[Buddha-l] Question for acedemic teachers of Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Tue, 2008-06-24 at 17:53 -0400, Jackhat1 at aol.com wrote:

> It seem to me that a course in Buddhism should bring out both this view of  
> nibbana and a view that nibbana is cessation of suffering in this  life. 

Yes, I should think it goes without saying that one should say that that
is the standard Buddhist view. I also think it is a good idea to raise
the question whether it is possible to bring suffering in this life to
an end. As Tim Hardin sang "Don't make promises that you can't keep."
 
> ===========
> If a professor has a "museum curator" approach, he might consciously and  
> unconsciously pick commentators that emphasize the more exotic and the removed  
> from our everyday life. Do any professors mention the approach of, to use one  
> example, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu.

I can't speak for all professors, obviously, but I regularly have
students read Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, Bhikkhu Thanissaro, Ayya Khema and
numerous others on the Access to Insight web site. It's interesting to
see how students react to them. Thanissaro and Ayya Khema, for example,
strike many students as uncritical in their enthusiasm for traditional
Dhamma, and students these days are not as eager to embrace what they
perceive as a naive utopian socialism in Buddhadasa as the students of
forty years ago. I keep varying the readings and try to come up with a
good mix of canonical materials, medieval commentators and modern
exponents. I do that no matter which tradition of Buddhism I teach. The
problem is, I'm an old fart, and the things that I love to read often
turn students off.

> ===============
> I don't think Jung was very knowledgeable about Buddhism.

That makes no difference to his claim, which is about human psychology.
He makes a good case for the importance of spending a lifetime maturing
into the mythology of the tradition one learned as a child.

>  The Dalai Lama  
> represents the most mythical and far out (I apologize that I can't find a better  
> term. I have a tennis game in 20 minutes and have to run) type of Buddhism.

"My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness." (Tenzin Gratso,
14th Dalai Lama) Few people I have heard are as skilled as the Dalai
Lama at making Buddhism accessible without oversimplifying it.
 
> If  one gives any credence to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's and his ilk''s 
> interpretation of  Buddhism, myths and images aren't very important.

That in itself is the most important myth in modern Theravada. Like all
myths it works best when not taken as a truth claim. As a truth claim
its falsity becomes apparent very quickly.

>  And, westerners as a   
> group probably have much more experience with the Buddhist practice of  
> meditation than ethnic Buddhists as a group.

Yes, Western Buddhists often labor under the delusion that meditation is
the only legitimate or important practice in Buddhism. It is sometimes
helpful to point out to them that the Western Buddhist interest in
meditation verges on obsession and that, like all obsessions, it may be
somewhat unhealthy.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico