Quote:
Originally Posted by Azalia
The basic idea behind the question is this: religions such as Buddhism have been conveyed from their country of origin and have been made logistically accessable through lamas, gurus and other influential figures, UK centres, temples, retreats, books, CDs and public talks. However, in terms of practicing these religions, how accessable are they really? Can we ever really fit in or practice them as Westerners, or do the cultural influences (past or present) that inform these religions play a larger role than we would admit, making us ultimately 'incompatable'?
The query was provoked by two things. Firstly, I watched a DVD on a buddhist pilgrimage which portrayed buddhism in a very ritualistic way, with multiple prostrations being done in front every statue of buddha that was passed and at every holy site, for the purpose of attenuating negative karma. (This was explained in a very simplistic causal manner: you do 100 prostrations, you get the karma points.) This element of buddhism doesn't seem valued so highly by westerners as part of their practice and many (if not most?) Western Buddhists would probably not do it at all, nor would they place such a high value on the relics that were shown. Here, the pilgrims and monks donated significant sums of money towards the restoration or completeion of religious relics in the name of "compassion". My thought on this documentary was really that:
1. The "Buddhism" that makes its way onto the shelves of Waterstones and is made available to Westerners seems to be in a different world to the Buddhism practiced (covertly or openly) in the Eastern Hemisphere where it originated. Therefore:
2. Are we offered a more 'palatable' version because Buddhism in its undiluted form is not accessable for the Western lifestyle or belief system? And is this 'right'?
The second aspect of my enquiry concerns Sikhism. Here, the religion is accessable to non-asians because Gurbani is the core of belief and the ideas expressed therein transcend relative entities like culture and time. It is quite possible to chip off to a gurdwara, sit for the service, sing kirtan with everybody and then skip off to take part in seva and the langar that's free for all, regardless of caste, colour or religious belief. However, there are aspects of Sikhi that do seem culturally informed. Panj Kakkar, for example (wearing of the kanga, kirpan, kesh, kachera and kara) stems from the tradition of panj pyare ("five beloved"), and in turn the khalsa army which defended the punjab border from muslim violence.
My thought here is: I can see the relevance for asians for whom panj kakkar represents their national as well as spiritual consciousness and also their heritage. But what right would I, as a non-asian have to adopt that code of dress, even if the symbolism has a personal significance to me?
To conclude, I might well pre-empt valid comments regarding the relative unimportance of both ritual and dress in religion, which is ultimately not temporal but transcendent. However, I would point out here, without going into too much detail at this point, that as Westerners this is exactly the kind of thinking that springs from our own cultural norms. According to these norms, which are perhaps to an extent inescapable, I too would agree that ritual worship and uniformity are not the most important aspects of religion, but I do think that perhaps they are much more important than we are inclined to believe as Westerners. I suspect that we don't want to take the risk of looking different, for example, because that would involve sacrificing things which we have attachment to, like our hair or wearing make-up or jewellery.
And doing what is 'easier' is not necessarily the same as doing what it 'right'....
Thoughts?
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The ultimate goal of any religion is enlightenment/self realization. Which is essentially a freedom from the conditioned mind. All conditioning is social. So realization is essentially social in nature. It is freedom from what you have been given by society. It can't be any other way
All these religions have a way/strategy of achieving that freedom, which are dictated by the social conditioning that prevails in that particular culture or sub culture.
The rituals of a religion are rooted in the collective consciousness of that particular culture. Because religion is a cultural thing and it also reflects the times of its origins.
Even if Christanity originated in East, it has taken on the hues and fragrance of the Western culture. So the rituals have modified greatly over the two millenia to reflect the cultures that practice it. Which is natural.
But the true message of a religion is neither rituals nor practices (they are just techniques) but to make perfect conditions within you for surrender to happen. That is what all religion is basically trying to induce (but religins become synonymous of the rituals they practice, unfortunately, because that is easier route for the masses)
Surrender is the ultimate challenge but we water the message down to avoid just that! Dognas, rituals, set routine are so much easier to follow than surrender. So sikhs(I am one of them) are hanging on to their 5 Ks, because it is easier option, is less challenging for the mind.
Eastern mind-set is more heart based, bhakti based so the bowing down comes easy to those cultures. It is an expression of how they trully are. But Westerns don't have to copy it mindlessly because surrender would happen, but it needs a different approach/strategy. Same with clothes. All ritual is a constant banging at rigid ways the mind is set. To pull a thorn out with another thorn so to speak. The way western mind is, it needs slightly different kind of banging.
Then the methods change again with time. When Buddha, Jesus were preaching people had uncomplicated simple mind sets. The mind has changed/evolved so much during these 2500 years. How can the same rituals be valid? They were designed for people in 500 bc.
They are rendered useless in modern times, modern mind, modern consciousness. Beliefs, rituals, dress code, practices are just perifery of the message, the core message of all religions is one - surrender. When that happens you go beyond all practices and all religions.
Most(Easterns and westerns) give too much credit to perifery.
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