[Buddha-l] Denigrating Buddhism

[andy]

Katherine wrote:
> At what point does holding the tradition accountable, warning doe-eyed
> enthusiasts about the excesses of the tradition, etc., cross the line into
> contempt—such as Donald Lopez’ writings, for example?  Take a look at our
> discussion thread “Western Self, Asian Other” in January, 2010.  
> Katherine Masis
> ==========================================================

Contempt?  Well, yes, if it is deserved.  And there is much in the tradition 
called Buddhism to be contemptible of. But of course we can save the tradition 
by identifying those contemptible things as "not real Buddhism".  The problem 
is, as western selves, we have no right to do so.  Or so I am lead to believe. 
The magic that Batchelor relates at the beginning of "Confessions of a 
Buddhist Atheist" seems to be a case in point.  But I hear that such things 
are still current in Texas. (Praying for rain, either pro or con.)

I recently viewed an 8 DVD series on Tibet  (西藏) produced by the Chinese.  I 
learned many wonderful things, some no doubt due to  my lack of Chinese 
language and often dubious English subtitles.  One was that almost everywhere 
in Tibet is a famous tourist attraction.  Another was that the Chinese 
defeated the British Expeditionary force in Tibet in 1904 (or there abouts).  
And I learned that the reincarnation of living buddhas has to be approved by 
the central authority, and the pachen lama has a new temple built to resist 
earthquakes.  But mostly I learned that religion is a valuable resource for 
the study of humanity, and its relation to the natural environment, even 
though of course we are all dialectical materialists now, and it is just 
really good for tourism.  And as a side-note, some damage was done to Buddhist 
temples and monasteries by some unknown persons in the recent past, before 
their potential for tourist sites was recognized.  

What does all this mean?  Being that I reside in Hawaii, I regard tourism as a 
social dis-ease.  And if religion is reduced to tourism, it has crossed the 
line to being worthy of contempt.   A fellow undergrad philosophy student, 
long ago, used to say that he was just a "spiritual thrillseeker"  (which if I 
recall correctly, was patterned after a TV show a the time titled 
"Thrillseekers" hosted by Chuck Conners).  So are western Buddhists just 
spiritual thrillseeking tourists?   

James Andy Stroble