Trying to make Buddhism palatable or agreeable to our modern secular culture is, for the most part, what characterizes pop Buddhism. But there are inherent dangers in doing this which ultimately threatens Buddhism’s future.
The late Ven. Chögyam Trungpa found a way to make Buddhism palatable with Shambhala training programs which was a secular approach. Many other teachers, over the years, have found clever ways of making Buddhism palatable by eliminating a great deal of Buddhist terminology. This involves shifting, in some instances, to the terminology of pop psychology, all of which is agreeable to a particular type of person looking into Buddhism as a possible answer to life’s problems.
The problem with doing Buddhism this way should be obvious but sometimes it isn’t. Back in the 1980s I can remember telling Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche that if you advertise your retreat center in the language of gangsters the only people who will show up are gangsters. A surprise to me, the Rinpoche started laughing—almost uncontrobly—because the thought seemed so funny, i.e., gangsters with machine guns showing up. Several weeks later Gyatrul had the ad posters changed. Four hundred people showed up at the next event. The numbers were astonishing. All this happened because he marketed Tibetan Buddhism as Tibetan Buddhism—and everyone liked it.
The message I think is clear: how Buddhism is presented is critically important. It can’t be dumbed down or secularized too much; nor can teaching Buddhism from the Sutras and the Pali discourses (Sutta) be neglected. As one might expect, a lot of time needs to be spent with important subjects like nirvana which, incidentally, is almost ignored in Dharma centers. If this is not done what we have called “Buddhism” is not Buddhism at all. It is a counterfeit Buddhism. By it, all are deceived.
Actually, I'd rather have Sufis and a modest number of Muslims far from the reins of political power in the US (and around me) than powerful neocon dual loyalist Jews who were, for example, key in driving the US into war with Iraq based on lies and are now bent on fomenting war with Iran.
There is little place for gratuitous Islamophobia in presenting early Buddhism.
Apart from that, Evola was not per se a biological racist, nor a fascist and the swastika well predates 20 Century political movements.
Posted by: D | February 11, 2012 at 02:11 PM
Thanks for the PDF.
Posted by: A Mexican Buddhist | February 10, 2012 at 12:17 PM
well, i love the jews, and utterly hate fascism, and have said as much often, as such, ill let the rest fall where it may.
I know evola said a lot of smack against the jews, but so what, im not interested in what he said about that.
As for the jews, id rather have a MILLION of them around me than even one muslim, so.
you should download THE WAYFARERS WORDS in 3 Volumes i just put up!
http://www.kathodos.com/wayfarers3volumes.pdf
570Megabytes. zennist blogger sent me those book 10 years ago to scan in, ...great set. 1st time online ever!
Posted by: Java Junkie Junebug Julius | February 10, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Java Junkie ... those videos are great! perhaps if you removed the picture of the racist/fascist Evola from your page, and if you stopped calling yourself "Nordic Aryan" (the connotations to Nazism are strong there ...) it would help your pursuit of spreading the authentic Dharma. Just my 2 cents.
Posted by: A Mexican Buddhist | February 09, 2012 at 11:09 PM
I just uploaded video of myself discussing buddhism with 4 more videos to upload tomorrow, come see my ugly face and bad speechmaking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEnb2cFWKBs
Ken,
Enjoyed your video. Many moons ago I ordered the Buddhist Compendium from you--unfortunately, for some reason your disk does not function in my upgraded machine (Vista)--don't know why...
Posted by: MStrinado | February 09, 2012 at 02:32 PM