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Originally Posted by Glice
I think the thing with 'adopting' 'Eastern' spirituality is that it's difficult to be 'orthodox' in it. I often have this conversation with people who identify with Buddhism. They rarely have any idea of what sort of Buddhism they're interested in and have minimal understanding of the potential brutality of it - you all know the Zazen practice of twatting people over the head as they meditate, I'm sure.
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haaa haaa haaa haaaa. it's true!
the whacks (on the back, not the head) are actually meant to relieve you of pain while they also cause it. as it happens, when you sit a long-ass time trying to keep your spine straight your muscles begin to cramp up and spasm. usually the thing (i forget what's called, i hate that they keep japanese names for a stick, but what can you do) is requested rather than given, at least in the school i know a bit about. i know this girl who was denied it because she was "asking too much" for it, ha ha ha. i've never gotten actually too hardcore with this practice as i mistrust *any* kind of organized *anything*, so i haven't been to the place in a while, but the pain in your ass and legs and everywhere can get pretty horrid without any overhead twatting. flies crawl on your face and you aren't supposed to move. fuck!
also, there's 2 main kinds of zen: soto is the gentle one, was made for peasants, rinzai is the s/m one, it was designed for the samurai class, the stoic bastards.
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Originally Posted by Glice
I don't think being an inauthentic 'Eastern' practioner is really a problem; the problem comes when you realise that 'Eastern spirituality' produces and maintains some very strict dogmas.
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also, "eastern spirituality" as such doesn't exist-- there more theoretical disputes in hinduism and buddhism than there ever were in the christian middle ages. it's fucking mind-boggling. sect upon sect upon sect.
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Originally Posted by Glice
I mention the Pali canon being hideously expansive earlier because the idea of dominion over the writing of a culture is often impossible, or at least exceptionally difficult. To the protestant, there's a book that you could read in a week with minimum difficulty. People can say what they want about whatever they want, 'religiously', but I think it can definitely do a disservice to a religion to render it as some exoticised mourning for lost Christianity.
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right, but i don't think even the thais themselves read the whole beast-- there might be a few monks that devote their lives to that but i seriously doubt the general populace is acquainted with more than a fraction. so, say, a western scholar can have greater knowledge of the pali canon than a thai monk. it's how the religion influences the social fabric that westerners have harder access to-- you can read all the confucius you want, but until you live in china and get how confucianism is embedded in all manner of social forms, you won't really "get" it.
still, not all buddhisms are heavily scriptural or too focused on texts themselves (e.g. zen, or nichiren buddhism, to cite a couple of examples).
however, if you wanna look at ancient texts you can always approach the thing one sutra at a time. there are, of course, hierarchies within the thing, there's your essential texts and there's commentaries and there's commentaries on the commentaries, etc. i've never read shit of it though.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Glice
People can say what they want about whatever they want, 'religiously', but I think it can definitely do a disservice to a religion to render it as some exoticised mourning for lost Christianity.
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sorry, i didn't get your meaning here. who does this?