[Buddha-l] Doxastic minimalism

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Richard Hayes schreef:
> I wrote about Vicente Gonzlaes's claim that many people are nowadays trying to 
> find a Buddhism without Buddhism:
>
>   
>> Many? I can't think of even one, with the possible exception of Toni
>> Packer.
>>     
>
> In response, Vicente Gonzalez cited an article signed by our very own Erik 
> Hoogcarspel:
>
>   
>> http://www.thinkbuddha.org/article/3/buddhism-without-buddhism
>>
>> "Buddhism Without Buddhism: a resolutely irreligious Buddhism; a
>> Buddhism that is rooted in human meanings rather than in fantasies of
>> the sacred; a Buddhism that is pervaded by a thoroughgoing
>> this-wordliness: it is, perhaps, an impossible thing to hope for. But
>> at the same time, I find the idea extraordinarily attractive, it has
>> become a touch-stone for how I think about Buddhism. But with a
>> question mark at the end, just for good measure…"
>>     
Thanks for the credits, but only the last paragraph were my words. The writer causes the confusion because he doesn't care to put his name under the article.
I 'm not very thrilled about the exprtession 'Buddhism without Buddhism', because it reminds me of wine without grapes or even worse: Buckler. This is maybe a Dutch thing. A Dutch standup comedian once succeeded in getting Buckler off the shelves in one very famous show, where he identified the typical Buckler drinker as what I would call a mixture of mr. Bean, George Bush and All Bundy, in short as the present President of the Netherlands. So I suggest the 'selfpractice' coined by the philosopher Michel Foucualt and short for the antique expression 'taking care of oneself'. Buddhism as a selfpractice puts it in the same category as Stoa, Cynics and so on. 

Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950
products: http://stores.lulu.com/jehmsstudio