[Buddha-l] Schopen gets a kicking

[jkirk]

Bravo for Prof Schopen. Unfortunately, I still haven't got round
to reading his writings,
but this lecture made my day.

People who think that sangha is some kind of a holy term limited
to Buddhism just have it wrong. The monastic organizational
structure he is talking about is like Hindu temple/institutional
(maTh) organizational structure. They also had and have monastics
as well as priests, temple administrators, and a mission in part
dedicated to collecting as much dana as possible and keeping it
in storage for hard times. They also over the centuries have
tended to look on renouncer ascetics (sadhus, as it were) as
fakes or weirdos. Sure, some sadhus have followings, but not
among the majority.  South Indian temples (not sure about north)
stored grain against hard times, when they would circulate it to
a starving populace.  I don't know if they also made loans, but
wouldn't be surprised. 
(This idea--unless someone can come up with evidence to the
contrary-- had been lost by the time of the British Raj, when
during the Bengal famine of 1943 nothing much was done, by
anybody. Maybe the Bengal temples never did the redistribution
thing-- not sure.)

Seems to me that the similarities between Buddhist and Hindu
institutions have simply either been denied over time, or
overlooked. The Buddha came out of a social environment which, if
not "Hindu" as known today, was nevertheless "Indian." What
Schopen was talking about comes as no surprise, (and doesn't
bother me one bit). 
Those folks who are outraged must be the typically pious of our
lot, who go about telling their beads and putting on a special
face to prove what good Buddhists they are. (This is
anthropological commentary, not ad hominem argument.)

I especially cherish this claim: "The Buddha's life is a reminder
that poverty, not money, is the root of all evil." Let us never
forget the world-wide, ancient and still with us, internecine
competition over resources.

If one could include poverty of spirit, for which the Buddha also
had some answers, then the claim works about 100%. 

Joanna

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Jayarava
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 4:29 PM

Someone wrote this http://is.gd/218GN review of a talk by Greg
Schopen which sounds quite straight forward.

But it inspired the about.com Buddhism 'guide' Barbara O'Brien to
write this http://is.gd/218R9 a few days later in which she
describes Schopen as a "crackpot". If you look at the comments -
way way down the page - she does concede that she over-reacted
and will apologize to Schopen. 

I picked it up on another blog, so the story is spreading... I
know all you academics tend to hate each other, but if Prof
Schopen has any friends here they might want to ask Ms O'Brien to
retract her article. I did. 

Sayonara
Jayarava


      

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