Dear All,
Let's begin our group readings and discussions of Zen Teacher David Loy's recent work, A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution, and Ethics in the Modern World. Lots of food for thought (and non-thought) in this short book.
https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=...ntents&f=false
I will try to post a new reading assignment every weekend or so (unless the discussion of some chapter is particularly good, in which case we will linger a bit).
This week, we will focus on the INTRODUCTION: In Quest of a Modern Buddhism, which is pages 1 through 8 in the paperback version.
I will toss out a few questions just to get things going, but you can ignore them or address them or talk about anything else that strikes your fancy in these pages. My questions are just suggestions. These questions are asked as we just get started, before reading what David has to say on these issues, so we may return to these issues several times in the course of the book.
- Is the modern world changing Buddhism? Is that good? Not good in some ways?
- Is Buddhism changing the modern world? Is that good? Not good in some ways?
- Does Buddhism need to change even more in the face of modern society, scientific discoveries and the like?
- Should Buddhism not change in some ways, no matter what science discovers or modern values change?
I am hoping that David Loy will come to lead Zazen and speak to us sometime later this year.
Feel free to talk among yourselves here too, and comment on each others' comments, if you want. Visualize that we are all sitting in a circle with coffee and donuts (mmmm, Donuts!) at the local book store (those are becoming more and more imaginary too!). Everyone says their piece if they wish, but you can also ask each other questions or talk of impressions and insights from other members' words if you want.
However, okay not to as well, and just lay back and listen too. You can just stay for the coffee and donuts too, all free.
Gassho, J
SatToday
(IN MODERATION!)
