Transcending Corruption

In 1980, my buddhist teacher, Chogyam 
Trungpa,attended a luncheon sponsored
by the U.S. Senate in honor of the 
Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the
Kagyu school of Buddhism in Tibet, and
an important figure. He told his students
his experience, and how he saw the
government people he was  exposed to.
What he said echoes the idea that the 

rank and file of the intelligence community 
are  great people doing their jobs, and 
that the corruption is at the top:

“Actually a very interesting point with those 
senators and congressmen is that you can
actually tell who has hierarchy, who has less
hierarchy, and who is a clerk, by their level
of connectedness. You find that the
hierarchy are completely off the wall (laughter);
and you find the medium are medium off the
wall; and you actually find the lower people—
the police and the service staff and the
secretaries there—are very well connected.
They know exactly what to do. They are

the best persons. And you can tell—without 
even reading the name tags on their lapels.
You can tell who is hierarchy and who is not
hierarchy, by looking at their state of existence—
which is as bad as that,actually; or as good as
that, as far as we are concerned.” 
 (source not revealed)