[Buddha-l] Re: unmarried adult male bashing

[Piya Tan]

[This message keeps getting the "bounce" warning, so I'm sending it in
smaller
sections, if anyone cares to read it that is.]

I'm not sure if the Daoist-Buddhist amalgam is still common in mainland
China
today. In Singapore (and I suppose in Malaysia, too) there is clear osmosis
in
either direction, Both the Daoist and Buddhist "communities" are becoming
more
clearly defined, as the followers of the two religions grow in
self-awareness.

I cannot help noticing that there is a close link between class and
religious sub-
groups here (of course not just here). For example, the Daoists tend to be
the
lower middle class traditional Chinese, while the Buddhists tend to be upper

middle class better schooled Chinese as well as English-speaking.

Almost all the affluent monks here stop talking to me after I told them I am

living on a village pastor's stipend from the Buddhist community. This makes
me feel like a coconut flung far from the tree. But the fresh open air is
just
great.

Christians here comprise mostly of the more affluent urbanites, esp the new
Christian individual-led churches such as City Harvest. The Christian
leaders
here heavily evangelize on the campuses to keep their colonial grip on the
ruling echelons.

In fact, with area zoning, new Buddhist centres are effectively ghetto-ized
into the red-light Geylang area, growing like Lotuses: The Buddhist Library
that Richard Hayes graced is located there.

The Chinese temple where I regularly teach Suttas is the only Buddhist
temple in the Pasir Panjang (harbour) area peppered by over a dozen
churches, and largely populated by whites. The other smaller Buddhist
temple had to move out years back.

Interestingly, I get a cross-section of practically all the religions coming
for my
meditation and meditation therapy sessions, incl charismatic and pentecostal

Christians, and Muslims. This is probably because I present my approach as
"non-religious" Buddhist.

There are even Christian meditation groups (such as the one ministering to
gay and
lesbians) that have approached me for advice on how to teach meditation to
their
flock.

At the same time, the erstwhile mission schools (esp the prestigious Anglo
Chinese
Schools system) have their officials and teachers open their arms
magnanimously in
public but consistently bash their Buddhist students in their classrooms on
the sinfulness
of Buddhism.

[Continued...]

On Dec 15, 2007 7:57 AM, Richard Hayes <rhayes at unm.edu> wrote:

> On Friday 14 December 2007 15:42, Jim Peavler wrote:
>
> > And, I certainly hope, it doesn't stop one from contributing to
> > Buddha-l!!
>
> BUDDHA-L has been recognized by the Department of Homeland Security as an
> intelligence-free zone. Since it takes a certain amount of intelligence to
> maintain an ego, I assume that means this list is also an ego-free zone.
>
> > You might have (gratefully) noticed that I contribute much less than
> > I did in my prime.
>
> In the past there were more people who seriously needed ribbing. Most of
> them
> eventually took the hint and unsubscribed. Since you always delivered some
> of
> our prime ribs back when you were in your prime, I figured your relative
> silence in recent years was due to a want of people worthy of ribbing. But
> that is no doubt projection on my part.
>
> --
> Richard Hayes
> Department of Philosophy
> University of New Mexico
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>



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