You make a good point. When Bronwyn was talking to me about the Buddha and many little Buddha "idols", I thought about the religious aspect in the East of Buddhism .... the shrines, etc. Maybe the problem is one of the lack of exclusivity in Buddhism. I have a friend who is a Jew by birth and upbringing; she was once married to an Orthodox Jew. She continues her Jewish faith, and has studied Chinese herbalism and medicine extensively. She also has studied Buddhism extensively and does Buddhist meditations, etc. I have encouraged my Mother to go meet with her and let her teach her some meditations, guided imagery stuff, talk to her about Chinese medicine, etc. related to her Cancer. My Mother will not see her because my Mother is a Devout Christian and she won't do a meditation of "another religion". One can be a Christian, a Jew, an anything, it seems to me, and practice Buddhism. Whereas one cannot be a Jew and practice Christianity, or .... you see what I mean about the exclusivity issue? Julie Krueger wondering if exclusivity is necessary to the definition of "religion" ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Comparative rel igion Date: 3/8/05 3:08:37 P.M. Central Standard Time From: _junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx writes: : I know, I know .... you guys are all on the edge of your seats waiting for : another episode in the saga of Public Middle School Education in the : Midwest....but there's a serious question at the end here. : : My 7th grader's social studies class is doing a unit on basic comparative : religion -- an overview of the world's major religions (though so far I have : n't : heard any noises about Hinduism, and Buddhism is being considered a religion : : rather than a philosophy, which always makes me cringe). As the president of the Cleveland Buddhist Temple, which is one of the Buddhist Churches of America and thus in the Japanese Shin Buddhist tradition I sort of cringe at your cringing. If we weren't a religion we would lose our tax exemption. Although there are aspects of the Buddhist tradition that look very much like Western philosophy, there are important differences and the two traditions are not connected except perhaps for the Skeptics having been influenced by Buddhist or Jain gymnosophists, in a tradition extending from Pyrrho through Sextus Empiricus to Hume. Many of the institutions of Christianity as we know it, on the other hand, like rosaries and monasticism, can be traced to Buddhist (or Jain) sources. And most Asian Buddhists---including those who now live in the West---don't practice Buddhism as a philosophy, but do practice it in a way that looks pretty much like what we would call religious. Of course there are the Western Zen types who might claim that the practice of "just sitting" is a philosophy, but that would turn every bullfrog in the world into a philosopher. Of course some Weatern Buddhists would claim that Buddhism is a psychology, but frankly I think that that view is simply sick. The trouble is, I think, that religion is a Western category which is defined by the degree that a set of beliefs and practies resembles those of Christianity. There are scholars who think that only Christianity can be called a religion. -- Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH EMAIL: junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html