[Buddha-l] Sex Scandals Has U.S. Buddhists Looking Within

[Vera, Pedro L.]

Joanna wrote: 

>There's a lot more that most American Buddhists either don’t want
>to know about, or turn a blind eye to,  because of the
>brainwashing mentality promoted by many Buddhist sects of total
>surrender to your teacher. Another delusional idea is the
>untouchability of the higher monastic authority. Versions of
>these two ideas are not limited to American (or any other kind
>of) Buddhists, but also surface as the psychology underlying many
>Protestant Christian and Roman Catholic incidents.

So, my question is: 

If these Buddhist masters, suposedly "enlightened" individuals and purveyors of "enlightenment", abuse authority and engage in destructive behaviors either by themselves, or worse, with their disciples (presumably in a weaker position) how are they different from any of the other religious or political figures? Or, alternatively, if we are to judge by its products, is Buddhism different from any other -ism or -anity? If not different, then can it make any claims that it is better?

Maybe it's just my disillusionement but a very reasonable argument can be made for throwing all of these religious systems out of the window, a la Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, although, in my opinion, they tend to be too easy on Buddhism.

god bless the atheists!

Pedro







_______________________________________________
buddha-l mailing list
buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l


_______________________________________________
buddha-l mailing list
buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l