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Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

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Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#11

Post by blippage »

> In an industry where 70+ hour workweeks are normal,

Well, there's part of your problem right there. I have great scepticism about businesses getting involved with things like Buddhism. From what few anecdotes I've heard, it ends up being some kind of twisted take on the source religion.

Buddhism is not some kind of pill that you swallow to move from working 70+ hours per week to 80+ hours a week.

Ultimately, Buddhism is a withdrawal. You become nobody in particular. This is the opposite of the Cult of Personality, and Manifest Destiny, that seems to permeate the tech industries (I'm looking at you, Google, Microsoft, etc.).

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#13

Post by unmole »

amriksohata wrote: post #6

For Hindus, Buddha was just one of the 10 avatars of Vishnu and he came for a time and purpose. It was never meant to be a separate religion but just took Hindu teachings on meditation and enlightenment and got adapted into another "ism". All the core teachings lie in Hindu scriptures, including Yoga, Meditation etc.

> For Hindus, Buddha was just one of the 10 avatars of Vishnu

The Bhagavatam mentions 22 avatars of Vishnu. The arbitrary selection of 10 which sometimes include Buddha is a later day invention.

> never meant to be a separate religion but just took Hindu teachings on meditation and enlightenment and got adapted into another "ism".

This is revisionist nonsense.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#14

Post by toyg »

In Italy, in the '90s, we had a popular tv program with comedians doing sketches. One of those sketches was written and interpreted a guy who used to work in important advertising agencies. The sketch had a corporate manager who always started as a calm and devout supporter of buddhist-like tranquility in the workplace, all meditation and zen and care for personal wellbeing; by the end of the sketch his schizophrenic double (or rather true persona) would violently emerge, utterly angry and materialistic.

This sort of attitude, at the time, was lampooned because it was limited to the upper echelons of society (sure enough, the only buddhist in my extensive family was a corporate manager). I bet such a sketch would cause outrage these days.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#16

Post by yunohn »

omarfarooq wrote: post #4

How would these people react if they learned that the Buddha said his teachings were to last only 1000 years* if women were not included in the Sangha? And will only last 500 years after women were included?: > “But, Ānanda, if women had not obtained the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathāgata, the holy life would have lasted long, the true Dhamma would have…

Disclaimer: I’m an atheist.

I don’t believe this is the gotcha that you think it is.

Every single school of thought, religion or otherwise, has good and bad parts. Taking the overwhelmingly good aspects of Buddhism to understand how to lead a better life, is not invalidated because the Buddha said one thing you dislike. It’s naivety to desire 100% perfection from everyone/thing.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#17

Post by nabla9 »

omarfarooq wrote: post #4

How would these people react if they learned that the Buddha said his teachings were to last only 1000 years* if women were not included in the Sangha? And will only last 500 years after women were included?: > “But, Ānanda, if women had not obtained the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathāgata, the holy life would have lasted long, the true Dhamma would have…

As someone who has spend long time meditating in Buddhist monasteries, I would say they don't care.

Sutras are just teachings. You may learn from them and value them, but Buddhists are not "people of the book" like Abrahamic religions are. You don't have to parse everything Buddha and ponder it endlessly. Sometimes he just wondered about the future of the discipline. He also changed his mind when others presented arguments, just like in this case.

Buddhism as a religion is considered just a vehicle for some truth that people can discover, not the goal itself. Requiring perfect gym to practice is not for people who really want to train.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#18

Post by guai888 »

bowsamic wrote: post #7
omarfarooq wrote: post #4

How would these people react if they learned that the Buddha said his teachings were to last only 1000 years* if women were not included in the Sangha? And will only last 500 years after women were included?: > “But, Ānanda, if women had not obtained the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathāgata, the holy life would have lasted long, the true Dhamma would have…

Sutta central is the main Pali canon English translation source nowadays, also access to insight is mainly home of Thannisaro, not Bodhi Sutta central has it https://suttacentral.net/an8.51/en/sujato?layout=plain&refer... As for that sutta, the Pali canon is absolutely huge, the Mahayana sutras even more so, the majority of the latter haven’t been translated into English even. Most Buddhists, even historically, do no…

Buddism has always adopt in order to stay relevant. There are many ways to achieve enlightenment. Maybe US Buddhists will find their own unique path forward.

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#19

Post by bowsamic »

guai888 wrote: post #18
bowsamic wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sutta central is the main Pali canon English translation source nowadays, also access to insight is mainly home of Thannisaro, not Bodhi Sutta central has it https://suttacentral.net/an8.51/en/sujato?layout=plain&refer... As for that sutta, the Pali canon is absolutely huge, the Mahayana sutras even more so, the majority of the latter haven’t been translated into English even. Most Buddhists, even historically, do no…

Buddism has always adopt in order to stay relevant. There are many ways to achieve enlightenment. Maybe US Buddhists will find their own unique path forward.

Yes I expect so, but usually it takes a couple centuries to happen in a reliable and organic way

Re: Buddhism has found a new institutional home in the West: the corporation

#20

Post by InCityDreams »

bowsamic wrote: post #7
omarfarooq wrote: post #4

How would these people react if they learned that the Buddha said his teachings were to last only 1000 years* if women were not included in the Sangha? And will only last 500 years after women were included?: > “But, Ānanda, if women had not obtained the Going-forth from the home life into homelessness in the Dhamma & Vinaya made known by the Tathāgata, the holy life would have lasted long, the true Dhamma would have…

Sutta central is the main Pali canon English translation source nowadays, also access to insight is mainly home of Thannisaro, not Bodhi Sutta central has it https://suttacentral.net/an8.51/en/sujato?layout=plain&refer... As for that sutta, the Pali canon is absolutely huge, the Mahayana sutras even more so, the majority of the latter haven’t been translated into English even. Most Buddhists, even historically, do no…

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