[Buddha-l] FW: Three year Research Associate, UK, Indian & Buddhist theories of self

[jkirk]

(4) If anybody has been guilty of reifying the self or the ego in the
West—especially in the last two decades—I would say it has been some Western
teachers of Buddhism who have conflated the concepts of a healthy
psychological self with an ontological self. 
These teachers have engaged in non-stop vilification of their conflated
concept of "Ego."  In vilifying Ego, they have elevated it to the status of
Big Enemy to be attacked, despised and ashamed of.  A better reification
than that couldn't be concocted.  

Katherine Masis
=====================
This useless viewpoint seems to have especially infected Tibetan Buddhist
teachers, of various sorts--but not the Dalai Lama, far as I can tell. I've
run into quite a few US disciples of such teachers, one of whom asked me
once "How can I get rid of my ego?" (His teacher by the way is in India but
he lives here.) This idea was being purveyed also by the Karma Kagyu group I
once met with back in upstate NY some years ago, and was being assiduously
taught by the lay person who had become the teacher's pet. I suspect they
may have changed their tune since a lot of criticism of this useless idea,
of the kind cited in this list thread, has surfaced since that time.
Joanna K. 


       
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