MD Varieties of Buddhism, and the Social Level

From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Sat Jul 16 2005 - 11:02:35 BST

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    Hi people, especially Scott and Ant, to whom I address a specific question
    at the end,

    Much to my chagrin, I couldn't make the conference with RMP, but I had the
    small compensation of two weeks holiday in China and Mongolia to distract
    me. Amongst many fascinating things were trips to several Buddhist temples,
    in Beijing and Chengde, which were eye opening in many senses. There were
    several ways in which the practice of religious observance in the temples
    was social level. The most striking, for me, was when we were told by a
    guide that it was common practice (as a 'minimum observance') to come to the
    monastery once a year and ask a monk to pray on your behalf. Hardly the
    'intellectual level' that I thought was the essence of Buddhism!

    What really struck me was the way in which the impression of Buddhism that I
    had formed (largely as a result of various conversations on this site) was
    of something very austere and intellectual. That impression didn't long
    survive a direct acquaintance with the actual practice. It seems to me now
    that there is a distinct strain of idealisation involved in many of the
    descriptions of Buddhism relied on here (and also a reverse strain of
    denigration towards Christianity). It's as if Christianity were to be
    assessed only by considering the Eckharts of the tradition, whilst all the
    Lourdes type stuff were quietly ignored.

    The specific question to Ant and Scott: the temples/lamaseries I saw were
    all part of Tibetan Buddhism; to what extent is the MoQ tied in only with
    Zen buddhism (and therefore incompatible with the Tibetan variety)? It would
    seem - to this beginning student - that Zen is much further removed from
    these social level practices than the Tibetan sort, with their 30 foot high
    wooden buddhas used as a focus for worship.

    Cheers
    Sam
    http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com/

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