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The Open Buddhist University

buddhistuniversity.net

101–110 of 150 posts

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#101
post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

Oh yes appeal to authority (or seniority). What can go wrong

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#102
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Who's decision was it to call the website a "university"? Was that my decision, or his? The decision to call it a "university" is what makes me want to clarify what peer-perceived credentials he might have to that extent. If you were considering enrolling in a university, would you look into the reputation of that university? I'll bet you would. You'd want to know what it's reputation is like. Well, I'm offering insi…

Let me give you a really good piece of spiritual advice: Don't harsh other people's yum.

Secondly, Buddhism isn't a corporate ladder with annual promotions, it's a set of understandings. 10 years or 10 hours, it's not the time that matters, it's the understanding. Maybe examine why you're really putting down this guy's effort? Is it really about him, or is it about how you feel about yourself?

Also: don't allow yourself to be goaded by this comment, or by this situation, everyone's intentions here are positive. If they are wrong, let them be wrong. With that in mind, my final word: Give yourself the validation you need, or give up on the need entirely.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#103
post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Why do you think that your strange stereotype of Buddhism would have anything to do with actual Buddhism?

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#104
post #86
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who's decision was it to call the website a "university"? Was that my decision, or his? The decision to call it a "university" is what makes me want to clarify what peer-perceived credentials he might have to that extent. If you were considering enrolling in a university, would you look into the reputation of that university? I'll bet you would. You'd want to know what it's reputation is like. Well, I'm offering insi…

I'd expect a buddhist teacher to be a lot more chill. You took issue with him calling himself a "dean" while he only called himself a librarian. The website is called a "university" but obviously he's not pretending to be a real credentialed university, it's just a cute website title. Here you had a good chance to reflect and backtrack. But no, he's quite a junior monk to be running his own website. Well, I'm not eve…

How many actual Buddhist teachers have you met?

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Actually, the Buddha was critical of other teachers and practices when he felt those teachers and practices were not teaching what leads to the end of the suffering. Some people misapprehend Buddhism to be a kind of wet mop that just sort of sits there.

That's because they have done literally no research into Buddhism, they just have some kind of orientalist stereotype of it that they got from watching kungfu movies and expect reality to conform to that idea

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#106
post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

Wow! I mean it's good to know that he has only a few yrs of experience but to say that take his website with a grain of salt is definitely not the most Buddhist way.

Maybe it is exactly the Buddhist way? OP has been a monk for 15 years, so I imagine he's fairly deep in it.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#107
post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

> He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Buddhist monks

I only know a bit about buddhism, but mocking people doesn't sound like 'senior' behaviour to me. Mocking people is very immature.

I cannot imagine that someone like Thich Nhat Hanh would mock anyone.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Spending 5 years in Thailand I've learned that Buddhism while funamentally different from other religions in the best ways operates just the same in practical reality. It's almost like classification and status is inherit to any group activity and not in a good way unfortunately. To give perspective on the "dark" side of Buddhism I highly recommend "Come and See" documentary on Netflix which is hard to explain withou…

The idea of collections of humans without hierarchy is beyond delusional.

I am a Buddhist but it is hard to say I am serious or I would be living alone in the woods.

Nearly all Buddhist teachings IMO are bullshit and just enforcing natural hierarchy.

Sogyal Rinpoche telling his female students he is going to give them a dharma lesson by sleeping with him. In a metaphorical sense though I think that is what most students are looking for actually too and of course they find it.

For me personally, I don't want to wake up yet. I am still enjoying this dream.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#109

This site beats 99% of the crappy eye candies out there. A few things I really appretiate: Content QA: https://buddhistuniversity.net/tests/content Easy cookie opt-out: https://buddhistuniversity.net/settings/ Zero latency search: https://buddhistuniversity.net/search/ Granular RSS feeds: https://buddhistuniversity.net/feed

"Zero latency search" sounds nice, but searching for either "prajñā" or "pāramitā" (with or without diacritics) yields 0 results. FYI, those are absolute basic terminology of Mahayana Buddhism (Mahayana texts constituting a massive part of the Buddhist corpus).

After a quick glance I would say it is a Therevada "University" with a few texts (but no courses) on other Buddhist schools.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#110
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Who's decision was it to call the website a "university"? Was that my decision, or his? The decision to call it a "university" is what makes me want to clarify what peer-perceived credentials he might have to that extent. If you were considering enrolling in a university, would you look into the reputation of that university? I'll bet you would. You'd want to know what it's reputation is like. Well, I'm offering insi…

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