Today's discussion question

[Ian Livingston]

I've been away. Did you ask a question, David? I didn't get that you
actually meant to interact on this matter in a sober manner. As to
Westerners who take robes as Sangha, one Tibetan monk said to me, "I don't
get these Westerners. I've been a monk all my life and I don't think I'm
ready to do the practices they want to do right now, right away. We think
you have to train to be ready to do these practices safely, but the
Westerners think can just meditate on emptiness and they are enlightened."
He is not the only Tibetan who shook his head in consternation at the
Westerners trying to be Tibetans, and it is frequently commented on in
Buddhist literature today. I didn't just work for them, I studied, too. But
I never had aspirations of monasticism.

I do scoff at the vast majority of so-called religious people. I think Marx
was right.


On Tue, Aug 13, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Michael Bailey <
michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:

> A) personal acquaintance with 2 westerners who adopted buddhism has not
> revealed it to be a complete panacea of character improvement imho
>
> B) pynchon doesn't seem extremely overawed by the mystic East in any of
> its aspects.  Would say that christianity plays a much bigger role, also
> western philosophical tradition and history of technology, in all his work.
>
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