[Buddha-l] Critiques of Buddhism

[Chan Fu]

On 11/14/05, Richard P Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:
>
> Chan Fu wrote:
>
> >Or just laughing your ass off...
> >Kenny Wheeler has been a fixture on the public buddhist ng's
> >for years,
>
> Is this the jazz trumpeter born in Toronto?

I don't know, but the ensuing (vrajrally incorrect) vision
is of a Baptist with a hair dryer.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/31/pastor.electrocuted.ap/
but halloween was a nice touch, it was a sort of birthday
prezzie...

> I used to hang out on buddhist news groups some years ago, but I
> couldn't stand the weather. More recently I tried hanging out with
> Unitarian Buddhists, but that was like trying to get nourishment by
> sucking on New Mexican sandstone.

I've had my turn there as an alternative to making smog into
something edible. Unitarians are scary - I'm never sure just
what they want to unite.

> > though recently silent. His principle assertion
> >is that buddhist scripture (properly interpreted)  affirms
> >the existence of "soul".
>
> So I gathered from the web site. I have no problem with soul talk. It
> doesn't seem incompatible in the least with anything I know about
> Buddhism. My only allergy is to people who think they have a monopoly
> on proper interpretation of Buddhist scripture. They remind me too much
> of Republicans, I guess.

I have no problem with someone proposing that I have some
individual essence that I don't know that I have and that my
belief in their beliefs will determine whether that unknown
something will be either barbecued or bored for all eternity
in a place I don't know exists. Which, now that you mention it,
does have some indeterminate republican essence about it...

Speaking of republican essence:
http://www.funpic.hu/en.picview.php?id=26274&c=14&s=dd&p=1
and some hilarious others...

ps:
interesting tidbits -
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn8317.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/12/opinion/12dalai.html?th&emc=th