[Buddha-l] Social codes [was: Gandharan Buddhist Art at NY Asia Society]

[Federico Andino]

> My concern about the future of Buddhism in the West is that it has been regarded much too positively by the general public, thus setting the Buddha on a pedestal >so high that the eventual fall will dash him to pieces. One of my duties as an academic is to inoculate naive enthusiasts of the Buddha-dharma against the disease >of fulsomeness.

Ah, truer words were never spoken (or written). Where I teach
(Universidad del Salvador, in Buenos Aires) whenever we review one of
the more polemical writings (say, the sDom-gsum of Sakya Pandita)
students are quite taken aback. Why is he so mean to Vajravarahi, they
always ask? I´m afraid that they conflate the idea of the Pandita with
the idea of a Christian Saint, so they leave no place for people like
Ra Lotsawa.

F.