghas through honesty and ethical clarity.

Designed as a preventative and supportive space, this training helps teachers protect students, themselves, and their communities—so that our practice genuinely relieves suffering rather than inadvertently causing it.

This retreat ends on Saturday evening. Guests are welcome to stay Saturday night and join for the monastery Sunday program.