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Good Morning, Buddhist America!
Check the new American Buddhist portal:
http://www.americanbuddhist.net/about
This apparently has only been there since the beginning of the year but it already has the best Buddhist news blog on the English web, bar none, and a set of links that won't quit, mostly to Asian sources albeit in English.
Content? Come on, who needs content when you've got money and guanxi (connections)? Thought? Please, I have a Chinese firedrill to run, I don't have time for that Western affectation called thought.
Does this thing stink like Taiwanese money yet, dudes and ladies of merit? Oh, yes, it purely does stink full ripe. The entire layout and organization is lifted straight off a Chinese-language online newspaper, and the attitude, especially on the Chinese-language interactive forums, is straight from Taiwan. And no, it's not particularly American. This is Asian bilinguals playing American Buddhist. What they're writing in Chinese, on this "American Buddhist" site, is the usual ethno-centrism of the Chinese.
But it does have forums which at least claim to be dedicated to American Buddhism. I'll give it six months before it starts to systematically eat that most precious of all possible Buddhist BB's, which we don't mention here, on which American Buddhism is considered (watch me simper for the Guru, please) "politically incorrect."
In the meantime, this is the best English-language Buddhist web portal out there, for sure.
________________________________________________
How to be had by Asians, Act II.
Lights, Action, Roll camera.
http://www.americanbuddhist.net/about
This apparently has only been there since the beginning of the year but it already has the best Buddhist news blog on the English web, bar none, and a set of links that won't quit, mostly to Asian sources albeit in English.
Content? Come on, who needs content when you've got money and guanxi (connections)? Thought? Please, I have a Chinese firedrill to run, I don't have time for that Western affectation called thought.
Does this thing stink like Taiwanese money yet, dudes and ladies of merit? Oh, yes, it purely does stink full ripe. The entire layout and organization is lifted straight off a Chinese-language online newspaper, and the attitude, especially on the Chinese-language interactive forums, is straight from Taiwan. And no, it's not particularly American. This is Asian bilinguals playing American Buddhist. What they're writing in Chinese, on this "American Buddhist" site, is the usual ethno-centrism of the Chinese.
But it does have forums which at least claim to be dedicated to American Buddhism. I'll give it six months before it starts to systematically eat that most precious of all possible Buddhist BB's, which we don't mention here, on which American Buddhism is considered (watch me simper for the Guru, please) "politically incorrect."
In the meantime, this is the best English-language Buddhist web portal out there, for sure.
________________________________________________
How to be had by Asians, Act II.
Lights, Action, Roll camera.
0
Comments
http://americanbuddhist.net/taxonomy/term/42
There are several other articles on that same page that I highly doubt would be there if the Chinese gov't were running this site as well. I would be interested in links to the articles you are alluding to, though, Xing Ping.
_/\_
metta
Mild?
It's not a government, and it's not a lineage. It's an individual, and it stinks to me like a retired Taiwanese teacher, social worker, or bureaucrat. A female. It could easily be a member of my temple.
The good intentions are real, and in general the Taiwanese feel in the same bag with Tibet, which is why the central gov't of China has been trying to get the Dalai Lama to say that Taiwan is part of China, than which nothing could be slimier, in my undoubtedly not humble enough opinion.
I'm going to spend a couple of hours on the forums over there, and will check back later, too late tonight to be up on the mainland in fact, except for certain extremists whom I have noticed posting when normal people are supposed to be asleep. (The Psy Pie).
Right Thinking, Right Speech.
Of course, dear, I can't be responsible for what people do with my words out of context. It's their karma.
So there is this site, which epitomizes what you would like to see in me: contentlessness.
I, just as I exist, with my constitutional right to free speech, with my 'colorful' style, with my attitude, and with my quite literally thousands of opinions, am an example of the content that legitimately belongs to that name of that site, and would belong to the site itself, if it were a real reflection of that name.
But that's not what it is. It is a place where Asians call Americans 'waiguo ren' in a script that the Americans can't read, a behavior that could not even be imagined, let alone enacted, by an American Buddhist.
Why does she do this? There are hundreds of Chinese-language forums where the dysfunctionados of the Chinese culture can whine, often pathetically, and often miserably, about the waiguo ren in their mother tongue. It can be hysterically funny in the Chinese mainstream. But why provide a forum called The American Buddhist, and let them do it there? It is simply offensive, by the criteria of any culture.
She should disallow the use of the Chinese ideographs completely. Then they won't dare. Or at least they will be held accountable by their Sangha. The language of instruction in the American Sangha is English.
Oh, and hey, contexts are boring. Go ahead and take me out of context. I want to see what you can do.
It would be nice if you would give us the context in the first place, otherwise we have no choice but to take your words from outside of it. Also, given the overall tone of your recent posts, it is understandable that we might assume such things.
_/\_
metta
Consider this:
http://news1.jrj.com.cn/news/2006-10-09/000001691369.html
This is the original article that she links back to in one blog. I link to this because I think that eventually someone who can read it will see it here, and grasp how wierd this is on a site about American Buddhism. She copied the entire text, but it is far more legible in the original document. I also think she may disappear it on her blog.
This is an article about Chinese culture out of a commercial publication, and the first term in the title is Waiguo Ren, which is a derogative term meaning foreigner. The entire title says, "Chinese Culture as it is seen by Foreigners," and it is what you would expect it to be, a ballyhooing of Chinese culture and how foreigners don't understand it. It is also seriously dumb, and insults its audience by reciting basics of Chinese culture that would be very old news for anyone that can read it. Clearly, the authors are talking down to Waiguo Ren. Literate Chinese knew this going in, because of the initial use of the term.
The whole thing was baited by the English-language title leader, which was not used on any other articles in this publication.
In general this site is a real piece of work, and I've decided to ignore it. I dredged it up from the bottom of Dogpile simply because I have found things of value there in the past. But this one was supposed to stay buried.
Oh, and hey, can I write "Stink" now mom?
Furthermore, Yee Har for American Buddhism!!!
If there is one thing that worries me above all others, it is the way in which we are manipulated by tendentious use of language. I am not saying that it is anything new - G. Julius Caesar did a fantastic job in De Bello Gallico - I simply mourn the passing of the few years when we deconstructed language under the aegis of McLuhan and Chomsky - either by attraction or by opposition. Logical positivism, which was still in fashion when I went up to university, demanded that we pay attention to meaning, context, etc.
If, as you assert, "waiguo ren" is a derogatory term, it would seem to infect the whole venture, as a drop of bleach can pollute a whole lot of water.
There are, interestingly, Chinese dialects that appear to have truly racist terms to refer to foreigners, to which there are no alternatives...
It literally means "outside country person," and it is the dialectical opposite of "central country person," which is the term the Chinese use for themselves.
It's derogatory when it's used by someone from afar in reference to the natives of the soil on which s/he stands. Chinese in America do this habitually and perpetually. Americans are not "outside country people" in America. The Chinese are that, by the meaning of these roots.
In exactly the same way, it is absolutely derogatory to refer to Americans as outside country people on a site named American Buddhism. It is lethally toxic when it is initated by the owner of the site, as it was here. This tells every Chinese person who logs on and writes in Chinese that the site is about making fun of the Waiguo Ren. It is also completely inappropriate, irresponsible and from space, when the same person doing this in Chinese writes a definition of American Buddhism in English.
There are a number of proper Chinese terms that would be correct and polite in the situation, such as "ben di ren," and "tu di ren," which both mean local person. And of course, if you're Chinese and you're being pushed to the wall by locals who can understand your mother tongue, you can always call Americans "Meiguo ren," which is Chinese for American persons, and it means "people of a beautiful country." If that were the term being used for us by the owner of the site, it would have potential. As it is, it is trouble looking for someone to happen to.
But there are a lot of useful links there. And the news blog would have potential if you didn't know where the English-language Buddhist news feeds are.
Above all, I may feel that the usage of "zhongguo ren" is something of Chinese culture rather than Chinese arrogance. I cannot remember a time where the Chinese totally forgot their roots from China - in-line with the Confucian teachings we are known best for. Yet our allegiances, I may assure, lies utmostly with the country we reside in - for me, Singapore my homeland.
In fact, even in multiracial Singapore, where all races live together harmoniously, do I hear references to ourselves as "hua ren" , "zhongguo ren", or the less-occasional "han ren", not necessarily meaning to isolate ourselves from the other races of our land, but more often to make a very-racial point e.g. bilingual education etc. (For the sake of ambiguity, I must say that this is not always the case for the Government)
To use "waiguo ren" in this case... I may have to reflect to you something in Singapore.
Even as the Caucasians belong to one of the largest minorities in Singapore, and in theory have as much right to own the land as we Chinese do, it is commonplace here that we would refer to all Caucasians, Singaporean or not, as "angmoh" - a very Hokkien term literally meaning "red hair", which again, is because of our influence by early Chinese immigrants.
Caucasians in Singapore once in a while write to the press for that, but few really find it any problem. We don't mean it in a racist way, but heck, that's just a label we use - as we are well-known for our "accidental" lapse into "Singlish", where the only word to refer to Caucasians is the Hokkien equilavent.
It may not be fair to use a very Singapore case to justify a very American one - but I'd just like to point out that the Chinese have as much business in America as the Caucasians. Using "waigguo ren" might just be so much better than a variety of other Chinese "non-literal" translations of the Caucasian kind. I do trust that America, unlike Malaysia the "Tanah Melayu", does not have strict constitutional laws that state that the land belongs to a particular racial group, I suppose? :rockon:
In the essay, it is perhaps the same reason which propels the author to use "waigguo ren", precisely to advocate a very Chinese viewpoint. Of course, I may often be wrong, not knowing America as well as Singapore.
It sounds a lot like the Japanese use of the word "gaijin" for foreigner. It means "foreign devil", but it's nowadays just used like our word "foreigner". In other words, it's lost its former perjorative sense and is now just a word used to describe someone not Japanese. Of course, fortunately Americans (or at least most of them) have dropped the practice of referring to Chinese as "yellow devils" or something of similar derogatory meaning. It's just human nature for people to see something "foreign" as negative.
In other words, much ado about nothing...
Palzang
How do you think the Chinese would take it if anyone of any nationality went to Peking and referred to Han Chinese as 'foreigners,' in any language?
I agree that gaijin is not pejorative, although some of the Japanese apparently think it is crude. When I was practicing with Japanese Sanghas, I often called myself a gaijin, to their dismay. Apparently they thought I was ridiculing them. The polite term for Caucasians appears to be hakujin. I have no idea what that means, but it certainly is not pejorative either.
But Waiguo Ren is pejorative. You can feel it, and you can hear it. When you've been called that by a Chinese, you've been outed, and you're spoken down to forever more by that person unless you call them on it, or unless someone above them on the social scale calls them on it. When they respect you, they call you by your nationality.
_/\_
metta
Palzang
More worrying is our current use of the adjective "British" as in "British Muslim". In the anti-semitic twenties and thirties of the last century, the term "British Jew" was in common use. It now persists only in the title of the Board of Deputies but I greatly fear that its use again, applied to British-born people whose religion is Islam and whose ethnicity is non-Anglo-Saxon, signals increasing xenophobic violence. 70 years after the riots in the East End led by Moseley and his blackshirts, we seem to have forgotten how to live in peace with our neighbour.
Most of the nicknames that we give to foreigners recall old quarrels. The French called us godons after the Hundred Year War and until the 19th century, from the English soldiers' use of profanity ("Goddamn"). Interestiung that we now find the terms les fuckoffs becoming common currency. It is, thus, no surprise that our brothers and sisters in Chgina should have derogatory terms for Westerners: we haven't behaved too well, have we?
Palzang
At times, I must say I prefer the term, than to hear some funny stress being put on the phrase "You Chinese" by Americans... It makes it sound personal and insulting above all.
China IS the land of the Chinese - it's something that stretches 5000 years ago. Likewise, Japan IS the land of the Japanese and so on and so forth. America, like Singapore, is a land of many races, where Irish Americans, Scottish Americans etc. all come and live. No race should earn the right to know itself as the rightful race, aside from their linguistic rights. :rockon: What about the Hispanic, and their "los gringos"?
P.S. The whole of Malaysia, plus all south of it to Indonesia, in theory too belongs as the land of the Malays, since that is their territory... But nationhood has changed all these, and even so, one must take into account how many different indigenious peoples of Sabah and Sarawak have been forcibly made to identify themselves as Malays more than any other race they fancy.
Palzang el gordo gringo
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2602
Palzang el pinche gringo
Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes
(Virgil)
["I fear the Greeks bearing gifts"]
She is a waiguo ren in Hong Kong, unless she's Chinese, and so would I be, and no, it is not pejorative used this way.
But I am not a waigwo ren in America, or on a site named "American Buddhism." To use it for me in my homeland, or on a site reputed to be about my homeland, is pejorative.
In your heart, you know it's an issue.
Or in Spanish: temeo gringos con cadillacs!
Palzang
Why are you clinging to your American identity?
Perhaps it's a difference of cultures here then.
Palzang
Request denied.
Oh, and hey, sarcasm is an abuse of the intellect. You knew that going in.
Again, with respect Xing Ping, if words can be easily taken out of context, it is the responsibility of the person producing those words to ensure that they are not. The onus of any resultant distress caused by those words is on the person producing them, not the person reading them or hearing them. This is surely why the Buddha included Right Thinking and Right Speech in the Eightfold Noble path? If it were 'my karma', as you put it, then surely also there would be no need to follow this path, as we could all simply say and do what we wish- after all, if anyone is upset by our actions, it is, as you say, 'their karma'. I honestly believe we should be responsible for our own actions, and that includes the manner in which others react to them.
Please, I am not seeking conflict with you here, I was merely highlighting what others have also seen, and the slightly patronising opening sentence of your reply indicates the possibility of such a conflict. I was only asking for mindfulness.
Peace.
(**)
The harder the wood, the quicker the sandpaper wears down.
When I mentioned karma in my post to you, I said "their." If I had been talking about you, I would have written "your."
And if I had meant "Dear," dear, I would most definitely have written dear.
As I understand the meaning of the Buddha, right speech means telling the truth and forsaking frivilous speech. Karma comes from volition, that is my intention in speaking or writing. If my intentions are good, the resulting karma will be good, whatever other people may do later with the words. And in fact, I can't control that. On the web, anything can be taken out of context whatever the original intention was. So the results of evil volition, for example, down the line do not fall back on me who had good volition originally. They most definitely fall on the person/s who acted evilly in taking my words out of context. If the person who took the words out of context was simply confused, but evil was seen by a third party, then that evil is the karma of that third party.
Usenet and many web-based boards are full of the Buddha's words mispercieved and taken out of context by later-day Nihilists and fundamentalist Christians. Does that mean that the Word of the Buddha is wrong?
No but there are things to be said, and 'Right' ways to say them.
A doctor may well know a patient under his care is beyond help, and will die soon, but he will meaure his words and apply them as kindly and compassionately as possible.
He's not going to say, "There's no hope, and frankly, you're not long for this world."
He would in all probability say something more like,
"I'm sorry, we have tried all we can, but your condition is just too advanced, and there is no more we can do. However, you will be made as comfortable and pain-free as possible, and we will administer every care possible in your last days..."
Which amounts to the same thing, but is much kinder in version#2.
So yes, I'm afraid Xing Ping, you cannot abdicate all responsibility in this.
It's not what you say, necessarily, but just as much the way you say it.
Federica, you have taken my words out of context. Here is the context of the last sentence you applied to other things:
I am not a doctor in privileged confidential one-one-one relationship with a patient when I write on this board, or anywhere else on the Web. I am writing in a context in which anyone can log on and take me out of context, as you have just done. I do not abdicate responsibility by being realistic about the context, and about the necessary structural lack of context, on the Web.
Please answer my question. Does the fact that the Buddha's words are perpetually taken out of context on the Web invalidate those words, or mean that He was speaking irresponsibly when he said them?
I myself will gladly answer this question. The one thing that the Buddha was NOT, was speaking irresponsibly. Most websites run by practitioners of the Abrahamic religions will invariably not fully understand certain aspects of the Dhamma, chiefly because of the cultural differences in Western upbringing that limit their frames of reference. Buddhas' words are not invalidated because they are misunderstood.
I think I am right in saying that Federica was replying in the context of my previous post regarding the use of descriptive words in relation to certain races, rather than the question posed in your reply to that post. I am sure Federica will be able to reply and further elabourate on that.
Peace.
What the Buddha said with regard to context, and the way you respond to people on this forum, are two completely different things. I was referring to the latter.
Apologies from me if I have confused the issue, but my recommendation - whether you are in a one-to-one, or speaking at large - remains.
Moving right along, dear, why do you have a beginningless problem with everything that I write?
I disagree.
The way to transmit the Buddhadharma to the west is not to identify with Americans, but to realize the Buddhadharma within one's own mind. Now, understanding Americans will definitely help in your ability to communicate with them, but the level of identification you are demonstrating with an empty concept arguably prevents a proper transmission.
_/\_
metta
When the Tathagata first Turned the Wheel, at Sarnath, he spoke in the language that the five could understand and in such a way that each could internalise the message and become arhants, individually, from Kaundmya to Ashvajit.
Perhaps you have found one American context. The proof will be in the outcome. Will it have skillfully enabled and empowered others?
When you read responses to your thoughts here, are you surprised at the apparent discomfort that your correspondents express? Or is it part of what you hope to achieve? Within the context of American discourse, is the polemical style which has come to dominate poltico-social debate that which you have chosen as the vehicle in which to transmit your understanding of the Dharma? You openly share with us your crirticism of some members the sangha to which you belong and ask us to agree with you. Is the transmission that you seek achieved by judgment, opposition and an appeal to self-will? It certainly is a valid point in a society which values the individual and the individual's choices above all.
Where there may be a risk of getting 'stuck' is that, whilst the context of specific human experience is the place to start, it is surely not the goal. Each of us starts in this place in samsara. It is the context within which we experience the first two Noble Truths. The Third suggest that there is better than this, and the Fourth points to the way out of context altogether.
In your sharing with us that you are aware of having been Chinese and now perceive yourself as American, you show us that context is contingent and transitory. Even perceived 'purpose' is no more than a temporary assembly of co-arising causes, arising and passing away.
Xing Ping,
I don't have a beginningless problem with everything you write. I have a problem with your grasping and clinging to your American identity.
Were the first Buddhists in America fully-integrated with American culture?
Putting on the appearance of Dharma, we even think we are practitioners, yet this mind falls far short of perfect practice. Lacking even human dharma, why ask about the Buddhadharma?
With a vague notion of the sixteen rules of proper human conduct, when examining ourselves our own bad deeds bring us no shame.
When it comes to others, our patience is as short as the tail of the drawa mouse.
Unable to execute the ten virtuous actions of Buddhadharma, full of sectarian bias although there is only one Teacher and one Teaching, we criticize teachings and sages, accumulating bad karma. Using Dharma in this way is just carrying along a big burden of sin.
We've heard a lot of teachings, but it has only increased our pride. Our mental analysis does not penetrate the depths of their meaning...
Give up the path on which you know so much but miss the one essential point. Should we not now enter the path of knowing the one thing that liberates all?
With metta,
Palzang
Ladies first, Federica.