[Buddha-l] Bourgeois Buddhism

[Kobutsu Malone]

I will try again to post on this topic. First, I think I should state  
that I am an American Rinzai priest.  I neither consider myself a  
scholar, nor a practitioner, or a theologian, or debater… or anything  
else for that matter!

The way I perceive things, if someone says, “I’m a Buddhist”  
great!  Wonderful… that’s very nice.  I don’t subscribe to the  
“belief” mechanism so I don’t need to believe their statement.   
It may or may not be true… and that’s OK, either way.

As for my reference to “Buddhadharma,” I intended to point to the  
Buddha’s teaching that all beings are primarily awake! (Buddhas)  
irrespective of what they call themselves or what they do not call  
themselves.

I perceive that we often become overly entangled in verbal thought  
forms that cascade into each other in an apparently endless fashion.   
The practice of zazen gives us respite from the indulgence in  
attachment to these verbal thought cascades and presents us with an  
experience that enables us to enter into the space between the verbal  
thought forms as they arise and subside… in time, with practice, this  
space becomes wider and more expansive and we are able to function  
comfortably in that spacious environment free from the need to  
constantly define reality in intellectual terms.

I’ve found this approach very useful in my prison work, in that an  
organic kind of empathetic attitude coming from that spacious place  
tends to somehow be sensed by others as non-threatening.


Kobutsu



Ven. Kobutsu Malone
古佛新道和尚

The Engaged Zen Foundation
Post Office Box 213
Sedgwick, ME 04676  USA

(207) 359-2555

http://www.engaged-zen.org/Kobio.html