[Buddha-l] Review of a review

[Franz Metcalf]

Barnaby et al.,

The standard Big Mind retreats are, as you say, $1500. (Of course  
that's already significantly higher than any other Zen retreat I've  
heard of.) It's only the special retreats that are so expensive. They  
used to be called the "5-5-50" retreats because they were five days  
with a maximum of five other retreatants, for $50K. Last I looked they  
had come down to $25K, no doubt due to the global recession.

I should add that I do not mean to disparage Genpo Roshi or his  
teaching. I *do* mean to disparage the way he's marketing it. To  
commodify the dharma in this way is, in my view, to lose critical  
distance from a globalized consumer culture that is, again in my view,  
profoundly un-Buddhist.

Cheers,

Franz