[Buddha-l] Critiques of Buddhism

[curt]

The critique of New Kadampa seemed to me almost totally unwarranted. It 
does seem reasonable that anyone who supports or allies themself with 
the Dalai Lama, whom the NKT criticizes pretty harshly, would criticize 
the NKT in return. But to label the NKT a cult obviously clouds the 
issue and appears to be aimed at discouraging people from finding out 
more. Most, if not all, of Tantric Buddhism, is very close to what 
westerners would generally consider "cultish". Veneration of living 
human beings and insistence upon the reality of magical powers are 
universal features of "Tantra" (whether Buddhist or Hindu) - and they 
are often enough to get a religion labeled as a cult.

I think that anytime someone wants to start labeling groups as "cults" 
or "dangerous cults" a simple reality check should be done to see if the 
criteria being used would apply to the Catholic Church. This doesn't 
prove that the Catholic Church is or is not a cult, dangerous or 
otherwise - or that the criteria being used are well founded or not. But 
it does help to put the "accusation" in some kind of context. There is 
no attempt made on the web page in question to state, even vaguely, what 
criteria are being used to label various groups as "cults".

The main page for the "Buddhist Council of New South Wales" actually 
looks pretty "cultish" to me. The very fact that they bother to maintain 
a list of Buddhist groups that they don't like - and label them as 
"cults" - is pretty creepy and probably a sign that they are themselves 
a cult - and a dangerous one to boot (that's one of my own personal 
criteria for "creepy cults to avoid").

- Curt

Wong Weng Fai wrote:

>On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Richard P. Hayes wrote:
>
>  
>
>>If you are interested in going to a Buddhist site that singles out some
>>allegedly pseudo-Buddhist cults for condemnation in no uncertain terms,
>>take a look at www.buddhistcouncil.org/cults.htm for spirited
>>denunciations of Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Soka Gakkai and NKT. (Often
>>sites that decry SGI and NKT also denounce the FWBO, but they seem to
>>have escaped the attention of this particular Buddhist Council.)
>>    
>>
>
>They listed:
>
>	- Falun Gong
>	- Suma Ching Hai
>	- True Buddha Order
>	- Aum Shinrikyo
>	- Soka Gakkai
>	- Rissho Kosei Kai
>	- I Kuan Tao
>	- New Kadampa Tradition
>
>All of these are active (in various degree - except may be Rissho Kosei
>Kai) in where I am. I am interested to hear what people on this list
>think. In particular, which of the above is correctly labelled a "Buddhist
>cults" and which suffered an injustice, and more importantly, why.
>
>W. F. Wong
>
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>