[Buddha-l] Buddhist Charities (was Will new the pope verify Buddhist doctrine?)

[Jim Peavler]

On Apr 22, 2005, at 9:23 PM, Richard P. Hayes wrote:

> All of the Buddhist organizations I have been associated with have been
> made up of individual members who were very much involved in various
> social actions, political causes and charitable work. Most of them seem
> to see such work as integral to their Buddhist practice, but few of 
> them
> go out and do this work in any way that makes it obvious that they are
> Buddhist.

I believe this is correct. I did a lot of work with Habitat for 
Humanity in Southern California and Mexico a few years ago. Every 
morning before work started we were gathered together for a triumphal 
prayer that lasted about five minutes, congratulating ourselves for 
being Christians, and being the only kind of god's people who would do 
such a wonderful thing (in the name of Jesus amen). I was sore tempted 
to reveal myself as a Buddhist on a number of occasions, but managed to 
hold my tongue. Luckily I still used their language for swearing 
whenever I mashed a finger, or I would have given myself away.