Sexual misconduct, my rape and practice

May you be free from fear, may you come to lay down the burden and be at ease.

I would like to respond to this:

I never told anyone at the time. I honestly don't know how to feel about it. It's in the past.

If you don't want to tell anyone, you should of course do what you feel is best and least stressful. Still, since we are in a Buddhist forum, I want to say that nothing I've read or heard from monastics suggests a message of "if you suffer, you should never tell anyone because it's up to you to get over it alone." On the contrary, the Buddha established an ongoing community for people to help each other. I don't know how you practice, but if you put stock in the Four Noble Truths, number one is that suffering is real. As you suffer, millions of others also suffer. As you know, most rapes go unreported, so most suffer alone just like this.

Most all the comments here are about moving on. In my opinion, what would constitute moving would be being able to talk about it as something that happened in your life, along with many other things that have happened. That begins by talking about it as painful because it being a secret not known to anyone separates it from the rest of life. Ajahn Brahm talks about an encounter he had with a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, where he advises her to use this experience to help people, to talk to others who have experienced this and help ease their pain as a great act of compassion. Not that you have to do this, but at least something to reflect on, since it is your username, maybe that is what a lotus coming out of the mud would really look like: not trying to get back to a status quo--"I had almost forgotten he existed"--not trying to tidy up as if it hadn't happened, but producing something new and beautiful for the benefit of others that depends on the earlier mud.

These are just some thoughts on an internet forum. If they don't resonate with you then of course leave it aside. Kindest regards.

/r/Buddhism Thread