[Buddha-l] Re: Bachelor bashing [was some damn thing about buddha-l digest]

[Piya Tan]

On Dec 12, 2007 11:00 AM, Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:

> On Tuesday 11 December 2007 19:36, Joanna wrote:
>
> > I got the "call for papers" thing OK. Have no interest any more for
> writing
> > papers.
>
> I once read that spiritual poverty has been achieved when one's desire to
> get
> rid of possessions is at least as strong as one's desire used to be to
> acquire them. I think there is probably an academic analog to this. What
> do
> we call the condition in which one's desire not to write papers is as
> great
> as one's desire used to be to write them? Spiritual maturity?
>
> > Some people just get very uptight about Batchellor's idea of Buddhism
> > without beliefs and perhaps they see it as a sign of retrenching toward
> an
> > earlier non-Buddhist stage. I personally don't see it that way at all.
>
> Neither does Batchelor. He continues to be very active leading Buddhist
> retreats and promoting Buddhist practices. His book on the life of the
> Buddha
> is one of the most emotionally engaged and moving I have ever heard. (I
> haven't seen it, but I have listened to excerpts. It's mighty powerful
> stuff.) The last I checked with Stephen, he was pretty unconcerned with
> the
> issue of whether he meets other people's criteria of Buddhist
> authenticity.
> Yet another sign of spiritual maturity?


An important part of the canonical definition of a streamwinner is that he
is
"emotionally independent" (aparappaccaya), literally not dependent on other,
which is a great quality for anyone to cultivate.

Piya