A Buddhist monk examines how Westerners filtered their encounter with the various Buddhisms through their un examined Romantic Idealism.
Buddhist Romanticism -Thanassaro Bhikku.
Buddhist Romanticism
Western Romanticism puts the emphasis on the individual, and individual fulfullment through self expression
Bhikku, confines this examination to the Western encounter with the Buddhisms.
Corboy suggests pondering the implications of applying the Western Romantic approach to seeking authenticity and self fulfillment from native american sources. Sources which are boundaried, and these boundaries violated by self fulfillment seekers who believe sincerity gives them a free pass.
What if a person mistakes warm fuzzy feelings for 'sincerity' and 'good intentions.?
What if the original custodians had and have a world view somewhat different, perhaps very different from that of western self fulfillment?
Some things may not be transferable across cultures.
And.. err...the seeker/global nomad culture, a culture possibly rooted in Western
European Romanticism, may be less innovative than its denizens believe it to be.
Let us examine a few points. Here are some hunches. Let us examine them.
Western Romanticism does not stabilize traditional societies, nor does it change those societies in slow and manageable ways.
Western Romanticism has destabilized traditional societies and, combined with capitalism, has done so rapidly. The most recent spin off from Western Romanticism was the hippie popularization of psychedelics.
Invasions by drug seeking hippies and money hungry opportunists has disrupted the cultures which had custody of ayahuasca, peyote etc.
Without the technology which created accessible forms of air travel to distant places, fewer hippies and psychedelicists would have reached Asia and North Africa.
And because of affordable automobiles and gasoline, this technology enabled large number of experience hungry seekers to reach territories in North and South America and invade the homelands of those who had custody of healing plants.
Western Romanticism was a big impetus to the revolutions - America, France, Haiti, the Central American countries.
Revolutions disrupt the traditional societies. When romanticism combines with capitalism, traditional art, cultural patterns are ruined by creating tourist industries, whether large scale (cruise ships that contaminate the ocean)
and tourist invasions of people's home lives in the quest for authenticity.
What if the lived experience of the original custodians and users of ayahausca had and have a world view and self/other view that differs from that of the seeker who is Western Romantic
Corboy suggests that a danger in the Western Romantic notion of self development self fulfillment is that on our way to overcome isolation and estrangement,
we might, to get special experiences, regard massage methods, dance methods, chant methods and psychedelic plants on an instrumental basis -- regard and use them as tools--that Plant X is here for my benefit.
And that a Western Romantic might continue to see ayahuasca as existing for his or her fulfillment,of the original custodians, despite all the exalted chatter about 'spirits".
If you actually believe in spirits, has it occurred to you that such spirits might not exist for your benefit?
Perhaps, just perhaps the original custodians of ayahuasca have a world view quite different from Western Romanticism? What if a member of ayahuasca's custodial peoples has a different experience of self and other -- one that might not even be self and other?
Buddhist Romanticism -Thanassaro Bhikku.
Buddhist Romanticism
Western Romanticism puts the emphasis on the individual, and individual fulfullment through self expression
Bhikku, confines this examination to the Western encounter with the Buddhisms.
Corboy suggests pondering the implications of applying the Western Romantic approach to seeking authenticity and self fulfillment from native american sources. Sources which are boundaried, and these boundaries violated by self fulfillment seekers who believe sincerity gives them a free pass.
What if a person mistakes warm fuzzy feelings for 'sincerity' and 'good intentions.?
What if the original custodians had and have a world view somewhat different, perhaps very different from that of western self fulfillment?
Some things may not be transferable across cultures.
And.. err...the seeker/global nomad culture, a culture possibly rooted in Western
European Romanticism, may be less innovative than its denizens believe it to be.
Let us examine a few points. Here are some hunches. Let us examine them.
Western Romanticism does not stabilize traditional societies, nor does it change those societies in slow and manageable ways.
Western Romanticism has destabilized traditional societies and, combined with capitalism, has done so rapidly. The most recent spin off from Western Romanticism was the hippie popularization of psychedelics.
Invasions by drug seeking hippies and money hungry opportunists has disrupted the cultures which had custody of ayahuasca, peyote etc.
Without the technology which created accessible forms of air travel to distant places, fewer hippies and psychedelicists would have reached Asia and North Africa.
And because of affordable automobiles and gasoline, this technology enabled large number of experience hungry seekers to reach territories in North and South America and invade the homelands of those who had custody of healing plants.
Western Romanticism was a big impetus to the revolutions - America, France, Haiti, the Central American countries.
Revolutions disrupt the traditional societies. When romanticism combines with capitalism, traditional art, cultural patterns are ruined by creating tourist industries, whether large scale (cruise ships that contaminate the ocean)
and tourist invasions of people's home lives in the quest for authenticity.
What if the lived experience of the original custodians and users of ayahausca had and have a world view and self/other view that differs from that of the seeker who is Western Romantic
Corboy suggests that a danger in the Western Romantic notion of self development self fulfillment is that on our way to overcome isolation and estrangement,
we might, to get special experiences, regard massage methods, dance methods, chant methods and psychedelic plants on an instrumental basis -- regard and use them as tools--that Plant X is here for my benefit.
And that a Western Romantic might continue to see ayahuasca as existing for his or her fulfillment,of the original custodians, despite all the exalted chatter about 'spirits".
If you actually believe in spirits, has it occurred to you that such spirits might not exist for your benefit?
Perhaps, just perhaps the original custodians of ayahuasca have a world view quite different from Western Romanticism? What if a member of ayahuasca's custodial peoples has a different experience of self and other -- one that might not even be self and other?