[Buddha-l] Prapanca

[Piya Tan]

I'm sure you are right Weng Fai: that's what it all boils down to.


On Feb 13, 2008 2:37 PM, Weng-Fai Wong <wongwf at comp.nus.edu.sg> wrote:

> Piya wrote...
> > Talking about making a living out of Buddhism as "teaching/preaching",
> > didn't this
> > start with the Mahavihara in Sri Lanka, and the modern Sri Lankan
> foreign
> > missionaries who lie abroad for the benefit of their country (more
> > specifically their
> > kinsmen back home).
> >
> > Seneviratne will tell of what living Sinhalese monks do while Schopen
> > specializes
> > is what dead Indian monks did. (A Sinhalese student in my class tells me
> > some
> > monks love to play cricket in the field behind her house in Sri Lanka!
> Why
> > can't
> > they be more discreet and have private gyms like Singaporean monks do.)
> >
> > Aren't we all making a livelihood of Buddhism? We do this in various
> ways:
> > (1) The good monastics do it by giving us tons of merit in exchange for
> > what we give, whether we need it or not,
> > (2) The professional monastics hang on to their PhDs, BMWs and the like,
> > for they
> > have nothing else to give, except Zen-like statements and empty
> busyness;
> > and
> > (3) The professional scholars are those who generally knock Buddhism
> down
> > for a
> > living, and don't like to be reminded that Buddhism is putting food on
> > their table.
> >
> > Then there are those (like myself) who need Buddhism to keep my ego
> > inflated
> > by reminding me how right I am.
> >
> > Who has more merit: a foul-mouthed academic who teaches Buddhism with
> > clarity and
> > conviction, or a well-decorumed monastic performing expensive rituals
> (you
> > can't take it
> > with you, why not send it ahead) and teaching superstitions? (Zen
> answer:
> > Burn the bush.)
>
> All prapancas... and further reinforcing my refutation of your claim that
> the more understanding of the Buddha-Dharma you have, the less prapanca
> you
> have. In fact, if anything, the more detail of any knowledge one gets
> into,
> the higher the likelihood of prapanca arising. Now that doesn't mean that
> ignorance is the solution. I am just saying that knowledge alone (even to
> the level that you can advise PhD students) is not it either.
>
> W.F. Wong
>
>
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