[Buddha-l] Dissent or Service?

[Joy Vriens]

Bonjour Richard Hayes, 

>The Quakers were dissenters from the outset. They were anything  
>but strong in numbers and economic resources, but they were willing to go to  
>jail and lose their jobs as a consequence of the stances they took. American  
>Buddhist sanghas are much stronger in numbers and in affluence now than the  
>Quaker meetings were for the first several centuries of their existence, but  
>American Buddhists as groups do not seem to be manifesting the courage to put  
>their collective values on the line. But perhaps I'm just not seeing it. 

I expect that since Quakers were present right from the founding of America, when everything still needed to be built, together with other Christian sanghas that left the European continent for similar reasons, there weren't any autochtones to befriend first, there simply was a promised land to be implemented. There was a lesser need to integrate or to fit in first. I guess that when Buddhism (Asian Buddhist masters, not those damn hippies ) came to America it had to prove first that it had friendly intentions, that it wasn't a weird sect etc. and that it would fit in perfectly with other American values.     
 
> It could  
>also be the case that it is the destiny of many (perhaps most) Western  
>Buddhists to be deeply conflicted about both the prophetic model and the  
>ascetic model, and we just flop around uncomfortably no matter what habitat   
>we find ourselves in. Perhaps I am projecting my own deep sense of never  
>having felt at home anywhere, but my guess is that quite a few Western  
>Buddhists feel the same dis-ease. 

[sigh] yes...