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**eocavrWM** · 07-17-2011, 11:48 AM

Perhaps so from a modern "Protestant Buddhist" perspective.

In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, I do not think that means what you think it means:

WIKI:

Buddhist modernism (also referred to as Protestant Buddhism, Modern Buddhism[1] and modernist Buddhism[2]) consists of the "forms of Buddhism that have emerged out of an engagement with the dominant cultural and intellectual forces of modernity."[3] While there can be no complete, essential definition of what constitutes a Buddhist Modernist tradition, most scholars agree that the influence of Protestant and Enlightenment values have largely defined some of their more conspicuous attributes.[4] David McMahan cites "western monotheism; rationalism and scientific naturalism; and Romantic expressivism" as influences.[5]

Examples of such movements and traditions of thought may include Humanistic Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism (which started in the Sinitic World and constitute the foundations of the contemporary Buddhist revival in China, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam as well as of the propagation of non-denominational forms of Buddhism in the Western World), linkages between Buddhism and Gnosticism, the Japanese-initiated Nichiren Buddhism and Soka Gakkai, the New Kadampa Tradition and the missionary activity of Tibetan Buddhist masters in the West (leading the quickly growing Buddhist movement in France), the Vipassana Movement, the Triratna Buddhist Community, Fo Guang Shan and Juniper Foundation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_modernism

And, as A-D alludes, you are barking up the Straw Man Tree unless you can get a show of hands of folks here who identify as "Protestant Buddhists".

But myth, parable and poetry are also found in the Pali suttas, not to mention an elaborate cosmology which defies literal interpretation. The historical Buddha apparently was willing to use the full palette of human discourse -- rational and imaginative, literal and metaphorical, philosophical and religious -- to convey the teachings. The fact that he used folks' superstitions as teaching tools to drag them kicking and screaming out of superstition and darkness doesn't mean that they are intrinsic to his Noble, liberative teachings.

As Rupert Gethin and others have suggested:
Of course an abhidhammist is going to cast the discarding of superstitious distortions of the Buddha's teachings as itself a distortion. He really has nothing else to argue with.

07-17-2011, 11:48 AM	#18
eocavrWM Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 520 Senior Member	Perhaps so from a modern "Protestant Buddhist" perspective. In the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, I do not think that means what you think it means: WIKI: Buddhist modernism (also referred to as Protestant Buddhism, Modern Buddhism[1] and modernist Buddhism[2]) consists of the "forms of Buddhism that have emerged out of an engagement with the dominant cultural and intellectual forces of modernity."[3] While there can be no complete, essential definition of what constitutes a Buddhist Modernist tradition, most scholars agree that the influence of Protestant and Enlightenment values have largely defined some of their more conspicuous attributes.[4] David McMahan cites "western monotheism; rationalism and scientific naturalism; and Romantic expressivism" as influences.[5] Examples of such movements and traditions of thought may include Humanistic Buddhism and Engaged Buddhism (which started in the Sinitic World and constitute the foundations of the contemporary Buddhist revival in China, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam as well as of the propagation of non-denominational forms of Buddhism in the Western World), linkages between Buddhism and Gnosticism, the Japanese-initiated Nichiren Buddhism and Soka Gakkai, the New Kadampa Tradition and the missionary activity of Tibetan Buddhist masters in the West (leading the quickly growing Buddhist movement in France), the Vipassana Movement, the Triratna Buddhist Community, Fo Guang Shan and Juniper Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_modernism And, as A-D alludes, you are barking up the Straw Man Tree unless you can get a show of hands of folks here who identify as "Protestant Buddhists". But myth, parable and poetry are also found in the Pali suttas, not to mention an elaborate cosmology which defies literal interpretation. The historical Buddha apparently was willing to use the full palette of human discourse -- rational and imaginative, literal and metaphorical, philosophical and religious -- to convey the teachings. The fact that he used folks' superstitions as teaching tools to drag them kicking and screaming out of superstition and darkness doesn't mean that they are intrinsic to his Noble, liberative teachings. As Rupert Gethin and others have suggested: Of course an abhidhammist is going to cast the discarding of superstitious distortions of the Buddha's teachings as itself a distortion. He really has nothing else to argue with.
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