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The Distortions We Bring To The Study of Buddhism
By Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse calls on Westerners
to acknowledge the distortions we may bring to the study of Buddhism—through our
cultural arrogance, the deceit of ego, and simple ignorance. The successful
transplant of such a subtle and challenging practice as Buddhism, he says, depends on thorough study and clear recognition of our habitual
patterns.
Transplanting anything from a foreign culture is a difficult process
which may corrupt what is being imported. Buddhism is certainly no exception; in
fact, among imported foreign goods, dharma is perhaps the most prone to
corruption.
Initially, to understand dharma even on an
intellectual level is not at all simple. Then once we have some understanding,
to put dharma into practice is even more subtle, because it requires that we go
beyond our habitual patterns. Intellectually, we may recognize how our
narrow-minded habits have brought about our own cycle of suffering, but at the
same time we may also be afraid to engage wholeheartedly in the process of
liberating these habits of ours.
This is cherishing of ego.
For even if we think we want to practice the Buddhist path, to give up our
ego-clinging is not easy, and we could well end up with our own ego's version of
dharma—a pseudo-dharma which will only bring more suffering instead of
liberation.
For this reason, most Oriental teachers are very
skeptical about exporting dharma to the Western world, feeling that Westerners
lack the refinement and courage to understand and practice properly the
buddhadharma. On the other hand there are some who try their best to work on the
transmission of the dharma to the West.
It is important to
remember that a thorough transplantation of dharma cannot be accomplished within
a single generation. It is not an easy process, and as when Buddhism was brought
from India to Tibet, it will undoubtedly take time. There are enormous
differences between the attitudes of various cultures and different
interpretations of similar phenomena. It is easy to forget that such supposedly
universal notions as "ego," "freedom," "equality," "power," and the implications
of "gender" and "secrecy," are all constructions that are culture-specific and
differ radically when seen through different perspectives. The innuendoes
surrounding a certain issue in one culture might not even occur to those of
another culture, where the practice in question is taken for
granted.
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