Taking lessons from the other faiths ;)

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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Christopherxx
Posts: 109
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:59 pm

Taking lessons from the other faiths ;)

Post by Christopherxx »

Hey Dudettes and Dudes!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful time :twothumbsup:

I want to open the debate up about what us as monks, lay followers, interested individuals can do to help develop and open up the teaching of the dhamma.

Some suggestions I have are:

1. We help promote the writings of modern commentaries. For example; look at http://bestcommentaries.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; this is a site from the Christian tradition which lists all the forms of commentaries available today for the christian ordained, lay, and interest individual. There are commentaries of beginner nature, advanced, exegesis styled, eisegesis (pastoral), technical (grammar, history, etc.), and all other related material to do with the source works.

If you ever pick up one of those technical advanced commentaries from either the exegesis or eisegesis standpoint you will understand what i mean by incredible modern scholarship.

2. Another aspect of the other faiths development is due to the "significance" they place on their work (inerrant, basis of soteriology, etc.) they fund raise and create incentive pressures for the further study both in the academic and within their respective religious network. (Look at the amount of money and time spent on pauline studies these days as a perfect example).

3. Lastly, they create organized lobby/interest groups (Haha I know for Americans this is a dirty word) but for the rest of the world *Speaking as a Canadian* these groups can really do a lot of good when they aren't based on the motivation to convert. If they have a mission statement of providing funding, helping develop connections in which could help buddhist studies in the future, etc. then they usually end up becoming organizations of mass change and influence.

So in summary I think it starts right here.

This last part may be more related to the suggestion part of the forum but i feel it should tie into the rest of the post.

This forum may want to start an individual section that creates projects everyone can feel good about and people can start becoming involved, donating, etc.

Bhikkhu Bodhi is involved in such a thing and it's great to see. But we could be a powerful momentum for development. And gain some awesome merit and or just help more resources be available for future agnostic students. That's something that is seen a lot in the classics/philosophy departments of today ;)
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