[Buddha-l] Buddhism and dana, church and charity

[Franz Metcalf]

Richard et al.,

I appreciate your reminder that you were specifically speaking of 
mention of social justice work in dharma talks/sermons, rather than 
community practice. I agree that even when there *is* such work it is 
often unmentioned in teishos or dharma talks or 
what-shall-we-call-thems. In a way this is good: who cares about 
own-horn-blowing as long as the work progresses? But I'm afraid that 
the silence in the dharma talks often reflects an ignorance in the 
understanding of practice.

But please take my words with a grain of salt. Richard describes,

> someone [who] claims to be a Buddhist
> and admits that he has not been near a meditation cushion for five 
> years
> but that he tries to be constantly aware of observing precepts and 
> being
> as helpful as possible to others and raising his kids well and
> reflecting on right livelihood

A hit, a very palpable hit! Just like this man, I do not "practice." I 
seem to avoid dharma centers, these days, but do find myself at Jodo 
Shinshu "churches" from time to time. Just led a family retreat at one, 
two weekends ago. Every time I hang with Pure Land folks I am newly 
blown away by their combination of effort at humbleness, mindfulness, 
and regularness. It's as if they thought of meditation as only 
one-eighth of the Noble Path. Imagine.

Thanks for the NYT reference. A good sign, indeed.

Oh, and hallelujah on this new listserv's ability to read my line 
breaks, so I don't have to manually introduce them! Perhaps it's not 
the age of mappo quite yet, after all. (Richard, please do not think 
about politics while reading that sentence.)

Franz