[Buddha-l] Subject: the poignancy of Donald Lopez

[J Whalen-Bridge]

Curt Steinmetz, your attack on Michael Jerryson’s book is
unnecessarily nasty.  This language drips with sarcasm:  “In a recent
article he wrote for religionispatches.org, Jerryson tells the
cockle-warming story his own personal journey from clueless dupe to
righteous debunker.”  You gave a link, and I turned to the webpage.
Monks who carry guns under their robes contradict the general spirit
of Buddhism and vinaya rules, and it is a perfectly good subject for
an academic study.  Perhaps Michael Jerryson, in the fullness of time,
will become more savagely ironic, but for the moment he appears to
have chosen an interesting and timely subject.  Instead of focusing so
much on scoring points, you might want to let your responses settle a
bit before firing off angry, not-very-thoughtful emails that aren’t
very accurate.  For example, you accuse Jerryson of naively assuming
monks and nuns should just be victims and not attempt to be safe, but
that’s not what the page you’ve linked your complaints to suggest.
“The constant fear and violence took a toll on them.” If someone has
worked hard for six years on a challenging subject of general
interest, I’d say s/he warrants a better response than what you’ve
given.
John W-B
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>>>>ject: [Buddha-l] the poignancy of Donald Lopez
.To: Buddhist discussion forum <buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com>
.Message-ID: <4B539336.1040204 at cola.iges.org>
.Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
.Michael Jerryson claims to have been victimized by a sinister fraud
.perpetrated by Walpola Rahula, the Dalai Lama and D.T. Suzuki, who
.shamelessly sought to convince him, indeed, the whole world, of the lie
.that Buddhism is a "religion of peace." Worse, these fiends  were not
..alone in their "very successful ... propaganda", and "As Donald S. Lopez.
.Jr. and others have poignantly shown, academics quickly followed suit,
.so that by the 1960s U.S popular culture no longer depicted Buddhist
.traditions as primitive, but as mystical."
.	Ah, the poignancy. It gets to ya, doesn't it?
.In a recent article he wrote for religionispatches.org, Jerryson tells
.the cockle-warming story his own personal journey from clueless dupe to
.righteous debunker. His eyes were opened when he traveled to Thailand in
.2006 to an area where deadly attacks on Buddhists by Islamic Jihadists
.had been taking place. Jerryson had gone there hoping to be an
.eyewitness to the miraculous power of Buddhist "peacemaking". But
.Jerryson discovered that instead of inviting the terrorists to
.participate in small group discussions of the writings of Riane Eisler
.and Karen Armstrong, that Thai Buddhists were actually -- horrors --
.defending themselves!!
.	Jerryson was not intimidated by the prospect of taking on the Dalai Lama
.and his propaganda machine. He had seen the truth, and it had set him
.free. Now the world must know!
.On the off chance that there is a single person who actually takes
.Jerryson seriously (and, apparently, there are) I offer the opening
.sentence of the book that "has consumed much of the last six years of my
.life":
.	"It is a well known fact that the first of all commandments of the
.Buddhist creed is 'Thou shalt not kill'".
.Curt
.	P.S. Jerryson's article at religiondispatches.org is here:
.http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/rdbook/2158/monks_with_guns%3A_discovering_buddhist_violence
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..

-- 
J. Whalen-Bridge
English, National U of Singapore