[Buddha-l] Western Buddhism

[Dan Lusthaus]

Joy,

The article is not challenging the idea that various people -- of a certain
generation -- have found some satisfaction with their flirtation with
Buddhism. The question it is asking -- which I think is an extremely
legitimate question, and one which I have raised for many years -- is the
question of transmittability. Is the sort of "Western Buddhism" that has
enjoyed some popularity in recent decades capable of any staying power, or
will it disappear with the present, aging generation, that has been
embracing -- the article claims -- not so much Buddhism per se, as that term
applies historically to Budddhists of the last 2500 years, but to an
experiment in the name of an imagined Buddhism, so divorced from actual
Buddhism, that it cannot pass down to another generation, who will either
have to invent their own experiment (if so inclined), or turn to some other
type of experiment having nothing overt to do with Buddhism, real or
imagined. The article raises this question with some melancholy, since the
author finds the experiment otherwise worthwhile.

The crux, though, is the transmittability issue. Has this "experiment"
created something that can be transmitted, passed on, or is it merely a
single generation's indulgence? Interesting question.

Dan