[Buddha-l] "Western Self, Asian Other"

[R B Basham]

Denizens and non-denizens, 

After wading through the whole of the journal article (on the 29th) and
following discourse, I will take my sandals and socks off, roll up my
pants (no sense damaging perfectly functional stuff) to wade in with my
two cents worth. BTW, it has been as warm -7 C lately just so you can
appreciate the risk and suffering as well as the wish to not re-dress in
ice. 

My first significant thought was that the journal piece needed or
suffered editing. Second, 'it' was Palin-esque -- a hodgepodge of
Falkner-length sentences which lacked consistency in content or
structure. Third, use of a 'logic table'  approach, as in some canon
works, would simplify (and shorten). ... Research added some humor.
Finally, I expected super-hero Obvious Man to appear numerous times. 

As others have noted, it addressed "the individual cherries seen as ripe
for the picking". Undoubtedly, some individuals in today's world are
prejudiced, some luny/loony, some both, and the remainder neither (all
of the time). Yes, "the white man's burden" is 'his' chauvinist imperial
attitude reinforced by 'his' Abrahamic exceptionalism. ... 

Other than that, ON ONE LEVEL, I observed much argument (noises and
signs) over (what I refer to as) 'mystification'. And, whose 'mystery'
is transcendent -- I have in mind HTML posts and 'aum/om mani padme
hum' (or whatever). 

On HTML, black symbols of uniform size on white background are directly
functional. Infinite choices as to size, color, font, and images detract
from content, regardless of how flattering, powerful, all sorts of
'desirables' for the composer. So, though sweet innocents plead for
HTML, I imagine (fear) abuse by the emotional, convinced types. 

On 'mani padme', I point out that ASL (American<!!> Sign Language) and
other conceptual languages communicate more with brevity than the proper
structured written (or spoken) words of the American/English language.
Yet, ASL effectively communicates and connects -- often admirably lucid
and pure. In other words, for those limited to 'zen', fingers and
reflections ain't the sense of the moon, which is a state of being. That
said, I do appreciate the learning, yours and continuing mine. 

I haven't decided whether to wait a bit, in this damned cold, to
redress, or not. Most likely not not. 


Richard Basham  -- Make noise; leave sign; or, not. @1983


On Mon, 2009-12-28 at 23:11 -0700, buddha-l-request at mailman.swcp.com
wrote:
> On Dec 28, 2009, at 10:33 AM, Richard Hayes wrote:
> 
> > There is an interesting article in the current edition of the
> on-line Journal of Buddhist Ethics. It's entitled "Western Self, Asian
> Other: Modernity, Authenticity and Nostalgia for 'Tradition' in
> Buddhist Studies," by Natalie E. Quli. It can be downloaded from the
> Buddhist Ethics website: http://www.buddhistethics.org/current.html
> 
> Quli's article begins with this observation: "There has been
> considerable rancor and finger-pointing in recent years concerning the
> intersection of the West and Buddhism." This observation is followed
> by two claims. The first claim is that Western scholars of Buddhism
> and Western converts to Buddhism are "regularly labeled Orientalists."
> The second claim is that Asian Buddhists who appropriate Western ideas
> are "routinely dismissed for appropriating Western ideas and cloaking
> them with the veil of tradition, sometimes for nationalistic purposes,
> and producing 'Buddhist modernism.'" The examples she gives of Asians
> who are subjected to this treatment for this reason are Anag?rika
> Dharmap?la and D.T. Suzuki.