[Buddha-l] Mere meness

[Joy Vriens]

"The text goes on to say that if the 
Quakers had done nothing but subtract, as the Ranters did, then 
they would have become anarchists (as the Ranters did) and then 
gone extinct (as the Ranters did). But it was precisely by holding 
onto the core conviction that the truth reveals itself to everyone 
who remains still and patient that the Quakers did not throw out 
everything of value."

I have an intellectual and emotional feeble for strugglers and heretics like the Ranters (I had to look them up) and other Christian anarchists, because I see their activity as an expression of implication, concern and compassion, as misguided as it often may be or may be considered. And strangely enough all those tendancies seem to go back all the way to the idea of God's grace of the "mere" Paul, the source of Christianity, who never seemed to take time to enjoy the grace and remain still and patient. I don't feel enclined to follow Christian or other anarchists (mad Ch'an masters, recalcitrant Taoists, mahasiddhas etc.) other than in imagination, but to read about them and to think of them gives me great pleasure. A proper balance between faith and works, wisdom and means, activity and passivity is a mystery to me and seems very hard to find and stick to.  

In his book Sexualités bouddhiques, Bernard Faure, mentions tendancies of what he calls Naturalist Buddhism, like the one "practised" by Wuzhu and his followers of the Bao Tang monastery, which reminds me of your description of the Quakers. So for me mere christianity, mere Buddhism, or naturalist Buddhism are most appealing as long as they are very natural and don't have too much Christianity or Buddhism in them.


Joy
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