[Buddha-l] Jinapanjaram

[JKirkpatrick]

Joy, yes!

"Limit karma to pratitya-samutpada. That's more than enough. "
Amen to that, bro. 
			That's the way I've come to think of it.
"There seems to be an indestructible link between money and
prapanca and prapanca and money." 
	...aided and abetted by the capitalist ideology of
endless production for endless profit, plus the values of ever
more prapancik bureaucratic efficiency-- a  circular trap system.

If Buddhists organised teaching Buddhism as it was done back in
the Buddha's day, today they'd meet in a park somewhere and offer
free lessons, while not reminding people that giving dana is a
good thing, as retreats always do. Without an institutional
organisation with building(s), no dana plus fees would be
necessary. The Buddha accepted donations of land and buildings
but never did he ask for it, far as I know. In  those times there
was no shortage of labor in the class system of the day, so the
parks and the temples could be maintained cheaply for the donors,
who of course were also rich or monarchs --besides no plumbing or
heating was necessary. Industrial "civilisation" has gone so far
that it's trapped in its own effluents of various sorts including
maximising prapanca and profit, as the mental and physical
environments go down the drain.  

Joanna



 

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Joy
Vriens
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2010 1:04 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Jinapanjaram

Hi Eric,

> it is always good to read the thoughts of a fellow Buddhst on
this. If 
> there's such a chaos in the centre how much more is there on
the streets.

But nothing can happen to us there in vajra armour or the Jina's
cage.

Hi Joanna,

You know, the cultural imaginary is varied and proliferous here
as well. I am trying to give a helping hand at the local Buddhist
center.
They try their best to offer fundamental practice and studies,
but their is a strong pressure for more prapancal material. An
initiation will always beat a more fundamental programme and
therefore bring in more money. Same goes for teachings, the
infernal couple karma and reincarnation plus Bardo teachings will
always draw more people. They always are eager to hear more about
it. Or actually they want to hear the same drab repeated over and
over again. Since one never can beat people's fantasies and
imagination about karma and reincarnation, no matter the amount
of information about background, context and precisions, I would
suggest to throw them out of Buddhism all together. They do more
harm than good, except to some authors and conferenciers who make
a living out of them. Limit karma to pratitya-samutpada. That's
more than enough. There seems to be an indestructible link
between money and prapanca and prapanca and money.

Hi Bankei,

I personally think it has always been like this. "Pure" Buddhism
is a prapanca too :-). There is a French saying that goes
"Chasser le naturel, il reviendra au galop" Ou "chasser le par la
porte, il rentera par la fenêtre".
I see Tantra very much as playing the same role that science
plays now. When religion and science weren't separated, science
was simply more magical, but having the same sort of
consideration and respect as we feel for science nowadays. I see
the flirting between Buddhism and Science (ken Wilbur and his
electronically assisted samadhi, Mathieu Ricard helping to
establish the brain wave frequency of happiness etc.
and the next step trying to reproduce them with technology) as
something similar than the flirting between Buddhism and Tantra
in the past.

Joy

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