[Buddha-l] An arresting story about Myanmar

[Chan Fu]

On 8/22/07, Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:
> On Wed, 2007-08-22 at 18:14 -0400, Chan Fu wrote:
>
> > Will it baffle you when state-supported religion becomes de-rigeur
> > here?
>
> Actually, it would take me very much by surprise. I think there would be
> assassinations and revolutions before the separation of church and state
> were obliterated. It would be easier to outlaw guns than to overthrow
> the first amendment.

"Guns don't kill people; people kill people." You may as well be afraid of
ball-point pens (which are quite scary in the wrong hands - just like
computers).

Granted you live in a very astronomically beautiful part of the Extended
Sahara (soon to include and surprise other areas), but if you haven't gotten
the clues about constitutional collapse, perhaps you've been busy watching
public television.

> > Look at
> > Sri Lanka or Thailand. Buddhism in Asia has become indistinguishable
> > from christian or islamic purity and prudity.
>
> I keep telling my students (who are usually uncritically enamored of
> Buddhism) that Buddhism is quite a bit more in sympathy with Southern
> Baptism than with the creaky-jointed joint-smokers who have embraced
> Buddhism during the past few decades.

:) It's surely enough so that I've stopped capitalizing the "-ism" nouns.
My sisters-in-law in Thailand were captured by the "Wat Dhammakaya"
cult.  Except for the youngest one, whose PhD Thesis I supervised,
they turned into the most cranky evangelical witches I could imagine (well,
in a  "buddhist" context, anyway).

> > Our universities are folding like dominoes in their eagerness to appear
> > "non-sectarian". Of course you know that the islamic "foot-bath"
> > thing was to keep those feet from stinking up another muslim nose
> > during prayers.
>
> I like the idea of foot baths. I think they should be required of all
> students. But then I think all students should remove their shoes before
> entering the classroom. And I think they should be quietly meditating
> before class instead of chatting and sending text messages on their
> goddamn cell phones. Thank God, I retire soon.

Good luck. I'm more in favor of brainwashing. The concept is old, true;  but
a nice "phone booth" technology needs to be worked out - along the lines
of the "intelligent decision zapper for TSA employees", perhaps. Personally
(and maybe Susan will agree with me - I haven't asked her yet), I think that
many of the "ADD", "ADHD", etc., etc. "disorders" have someting to do with
being born and raised in and by the Memedia (my word, eternal copyright,
don't even *think* about stealing it!).

I'd rather fund a new college (can't afford a university - too many departments
and one of them would have to be "religious studies" to get any GWB bible
aid) - than have you retire entirely. Actually I doubt you really
will. Vic (Stenger)
really didn't and Dawkins certainly won't. It would be nice to have you around
to critically examine Buddhism as a "religion" for a very long time.

OMFG!  (that's one "fukkin' " more than Seider managed ;)  We're actually
having a reasonably human conversation on buddha_l. How odd...

Regards to all,
rj

ps,
Hello, Bruce - apollo (that's Nabokov speak) for not noticing you previously,
but perhaps you haven't said much. Good luck with a "University" in (ahem)
Tennesee. My sister-in-law and neice live in Nashville - they and theirs provide
me with local evidence. What subject do you teach those "doctoral candidates",
if I may ask? I didn't like Cantor, btw - not enough evidence of the church's
opportunism and rise to power via superstition. Reminds me of Teresa in India,
somewhat.