[Buddha-l] Buddhism and the "status quo"

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Dan,

>Joy, whether or not the horses were Marxist or not they never said. But we 
>humans were getting back to the land, and eating lots of brown rice, and 
>having constant, endless meetings, and all the other "meaningful" things 
>"real revolutionaries" did back then.

I would have loved to be there. And I think it is meaningful to associate, live together with others, imagine a better world, talk... I can hardly imagine a nicer and more meaningful way to live one's life. 

> I've been wary of political blindness ever 
>since, especially the ideologically giddy kind. Dispelling parikalpa, as the 
>Yogacaras say. 

And yet, I think that thanks to some ideas and efforts of the ideologically giddy kind, the situation of many in the West has/had improved (welfare etc.) quite a lot. It doesn't make those ideals or bits of them less noble and worthwhile. The means that had been used were obviously totally wrong. And I regret that some people want to throw away the ideals with the means, or link them in such an  inextricable way that the one can't be ambitioned without the other. Or simply that these ideals are called naive. I read that this year arm's sales will raise with 30 billion dollars reaching a total of 1060 billion dollars. I am glad that some people seem to do well with "realism" devoid of parikalpa.   I can only offer you this link, in spite of a search. Why it is not reported elsewhere puzzles me a bit.  http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/50380691/Wereldwijde_uitgaven_aan_wapens_hoger_dan_ooit.html?p=6,1

>Buddha formed a sangha that was, in some senses, socially irresponsible -- a 
>haven for dropouts. But he was responsible to the sangha (and sentient 
>beings who suffer), and shouldered some of that responsibility simply by 
>forming and organizing a sangha that inculled discipline (no simple feat) 
>rather than telling everyone else to get lost and leave him to his 
>contemplative solitude. 

True. Compassion seems impossible without some sort of responsibility.

Joy