[Buddha-l] Back to the core values?

[Piya Tan]

In many ways, a westerner has a better chance to get a true taste of
Buddhism by way
of its meditation and mind training. But the bane of the contemporary
western Buddhism
is (was?) cult Buddhism, which I think most western communities and
individuals are outgrowing.

Asian Buddhism in Asia and abroad is still mired in formalism, rituals and
superstition,
and giving as an institution rather than as an act of charity. These are
surely a hindrance
to even the level of stream-winning. Not all rituals are bad, but they can
hinder one if they
are taken simply as external acts or merely for this-worldly gains.

The good thing today is that the chances of reading the ancient texts or
sitting in meditation with a living master is within easy reach compared to
2-3 generations back.
I have nearly half a dozen versions of the Tipitaka (besides those online)
and incl the Taisho in my small honey-comb flat in the Singapore heartland.
This is Sukhavati even
for an early fund-in-mental buddhist like me.

Piya Tan


On 5/28/07, jkirk <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:
>
>
> I guess what I want is to go back to how early Buddhism SHOULD have been
> ...
> in my eyes.
> Bob
>
> =========
> Well, IMO "Small is Beautiful." Early Buddhism (except for the monastic
> code, which I've not read yet and which applies to monastics, which I am
> not) seems to me to have been "small"--not elaborate and full of foofoo
> rituals, deities, arcane practices, etc. The simplicity comes through in
> the
> Pali suttas (translated, in my case). I agree with you Bob that there is
> no
> resemblance between early Buddhism as represented in the Pali suttas and
> fundo Chirstianity, funo Islam, or fundo anything else.
> Joanna
>
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