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November 13, 2018

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Aryeh: Richard Wurmbrand's book, Marx & Satan.

"Marx, in his early years, was a Satanist"

No, he wasn't. Where did you get that from?

dave b:

Iwamoto Yutaka claims that over 50% of the Buddha’s disciples were of Brahmanic origin and over 25% were of Ksatriya origin.

My study of Buddhism has primarily been the Pali Suttas, although I've tried unsuccessfully to get through Huangpo and Bodhidharma and the Lotus Sutra and Lankavatura and even Mahayana Mahaparinirvana sutra...so far the only Mahayana sutras I've been able to get through are the Purland Sutras. So in my understanding of Buddhism being primarily influenced by the Pali material, I notice there is a lot of talk of clans and good families. Even in the Lotus Sutra, bhikku is replaced by "sons of good families"...so I read in an article and noticed in one chapter. So it was never intended for the atheist dregs of society. Converts were intended to come from Brahmanas and those non-brahmanas who bought into Brahmanism, were raised with it in good families. So today, the only real Buddhist convert can be an ex-Christian or ex-Muslim, not an atheist.

Many self-proclaimed Buddhists in the West actually have their refuge in liberal or left-wing politics above and beyond their refuge in dharma teachings. Point out any disparity between dharma and liberalism and you will quickly see what they prioritize. Years ago there was a controversy around some comments made by Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, who said that Buddhism is not democratic. Stop the presses - all the normally sycophantic and unquestioning brown noses who worship Tibetan lamas as incarnate gods suddenly started looking around for a different incarnate god, one more willing to play the game and validate their pre-existing politics. This is America, buddy, we didn't bring you here to mess with our most cherished beliefs, just tell us we're primordially pure and take our money.

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