He seems to have the background, mannerisms and grammatical styles of a management consultant, and his topic at said conference is "Why Buddhism Needs To Innovate Now."
I could write a whole series blog posts about the myriad issues associated with this, but to be concise I would hardly say that I would expect this young man to be a "leading" teacher and/or thinker, since I have not heard or seen or read any "leading" thoughts or teachings.
But my real point in mentioning Mr. Gunatillake is just to point out - even in the UK - how ridiculous it is to split the world into these Eastern or Western or ethnically based categories.
Oddly enough they rejected my offer to speak about farting and Buddhism. LOL Meh, until I saw your post, I forgot I still had that banner on my page. Not anymore. :-)
ReplyDeleteKyle-
ReplyDeleteI mean nothing at all against the guy personally; its just that I'm not sure there's really too much in the saving all beings department in a lecture about what "Buddhism" "needs" to "do."