On correct view...

[icarus]

Sometimes the simplest concepts in Buddhism are blown out of proportion. Correct View is one of them.

It's practical. It makes sense.

Yet so many think it's about a pretense, pretending to see your teacher as perfect, pretending to be aware of something special... making up 'specialness' all around you.

It isn't.

Correct View is simply that. Correct.

Let's give an example. In the Middle Ages, healers did blood-letting, with the best of intentions, when people were ill. They often made the condition worse, or even killed their patient. But they believed they were helping. They just held an Incorrect Belief, or... Incorrect View, on which they based their actions.

So Incorrect View is quite dangerous. As dangerous as it is... innocent in a sense.

Incorrect View can be pretty easy to spot by the results: usually, people suffer.

Racism is an example of Incorrect View - see? It's not all high-falutin' spiritual. So is taking ones religion to bolster your ego, Sectarianism.

This is why I've stood up to those in the Buddhist community who teach Incorrect View, who distort Dharma for their own ends. It's not only that they pillage their students. They also self-servingly teach their students a belief system that will cause them nothing but harm.

I don't apologize for being a whistle-blower. I've presented the evidence of the damage, in what they've done. But I believe the greater harm is what they teach. That's the 'gift' that keeps on 'giving.'

~Icarus

This has been a public service announcement on behalf of the Buddhist Community at large.

Comments

Re: Women in Buddhism - addendum

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I can't resist... The texts quoted in argument that 'women are lower rebirths' are the Prajnaparamitrasutra (which teaches all inner and outer phenomena are empty of self-nature, how can something that is empty being lower than something else that is empty?) and the Uttaratantrashastra (which teaches all beings have the Buddhanature, so are fundamentally equal).

The Hinayana or Theravada Buddhists do not accept either of these texts.

Mahayana Buddhism was a little more esoteric in India, and was only taught to the Buddha's more devloped students. Conceptually, it is very easy to get these wrong, which is why one needs the practical Hinayana approach as a foundation.

~Icarus