[Buddha-l] Re: Will new the pope verify Buddhist doctrine?

[curt]

If we just wanted to be part of a movement dedicated to helping
the poor, etc, then we should just all become Socialists. Don't
get me wrong - I happen to be a Socialist myself. Religious
charity work very often involves attempts to indoctrinate poor
people and other "disempowered" groups to see their situation
as either "God's will" or the result of "past karma" or whatever.
Religious charity work also serves as a PR bonanza for Religious
groups and is usually tightly coupled with their fundrasing
apparatus. Also, "charity work" is almost inevitably thinly disguised
missionary work. And missionary work is often thinly disguised
culturual imperialism (and/or espionage). Most of what I am saying
here applies more to Christianity than to other religions - but it is
precisely Christians who are most often held up as the example
par exellence of a Religion that incorporates charity work.
Dom Helder Camera put it better than I can "When I give food
to the poor they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor
have no food, they call me a Communist." Dealing with the causes
of social problems (ie, asking why the poor have no food) is
ultimately more important than putting bandaids on the sucking
chest wounds of poverty and oppression.
I do think that Buddhism has something essential to offer to the
cause of changing society, though. Most (if not all) previous
attempts to change society for the better have failed - or even
made things worse. The atrocities committed in the name of
Socialism in the past come to mind. Perhaps a little more mindfullness,
compassion (and maybe a little humility, too) would be good
for social and political "movements" for change.
- Curt

jkirk wrote:

>Richard Hayes wrote:
>  
>
>>What I hear is a continuation of a very old and persistent way of
>>characterizing Buddhism as a form of narcissism, a preoccupation with
>>nothing but one's own well-being. ........ But
>>whether one is a complete secularist or a doctrinaire Christian, one can
>>find plenty of references in Western literature to Buddhism as a
>>hopeless, pessimistic, narcissistic, weak-minded, hedonistic enterprise.
>>That view seems to have prevailed in the 19th century, but it has by no
>>means died out.
>>    
>>
>========================
>I'm just trying to think this one over. Having done some, it occurs to me
>that
>so-called western Buddhism does not make a big play of organizing charities,
>women shelters, homeless programs, orphanages, etc. and then raising money
>for them, as the other religions do.
>The various Asian immigrant groups still do this, far as I can tell, even
>though
>they are here and not over there. And then there is the Dalai Lama's big
>organization always raising funds to save Tibetan culture and monastics
>outside
>Tibet. In the USA, charitable organizations are one obvious and almost
>required
>means of justifying membership in a religious group, or one that is
>perceived
>as such. Perhaps this is why Buddhists continue to attract such charges.
>(Unless
>I've missed a big bunch of Buddhist charities in these here states. I can't
>speak
>for the EU.)
>Joanna
>
>
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