[Buddha-l] Re: Maitreya statue discussion

[jkirk]

 Sally McAra wrote:

> The FPMT argue that the bigger the statue, the greater the merit (more 
> atoms dedicated to the cause, more money donated, so more donors 
> making money, more fame means more people see it and so they get 
> karmic imprints etc etc).

Well if they want to spend that much money and use that many atoms perhaps
100,000 smaller statues (1/100000 of the size) would be a friendlier way of
doing it. They could then distribute these round the world so everyone could
see one.

But I guess then it wouldn't be such a monstrous spectacle and it wouldn't
be so famous.

Corruption is absolutely rife in the area of India where they want to build
this. It seems unimaginable that anything like they propose could get built
in that part of India without huge bribes being paid all the way down the
line.

- Chris
=============
Quite so. I already suggested the corruption in my original comment about
this FPMT project--that if local farmers supported it, they were no doubt
PAID under the local patron-client system, because the majority of the
locals villagers oppose the dang thang. Those folks don't want to lose their
land, not be compensated porperly, nor offered low-grade land for
cultivation elsewhere. The same thing happened when the Narmada Dam
displaced thousands of villagers--the government, in that instance, never
did successfully compensate and relocate those tossed off their lands. 
FPMT megalomania, as already suggested, seems to be THE word for the
ridiculous waste of money and display of condescending magical thinking
(e.g, "karmic imprints").

Joanna K.


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