Montesquieu (1689–1755), a French philosopher who had an enormous impact on the “separation of powers” doctrine behind the United States Constitution, was a great student of cultural relativism.
One of Montesquieu's close friends in Paris who was a Chinese scholar and was in charge of the king’s Chinese library was a recent convert to Christianity. When he lived in China, he became so enamored with Christianity and its ideals that he hastily booked passage for Europe to see this Christian utopia. Upon his arrival, he expected to find every priest virtually a Jesus Christ. He believed that every European would turn the other cheek if struck and when asked to carry something a mile, they would gladly and piously carry it two miles as described in the Bible. In short, he expected to see a vast society of believing Christians.
Much to his disappointment, his idealized view of a Christian Europe became, over time, severely deflated. An instructive and amusing story, I think it serves as a good reminder of the naivete some Western Buddhists have about Buddhist teachers and especially Asian teachers, in general, whom they believe are in every way a living Buddha.
Of course, this is not to suggest that Asian Buddhists are not also naive. Some are, but many are not as naive as Westerners. What is important to glean from this story is that religious truths are meant for the inner person and should be applied that way. One should not expect them manifested externally. This can easily lead to the pernicious religious practice of puritanism. It believes that what you see manifested on the outside is what is going on inside. Such a practice eventually undermines religion by forcing its practitioners to become hypocrites.
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