July 9, 2006
What Would Buddha Do?
This article from the Engaged Zen Foundation is simply brilliant. Written by David Loy (an active teacher of Zen), this article digs deep into the constructs of War and Terror and exposes them for what they are. This article goes where few dare to go.
The line that struck me the most was:
"To be quite blunt, if you are not at least dimly aware of these urgent problems, then you are living in some very strange bubble devoid of news (perhaps in the late stages of a 20-year retreat in some Himalayan cave?), or there is a deficiency in your spiritual practice."
This is so true. And it relates to my previous reflection on politics and religion. The problem of religion isn't that it is inherantly weak, the problem is that we have bastardized religion by letting our politics inform it. Thus, we have desecrated the Word of God by replacing it with the word of man (a Western perspective).
What I find particularly fascinating about this line is that it demythologizes our very -narrow- conception of Buddhism. When we think of Buddhism, what do we picture? Seven plainly-dressed, clean-shaven monks meditating in a monestary. Loy prods deep into our conservative Western values and exposes the dirt while challenging the conservatism of the East. Fascinating read.
Religion hasn't failed us, we have failed religion with our greed, power-seeking, and blatant selfish ego/ethnocentrism. Loy reminded me that Buddha did not want people to just blindly follow his teachings--that we simply don't transform ourselves with religion, but the entire world with us. I still have faith that the world will rise up with one voice and say "enough." Loy has restored my faith in the human race.
(Thank you Joel for the link!)
Posted by EvanReynolds at July 9, 2006 11:01 PM
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Comments
Be wary of anyone who calls for the imminent end of the world or immediate destruction, especially someone with such an obvious political agenda. Take a deep breath and check out http://www.michaelcrichton.com/speeches/complexity/complexity.html if you want to read something without slant or bias
Posted by: Brenda Christeleit at July 12, 2006 4:20 PM