Easy for you to say . . .

lobster

Have you been brought up nicely, in a pleasant environment, ready and able to 'be kind' or is RL(Real Life) tough for you?

My father was middle class, my mother from a single parent family. We had I would say, a privelidged upbringing, even though we lived in a surprisingly mixed area. Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas. How nice.
Karma?
Pah!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26254706

Is engaged compassion something we can learn from the Christians, Punk and engaged/enraged Buddhists? Is social development best left to restoring feudalism in Tibet?

Mr Cushion says he is a low life.
What say you?

DairyLama

lobster said:

Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas.

They often are, but there are exceptions. Have you been to London Buddhist Centre int the East End? Many years ago I met the guy who was instrumental in the initial renovation work, a cockney who lived on tea and roll-ups - what a great character!
And the group I used to run wasn't in a nice area, so I have done my bit for the proletariat..:p

Spiny the working-class hero

Dandelion

SpinyNorman said:

lobster said:

Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas.

They often are, but there are exceptions. Have you been to London Buddhist Centre int the East End? Many years ago I met the guy who was instrumental in the initial renovation work, a cockney who lived on tea and roll-ups - what a great character!
And the group I used to run wasn't in a nice area, so I have done my bit for the proletariat..:p

Spiny the working-class hero

I did a great meditation course there a few yrs ago, and found everyone to be very friendly, I have to say. That part of London is very interesting.

DairyLama

Dandelion said:

SpinyNorman said:

lobster said:

Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas.

They often are, but there are exceptions. Have you been to London Buddhist Centre int the East End? Many years ago I met the guy who was instrumental in the initial renovation work, a cockney who lived on tea and roll-ups - what a great character!
And the group I used to run wasn't in a nice area, so I have done my bit for the proletariat..:p

Spiny the working-class hero

I did a great meditation course there a few yrs ago, and found everyone to be very friendly, I have to say. That part of London is very interesting.

I used to work on the maintenance team for Phoenix Housing which was attached to the LBC.

Citta

Dandelion said:

SpinyNorman said:

lobster said:

Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas.

They often are, but there are exceptions. Have you been to London Buddhist Centre int the East End? Many years ago I met the guy who was instrumental in the initial renovation work, a cockney who lived on tea and roll-ups - what a great character!
And the group I used to run wasn't in a nice area, so I have done my bit for the proletariat..:p

Spiny the working-class hero

I did a great meditation course there a few yrs ago, and found everyone to be very friendly, I have to say. That part of London is very interesting.

And increasing trendy...

Bunks

Citta said:

Dandelion said:

SpinyNorman said:

lobster said:

Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas.

They often are, but there are exceptions. Have you been to London Buddhist Centre int the East End? Many years ago I met the guy who was instrumental in the initial renovation work, a cockney who lived on tea and roll-ups - what a great character!
And the group I used to run wasn't in a nice area, so I have done my bit for the proletariat..:p

Spiny the working-class hero

I did a great meditation course there a few yrs ago, and found everyone to be very friendly, I have to say. That part of London is very interesting.

And increasing trendy...

Only been there once. West Ham v Southampton Upton Park 1998. Sat in the away section but right next to the home supporters. Had three 12 year olds yell abuse at me for ninety minutes!

I wanted to explain to them that I was just off the plane and followed neither team but I am not sure it would've done much good.

Nirvana

lobster said:

Have you been brought up nicely, in a pleasant environment, ready and able to 'be kind' or is RL(Real Life) tough for you?

I thought that life was hard for everybody. Perhaps Lady Luck is our best friend, though. Even those of us traumatized severely in our childhoods can recoup with Lady Luck (Some of us call it Providence) on our sides. I don't ordinarily feel I come from a particularly privileged background --given my family's 9 children and some episodes of illness in my parents that rather impoverished us. Yet, when I compare our standard of living to that of what at that time were called the second- and third-world incomes, I do feel that we were very privileged indeed.

Dharma Centres are often run by and for nice people from nice areas. How nice.
Karma?
Pah!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26254706

Is good luck, or just being fortunate, if you will, a karmic reward? Or could it be more or less a matter of having a gracious style? I mean, happy people are more likely to be truly grateful and not fault-finding or troubled people in the first place. People are like fish in that they stick to the waters that they feel at home in. Could it be that "nice people" desire nothing more than to be even nicer?

"Easy for you to Say." Each of us is in reality our own best Teacher. Why should it be easier for that Teacher to say than for us to learn?

Interesting Article. The part about the author having to put up a pretense to be tough all the time and how that must have had an effect on him was poignant to me. But I still think he persevered in hope and faith and that Lady Luck played a Huge role in this. If you believe in essential goodness you keep it always at least near the horizon of your mind. And all who can do this are lucky, I think, given how cruel nature really is, eventually, in the long-run of things physical.

Vastmind

I wish I knew what to say.

Ghetto's here have been a problem for a long
time.
Now what?
Mentoring, education, civil rights issues.......

That takes money....but who's? Social?... taxpayers?
Temples?
Yikes...now that will start a fight, hahaha
Around here the railroad tracks still separate
everyone. Race, political, money..you name it.
Religion....don't even go there.

As far as the OP....Do I see centers opening
there? No. Why? For a lot of reasons....some
listed above. More, if you ask.

Are the engaged ones aligned with
'Modern Buddhism' .....I think so.

anataman

Thank you @Nirvana, you took the sting out of my tail, but I didn't really get to understand the ending, might need to re-read when better.

What is your point @lobster? I've got a snotty nose and a shitty background, but neither makes me lose hope or wish for anything more or less. Snuffle, sniffle atchoo!

With help I have shaped and created my environment and am controlling it pretty much, but respect the natural world, but fear it for its unpredictability...

Metthatchoo

lobster

They often are, but there are exceptions.

There should be nothing but exceptions IMHO.
The last temple I visited is in an exclusive area originally funded by Yul Brynner or the Queen of Siam, not sure which . . .

Elite Dharma for the genteel?

Previous to that I went to a bustling, busy, converted maximum security court, once used to try terrorists/freedom frighters.


Extremes? Room for both? What sort of dharma Boddhisattvas are we complicit in?

fivebells

The most serious practitioner I know is doing 50 years for murder. I think he did have a nice upbringing, though.

lobster

Seen this film? See it.


and now back to the imprisoned . . .

Have you been to London Buddhist Centre in the East End?

Yes.
It was nice.