[ptolerezort]

Probably they were better in some ways, worse in others. Our times are also a mixed bag.

The refining of reason and rational thought and the rejection of superstition is better in every way and on every level. It removes fear, promotes well-being, and takes away tools by which one might be manipulated.

I think many Western practitioners have a discomfort/aversion with what they regard as the superstitious elements in traditional/Asian Buddhism. Again, characterizing the discarding of superstitions as "discomfort/aversion" is presumptuous and a straw man. It has nothing to do with discomfort or aversion and everything to do with the appropriate rejection of baseless woo.

And sure, those elements are there. But it's probably worth subjecting our unease to examination as well -- because this may be our particular prison. And neither is it about "unease". It is about the reasonable rejection, after rational investigation and deliberation, of hooey.

The point isn't to stand inside a Western/modernist/rationalist box... You seriously need to watch this video:



Rejecting superstitious woo isn't about "standing inside a 'Western/modernist/rationalist box'". It is about rejecting woo because it is woo.


...and point fingers at the silly traditional Buddhists in their silly superstitious box. I love it when folks who are stuck in the cesspool of superstition try to paint folks who reject superstition as being stuck in the same sort of cesspool. It lets me know that they know that being stuck in a cesspool of superstition is a Bad Thing.

That's cheap and easy, and where does it get us as far as our own liberation is concerned? It gets us right into lokuttaradhamma, which is precisely where the liberation the Buddha taught is to be found.

Buddhadasa was coming from a particular context. He was a Thai Buddhist who understood the morass his own cultural/religious tradition had fallen into, and provided an appropriate antidote. From the point of view of Theravada in Thailand, he was going against the grain. You seriously misrepresent him. He was not merely limited to his own culture; he was also well attuned to the Buddha's liberative teachings and their relevance as timeless teachings for the entire world.

But when Westerners with modernist inclinations invoke Buddhadasa, are we going against the grain or simply reinforcing our predispositions? "We"...? Seriously, Lazy, this is terribly disingenuous. Rejecting and dismissing superstition is not a matter of "reinforcing predispositions" -- it is precisely the opposite. Again you are committing precisely the very mistakes that are discussed in the video above, confusing open-mindedness and closed-mindedness. This sort of twisted sophistry might have worked at E-Sangha, but it wilts in the the light of day.