Secular/traditional

I don’t like the intro so far. I experience it as not dharma. Maybe it’s clearing the brush around the Dharma. Interesting dichotomies: traditional/secular, modern/traditional, east/west.


The first chapter by Sarah Shaw of Oxford is about Ashoka so far, which if fascinating to me. I like how after killing a hundred thousand people he found Buddhism. I guess it's never too late. His edict quoted preached a multiculturalism and tolerance of other sects which I liked.


She has a good list of ruler virtues:


1. dana: generosity
2. sila: the moral or ethical behavior of keeping the five precepts
(of not killing, stealing, practicing sexual conduct likely to cause
harm, lying, or letting oneself become intoxicated)
3. pariccaga: renunciation
4. ajjava: straightness (Skt. arjava, to rju, to uju in Pali)
5. maddava: softness; often, with straightness, found related to
mudutà, the softness of mind and body present in skillful
consciousness
6. tapa: self-restraint
7. akkodha: the absence of anger; loving-kindness
8. avihimsa: the absence of harm; compassion59
9. khanti: forbearance
10. avirodhana/ avirodha: gentleness; the absence of obstruction

I like it in the essay by McMahan referencing Gergen’s Saturated Self. Articulation of modern selfhood is complex. The buffered self is a phrase that runs through my mind. 

The third essay by Funie Hsu is a deft takedown of the American implications to secular Buddhism.


Links:


Secular Buddhist Network Review.