[lit-ideas] Re: Comparative religion

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    
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