[Buddha-l] Retreats, and fundraising for retreat centres etc

[jkirk]

Sally McAra wrote:
> > This reminds me, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism told me that if one
> > understands Emptiness one will understand why the lamas want so many
> > holy objects built. He related a story about the diversion of a large
> > donation (originally intended to support monks' education and health)
> > that ended up being used to build stupas at the monastery. The moral of
> > the story was, according to the guy who told me, that we mere
> > unenlightened ones don't understand, but the lamas understand Emptiness
> > and that this really was, wiht this realisation, the most beneficial
> > thing to do with the money, for all sentient beings (elsewhere I am
> > familiar with the argument that holy objects make a "beneficial imprint"
> > on one's mindstream).
> >
> > Big buildings and monuments rather than supporting the studies of monks
> > and nuns. Hmmm. With my limited view, I find it hard to understand why
> > the support of students (potential teachers) of buddhism was less
> > important than these stupas. But that is the thing that really interests
> > me, too.
==============
Dear Sally,
Your investigations don't seem to be sufficiently focused. Leave aside your
concerns about "your" viewpoints, as compared to other viewpoints. Discuss
research methods with your mentors, and follow them. Get busy digging up
information from practitioners. For example, if you are looking for Tibetan
Buddhist rationales for building stupas and other holy buildings, etc.,
instead of spending funds on supporting the health of monks and their
educations, I suggest that you need to do more interviews with Tibetan
Buddhist monks in order to develop the range of views, if there is one.

For example, one can find ads in US Buddhist magazines calling on folks to
donate money for nuns' educations, or even just for securing a reliable food
supply for them! From what I've observed so far, it does seem that Tibetan
Buddhist nuns in India are in greater need--in general-- for decent food and
shelter and scholarly education, than the monks. (I don't know if there are
any Tibetan Buddhist nunneries in NZ.) So there seems to be a gender
differentiation in the management, and possibly the symbolism, of funds
donated to Tibetan Buddhist organizations. Only in-depth fieldwork on your
part can come up with at least plausible resolutions to these issues that
interest you. Such research requires paying several visits to some Tibetan
Buddhist centers in NZ to interview various levels of monks, from lowly to
top offices, and also observing what's going on. Are monks being educated?
Are more stupas being built?  Relying on hearsay from this casual contact or
that one won't get you very far, so far as doing a PhD dissertation is
concerned.

Best wishes for your success,
Joanna Kirkpatrick, PhD
Anthropologist