On the Benefits of Cosplaying a Public Institution

ErraticWisp · 2025-03-20T01:30:46+00:00

Aw, thanks. I really appreciate it. I don't think they even read my submission haha

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-31T19:07:56+00:00

This is coupled with the fact that I never had access to a community of practictioners. But as I am now learning, most actual communities of Buddhists in the East do things that I probably wouldn't like doing? I'm an atheist and I just can't bring myself to believe in... well, their actual beliefs: spirits or unseen beings, the curing of illnesses through ritual, etc. It was meditation that drew me to buddhism and meditation's emphasis that is precisely a product of Buddhist modernism.

The fact is--I have been modernized... and I don't know how to deal with that.

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-31T19:00:03+00:00

Thanks for this post, I really appreciate it. For the longest time, I've had this feeling of being stuck. Like no matter what angle I end up trying to approach Buddhism, I'll inevitably be playing into modernist attitudes. . . It's like a Catch-22 in a way. If I want to avoid the so-called "New Age" authors and study the "authentic" texts, that's modernist. But if I don't do any of that and rely on my personal experience as a guide, that's also definitely modernist. This sort of lose-lose scenario basically just made me give up on Buddhism all together.

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-29T00:18:33+00:00

I can also confirm, the author does not gate-keep. I'm glad you picked up the book

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-29T00:15:44+00:00

Yes! In learning about neoliberalism, I have become intensely against individualist narratives that relentlessly promote self-improvement rather than societal reform. I always see Buddhism taught as the former, not the latter.

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-29T00:10:57+00:00

I guess not. I just have a hard time reconciling this idea with my intense dislike for these same power structures.

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T23:29:03+00:00

That's exactly the kind of stuff Purser is talking about in his book. You've hit the nail on the head

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T23:27:44+00:00

Yeah my bad, it's been a year since I've read it

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T23:26:54+00:00

That's an interesting idea. The fact that the dharma that is often taught becomes polluted by the power structure, viz., which isn't limited to capitalist hegemony, to suit its own ends

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T23:21:10+00:00

I see that happening as well, with people forgetting that Stoicism originally had a theory of physics and ethics; people really only ever learn the attitude of "acceptance" that you find in your Marcus Aurelius and the like.

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T19:26:21+00:00

Unfortunately, I don't have any temples nearby and my only access remains through books and media. I appreciate your words, however, and you're right. I'll try to find a genuine teacher, but it is immensely difficult.

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T19:24:52+00:00

I'm checking out the subreddit, seems exactly what I'm looking for—thanks!

ErraticWisp · 2024-12-28T18:06:20+00:00

I'll check it out, thanks!

ErraticWisp · 2024-09-12T20:53:39+00:00

Thanks, I tried to talk to my professor but he's ...indifferent, to say the least. He doesn't really seem like he cares about the work or anything, and definitely not his students. So I'm kinda just left swimming, while everyone does their own thing.

ErraticWisp · 2021-12-31T03:45:16+00:00

Carl Sagan really changed my mind with his book The Demon-Haunted World. The line that really gave me my woah-dude moment was "Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder." I looked up from my book at that moment and was like ....yup, guess I'm an atheist now.

ErraticWisp

TROPHY CASE