(Michelle Tonkin)
Pure Perception and Pure Suffering
A Reflective Testimony on Devotion, Coercion, and Recovery
This text was originally written for publication in a Routledge volume on Health and Healing, but was withdrawn due to legal concerns about institutional defamation.
It is a personal, critical, and trauma-informed account of my experience within a Tibetan Buddhist organisation. It reflects on the bodily and spiritual impact of coercion, silence, and the complex entanglements of devotion and power.
I share this as part of a larger inquiry into truth-telling, rupture, and reclamation within contemplative and artistic practice.
Please read with care. This work contains references to spiritual abuse and psychological trauma.
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