[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 36, Issue 39
Sally McAra
sallymcara at fastmail.fm
Fri Feb 22 20:45:16 MST 2008
On Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:38:35 -0700, buddha-l-request at mailman.swcp.com
said:
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Prapanca (Richard Hayes)
> 2. A Maitreya theme park projected for Kushinagar--good grief!
> (jkirk)
> 3. RE: {Buddha-l] Being in Love ... "& its only end is loss"
> (Franz Tue, 19th Feb 2008 (jkirk)
> 4. Re: A Maitreya theme park projected for Kushinagar--good
> grief! (Bill Kish)
> 5. Re: Prapanca (Dan Lusthaus)
> 6. RE: Re: A Maitreya theme park projected for
> Kushinagar--goodgrief! (jkirk)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:53:20 -0700
> From: "jkirk" <jkirk at spro.net>
> Subject: [Buddha-l] A Maitreya theme park projected for
> Kushinagar--good grief!
> To: "'Buddhist discussion forum'" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
> Message-ID: <006001c8757b$cfd43fc0$0400a8c0 at OPTIPLEX>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1250"
>
> X-posted from H-Asia.
>
> In my original comment on H-Asia about a theme park planned for the Tulu
> area of south India, I mentioned the horror some of us on this list had
> when
> a theme park was being proposed for Lumbini.
> The example Ms Falcone posted about a proposal of the Maitreya Project
> "(an
> international organization of mostly non-Indian "Western" Buddhists),
> while
> "the many hundreds of farming families currently on the land have been
> protesting the forcible acquisition for years," yet the "project argues
> that
> the karmic benefits trump everything else" (!!). This case seems to
> indicate
> the big flaw in the Buddhist merit system, where merit is exclusive, it
> accrues to donors while everybody else abstractly benefits, or not at all
> where--in the case of the displaced farming people of Kushinagar-- it
> serves
> as a negative or non-benefit.
>
> I realize that this critical view will upset some on the list, sorry;
> however, another example of merit exclusiveness is found in Kim Gutschow,
> _Being a Buddhist Nun : The Struggle for Enlightenment in the
> Himalayas_.Harvard University Press, 2004. Gutschow notes that while some
> people will quote adages to the effect that a donation of the self and
> its
> attachments alone is worthy of great merit, “
yet numerous practices
> index
> social or economic capital to the symbolic capital of merit
While the
> rich...can earn merit by donating...the nuns, laywomen, and the poor lack
> the...wealth to earn merit in such prestigious ways.”
>
> And I would add that the gigantic gold-painted concrete statues of
> Buddhas
> that I saw in Thailand and Burma, erected to earn scads of merit by the
> donors, are ugly because they demean the natural landscapes where they
> are
> sited: these phenomena for me are the opposite of spiritually inspiring.
> If
> these demonstrations of merit are supposed to constitute Buddha fields,
> they
> don't work for this westerner. Nor do skyscrapers, meant to be admired as
> benefits of capitalism, work for me in my own culture.
>
>
> Joanna
> ==============================================================
>
>
> H-ASIA
> February 22, 2008
>
> More on "Theme Parks" for cultural heritage:
> ************************************************************************
> From: Jessica Marie Falcone <jmf55 at cornell.edu>
>
> Greetings all,
>
> I agree with Prof. Kirkpatrick and others who suggest that "theme parks"
> can be problematic enterprises. I hope that the Tulu heritage park will
> be
> undertaken with the utmost creativity and respect for past and present
> cultural iterations of Tulu identities. I do think that many of these
> projects are organized from the top-down and benefit the very few, but I
> hope this is an exception.
>
> The case of Lumbini inspired me to mention the case study that I've been
> working on for my dissertation: a glorified Buddhist theme park in
> Kushinagar that will sport a 500 ft statue of the Maitreya Buddha, a
> hospitality center, gardens, as well as a school and hospital. The hitch
> is
> that the state gov of Uttar Pradesh will soon be acquiring 660 acres of
> mostly arable land for the Maitreya Project (an international
> organization
> of mostly non-Indian "Western" Buddhists), while the many hundreds of
> farming families currently on the land have been protesting the forcible
> acquisition for years. Whatever one thinks of the initial vision behind
> the
> project, it is impossible not to be disappointed that it is just another
> development whose profits will ultimately line only a few already bulging
> pockets, all the while causing disenfranchisement amongst the poorest and
> most powerless of the area. Of course, the project argues that the
> karmic
> benefits trump everything else...
>
> I've written about it in a non-scholarly context:
> http://www.wildriverreview.com/airmail_india-maitreya.php
>
> The rebuttal:
> http://www.wildriverreview.com/airmail_india-response.php
>
> My rebuttal to their rebuttal:
> http://www.wildriverreview.com/airmail_india.php
>
> Sincerely,
> Jessica Falcone
>
> ABD, Anthropology Dept.
> Cornell University
>
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>
>
> Joanna
> =============================
>
> ELEH EZKERAH -- THESE WE REMEMBER
>
> Tis a fearful thing
> To love
> What death can touch,
> To love, to hope, to dream,
> And oh, to lose.
> A thing for fools, this,
> But a holy thing,
> a holy thing to love.
>
> For your life has lived in me;
> Your laugh once lifted me;
> Your word was a gift to me.
>
> To remember this brings painful joy.
>
> 'Tis a human thing, love,
> A holy thing,
> To love
> What death can touch.
>
> (this poem is atributed to Judah Halevi or Emanuel of Rome -- 12th
> Century)
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:13:09 -0800 (PST)
> From: Bill Kish <wdkish81 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Buddha-l] Re: A Maitreya theme park projected for
> Kushinagar--good grief!
> To: buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
> Message-ID: <649309.98072.qm at web30507.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
>
> Joanna - I think your instincts are on target here. Statements
> like the one I provide just below need to be read in light of
> Jessica Falcone's work:
>
> Maitreya Project is working with local, regional and state
> governments in Uttar Pradesh, India, where the Kushinagar
> Special Development Area Authority will support the planned
> development of the area surrounding the Project.
>
> ( taken from http://www.maitreyaproject.org/en/index.html )
>
> It would be interesting to know whether any of farmers Falcone has
> been speaking to have seats on the "Kushinagar Special
> Development Area Authority".
>
> It is also unfortunate that H.H. Dalai Lama seems to support the
> Maitreya statue project, or is at least willing to let the FPMT
> invoke his name and image in support of it (see the URL mentioned
> above). I hope he eventually seeks out additional viewpoints
> besides those of the FPMT concerning the effects the project is
> having on the local populations.
>
> ---------
> Bill Kish
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:37:56 -0700
> From: "jkirk" <jkirk at spro.net>
> Subject: RE: [Buddha-l] Re: A Maitreya theme park projected for
> Kushinagar--goodgrief!
> To: "'Buddhist discussion forum'" <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
> Message-ID: <000e01c875b4$5bc43ed0$0400a8c0 at OPTIPLEX>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1250"
>
>
> Hi Bill,
>
> Thanks for looking up the project. I haven't noticed that HHDL has ever
> noticed aspects of social class and hierarchy in societies around the
> world--he seems to be immune to noticing them.
> Perhaps because he has always been at the top of the elite of Tibetan
> culture, and so may never have been exposed to any sort of social
> critique;
> or, like many Buddhists, doesn't see the Buddhist mission as "fixing" the
> world or society but rather working on the individual; and also as a
> leader
> of a culture he and his organization are trying to preserve (Save
> Tibet)--perhaps these are reasons why he would allow his name to be used
> as
> an endorsement to this kind of multi-national big bucks project. Is the
> Maitreya Project one of his donors, might be a question, too.
>
> >From what I know of India, I strongly doubt if any of the protesting
> dispossessed farmers have any say on the local Special Development
> Authority
> whatsoever. If so, they'd be acting as clients to some socially higher
> patron, i.e., they'd have been bought. What bugs me much more than
> patron-client relations in other cultures is what outsiders get up to,
> messing around with other people's religions, pilgrimage places, etc.
> We've
> already heard from listfolk about what's been going on at Buddhagaya, for
> example.
>
> The Maitreya Project says on their website:
> "Maitreya Project is based on the belief that inner peace and outer
> peace share a cause and effect relationship and that loving-kindness
> leads
> to peace at every level of society — peace for individuals, families,
> communities and the world.
> The Maitreya Buddha statue is being designed to last for at least
> 1,000 years. Through this entire new millennium and into the next, it
> will
> effect positive change within the hearts and minds of people all over the
> world and benefit the people of India through its social and economic
> activities."
>
> This statement is in my view an egregious example of the height of
> magical
> thinking, as well as of the depths of unconsciousness about how their
> actions will actually (as opposed to wishfully) affect local people.
> Aargh.
> Best, Joanna
> ===================
>
> ( taken from http://www.maitreyaproject.org/en/index.html )
>
> It would be interesting to know whether any of farmers Falcone has been
> speaking to have seats on the "Kushinagar Special Development Area
> Authority".
>
> It is also unfortunate that H.H. Dalai Lama seems to support the Maitreya
> statue project, or is at least willing to let the FPMT invoke his name
> and
> image in support of it (see the URL mentioned above). I hope he
> eventually
> seeks out additional viewpoints besides those of the FPMT concerning the
> effects the project is having on the local populations.
>
> ---------
> Bill Kish
>
>
>
>
--
Sally McAra
sallymcara at fastmail.fm
--
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