Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
trendy?
So, I went shopping with my sister the other day. She needed some stuff from the yoga supply store, which was a nightmare - we barely made it past the sale rack with our lives! My sister griped a bit about how they've raised all their prices, and most of the people shopping there don't even do yoga, they just wear the clothes to be cool (I personally don't believe that yoga clothes could be cool). "I've been doing yoga for years and years, and now all of a sudden it's really trendy and there are all these irritating people everywhere! Do you feel the same way about meditation and Zen?"
I'd never really thought of it. I attend a rather 'ethnic' (Chinese) temple, which is like the anti-cool, trendy people wouldn't go there! I've noticed the Zen mp3 player, of course, and the expansion of the Eastern Religions section at the book store (though I've never heard of most of the authors). I don't think I'm bothered by it though...
Or maybe I do sometimes get an echo of the strange disappointment I felt as a kid, when one of my favourite punk/indie bands was embraced by the mainstream. Come to think of it, Buddhist punks are themselves a bit of a trend these days too, aren't they? :rockon:
So, what does everyone else think about Buddhism getting to be so cool? Are you worried about the Dharma being diluted as it's Westernised? Are you sick of people asking you about The Secret? Are you just happy that it's easier to find a zafu?
I'd never really thought of it. I attend a rather 'ethnic' (Chinese) temple, which is like the anti-cool, trendy people wouldn't go there! I've noticed the Zen mp3 player, of course, and the expansion of the Eastern Religions section at the book store (though I've never heard of most of the authors). I don't think I'm bothered by it though...
Or maybe I do sometimes get an echo of the strange disappointment I felt as a kid, when one of my favourite punk/indie bands was embraced by the mainstream. Come to think of it, Buddhist punks are themselves a bit of a trend these days too, aren't they? :rockon:
So, what does everyone else think about Buddhism getting to be so cool? Are you worried about the Dharma being diluted as it's Westernised? Are you sick of people asking you about The Secret? Are you just happy that it's easier to find a zafu?
0
Comments
Feng Shui had a massive impact on the UK about 10 - 12 years ago.
I now actually hear relatively little about it.
That leaves enough room and space for the sincere devotees and followers to finally, once the dust has settled, get to work and make a genuine difference.
Thus have I found.
As far as Zen goes - in French we use the word "zen" to mean very calm, totally poised, as in "Oui les choses vont mal, mais je reste zen." (yes, things are bad but I am staying really cool and calm)
Ever since Dharma Bums and Ginsberg, Buddhism has had a "cachet": malas and stuff. The locals in Dharamsala make a good living out of selling Buddhist kitsch to tourists.
Saint Paul got very irate with the Ephesians selling miniatures of Diana. That was 2000 years ago but when I visited Ephesus some 20 years ago there were still such models on sale, alongside pictures of Saint Paul.
The truth is, of course, that the Dharma cannot be diluted, watered down or diminished because it is what it is, irrespective of the way fools behave.
Knitwitch: you want to come and visit Glastonbury!
Don't make her angry.
You wouldn't like her when she's angry. *green*....!!
Blowing a gasket doesn't cover it....!!
Hilarious post, by the way, Jacx.
Knitting being one of the examples - ooooooooh if I see one more programme on TV about the beautiful people taking their knitting to trendy pubs, I will scream, been doing it all my life.
People that go around buying charms and such do no one any harm. I grew up Roman Catholic and was taught by the nuns that sacramentals such as holy water and other objects such as rosaries, etc. had some intrinsic spiritual benefit if used in a respectful and prayerful way. Even if their "purpose" was forgotten or not put to work, these objects were prone to bring some spiritual benefit along the way so long as they were treated with care and not manipulated in an unholy way. Also, I was taught by a dear monk that Nothing in life is wasted.
Ortega y Gassett, writing about human culture somewhere, said that pretension is a "leaning towards something" and a striving to be different than what one is. That is just part of life. In other words, although we often think of pretension as mere phoniness, there is an element in our lives that reaches forward to becoming something different and improved. That is a sort of pre-tension, a reaching forward, wherein we are not entirely made but are only hatchlings.
Much of human culture is based on Noble Fictions. There are worse trends than identifying with a religion you know very little about. If any of my nieces or nephews were to start wearing, say, Buddhist paraphernalia, I'd be much less worried about them than if it were Nazi stuff. (Not that Buddhism scares me. No. It's just that it's so trendy right now.) :tongue2:
Anyhow, Ortega asserts that Pretension ("a leaning towards") is an inescapable component of human life. We are poised towards the future and the very potentiality of what we might be tomorrow is not so much based on reality as it is on hope. And hope focusses on bright things, and, yes, on New things,
I think there are many worse ways of being trite or whatever.
As far as being trendy goes, though, I think everyone having to sport a shiny new automobile like the one I just got DOES HURT the environment, etc. (but it's good for the economy). Gosh, and if so many feel they need to have five houses, that trend does hurt the poor and homeless... But I feel no need to go on and on.
I know I did in my own practices but like many people I still hang on magpie-like to some of my pretty things just because they have sentimental value (the athame that my husband bought me) or they are beautiful (my rose quartz orb) .... which in itself is reprehensible, but very human.
I really liked what you wrote, Nirvana. Reminded me of the discussion I had with Sensei about the film The Burmese Harp. Apparently, though that movie is not based on a true story, there are quite a number of Chinese legends about people choosing to take vows after dressing as a monk or living in a monastery for some unrelated purpose (escaping a military draft, hiding from enemies, etc.).
As I mentioned, I attend a Chinese Buddhist temple, it also has a sizeable Vietnamese-speaking minority. So I've spoken with a few people who know what "attacking the Dharma" really looks like. Compared to that, the New Agers seem pretty harmless.
People have stopped asking me about The Secret. The last one who questioned me about what the Buddha meant when he (supposedly) said "With our thoughts we make the world" got an earful about (what I could remember of) the Mind-only doctrine from the Lankavatara Sutra. I found out later that that particular quote was probably taken from the first two verses of the Dhammapada though - whups!
I was quite surprised to see some quality meditation cushions on sale at the yoga supply store of doom. I spent years making do with two folded camp blankets (I was younger then!), until I could find someone on the Internet willing ship a zafu to Canada. It was http://www.pemadesign.com/ , before anyone asks!