Criticism of Buddhism
Some Buddhist denominations, many predominately Buddhist nations, and individual Buddhist leaders have been criticized in one way or another by the anti-religious, by proponents of other religions, and by Buddhists espousing reform or simply expressing dislike.
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[edit] Not true to Buddhist principles
Criticisms include the beliefs that among the various Buddhist cultures and institutions, not all are true to original Buddhist principles.[1] Sam Harris, a prominent proponent of New Atheism[2] and practitioner of Buddhist meditation claims that many practitioners of Buddhism improperly treat it as a religion, and their beliefs are often "naive, petitionary, and superstitious" and that this impedes their adoption of true Buddhist princples.[3]
Some critics claim that Buddhist adherents and leaders have been materialistic and corrupt with an improper interest in wealth and power rather than pursuit of Buddhist principles.[4]
[edit] War and violence
Michael Jerryson argues that Buddhism has been connected to government since its genesis. This "inability to conceive of a state without Buddhism alludes to a kind of religious nationalism," and this is found in a variety of Buddhist conflicts.[5] In medieval Southeast Asia, there were a number of Buddhist states, including the Pagan Kingdom, the Sukhothai Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa. In Sri Lanka especially, Buddhist leaders developed a theory of "just war" against Tamils which played a role in recurring and widespread violence up to the present day,[6] and modern monks frequently involve themselves in nationalist politics,[7] although Sri Lankan peace activists such as A. T. Ariyaratne have also drawn on Buddhism for inspiration.
East Asian Mahayana Buddhists also often received state support. The Zen priest Brian Daizen Victoria documented in his book Zen at War how Buddhist institutions justified Japanese militarism in official publications and cooperated with the Japanese Army on the battlefield. In response to the book, several sects issued an apology for their wartime support of the government.[8]
Christopher Hitchens summarizes these issues as a specifically Buddhist desire to "put their reason to sleep, and to discard their minds along with their sandals".[9] However, Buddhists also have a record of both passive and active nonviolence, often reflected by national culture. In Burma, monks have advocated nonviolence during the 2007 anti-government protests amongst many other occasions; Engaged Buddhism arose in Vietnam as a means of protest prior to the Vietnam War; and although the Buddhist kingdom of Tibet fought a short-lived war against the People's Republic of China, Buddhism is more often connected to the peaceful opposition to China advocated by the Dalai Lama since that period[citation needed].
[edit] Accusation of Violence
After the 2008 unrest in the Tibetan area of the PRC, the official Chinese government stance has been that the Dalai Lama helped to orchestrate the unrest and violence[citation needed].
[edit] Buddhist self-criticism
Critical Buddhism is a branch of Japanese Buddhist scholarship which aims to reform Buddhism through critical examination of its practices and philosophy.
Many individual schools of Buddhism are criticized by other practitioners as spiritually insincere, including Sōka Gakkai, the Dhammakaya Movement, and participants in the Dorje Shugden controversy. The San Francisco Zen Center has been one focus of controversy in the United States.[10]
[edit] Marxist criticism
Several critics have criticized Buddhism in pre-Chinese Tibet for maintaining a feudal society that exploited peasants and treated them like serfs.[11] The current Dalai Lama, however, has stated that he is in favor of a Buddhist synthesis with Marxist economics, as he believes that internationalist nature of Marxism shows compassion to the poor, which is inline with Buddhist teachings, while capitalism only promotes greed and self-interest. [12]
[edit] Feminist criticism
Buddhism has been criticized because it treats women, particularly women monks, as inferior to men.[13] Most schools of Buddhism have more rules for bhikkuni (nuns) than bhikku (monk) lineages. Buddhists explain that in the time of the Buddha, nuns had such problems like safety if they were to be ordained the same way as monks who travelled around in the forest and between cities. Thus, more rules have to be created for nuns, for instance: nuns are forbidden to travel alone.[14]
[edit] Christian criticism
Before becoming Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger criticised Buddhism in 1997 as "a spiritual self-absorption" without "concrete religious obligations". However, he was not being asked about Buddhists in general but only about Catholics who practice Buddhism.[15]
[edit] References
- ^
- Christine J. Nissen, (2008), "Buddhism and Corruption", in People of virtue: reconfiguring religion, power and moral order in Cambodia today, Alexandra Kent (Ed.), NIAS Press, p. 272-292.
- Lopez, Donald S. (1999). Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press. p. 3.
- John K. Locke (2005), "The Unique features of Newar Buddhism", in Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Vol. 6, Jane Williams (Ed.), Routeledge; p 295.
- Lopez, Donald S. (2008). Buddhism & science: a guide for the perplexed. University of Chicago Press. p. 30.
- Seager, Richard Hughes (2000). Buddhism in America. Columbia University Press. p. 119.
- Powell, Andrew (1995). Living Buddhism. University of California Press. p. 13.
- ^ Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and Daniel Dennett have been described as the "Four Horsemen" of the "New Atheism". See 'THE FOUR HORSEMEN,' Discussions with Richard Dawkins: Episode 1, RDFRS - RichardDawkins.net and » Blog Archive » The Four Horsemen of the New Atheism
- ^ Killing the Buddha by Sam Harris
- ^
- Laird, Thomas (2007). The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama. Grove Press. p. 278.
- Kieschnick, John (2003). The impact of Buddhism on Chinese material culture. Princeton University Press. pp. 12–13.
- Tarling, Nicholas (1992). The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: From early times to c. 1800. Cambridge University Press. p. 245.
- Rinpoche, Samdhong (2006). Samdhong Rinpoche: uncompromising truth for a compromised world : Tibetan Buddhism and today's world. World Wisdom, Inc. pp. 139–140.
- Mabbett, Ian W. (1985). Modern China: the mirage of modernity. Taylor & Francis. p. 112.
- ^ Jerryson, Michael and Mark Juergensmyer (2010). Buddhist Warfare, ch. 1, "Introduction."
- ^ Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah. Buddhism Betrayed? : Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka. University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN 0-226-78950-0.
- ^ Ananda Abeysekara, "The Saffron Army, Violence, Terror(ism): Buddhism, Identity, and Difference in Sri Lanka". Numen 48.1 (2001).
- ^ Zen at War (2nd ed.) by Brian Daizen Victoria / Rowman and Littlefield 2006, ISBN 0-7425-3926-1
- ^ God Is Not Great, p 204. Atlantic, New York, 2006
- ^ Michael Downing. Shoes Outside the Door: Desire, Devotion, and Excess at San Francisco Zen Center. Counterpoint, 2002.
- ^
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. (1991). A history of modern Tibet, 1913-1951: the demise of the Lamaist state. University of California Press. p. 5.
- Goldstein, Melvyn C. (2009). A history of modern Tibet: The calm before the storm, 1951-1955. University of California Press. p. 440.
- Florida, Robert E. (2005). Human Rights and the World's Major Religions: The Buddhist tradition, Volume 5. Praeger. p. 190.
- Luo, Zhufeng (1990). Religion under socialism. M.E. Sharpe. p. 40.
- Friendly Feudalism - The Tibet Myth
- ^ http://hhdl.dharmakara.net/hhdlquotes1.html
- ^
- Keyes, Charles F. "Mother or Mistress but Never a Monk: Buddhist Notions of Female Gender in Rural Thailand", American Ethnologist, Vol. 11, No. 2 (May, 1984), pp. 223-241.
- Gutschow, Kim (2004). Being a Buddhist nun: the struggle for enlightenment in the Himalayas. Harvard University Press. p. 207,225,240.
- Lucinda Joy Peach (2001), "Buddhism and Human Rights in the Thai Sex Trade", in Religious Fundamentalisms and the Human Rights of Women, Courtney W. Howland (Ed)., Palgrave Macmillan, p. 219.
- Janell Mills (2000), "Militarisim, civil war and women's status: a Burma case study", in Women in Asia: tradition, modernity, and globalisation, Louise P. Edwards (Ed.), University of Michigan Press, p. 269.
- ^ Women in Buddhism (English)
- ^ [1] "Un chrétien ne peut pas renoncer à sa connaissance de la vérité, révélée pour lui en Jésus-Christ, fils unique de Dieu. Si le bouddhisme séduit, c'est parce qu'il apparaît comme une possibilité de toucher à l'infini, à la félicité sans avoir d'obligations religieuses concrètes. Un autoérotisme spirituel, en quelque sorte. Quelqu'un avait justement prédit, dans les années 1950, que le défi de l'Eglise au XXe siècle serait non pas le marxisme, mais le bouddhisme."
[edit] External links
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