[Buddha-l] Victimized Vegans?

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Dan,

>We seem to be in some agreement about Buddhism's inseparability from mercantilism. Of course, that represents major problems of all sorts, for Buddhist history, the current status of Buddhism, and for those of us who see the problems inherent in this symbiosis. It's interesting that almost no one seems to be paying any attention to this, much less offering any serious analysis or diagnosis, especially given the generally anti-capitalist leanings of many Western Buddhists (a sign of fantasy-land enchantment that obscures vision, i.e., parikalpita).

Follow the money. When Buddhism came to the West and had a lot of appeal among Westerners for various reasons, the Westerners suffering from fantasy-land enchantment, like myself, were more interested in literature confirming their views or the traditional views of their teachers. So the funding would rather go to authors and researchers who stroke their needs. Now the honeymoon is over, but the interest in Buddhism hasn't completely waned or has changed into the need for a more realistic treatment of Buddhism, we (those, like me, who lost our fantasy-land enchantment) are ready to put some money in more critical or simply more realistic research. Of course, people like De Vallée Poussin have always been critical (although rather fair IMO), but their funding came from different places. I have the impression that some recent books on e.g. Buddhist esoterism (Davidson, White etc.) have indeed been following the money thread. I may be very wrong, because I don't read much about!
  ancient Buddhism, but I also have the impression that a more critical attitude in Ancient Buddhism seems to be more rare and that the default theories still seem to prevail there. It seems to be easier to admit that everything went wrong (and sometimes even awfully wrong) after the Buddha than to actually look with a critical eye at "the Buddha" himself. Hindu scholars and even HH Benedict XVI have tried to be of some help, but to not much avail... ;-) 

Joy