[Buddha-l] Re: How to help the Dharma grow in the USA

[Benito Carral]

On Wednesday, January 3, 2007, Richard wrote:

> For  most  young  people in the xenophobic culture of
> the  United  States,  everything  good about Asia has
> already  found  its way itno restaurants, video games
> and   action   movies.   Who  needs  to  study  Asian
> languages,  history  and  culture?  (Who,  think most
> young   Americans,  needs  to  study  ANY  languages,
> history or culture?)

   Why  would they have to learn something different if
they have what they look for at home?

   Many  baal teshuva returned from Zen and other Asian
religious  traditions  to Orthodox Judaism because they
didn't   find   there  what  they  really  wanted.  (An
interesting  book to read is _Rachel's Daughters: Newly
Orthodox Jewish Women,_ by Debra Renee Kaufman.)

   When  I  first  started  to teach my Jewish Buddhist
approach,  I  thought  that  I  will  lose  many  of my
students.  Not  at all, they love it! They love meaning
and  a clear definition of good and bad. After all, who
doesn't  like  a  good  traditional family? (The gender
feminists  and  their  friends, I suppose.) I have even
converted some of them back to Catholicism.

   As  far  as  I'm  concerned,  Buddhism doesn't offer
anything   valuable   that   can't   be  found  in  the
Judeo-Christian  tradition--BTW, the Noachide tradition
is  growing  fast, I'm already taking some courses with
the good Chabad people.

   There  are  still  a  lot  of  people  looking for a
downgraded  spirituality  and  they can found it in the
liberal  American  Buddhism,  but they can also find in
their own churches or synagogues.

   I  predict  some  raise  of Orthodox Buddhism in the
following years.

   Best wishes,

-- 
   Benito Carral
     Asturias, Sepharad (Spain)