The Little Flower

Hiii! I'm Flower; I go by quite literally any pronouns, and I'm queer. I'm very progressive/left wing both fiscally and socially. #1 ANTI CALVINIST

[stalinitaspeaks]

Listen to me, you are a random American with no political prominence in any way whatsoever. China is not spying on you. You are not that important. You are just dumb and paranoid

[flowercustodian]

YESYESYES I WILL SCREAM THIS OFF THE TOP OF MY ROOF LIKE FUCKING OPRAH YES

[flowercustodian]

So a lot of people are already aware of this and I've actually made a few posts about this myself, but secular/western Buddhism is not exactly popular within much of the Buddhist community, but I feel like when its criticized, the criticism usually focuses on the fact that Secular Buddhism is just not really accurate, which is definitely true but I feel like something that kinda gets ignored is the harm that it can cause to actual practitioners of Buddhism. For example I've seen many cases where westerners who had preconceived views of Buddhism as a purely secular, rationalist materialist philosophy that is in complete alignment with western thought see actual Buddhists engaging in very clearly religious practices it can kinda confuse them and many of these people will jump to the conclusion that it isn't their understanding of Buddhism that's wrong but is actually the way Buddhists practice it that's wrong, this usually manifests in a pretty racist way especially against Asian Buddhists, the idea that these "superstitious Asians" having "infected Buddhism" with their pagan idol worshipping culture is a concerningly popular way that many westerners attempt to explain this discrepancy between how they view Buddhism and how its actually practiced, and while this is enough to be condemnable I think it goes further in that it completely reframes who is the primary authority on Buddhism, From this Western perspective, it obviously can't be people from traditionally Buddhist cultures because they have already "corrupted" and "lost the true essence" of Buddhism, so obviously they cant be trusted, instead, the true authority of Buddhism is non Buddhist/secular Buddhist Western Intellectuals who very often know very little about Buddhism, which leads to a lot of misinformation about Buddhism beyond just the idea that its not a religion AND leads to the harassment and mistreatment of actual Buddhists

[restorativeluciferian]

I agree a lot with this post; the conception in the west is that Buddhism is an atheistic religion when in reality it's polytheistic. This started with Buddhism's introduction to the west through the Theosophical Society because the founder Helena Blavatsky's prominent Buddhist advisor was Anagarika Dharmapala, who openly condemned Buddhist practices throughout several cultures that had been present for centuries calling them "false" Buddhism. But the fact is Dharmapala's own Buddhism was so disconnected from these forms of Buddhism, which had existed for centuries, that his Buddhism was eventually called Protestant Buddhism by later scholars. He eventually split from Blavatsky, but his and the Theosophical's contributions to the idea of Buddhism and their many misconceptions about the religion remain in the West.

One of my first experiences in the Soto Zen sangha I was originally a member of relates to OP's frustrations. A middle aged white woman was guiding me up to the three bodhisattva shrines, which were chosen and fashioned directly after Japanese monasteries. I commented upon them as "deities" and she said, "Deities? That's a strange word. We just see them as aspects to aspire to."

Ma'am, with all due respect, you might but that's not a Buddhist view, that is a Jungian idea. It is less than 100 years old and was established by one of the founders of psychology, Carl Jung. Meanwhile, the founder of Soto Zen, Dogen, wrote of how the bodhisattvas in one of the shrines, Kannon, saved his life while he was on a ship during a storm. He and all of the human crew witnessed her presence in a human shape.

Anyway, that was probably the moment I realized that was not the place for me. I left that organization and I took refuge in a nearby Tibetan sangha, which uses the word deity interchangeably with "yidam."

When living in the West, and especially when entering Buddhism without a born background, we need to be cognizant of not continuing the colonization of the religion started in Theosophy. This means not selecting the parts of the religion you deem "useful" and denigrating the rest. You can put it aside if it doesn't work for you, certainly, but you need to ask yourself every time you do it. Is it just that it doesn't work for you, or are you unconsciously following trains of oppositional and dukkha-inducing thought processes that Buddhism warns against?

I don't have the authority to say what "a good Buddhist" is universally, but being a good Buddhist to me means learning and accepting the forms of the religion that may be outside of my experience as true and valid. I truly hope western Buddhist organizations and people within them start to realize their Buddhism is not the only form of Buddhism and start opening their minds to all the inferences that come with that.

[starstr1ke]

I heard that if you send your talking stage a cute selfie, world peace may become achievable

[flowercustodian]

So a lot of people are already aware of this and I've actually made a few posts about this myself, but secular/western Buddhism is not exactly popular within much of the Buddhist community, but I feel like when its criticized, the criticism usually focuses on the fact that Secular Buddhism is just not really accurate, which is definitely true but I feel like something that kinda gets ignored is the harm that it can cause to actual practitioners of Buddhism. For example I've seen many cases where westerners who had preconceived views of Buddhism as a purely secular, rationalist materialist philosophy that is in complete alignment with western thought see actual Buddhists engaging in very clearly religious practices it can kinda confuse them and many of these people will jump to the conclusion that it isn't their understanding of Buddhism that's wrong but is actually the way Buddhists practice it that's wrong, this usually manifests in a pretty racist way especially against Asian Buddhists, the idea that these "superstitious Asians" having "infected Buddhism" with their pagan idol worshipping culture is a concerningly popular way that many westerners attempt to explain this discrepancy between how they view Buddhism and how its actually practiced, and while this is enough to be condemnable I think it goes further in that it completely reframes who is the primary authority on Buddhism, From this Western perspective, it obviously can't be people from traditionally Buddhist cultures because they have already "corrupted" and "lost the true essence" of Buddhism, so obviously they cant be trusted, instead, the true authority of Buddhism is non Buddhist/secular Buddhist Western Intellectuals who very often know very little about Buddhism, which leads to a lot of misinformation about Buddhism beyond just the idea that its not a religion AND leads to the harassment and mistreatment of actual Buddhists

[twolawstofollow-yk]

i would seem a lot less stupid if i actually posted my drafts

[flowercustodian]

I think you should! (assuming you haven't already!) as you said in the tags those types of posts do usually require some familiarity to understand but you never know you might be what gets someone interested in those more niche topics! (:

[yaoiblackmold]

People treating the Dalai Lama like he's the Buddhist version of the Catholic Pope is so weird to me. Not all Buddhist are a Tibetean Buddhist...his influence on Buddhism is so miniscule compared to the influence the Pope has on Catholicism.

[flowercustodian]

And arguably his role in Tibetan Buddhism is somewhat limited, given that he only holds an official seat of authority in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and even then he's not even the school's highest authority, so even his influence on Tibetan Buddhism is limited compared to the Popes on Catholicism

[yaoiblackmold]

I hate when people say that Buddhism is not a religion it's a philosophy because it's such an old outdated idea that is entirely based on some old white fuck that went to Asia once and just made shit up about the religion while never talking to the locals. It is literally textbook Orientalism that people still parrot for some reason. "Oh the mystical people of the far East, they don't have a real religion, they don't worship any gods, only philosophy and peaceful vibes". It just feels insanely racist to not consider a whole belief system a real religion simply because it dose not fit into the narrow western view of what a "real religion" is.

[andez4u]

mdni blogs try not to interact with minors first challenge impossible

[mikufanclub]

notice how its littlest pet shop and not littlest pet shelter, littlest pet adoption center, littlest pet rehabilitation. really twisted

[stalinitaspeaks]

I miss when I was allowed to say gusano around my mom

[stalinitaspeaks]

Reblog if you think Stalinita's mom should allow her to say gusano again #solidarity

[flowercustodian]

I almost forgot about this, first you couldn't watch barbies life in the dream house, now you cant say gusano, when will it end 🥀

[lfparker14]

[fishandshesmygills]

it’s so hard for me to not doxx myself every single day btw. my oversharer’s spirit is being stifled by internet safety

[flowercustodian]

i saw your post about mahayana/pure land and as a mostly secular/theravada buddhist who hasn't ever quite grasped pure land, i was wondering if you had any resources for learning more about it? like articles/books/papers/etc, i'd really like to learn more about that tradition

Hello!! sadly at this very second, I typically don't have many sources since I have a horrible habit of just not keeping track of or remembering things like that, but I'll definitely see if I can get some together for you! is there anything specifically about the Pure land tradition/Mahayana as a whole you'd like to learn about? oh also while not a source like you described I do know of some people on social media who make Mahayana Buddhist content that I can confirm is accurate IF you'd be interested in something like that (:

[flowercustodian]

I absolutely hate how so many non Buddhists and "Secular Buddhists" will blatantly disrespect the broader tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, but more specifically the Pure Land tradition, and it's so much worse when their disrespect is built off of objectively ahistorical views that you just know came out of 19th-century colonialism

[the-stallion-pt3]

the concept of being a cowboy sounds kind of gay

[flowercustodian]

Okay so I don't know if it means anything really but last night I had such a "weird" (I'm using this term loosely) dream where I was in my house using a black and white rosary (though I'm not sure if it technically was a rosary since it lacked a cross attached to it) to pray the Jesus prayer repeatedly, and idk why but I kinda just feel a certain way about it and I'm kinda curious if that's a common dream for people or if it means anything in certain traditions (: