[Ceriopal]

Dear friends,

To what extent do you think its necessary for Buddhist practitioners from around the world to adopt the cultural beliefs, rituals,and customs of the original country of their chosen Buddhist school /tradition?

with kind wishes,

Aloka

[spounnypneups]

It is a big issue this one. Traditions are because culture. Culture is bigger than the individual. Culture can be seen as an output of some sort of "social self".

Inadvertently the early teachings have been forced into the social needs and likes of that social self, where they are adopted. So the teachings can become, for example, "Japanise". There is a social becoming or transformation.

It is important to "feel" the cultureless nature of the core teachings of the discourses left by Buddha. They are instructions to understand and realize non self. IMO, the early teachings are practically cultureless anytime we can not point to a cultural essence from them. They talk about a universal feature of mind as its impersonal nature.

For example, the realization that the Khandhas are empty of "I am", "This is mine" or "this is my self" is not a cultural artifact. It is a natural truth available for everybody.

So I think there is no need to adopt cultural beliefs to practice the teachings left by Buddha.

So we will just follow our common sense-a bit of this, a bit of that, as we see fit. And mostly we will take those things which agree with defilement (kilesa) rather than let ourselves be guided by truth-discerning awareness. Spiritual life becomes a matter of rites and rituals, of making merit by rote or to insure against some fear or other. There is no contact with the real Buddhist Teachings.

Heart Wood from the Bo Tree

[Uhmavano]

I don't think they need to adopt any of them. Why should they?

[rxnixoncom]

My own opinion on the topic resonates with this

[Civilrecordzz]

Thanks for sharing that article plwk. I agree with it. My point was that there isn't necessarily any need to adopt any of them. If they're are beneficial and make sense then maybe you should adopt them.

[DavidShreder]

Thanks for the link plwk .... you had posted this previously and this time I have saved it.

For me, it is not a big issue as the cultural beliefs, rituals and customs of the original country of whatever Buddhist school /tradition are not the important aspect of the Buddhist practice.
As social creatures, us humans have developed different cultures and implementations within our different groups.

[mr.calisto]

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.