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**mr.calisto** · 01-26-2012, 10:19 AM

Good q for sure. Because Buddhism in the West is still relatively new, Westerners such as I have to take pretty much what we can get, or so it seems. A lot of cultural trappings unavoidably accompany that true self or that 'true person of no rank' as Linji puts it. So we get to sift through what, in the beginning, is pretty mysterious sometimes.

I once even heard a Zen teacher insist that it was not real Zen without the very specific cultural trappings of his lineage. He was being critical of an American Zen teacher who makes every effort to put teachings in a context that is relevant - difficult and not something that can be cheated on it seems.

The wonderful thing about Buddhism is that it is adaptable - proven by 2500 years of clear worth to the many cultures it which explains to it's practitioners. It is about suffering and the end of suffering and that, so far, is universal.
The teachings are really useless unless applied to one's daily life and it is pretty unlikely that all those aspects of daily life may be adapted to someone else s culture out of context.

01-26-2012, 10:19 AM	#7
mr.calisto Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 413 Senior Member	Good q for sure. Because Buddhism in the West is still relatively new, Westerners such as I have to take pretty much what we can get, or so it seems. A lot of cultural trappings unavoidably accompany that true self or that 'true person of no rank' as Linji puts it. So we get to sift through what, in the beginning, is pretty mysterious sometimes. I once even heard a Zen teacher insist that it was not real Zen without the very specific cultural trappings of his lineage. He was being critical of an American Zen teacher who makes every effort to put teachings in a context that is relevant - difficult and not something that can be cheated on it seems. The wonderful thing about Buddhism is that it is adaptable - proven by 2500 years of clear worth to the many cultures it which explains to it's practitioners. It is about suffering and the end of suffering and that, so far, is universal. The teachings are really useless unless applied to one's daily life and it is pretty unlikely that all those aspects of daily life may be adapted to someone else s culture out of context.
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