wattsape - 11 June 2009 10:38 PM

KarmicMind - 03 June 2009 01:59 PM

Good article.. It’s really sad to see the buddhist teachings getting molested the way it does in the “buddhist” countries..
Luckily it hasn’t caught on in the buddhist communities in the west.. Getting adopted by free, intelligent and critical westerners was probably best thing that could ever happen to buddhism..

A lot of western buddhism is just as delusional.  I attended a Buddhist retreat out of curiosity and found out they devote a lot of time to praying for dead things and praying to heal people across the world using the Blue Buddha.  It’s ridiculous.

They also will prevent animals from eating other animals because it is their belief that any animal that kills will pay in karmic retribution.  They would rather the animal starve than to have it kill, not only for the animal but for themselves since saving the life of an animal is good karma.  I asked the monk how starving a spider isn’t killing in itself.  She responded that the spider could eat some bread crumbs if it wanted to.  It was such a retarded response and she moved on before I could say that a spiders stomach couldn’t digest non-animal products.  Bah.

The other thing about western buddhism is that a lot of the sects have incorporated a sort of “Cosmic Buddha” to appeal to monotheistic religions for conversions.  The fact that they make these assimilations begs the question of whether western Buddhism will head towards the same direction of Christianity since Christianity relied heavily on assimilation with other religions in its beginnings (Mithras et al).

Some are like this sadly and if they engage in these views or practices they remove themselves from the teachings of the Buddha. Out of interest was this a tibetan/vajrayana buddhist school?

This may be of interest, its by Stephen batchelor, a western Zen Buddhist who has some interesting things to say about the Buddha and how he didnt teach metaphysics

You may wish to skip to 7:05mins to hear the metaphysical discussion

http://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/wimpy/wimpy_popup.html?theFile=http://dharmaseed.org/talks/wimpy/2300.xml

There are few buddhist terms used so anyone can enjoy

So:  “I believe it to be readily acknowledged by many atheists and anti- theists that certain concessions are made (or have been made) for the religion of Buddhism so as to make it an exception to deserving rigorous assault.”

Is that what we do here? “Assault” All other philosophies or religions?

Man…dunno how productive that will be.

Assault is a strong word.

Maybe I am a bit too passive…...

jhatch - 09 August 2009 06:07 PM

So:  “I believe it to be readily acknowledged by many atheists and anti- theists that certain concessions are made (or have been made) for the religion of Buddhism so as to make it an exception to deserving rigorous assault.”

Depends upon the franchise.

Trust me, Heaven and Hell exist on this planet, I have been to both. You don’t have to die to experience them. Look around you. Both are ‘everywhere’.

wattsape - 13 May 2009 10:50 AM

I wrote a little expose on Buddhism describing the sexism and how the idea of necessary suffering is a dangerous tenet: http://wattsape.blogspot.com/2009/03/prejudice-and-suffering-of-buddhism.html

We really should make no exceptions for Buddhism.  To add to my essay, there’s another dangerous tenet which is similar to Christianity: “Saving face”.  To say bad things about people to people is considered a bad thing.

Looks like a lot of generalizations based upon a very little bit of data.  As Craig has mentioned, the Buddha welcomed women in his company of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis—and apparently he was the only one to do so in his time.  This idea of “saving face” is cultural and not a teaching of the Buddha.  And, as Craig has also pointed out, the emphasis on suffering in the Buddha’s teachings was in its alleviation, rather than in some judeo-xtian idea that one must passively endure or embrace suffering. And really, the whole point of this examination of suffering is to bring to light that it is a function of selfishness and our own acting out of selfishness.  Kind of a no-brainer, really.