Wlasnie czytam The Making of Buddhist Modernism autorstwa Davida. L. Mc Mahana
zob. http://www.amazon.com/Making-Buddhist-M ... 0195183274
Natrafilem podczas lektury na dwie ciekawe historyjki.
Najpierw mamy Amerykanke, ktora, jak nietrudno sie domyslec, praktykuje buddyzm "po amerykansku" (s.28 - 30):
A nastepnie mamy Tajke, ktora praktykuje, jak rowniez nietrudno sie domyslec, buddyzm "po tajsku" (s.30-31):Western Buddhist Sympathizer
We begin with the type of Buddhist the American and European readers of this book are perhaps most likely to encounter: those who may or may not identify themselves as Buddhists per se but could be called “Buddhist sympathizers.” Sara, a middle-aged British woman, is a middle-class, educated professional with a family. She was raised in the Church of England and still attends occasionally, seeing little confl ict between membership in the church and Buddhist practice. She began exploring Buddhism by reading a book by a popular American Buddhist author, and most of her contact with the tradition is still through
books, mostly popular works by American or British teachers and a few prominent Asian ones. She has read a little of the Buddhist canon of scripture—only
short selections. She knows no monastics, and while she has attended a few weekend retreats at a meditation center run by other Brits, she has never been to a traditional Buddhist temple and has no institutional affi liation. She considers meditation to be the essence of Buddhism and tries to meditate for about twenty minutes every day. She is part of an informal, “nondenominational”
Buddhist meditation group that meets weekly in a rented hall. The group was started by another Brit who has had extensive experience with meditation but no formal ties to any Buddhist organization. The weekly meditation sessions contain little ritual—some bowing and a few verses chanted in English and borrowed from the more extensive liturgy the founder of the group encountered
on retreat at a monastery. As a part of the brief liturgy, Sara bows in the direction of a small statue of the Buddha, an act she sees as a perfunctory gesture of respect, an expression of her assent to the basic principles taught by the Buddha, and as acknowledging her Buddha-nature—the spark of awakening within each being. She in no way sees herself as “worshiping” the Buddha, much less his sculpted form. Sara sees meditation as a technique for achieving personal peace and psychological
health and for appreciating and enhancing the richness of her everyday life. Her association with Buddhism, however, is not only limited to her
personal meditation; it also affects her ethical choices and her relationships with others. She understands her practice to be conducive to moral behavior and to the cultivation of good relationships with others, as well as clear thinking and creativity. The teaching of compassion for all sentient beings has led her to eat less meat, and she has come to support certain environmental and social justice causes through reading about engaged Buddhism, a recent global movement
that takes an active role in promoting peace, justice, human rights, and environmental care. She tries to maintain a practice of mindfulness periodically throughout the day and regularly reminds herself of the brahmaviha¯ras—
loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. This helps her manage her relationships with coworkers, friends, and family with a more
calm and compassionate attitude. Her practice, therefore, impacts her ethical and social life but not in terms of particular actions that she considers permitted or forbidden. The Buddhist precept against taking intoxicants, for example, does not prevent her from having a glass of wine with dinner. Mistrustful of institutionalized “rules,” she is guided by general ideals of compassion and nonviolence and by the notion that a calm, mindful state will naturally lead to ethical behavior. She believes that performing ethically positive or negative actions
is likely to bring about similar consequences in her life, but she does not believe her practice will bring her good fortune or prosperity. Her worldview is an amalgam of popularized Buddhist and Hindu teachings and generally accepted scientifi c ideas. The supernatural does not play a big part in her life but remains a tantalizing possibility for her. She believes in the possibility of supernormal events like telepathy but assumes that these could in
principle be explained scientifi cally. She believes in what she would describe as something “greater” than herself: a higher power, energy, or all-encompassing consciousness within all beings and permeating the world. The ideas of God,
Brahman, and buddha-nature all point to this one ultimate reality. Although she prefers Buddhist teachings, she reads popular books and attends occasional talks by Hindu and neo-pagan teachers. She has no allegiance to any particular Buddhist tradition, for the books she reads by popular Zen, Theravada, and Tibetan authors are all quite similar. She feels free to adopt, adapt, alter, or
reject elements of Buddhism that she sees as products of Asian cultures rather than of a more universal “spiritual” truth beyond the trappings of culture. She is encouraged in this freedom of choice by Buddhist teachings emphasized in popular literature: the idea that the dharma is merely a raft useful for crossing a river but of no further use once it is crossed; that all truths are relative except
the one universal Truth beyond all language and concepts; that Buddhism does not accept assertions that are contradicted by science; that all teachings, even Buddhist ones, must be verifi ed by personal experience; that all doctrines are merely skilful means (upa¯ya) adopted to each individual—fi ngers pointing to the moon that become redundant once the moon is seen. Thus her explicit beliefs about matters metaphysical are vague and shifting. She believes, for instance, that she will continue in some sense to live beyond physical death, but
vacillates on the idea of reincarnation. She has read an account of the Buddhist wheel of rebirth in which beings are reborn as humans, animals, gods, jealous
gods, hungry ghosts, or hell beings but doubts their literal existence, seeing them as symbolic. Nor does she fi nd the idea of escaping earthly life appealing;
rather, she seeks to live it more deeply, richly, and compassionately.
Gdy to przeczytalem, jakos wesolo mi sie zrobiloA Thai Laywoman
Yanisa lives in a small city in northern Thailand. She was born into a poor family and married a shop owner of slightly higher socioeconomic status. Her
main religious activities consist of following ethical rules laid down by the sangha and performing rituals to produce karmic merit and control unseen
beings. She believes that such meritorious actions will not only benefit her and her family in this lifetime but also increase their chances of being reborn in the higher heavenly realms rather than the realm of animals, the realm of hungry ghosts, or hells. She also considers ritual and ethical acts to be conducive to prosperity and good fortune. One of the key meritorious actions she performs is dana, regularly giving money and gifts to support the local monastery. Once a week, she goes to the monastery and listens to the monks chant scriptures
in Pali, a language she does not understand, hears a sermon by a monk, and receives again the fi ve precepts, renewing her commitment not to kill, lie, steal, have prohibited sex, or take intoxicants. She walks piously around the stupas—monuments containing relics of deceased monks—and makes offerings of incense, flowers, and candles at the altar before the large Buddha statue, praying
for her own and her family’s well-being. At home, she makes similar offerings daily at the household altar as well as at the spirit house, just outside the home, for the household and yard spirits who protect the family residence. At every major event in life—marriage, childbirth, death, the building of a house, the plowing of a new fi eld—she and her family perform carefully prescribed rituals
to honor helpful spirits, protect them from malicious ones, and draw on the power of the Buddha, dharma, and sangha. She has never meditated and would consider it presumptuous to do so. She believes implicitly that a sacred power imbues certain objects: consecrated Buddha statues, stupas containing relics of the Buddha or Buddhist
saints, and the palm-leaf manuscripts of Buddhist scriptures. The copper amulet with an impression of a famous Buddhist saint worn around her neck not
only reminds her of her moral obligations, it protects her from misfortune and confers prosperity. She is aware that some in her community, including some prominent Buddhist monks, look askance at spirit reverence, discourage the use of amulets, and approve offerings to the Buddha only as a token of respect, remembrance, and gratitude, but she considers this attitude an interesting anomaly. Most people she knows take the existence of spirits as a given, and she not only has seen the results of honoring and propitiating them but also has heard tales of tragedy befalling those who dare ignore them. She believes that certain powerful monks can foretell the future and perform miraculous
healings through their ability to enter into advanced states of concentration (jhanas). She has no doubt that she will be reborn in the future and that her actions now will affect the conditions of her future lives, as well as the remainder of her present life.
Another source of merit Yanisa and her husband received recently was their teenage son’s ordination as a monk. Although he will not remain a monk
throughout his entire life, his ordination brought him and his parents merit, as well as social prestige. Through ordination he will receive an education they otherwise could not afford, and after his schooling he will likely disrobe and fi nd a secular job. Her son’s ordination brought a deep sense of pride since, among other more practical motivations, his ordination was an act of gratitude toward his parents, especially his mother, for bringing him into the world and tending to him throughout his childhood. Ordination is not an option
for her, since there is no authorized order of fully ordained nuns in her country. Although Yanisa is literate, she reads very little about Buddhism. An occasional pamphlet works its way into her household, and she read comic-book tales of the Buddha’s life and previous lives to her son when he was young. She would be unable to articulate any complex Buddhist doctrines but knows the formative stories of the tradition—especially the legend of the Buddha and the tales of his former lives—through her family, her modest schooling, and her immersion in a Buddhist culture.
Jest jest jeszcze historia o 2 mnichach i jednej damie, ale to juz za duzo jak na jeden post
myslę ze morał z nich może być taki, że warto kultywować prastare zwyczaje / tradycje, takie jakie wylewanie kropli alkoholu na podloge, stawianie wiechy (czy jak to tam sie nazywa) na belce nowo budowanego domu itp. i nie odcinanie się od tradycji nazwijmy to ludowej własnego kręgu kulturowego, na rzecz wiedzy książkowej i, że tak powiem, wysokich praktyk jakiejś religii. tym bardziej szkoda, że w Polsce wiele ludowych wierzen zostalo zmieszanych z chrzescijanstwem i czasem trudno je pozbawic otoczki tej wiary, no ale dla chcącego ... 
Był taki fajny cytat na temat pragnienia i ust pełnych wody... Dobrze komentował tą sprawę.
To z jednej strony, a z drugiej, to nie sądzę by to, co miałbym w tej kwestii do powiedzenia mogło się Tobie przydać - z natury jestem samotnikiem /co ma tu znaczenie/, szmat przestrzeni na ścieżce, potrafię coś bez problemu ''odciąć'' /zostawić nie wlokąc trupa tego/ itd... raczej inne realia życiowe niż Twe /tak sądzę/. Nie zrozum mnie źle proszę, nie stawiam tu siebie w pozycji ''starego praktykującego'', tylko np jestem już wręcz ''chory'' na dłuższe odosobnienie.
