[Buddha-l] Claude Anshin Thomas/ approaches to "nonduality"

[Richard P. Hayes]

curt wrote:

> It looked like fun. It was fun. I offer no other excuse or explanation.
> Reading his book is fun, too, btw. He was another New Mexican,
> wan't he?

Halbfass? He was a German who took root in Pennsylvania, which I guess 
makes him Pennsylvania Deutsch. He was a wonderful man with a brilliant 
mind. He was a fastidious scholar but also quite a good thinker, quite 
capable of original thought.
> 
> But, Richard, are you trying to say that I shouldn't ask these kinds of
> questions? 

Did it seem as though I was saying that?

> Should we simply accept the superficial blather that tries
> to put the words "Buddhism" and "peace" next to each other without
> ever bothering to explain what the supposed connection is? 

Isn't that what religion is all about, the almost total absence of any 
kind of critical thinking? And isn't Buddhism a religion? Should we be 
surprised to find that Buddhists are about as uncritical as members of 
other religious communities?

> Isn't that a lot like what Dick Cheney does with "Iraq" and "9-11"? 

Doesn't buddha-l have a policy that anyone who writes the name Dick 
Cheney without saying something derogatory is immediately put on probation?

> Shouldn't Buddha-l demand to know where Buddhists have been hiding their
> supposed insights into a more peaceful world for the last 2500 years,
> and why these insights have never actually been put into practice in
> societies where Buddhism is a major influence?

Is Buddhism an major influence anywhere? Has it ever been? Or has the 
name of Buddhism, like the names of most other religions, been hijacked 
by power-hungry charlatans eager to line their own pockets while 
enslaving the poor? Come to think of it, why isn't Dick Cheney a 
Buddhist? Don't you think he would fit right in?

-- 
Richard Hayes?