Real Life with Ryuei

I'm in a Pissy Mood Today

I'm also feeling like I have been using "maturity" as a cop-out for not being myself and for not writing more like Brad Warner who writes in a more down-to-earth, straight talkin, in your face manner that I used to write in but have foregone for a more detached, thoughtful, and considerate style more in keeping with making friends and keeping them approach to life. And also because I wanted to try out the Buddha's teachings on right speech and also the guidance in chapter 14 of the Lotus Sutra on "peaceful practices" to see if refraining from bad causes and making good causes (vis-a-vis speech and writing) really would pan out. And in fact, I have found it to be very sound advice and more conducive to mental health, sanity, and good relationships (at least good healthy relationships with good healthy people).

But as I said, I do get into pissy moods. Though generally I like to think well of people and bring out the best in myself, others, and general situations - I am still no Bill Anker. I would, in all seriousness for a moment, consider Bill my mentor insofar as demonstrating an honest willingness and ability to try to put into practice bringing out the best in people and situations wherever, whenever, and with whomever that is possible. But for my part - I do get peevish at times.

So - five minutes ago I was going to blast a bunch of people and groups by name. But now that I've gone ahead and invoked right speech, chapter 14, and Bill Anker, and I've considered how I think some of Brad Warner's rhetoric is amusing but still not very helpful or in keeping with authentic Buddha Dharma (though in other respects I think he does have genuine insight and expresses it very well for my generation - or at least those of us who were punks) I have decided to not point fingers but to just say a few words about the pet peeves currently on my mind. (Oh, chapter 14 does counsel against naming people for fault or for blame - and I've already violated that by praising Bill Anker and blaming Brad Warner - my bad).

Anyway my pet peeves for the day (or this moment anyway):

Nichiren Buddhists who take a polemical stance to triumphantly declare some reductionist and antinomian take on Buddha Dharma. This is just the rationalization for amorality, anti-social behavior, and a refusal to recognize that there are stages of emotional, social, cognitive, moral and spiritual maturity that can be facilitated or hindered.

Nichiren Buddhists who act like they are living in the 13th century and take on fundamentalist and literal ideas that are not only intolerant but totally out of touch with the reality of this 21st century scientific cosmopolitan world. This is just quixotism at best and psychosis at worst.

Nichiren Buddhists who decalre that their sect is the only true teaching or that their leader is the only true enlightened teacher and so on. This is just egoism, both personal and corporate. It is a cultish aberration and not authentic Buddha Dharma and has done much to turn people away from more genuine and healthy forms of Nichiren Buddhism - either because they briefly encountered such cults and judged all of Nichiren Buddhism by that, or because they actually joined such a group or even more than one and were burned enough and/or so many times they have decided that Nichiren Buddhism is a grotesque sham or even that Buddhism itself is.

People who have had no real experience or training with any genuine Buddhist tradition or teachers except perhaps some time spent in one of the aformentioned cults or reductionist or amoral psuedo-Sanghas but who then decide that they are proficient and knowledgeable enough in the Dharma to start their own tradition - filling in the gaps of their knowledge and experience with elements from other traditions or psuedo-traditions or even their own untried (at least beyond their own limited personal experience) innovations.

Self-satisfied scholars who write things about Nichiren Buddhism but who don't bother doing anything more than a superficial investigation of it - sometimes only going by cult publications. These scholars do things like state that Nichiren was a nationalist or that Nichiren Buddhism is inherently nationalistic, or that Nichiren Buddhism is simply a type of Pure Land Buddhism, or that it is solely aimed at material gain. These same scholars then bend over backwards to present Zen, Tibetan, and even Pure Land Buddhism in the most favorable light possible and even back it up with extensive research and interviews with their adherents and credentialed teachers. (I am not pointing fingers here at any particular individual - and I know of one writer who has at least made the effort to contact me and ask me about some things they have written - but over the years I have seen numerous survey books on Buddhism with egregiously mistaken ideas about the Nichiren Buddhist tradition - mistakes easily corrected by simply contacting a legitimate Nichiren Buddhist minister or even Dr. Stone at Princeton).

Oh - and presidential candicates who accuse other candidates of not understanding the middle-class, when the accusing candidate cannot himself recall how many houses he (or at least his wife) owns.

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei

Posted by Ryuei at August 27, 2008 01:20 PM