u/dependentarising

From "The Attitude of the Workers' Party to Religion" by Lenin:

And so: “Down with religion and long live atheism; the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task!” The Marxist says that this is not true, that it is a superficial view, the view of narrow bourgeois uplifters.

Such a view was almost exactly like the one Mao advocated, by forcibly dissolving monasteries and sentencing Chinese monks to hard labor in work camps. How does that make any historical sense with regards to materialism?

Monks are a model for the socialist nation. They are collective farmers who make do with very little. They emphasize conservation, moderation, and contentment. Somehow, Mao said they were 反革命 (counter-revolutionary)...how is that possible, when (indirectly) according to Lenin it was Mao that was acting like a narrow bourgeois uplifter?

Your statement is highly reductionist and devoid of deep understanding aside from the usual stereotypes. Buddhists have taken great effort to separate themselves from idealist doctrines for centuries.

Mao had zero understanding of the ML position on religion, and made an enemy of the Buddhist people despite their reliance on collective, self-sufficient agriculture centuries before Maoist thought made it popular. To call Buddhism "idealist" immediately sets the tone that the individual making the claim has no idea what they are talking about.

Anyone who wears a turban or flowing clothes is a Muslim? Yazidis? Arab Christians? Pagan tribes?

You're terrible. Your increasing brazenness continues to amaze me.

I used to be a hardcore Muslim, don't be so quick to patronize. Read the loonwatch link if you want to see part of where I'm coming from.

More on Maajid and the imperialist right.

Who's hating? My hand is smashed by the hammer? I seek to control? I simply said it would be better if it weren't here.

It is Harris who hates Islam, Harris who would smash the left underprivileged hand of humanity with the right hammer-bearing hand of imperialist expansion. Harris seeks to control by targeting Muslims with "extra measures" and torture.

Looks like i'm so blind, so unable to question, blustering on, depriving others etc etc etc. I realize now that I should just be so thankful that you are here to guide me.

Give people who "look" like Muslims extra screening, it's not an internment camp. Your comment actually managed to floor me. I'm speechless.

That essentially confirms to me that in all these years he still maintains the same faulty positions. I too was once a pseudo-imperialist anti-Muslim bigot - but people change (except Harris, it would seem).

Why are you defending him? Don't you see the bigger picture? His new atheist narrative is used as intellectual cover for all sorts of imperialist atrocities. Why give him a platform when there are so many other monks and nuns who practice rightly?

You have nothing to learn from a new atheist except the art of expansion.

New Atheism, Old Empire

So...lets just keep giving these people at platform even though there are plenty of monks and nun who don't gut the dharma, and who don't defend imperialism?

Profiling Muslims won't disproportionately target Arabs and Pakistanis? You must live in a land of candy and rainbows.

Thanks for your contributions. /u/WontonCarter let's add it to the list.

I said "eerily close".

Frankly, you should have addressed what I said. Just because he's a student of a Tulku doesn't mean we automatically give him a platform. If a racist student went for a retreat under a Sinhalese monk, should we give that student any kind of platform, just because the monk is well known?

Besides, Harris has systematically gutted Buddhism into a secular, materialist, psychotherapy movement - a transgression deserving of censorship even apart from all the other trash.

I don't know anything about all that. I'm not about to object or try and stop you.

You clearly don't know much about Harris, then. Just enough to try to get another one-up on me. In this particular case your knee-jerk disdain for people who disagree with you has landed you eerily close to fascist apology. I hope this will be seen as a learning experience.

I don't care who he claims to be a student of. Do you realize what a slippery slope that is?

In his career he has defended torture, the imperialist expansion into Afghanistan and Iraq, and even managed to advocate for the racist profiling of Muslims in airports.

Deeply concerning that even you would apologize for him. Why would we take advice from someone like that? Post the Tulku's teachings instead.

Sam Harris, a apologist for torture, imperialism, and racist stereotyping, will serve as an example for Buddhists and offer us his understanding?

It's better if this weren't here.

By far the trippiest part of our religion

one hour of toiling and moiling

Not if one realizes that zen is work, and work is zen. ;)

Knowledge of wavelengths is essentially extraneous to Buddhist practice. The adepts of the past actualized liberation just fine without knowledge of wavelengths.

And countless Chan monks observed original nature without the esoteric rituals of the Diamond Way. Wise father Mahakasyapa attained liberation solely by observing a white flower. That's Buddhism; many gates for many people.

This brings us to the end here. You don't like me, that's fine. Just try to be respectful.

Are you sure you'd love it? Really sure?

Ye...no...maybe...

Here's an example from what I drafted for /r/Chan.

Jesus Christ...that first video...bone chilling.

That's what you have to investigate.

Who is reciting the Buddha's name?

convey movement, energy, etc.

Huh, I wonder if wavelengths are the movement of energy perhaps?

These are ways to address what you experience in your everyday life.

Exactly the intention of my analogy, with an adaptation for modern, scientifically educated audiences.

My dear friend Fire, the CSS is nice, but what I would really love is a clear set of posting guidelines - dos and do nots - and a clear set of consequences for violating those guidelines. Especially now that we are close to 88k.