[Buddha-l] (the recycling of) Western Buddhists

[Joy Vriens]

Joanna,
>No--we were sent to Sunday school to learn the Anglian Catholic way (dubbed 
>Episcopalian in the USA) and were eventually confirmed in the faith by the 
>Bishop with a bunch of other twelve-year-old faithfuls. This is formal 
>transmission supported by parents. 

I will try and clarify further. My youngest brother lives in a small village. He was raised a catholic like me, but, also like me, doesn't feel any affinity at all. It's no big deal for him one way or the other. The village he lives in is a small catholic village, with one catholic church and a catholic school. The village life requires that all the traditional main events of a person's life come with a little ceremony in the village church. His children were baptisd in the village church  and go to the village school with the other children. They have gone through holy communion, confirmation and the whole full package. If he had refused for them to participate, his children would have been the only ones in the village increasing the risk of exclusion.  

So his children had a formal transmission, but there was no adhesion from my brother's part. It is as if the "transmission" took place without his participation. Yet the success of this transmission would be considered complete. Our "Western Buddhists" do have an adhesion to what they want to transmit to their children and yet often (probably) they "fail". For me the most important part of a religion is in the adhesion, the involvement.

Joy