[Buddha-l] The dying forest

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Malcolm Dean schreef:

>Fellow Buddha-l-ists,
>
>A new can for you to kick in any direction you care to:
>
>I heard Thanissaro Bikkhu at UCLA this week, talking about the short
>history and very tenuous future of the Forest tradition to which he
>belongs. Long story very short, where monks once used to disappear
>into forest hermitages, they now protect what remains of those forests
>by surrounding their temples with acres and acres of private land. In
>sacrificing its forests to commercial interests, Thailand is also
>sacrificing an aspect of its Buddhist history.
>
>As China's hegemony increases over the entire region, exercised
>through resource trade, military and diplomatic agreements, Buddhist
>cultures are being swept away, little by little.
>
>This is depressing enough, but the evening news is often full of
>equally depressing items reporting on Africa. How does this relate to
>the situation in Thailand?
>
>Here's a suggestion. Indigenous African religions appear to be
>shamanic, and not all that dissimilar from the religions which early
>Buddhist missionaries to Tibet would have encountered back in
>Mediaeval times. Buddhism did not spread by gilded invitation; it
>cleverly adapted itself to the prevailing religious consciousness,
>just as Christianity did in the Americas, producing new sets of saints
>and adapting old rituals.
>
>So, if we are about to see Buddhism die out in Asia, when are we going
>to see some missionary response to this situation? Why do we not see
>an amalgam of African shamanism and Buddhism, a la Tibetan Buddhism?
>
>  
>
I don't think this is necessary, Malcolm. A good start would be if we 
would get senseis, lamas and bhantes to bless some trees and forests, 
telling the people their karma would lead them straight to hell if they 
would touch them. They also can bless seedlings and tell the people they 
bring good luck or they've protectors inside, I think this would be very 
effective. But first we will have to teach the teachers.

-- 


Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950