Letters to the Editor
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Re: The Real Test
Although I can understand what mr Vardaman writes about the article, his realisation about Buddhism is plain wrong.
Kamikaze and 'Zen-Fascism' did not originate in Buddhism.
Shintoism was used as the catalyst for the nationalistic war agenda in Japan, at that time. All the Buddhist schools were forced to accept the Shinto talisman, to help support the [spiritual] war effort. Unfortunately, nearly all of them complied.
While this has certainly tainted Buddhism in Japan, if you wish to be accurate, please realise the Shinto origin. The sad fact is that most of the Japanese Buddhists were not able to stand up for peace when needed, out of fear for proscecution.
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To the Editor
Oddly enough in the letters to the editor forum, as a subscriber I'd actually like to address the editor(s) at Salon:
What is this piece doing here? Although it's in the book section, it's not a book review, yet it's not journalism, either. It's a hodgepodge of error, innuendo, name calling, logical fallacy, and uninformed opinion. Sure, it mentions Iyer's book a few times, but only as a launchpad for the author's superficial spew. What possessed you to publish this?
The issues confronting the Tibetan people are deadly serious. Didn't you notice? Yet the first feature article Salon puts up after two weeks of violence is this? This story deserve serious attention from someone who is up to the task, knows what they are talking about, or has the ability to interview those who do. Why is Salon wasting its time and our money with this kind of sophomoric drivel? You should be ashamed.
Please give us something better. Soon.
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It is remarkable...
...that people who profess to know how to save us from people who would harm us are just like the people who would harm us. In other words, they're telling us to beware of people like themselves.
How much better would we be without that?
It IS a matter of how we look at the concept of enemy and friend. It is not, as this penny-ante writer says, horse shit.
Certainly we've tried it the "normal" way - assuming every other is enemy. Maybe we can try something else for once. Nah. That'd be too hard.
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I don't see this as the middle way.
I have always had difficulty understanding why the Dalai Lama's approach is considered "the middle way." He's a monk that is taking on the work of the world (politics). To me, that means the middle way calls for a meshing of the two.
But his approach seems to stubbornly cling to ideological absolutes in the face of what is before him. Better to engage, that would be more of a "middle way" to me.
I think there is a way to engage without a large amount of animosity. And, indeed, if there ISN'T a way to do that, then what's the point of being a Buddhist householder? Then the only way to be Buddhist is to be a monk.
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nno, he's not a god
But this sounds amazing. I can't wait to read it and haven't read anything by Pico Tyer in ages. I wonder about his interpretation, though....interesting,
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give me hot or give me cold, but the middle way is lukewarm.
The man is not a god, not a buddha and not enlightened. He is an icon and a stereotype and he knows it is BS but he is surrounded by lovers of BS.
Too bad his country, culture and people got sold out, but unfortunate choice of friends and associations sometimes cost dearly.
Forgiving, appeasing, accepting and kowtowing to bullies and psychopaths is never effective in doing anything but ensuring greater evil for longer periods of time. The man is no leader and has no interest in being a leader so naturally morons bestow upon him the leadership mystique because they need a guru to show them the way.
The best thing about being a holy man is not having to work. China should give him a management position, a car and a title and thus remove any cred that he has. They are not that smart because evil people are generally real stupid. Just like the people who run this country. compared to followers, these morons are geniuses.
Who really cares about the Tibetans anyway? No one who shops at Wal Mart. More importantly, since China has lent us so much money, how long before they are calling the shots here just like in Tibet?
How do we treat protestors who opposed the WTO, NAFTA, and giving our jobs and industries to other countries? We can see that it is a problem when the Chinese do it, but we cannot see it as a problem when we do it.
The two biggest bullies in the world would serve the world well by taking each other out.
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So then why is it
Everyone else gets to have a radically liberally blessed War of Liberation? I really can't think of any violent secessionist movement that hasn't been blessed by the very same people who are preaching blissful subjugation here.
I really need to understand the criteria you apply - East Timor, Chechnya, Kurds, Palestinians, Sri Lankans, Kosovars, FARC, to say nothing of the Indonesian, Burmese, Kashmiri, Pushtun, Georgian, Azerbijani or Nigerian separatist revolutions all get a rousing chorus, a slough of websites, and angry blogging black t-shirted rebels. So you tell me - why is it Tibetans shouldn't rise up? Because they're Buddhist? Sri Lanka has a Buddhist ARMY. Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians are Buddhist.
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@Tonnerre di Brest!
Actually Tonnerre di Brest!, no.
The spelling was very deliberate. It was proposed by a historical linguist about 6-10 years ago, based on the translation of the word. He argued that the original meaning, "One who Listens to sounds", was spelled this way, it became corrupted in copying. The new spelling, which you gave, translates to "One who looks down from above". His original argument includes the fact that it is translated as the former into most languages to which Buddhism spread -- for instance, in Chinese it is Guan shi yin: "One who listens to the sounds of the world".
As often happens with historical linguists, archaeological finds eventually proved him to be correct. So it is more correctly Avalokitaśvara, not Avalokiteśvara, although the modern spelling is as you say.