Question & Answer #3
In which I answer, or try to answer, all questions but one. Including the topics of false saints, support of traditional Theravada in the west, spirit possession, nationalism, meditation, ordination, faith, Burma, Indonesia, monastic etiquette, food, psychedelic drugs, Bodhidharma, Zen, good translations, Julius Evola, and enlightened animals.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/xtgFlxDPkP6j/
https://www.bitchute.com/video/xtgFlxDPkP6j/
Thank you, Ven! I had no idea my username was a colour, it was just randomly generated by Subscribe Star. Turns out there’s meaning to the madness. As for the Traditionalist school, it is a school of thought that was started by Rene Guenon, also know as “perennial philosophy”, but in a much more specific way than Aldous Huxley’s use of the term. The school generally posits that all authentic traditions spring from the same source and that the spiritual condition of the world is one of devolution over time, as measured in terms of cosmic cycles like the yugas. Evola considered himself to be part of the school, although “orthodox” members, such as Guenon himself, disagreed with Evola on some issues. Anyway the Traditionalist idea is quite complex, and I think Guenon’s explanation of it, especially as it relates to the modern world, is best encapsulated in his book The Reign of Quantity and The Sign of the Times. I suppose the most prominent living member of the school today is Syed Hossein Nasr, an Iranian Sufi scholar-practitioner, who studied under Guenon’s disciple Frithjof Schuon.
I did read that book by Guenon, and wrote a critique of it on my old blog years ago, the first part of which is here: https://thebahiyablog.blogspot.com/2014/10/qual...
Ah apologies, I had no idea you'd read it. Will read your critique soon.
Thanks for the Q&A videos. They are great. Could you speak a bit about how the Burmese (and other Buddhists in Asia) view Westerners (non-Asians, particularly European descent) who practice Buddhism? When I was in India I encountered a group of Burmese pilgrims who were interested, bemused that Western people practiced Buddhism. I've heard from some that most Asian Buddhists view us with a great amount of skepticism. If so, how could we work to make better relationships across these barriers to help strengthen the Dhamma? That feeling of distrust makes sense given how much non-sense is in Western Buddhists groups. It seems that conservative/trad Buddhists should realign along these lines- I have more in common with Asian trad Buddhist than Neo-Marxist convert "Buddhist".
If you don't mind I'll answer your questions in Q&A #4, which will be coming out next week methinks. Feel free to ask more, too.