Re: AUT: Knabb's attempts to radicalize buddhists

["commie00" <commie00@xxxxxxxxx>]

yeah, these articles are quite good, methinks. they also deal with some of
my own criticisms of buddism, etc. etc.

an interesting side note: most of the buddhists i know who also claim to be
revolutionaries (in some sense) consistantly make fun of "engaged
buddhists". interestingly, they usually apply the s.i.'s critique of "the
militant" to them...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Saul Marsh" <saulmail@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: AUT: Knabb's attempts to radicalize buddhists


> While there may be a "slew of folks who have claimed to be
> revolutionaries and practiced zen buddhism... john cage,
> ken
> kna[bb], etc.", the latter, Ken Knabb, is a case in point
> for showing the obvious: that the majority of buddhists are
> not revolutionaries, and that those who are politically
> engaged are mostly leftist.  See Knabb's two leaflets
> addressed to "Engaged Buddhists" on this subject:
>
> Strong Lessons for Engaged Buddhists
> http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/bps/PS/buddhists.htm
>
> and
>
> Evading the Transformation of Reality
>  Engaged Buddhism at an Impasse
> http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/bps/recent/buddhists.htm
>
> The second in particular shows Knabb's frustration at his
> futile attempts to get "engaged buddhists" to radically
> address reality.
>
> Saul
>
>
>
>
> --- commie00 <commie00@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > On the other hand, there does seem to be this tendency
> > > in Zen to just accept things as they are.  I once did
> > > a
> > > week long silent meditation, not in Zen, but in a
> > > somewhat similar school of Buddshist meditation,
> > > Vipassana.  The emphasis was on watching phemomena
> > > arise and pass without intervening...just observe.
> > > Now if generalized to all of life, and I think this
> > > does happen sometimes with Buddhists, this means a
> > > type of passivity.
> >
> > i agree that this is a primary problem. and yet for many
> > buddhists, being
> > able to think and understand in this fashion is the
> > *begining* of their
> > activism (and, for some, revolutionary activity). it
> > might seem like a
> > strange contradiction, but...
> >
> > well, take some of the material in the chaung tzu... in
> > it, he advocates for
> > this kind of thnking, etc. but then says flat out that if
> > this makes you
> > passibe in the face of injustice, you've fucked it up.
> > (and what you find
> > here is an early way of putting: don't become a
> > professional revolutionary,
> > a "militant", in the s.i. sense, etc.) for chaung tzu,
> > this way of thinking,
> > etc. is the begining of how to take an active part in the
> > world, including,
> > esp., politically. thus, taoism became one of the prime
> > instigators of
> > revolution and revolt in china for more than a 1000
> > years.
> >
> > > Tahir, you did ask if there were any instances of
> > > revolutionary activity among Buddhists.  I dont know
> > > much about it generally..but who can forget the
> > > picture of that Buddhist monk in Vietnam who set
> > > himself on fire in protest of the war?  Maybe this
> > > isn't the type of revolutionary activity that we would
> > > recommend...but I bet that picture had a huge
> > > influence on people's subjectivity...I think it was a
> > > revolutionary act.
> > > And in a very strange way, wasn't it a type of
> > > revolutionary exodus? ;)
> >
> > its also important to remember that there are a slew of
> > folks who have
> > claimed to be revolutionaries and practiced zen
> > buddhism... john cage, ken
> > knapp, etc.
> >
> > and lets not forget ursela le guin, an anarchist and
> > (gasp) sci-fi writer,
> > who did a translation of the tao te ching.
> >
> > > Now as for taoism, there seems to be a lot of
> > > transcendentalism there...much more than in Zen.
> >
> > it depend, of course. philosophical taoism rejected any
> > notion of
> > transcendentalism out right. some aspects of religious
> > taoism didn't.
> >
> >
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