[Buddha-l] Enneagram and Buddhism

[Richard Hayes]

On Fri, 2009-01-09 at 12:00 -0700, jkirk wrote:

> Thanks for posting that skeptic link. Just looked at it and see
> that it will take some time to read through, so later. New Agery,
> which I luckily have been on the margins of, seems to me to have
> been (or still is, if it's still viable)  an imperialistic
> invasion of people's urgent needs for solace and of their hunger
> for insights. Like imperialism and most religions (which
> historically accompanied imperialism), it favors elaborate
> hierarchies.

I have no idea what New Age religion is supposed to be. As far as I can
tell it is a highly informal movement of the kinds of people who used to
be called seekers. Such people tend to be suspicious and organized
religion and deeply allergic to any kind of hierarchy. I've never
actually know anyone who claimed to New Age in orientation, but I have
known many Christians and Buddhists who have been strongly contemptuous
of what they call New Age spirituality. When I ask them for a more
concrete account of what exactly it is they fear in what they call New
Age spirituality, they usually cite such things as individualism and
disrespect for authority and tradition. Hell, I thought that was called
being an INFP. 

-- 
Richard Hayes