[Buddha-l] Subject: the poignancy of Donald Lopez

[Franz Metcalf]

Gang,

Richard, following Wilfred Cantwell Smith, commented

> It is very easy to slip into mindlessness (if that is the opposite
> of mindfulness) and to find oneself comparing the ideal of one
> tradition against the historical realities of another. People do
> this in subtle ways all the time, often without realizing they are
> doing so.


This is precisely why Buddhism has such a good (and I have to admit,  
largely unfounded) image in America, and I suspect throughout the  
West. The type of Buddhism known in the West is primarily a convert/ 
modernist Buddhism that embodies a lot of what is best and least  
historical in Buddhism. Promoting this is a game that's been  
skillfully played from the time of Soyen Shaku and Anagarika  
Dharmapala through the present day of HH the XIVth Dalai Lama. This is  
not in itself a bad thing; it's just distorting. I think even Natalie  
Quli would agree that this is distorting, though it comes from an emic  
Buddhist position.

Franz Metcalf