To Arch Stanton:
Thanks for your insightful essay regarding 10 years of Tricycle Magazine. You have been able to articulate what I have felt in only fits and starts.
I want to make one comment regarding the Sutra Vehicle; specifically the idea that the Sutra teachings are more compatible with the approach that Tricycle takes than the Vajrayana. I don't really think this is so. Let me illustrate why.
Given that the Sutra Vehicle is a form of learning more easily recognizable than the pattern of the Vajrayana, if I compare Sutra learning with learning from other activities, or areas of human interest, I discover that the approach of Tricycle, if applied to these other fields, would be very damaging. For example, take mathematics. Mathematical knowledge is passed on from teacher to students. What qualifies a person as a teacher in mathematics? Knowledge of the subject, skill in the subject, dexterity in the subject. There is nothing democratic about it. Either one can solve a quadratic equation or one can't, either one understands transfinite numbers or one doesn't. The student is in a clear relationship to the teacher; that of receiving information from a source of knowledge.
Or take musicianship. To learn how to play a musical instrument one goes to someone who is skilled in that instrument, demonstrates facility with that instrument. Once again it is not a matter of voting. Nor is it a matter of the personality of the musician (e.g. whether or not they are nice). If they can skillfully play the instrument, and I want to learn how to play this instrument, then as a student I will accept what they have to teach.
The same logic can be applied to many fields of human learning. My point is that the view of Tricycle is inimical to the passing on of any kind of knowledge which requires dedication and commitment and depth.
Please note that I am not disagreeing with you that the Vajrayana in particular lies outside of the domain of Tricycle's understanding and approach because of the specifics of Vajrayana methodology. I am suggesting that the Sutra Vehicle also lies outside of this kind of approach.
Best Wishes,
Jim Wilson
Dear Jim,
Thank you for your response. I agree with what you say. Indeed, this is what I meant when I said that Tricycle was "anti-discipline and therefore anti-Buddhist." My comments regarding Sutra were intended to point out that Tricycle's methodology relies on a particular misinterpretation of Sutra. By emphasizing aspects of the Sutric teachings which fit well with Western conditioning, they weave the illusion of a firm foundation for their apostate editorial agenda. I emphasized the affront this poses to Vajrayana because of Damtsig's own particular purpose; but I thank you for reminding readers that this maneuver is equally a distortion of the Sutric teachings - as they are fundamentally consonant with the Vajrayana.