[Buddha-l] Shamatha book--clarification

[jkirk]

Obviously, you didn't, Alex. 
But then, England has retained a lot more of its old culture than the US
has, where people agonize about all this a lot more and trouble themselves
unduly about identity. Last I saw Kathmandu, in 1987, it had begun to get
globalized. On earlier visits there, it was continuing on its old ways. I
never made it to Kham. In the US for the past 30-40 years, what I knew as
our "culture" had completely vanished. People born since 40 years ago,
except for a few remote locations around the country, don't have an idea of
a culture, so they try to manufacture one. It's now happening in France,
Portugal and Spain too. Old villages left to rot, until some foreigners turn
up and fix up houses and build golf courses.
Joanna
===============
 

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Alex Wilding
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 6:52 PM
To: 'Buddhist discussion forum'
Subject: RE: [Buddha-l] Shamatha book--clarification

I have to say that I don't truly follow what this issue of "breaking with my
own culture" is about.
I am English and have inherited a slice of European culture - I was
privileged to experience a little of the best of that culture in, for
instance, my university days. I love it - the choir; the mossy stone walls
of the quad; the cathedral and its bell; the deep silence of the library;
strawberries, cream and champagne on the river. As part of that culture I
was introduced, starting in the early 60s, to streams of thought from
outside Europe, and took to that too. My first Buddhist retreat was at a
centre in a leafy English village - old thatched houses, redbrick cottages,
the church whose bell can be heard in the shrine room, the pub, the war
memorial: quintessential England, and no less so because of being home to a
Buddhist centre. Some of my fondest memories are associated with Buddhist
retreats, studies and activities in places like East Anglia, Birmingham (the
original one in the West Midlands of England), the Black Forest, West Cork,
Kham and Kathmandu - these are the settings for the stories that might come
to mind late of an evening around a comfortable fire.
Can somebody please tell me - when did I break with my culture?
Alex W

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