Thank you for Damtsig. It is a wonderful site, full of thoughtful commentary and insights.
I am a lousy Buddhist. My practice is inconsistent, but I recognize that and accept that if I want to truly benefit myself and others, it's going to take some hard work. "Pop" Buddhism bothers me because it delivers a message that it's all so easy to become enlightened; no need to grapple with sophisticated concepts or engage in "pointless rituals." Well, ain't that America? ;-) We want everything to be easy and "teachers" like Lama Surya Das cater to that desire for expediency and effortlessness.
It's unfortunate that "Western Buddhism" has been taken over by pop psychologists and self-help gurus. At the same time, what can you do? Profiteers are always going to exploit the lowest common denominator in our culture. Fortunately, those who wish to go deeper and work hard to gain a little bit of realization will continue to do so with the help of websites like yours. Thanks again!
Robert J. Bullock
Dear Robert,
Thank you for writing. I would not even go so far as to say the "desire for expediency and effortlessness" is a problem. It is only when this desire takes precedence over the equally important considerations of "efficacy and the need for an adequate foundation." In terms of Dzogchen (the teachings Surya Das has chosen to distort), the efficacy of practice is entirely predicated upon the foundational relationship with the vajra master. Without this foundation, even the profound practices of the Great Completion will be neither "expedient" nor "effortless," because once they have been transformed into a mundane system of self-help, they no longer function as a method of realization. Whatever satisfaction is gleaned from the resulting "practices" is just a manipulation of one's own dualistic condition. The belief that this represents "the highest teachings" is a serious impediment to looking further for a method that actually does transcend our ordinary condition. And this is the real problem with these "teachers:" they teach that we are enlightened in a way that we are not; and this prevents us from seeing the way in which we actually are.
Regards,
Arch Stanton