[Buddha-l] means of ego-inflation

[charlie]

Hi all,

A bit of lay Buddhist commentary, label notwithstanding ;-).

At one point, long ago, stopped calling myself Buddhist...Buddhism was, to
me at that time, as much a culture as a religion.

I told folks who asked, "I take refuge in the 3 jeweled Buddha" or "I take
refuge in the Buddha" refusing the label.

Now people push back, "what does that mean?" or "Isn't that another way to
say you are Buddhist?"

So, now, I have stopped all that.  Certainly, I am a middle way follower {in
fact a "no path" follower}.

But this is all academic to the folks around me; so I call myself Buddhist
and qualify the hell out of it in my own head and hope to not further
confuse my friends.


- Charlie


On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 8:15 PM, jkirk <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:

>
> If you mean dharmachari in the specific sense of member of the
> Western Buddhist Order, then I used to be one but resigned a year
> ago. I am now a follower of the Middle Way but not a Buddhist,
> because it became clear to me that most Buddhists do not give
> priority to the Middle Way, and are not prepared to let go of the
> many aspects of Buddhist tradition that conflict with it. The
> label "Buddhist" just became a burden, and I was struggling
> against the traditionalists in the Order all the time.
>
> Best wishes,
> Robert
>
>
> Robert Ellis
> ===================
> Interesting.....would you give a few examples of some aspects of
> --what--"official" Buddhism--that conflict with the Middle Way. I
> could think of some, But you've given it a lot more thought
> certainly than I have, so how about it?
>
> Thanks,
> Joanna
>
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