just how much Buddhism can one man take??

I'm getting flak from all angles now! Check out Zen Unbound's recent comment to this post over at Andi's blog.

This is excellent, because I'm learning a lot from these exchanges, but it's also disturbing to see so many Western Buddhists (primarily male) who come out rhetorically swinging-- perhaps more a function of aggressive maleness than of being Western, though I'm more inclined to suspect the latter: the whole dualistic, "it isn't X; it's Y!" mentality we so cherish in the West.*

I hadn't cross-posted my recent entries about "Buddhism-as-religion" and the question about whether the Buddha was in fact a Hindu practitioner, but since Andi's blog seems to be a favorite haunt among Buddhists, I'll cross-post there to see what other comments (and slings and arrows) I garner.

A caution, though, to the commenters over at Andi's place: keep the tone civil. You've been great so far, but threads have a tendency to degenerate into ego-fests, which is especially ironic-- though not surprising-- on a religion blog. I'm merely guest-posting at Andi's blog while she's away, and as a cyber-custodian I don't want to leave a mess for her when she returns from retreat. While I have no control over posts and comments written by Andi or other guest posters, I have no qualms about deleting my own posts (and, thereby, the accompanying comments threads) if people start to play rough. Buddhist practice adheres to the so-called "three karmas" of compassionate thought, word, and deed-- judicious censorship can be a form of upaya (skillful means) if people fail to live out those three karmas on Andi's blog.

Cross-posting to happen soon; I've got more shopping and cooking to do.

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*Not to imply that Eastern Buddhists know no dualism. Dualism is inherent in language, and it's partly through language that we know each other's mind. Misunderstandings are bound to arise, which is what makes compassionate conduct so important-- to allow us to surf smoothly over such rough waves.


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