Monday, November 14, 2011

I've not gone anywhere...

There's been a few blog posts on the 'sphere I could have commented on, though some of them seem quite irrelevant to me, more or less.  Mostly, it's because I've been busy on other things that I haven't offered a lengthy exegesis on why sitting in a chair can be zazen,  or why the "modernizer versus orientalist" argument ignores the fact that these categories have already started dissolving.

I even haven't commented on the latest outrage from our second most famous hit generator, Genpo Merzel. (The greatest hit generator for this site, alas, remains a post I did some time ago speculating on why there wasn't a Cher Bono wildlife refuge.)  To wit about that last item: I may be a lousy student of Zen and kung fu, but I'm infinitely grateful to have met teachers who were light years beyond Mr. Merzel, for whom the collection of money or the marks of status and privilege weren't  high priorities.

Mostly, I've been busy with the ups and downs of life; a few more downs than ups than I'd prefer, but nothing terribly serious.  Practicing, or at least trying to, in the day-to-day thick of things.

2 comments:

J said...
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J said...

Western scholars persisted in painting "original" Buddhism as a pure, naturalist philosophy that got buried under centuries of Asian superstition and spiritism

The Bachelor or Sammy Harris modernist, "naturalist" approach is a fairly recent development--post-Freudian, "new-age-ish", Darwinian, etc. The earlier european scholars--say, Max Mueller--or Schopenhauer--did perceive the spiritual element in bdh.and hinduism (Schop. actually believed in reincarnation of a type)--and they read the original sanskrit and pali texts.

In that regard I agree with Babs, assuming she objects to Bachelor's reductionist readings--the suburban, feel-good zen --e.g., Guru Jobs--or "tantra" is a misreading. Even Deeprok gets that--bdh.is a religion--not merely naturalist psychology. There are rules, and precepts (the 8fold path itself) as with say...catholicism--and sacrifices may be involved (ie, giving up partying) . It's not about getting high via navel gazing or better orgasms, or even kicking booty with Bruce Lee, grasshoppah