[Buddha-l] A friendly Quaker-Buddhist debate

[S.A. Feite]

On Jun 10, 2011, at 4:34 PM, Richard Hayes wrote:

> Jesus Bodhisattva! I write a blog post suggesting that Buddhism would be great if only the community were organized along Quaker lines, and the only person who responds is a Quaker, who tells me Quakerism would be great if only there were something more like Zen masters to be found in the midst of Friends. There's no point arguing with someone who thinks like that. Still, I never could resist a friendly disagreement. So I responded at http://bit.ly/ju0r5S

More and more Buddhists are identifying with Quaker meetings as a way to find like-minded individuals in their communities. It's a natural match. As a descendant of Swiss Mennonites, it's not always easy to integrate the past with the present, unless you really like buttons, buggies, horses and dressing in black. But at least we're not being tortured, imprisoned or sent to the Venetian galleys (or the modern equivalent) as my ancestors were. Sure, we live in a country Addicted to War (http://www.addictedtowar.com/), but at least I'm not forced to participate along with the right wing adherents of the Religion of Blood and Flesh - whose symbol is a man being tortured to death.

Steve

Tabloids, bellowing raw delight
Hail the return of the Teutonic Knights
Inbred for purity 
and spoiling for a fight,

Another little puppet of the New Right

See-through dollars and mystery plays
Varied detritus of Aquarian Age
Shutters on storefronts 
and shutters in the mind -

We kill ourselves to keep ourselves safe from crime:
That's the gospel of bondage...

We're so afraid of disorder 
we make it into a god
We can only placate with state security laws
Whose church consists of secret courts 
and wiretaps and shocks
Whose priests hold smoking guns, 
and whose sign is the double cross
But God must be on the side of the side that's right
And not the right that justifies itself in terms of might -
Least of all a bunch of neo-nazis running hooded through the night
Which may be why He's so consipicuously out of sight
Of the gospel of bondage...

You read the Bible in your special ways
You're fond of quoting certain things it says -
Mouth full of righteousness 
and wrath from above...

But when do we hear about forgiveness and love?

Sometimes you can hear the Spirit 
whispering to you,
But if God stays silent, 
what else can you do
Except listen to the silence? 
if you ever did you'd surely see
That God won't be reduced 
to an ideology 
Such as the gospel of bondage... 

Gospel Of Bondage --
22 February 1987. Toronto, Canada.
Bruce Cockburn