Today's discussion question

[Bekah]

Or on the Pakistani border or the Delhi slums where the Hindus clash with the Muslims regularly. 

Sunday: 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10236064/Kashmir-Violence-escalates-between-Hindus-and-Muslims.html

Bekah 

On Aug 13, 2013, at 2:06 PM, malignd at aol.com wrote:

> You live as a Muslim in Burma.
> How does one run afoul of any Buddhist, of whatever stripe.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> To: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> Cc: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Mon, Aug 12, 2013 8:07 pm
> Subject: Re: Today's discussion question
> 
> How does one run afoul of any Buddhist, of whatever stripe.  Did someone criticize your words or behavior?  Did you cruely squash an innocent bug in his presence?  Or is it that the Buddist ran afoul of your prejudices?  From your harsh judgement of their aspirations, I would guess the later.  "Equanimity" is a foundational goal of Buddhism.  Tolerance is equanimity toward others.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> On Monday, August 12, 2013, Ian Livingston wrote:
> Well, I still wouldn't dare speak for P, but, parsing the statement just a little, I will speak for myself, as someone undoubtedly influenced by Pynchon rightly and wrongly by turns.
> 
> I have had the great displeasure of running afoul Westerners in Buddhist robes. These people who go bowing to the East in the certainty that they will attain enlightenment through Eastern teachings take with them all the shit they already believe, all the bunk they have learned in school, and all their prejudices and try to shoehorn those into teachings from sages who had no relation to the world we live in. They're like Cinderella's step-sisters but that they go on believing that they are wearing the glass slipper that never fit on their foot in the first place. The whole delusion results in comically tormented psyches. It's a lot like the people in the big Bible-thumping cults calling themselves Christians. They are ruled by their own Shadows, living in darkness that wastes the good any of them might accomplish in the world.
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 8:47 AM, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> Mencken was, as is the average western philosopher, satirist, pundit, blogger, spirit-hungry westerner...what have you, ignorant of the traditions of Eastern philosophy, religion, literature, art. But given the global problems we face, the urgency of many of these problems, climate change and population growth and depletion of the planet are three that are obvious, it seems foolish to ridicule those who would seriously turn to the East, if not for solutions or wisdom, for insights into how East and West may find common ground. This is not likely to succeed if the West continues to insist that all that science and math can not take the measure of is superstitious nonsense, Emersonian naked eyeball transparencies that once viewed through the superior lens of science are stripped of the rose and under the rose colorings of the observer and made black and white zeros and ones. Mencken is a good tonic for the youthful longings of those who read Herman Hesse, who fail to heed the wit of Voltaire, who live in what most would call the best of all possible worlds, and who run fast from the magic of their own traditions and into the trappings of ones they can never begin to make meaningful. But his scientism is now endemic and allied with a haughty exceptionalism. A little humility is called for. The planets can not be charmed from the sky. We must observe them with our feet on the ground, but what Galileo teaches us about what moves, and what moves, may be better appreciated if we treat the ancient wisdoms with more respect than the great man was given by the sages who grilled him (though not literally). The East is hungry for Western ideas, culture, philosophy, science, literature, art. The exchange is promising. But why march in with the scientific method, our new cross? 
> 
> On Monday, August 12, 2013, Mark Kohut wrote:
> HL Mencken @HLMenckenBot 2h
> One of the strangest delusions of the Western mind is to the effect that a philosophy of profound wisdom is on tap in the East // @laotzunit
> 
> Anyone think TRP believes this?
>