[Buddha-l] Question for acedemic teachers of Buddhism

[Jackhat1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/24/2008 8:55:03 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
rhayes at unm.edu writes:

> I  don't think Jung was very knowledgeable about Buddhism.

That makes no  difference to his claim, which is about human psychology.
He makes a good  case for the importance of spending a lifetime maturing
into the mythology  of the tradition one learned as a child.
==============
My admittedly limited understanding of Jung is different and is as follows.  
All humans share common mental archetypal forms. An example might be the 
warrior  archetype. These archetypes are hard-wired into us and not learned.  We 
can learn to activate and resonate with these archetypes.  These archetypes 
might have slightly different clothing in different  cultures as they are fleshed 
out in myths and symbols in popular  culture. The warrior myth I grew up with 
was exemplified by John Wayne. If  I grew up in China, this warrior archetype 
would appear as a samurai warrior. As  these archetypes are portrayed in myths 
and symbols, other undesirable  attributes may be added. For instance, John 
Wayne, the man of action (the  archetypal form) also keeps all emotions inside 
and solves problems with a gun  (not part to the archetypal form). What Jung 
says is important is  activating the basic hard-wired archetypes not what was 
added on by our  conditioning.
 
I have a copy of Jung's Archetypes  somewhere that I will dig  out tonight 
and read. In the meantime, I would appreciate someone setting me  straight on my 
understanding of Jung.
 
=====================
[snip]
>  And, westerners as a   
> group  probably have much more experience with the Buddhist practice of  
>  meditation than ethnic Buddhists as a group.

Yes, Western Buddhists often  labor under the delusion that meditation is
the only legitimate or important  practice in Buddhism. It is sometimes
helpful to point out to them that the  Western Buddhist interest in
meditation verges on obsession and that, like  all obsessions, it may be
somewhat unhealthy.
============
Meditation can be misused, overdone and become an obsession. Would you  agree 
that it does have a place in Buddhist practice (8-Fold Path) and ethnic  
Buddhists as a whole tend to not recognize its importance?
 
Jack






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