Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Exploring Theravāda's connections to other paths - what can we learn from other traditions, religions and philosophies?
Arali
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:37 pm

Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Arali »

Hello,

I've found myself in an odd position and could use some advice.

The textbook of a course I'm taking has a chapter that discusses Buddhism. It is pretty inaccurate.
I wrote to the university about it. I addressed several of the inaccuracies, but this is my main complaint:
They completely changed the 4th Noble Truth.


Image

They responded that these are matters of contention among Buddhists and that the box I've posted was from Stephen Batchelor a "Buddhist teacher".

I contacted Batchelor. He had no idea what they were talking about. I sent them what he had said, and included a variety of sources showing that The Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold path are not something Buddhists are in disagreement about.

They've replied that their depiction of Buddhism is accurate.

I have 28 days to respond, but how does one respond to that?

My concern is that this chapter is one that students are required to learn. They must write an essay on it, which contributes to their final grade. Some of the people who take this course will go on to guide others' mindfulness practice. And changes are being made to make this course mandatory to every student undertaking psychology and/or counselling degree. That is a lot of people who will learn that the 4th Noble truth is 'Repeat 1-3 and it will become more effortless'.

I have tried to do what I thought was right, but I don't know how to proceed, and could use some input from fellow practitioners.

Any and all advice will be much appreciated.

Yours in the Dharma,
Arali
User avatar
Modus.Ponens
Posts: 3853
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:38 am
Location: Gallifrey

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Modus.Ponens »

I'm shocked by such a distortion! Jesus!

Thinking about it, Jesus might be the reason...

If not, it's a severe mistake that an academic institution doesn't correct its mistakes. That's the fundamental principle of science!

EDIT: Sorry for not having useful advice. Just wanted to get the previous out of my system.
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
Justsit
Posts: 803
Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:41 pm

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Justsit »

Tell them that there is widespread controversy over the authenticity of Batchelor's "Buddhism."
Ask them if it would be OK to study Christianity from a book written by Fred Phelps. Granted, bit of an extreme example, but they may get the point.
Last edited by Justsit on Fri Aug 16, 2013 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Coyote
Posts: 845
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:42 pm
Location: Wales - UK

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Coyote »

Is the text book written by your university? If so you should take it higher up - I am not sure of the process, but there should be one. If not, then have you contacted the authors? Which department in the course in? You could try contacting the head of that department, or alternately the RS, Philosophy ect. department, if there is one at your university.

Unfortunately misinformation is not uncommon in the school system, but it is terrible that this is happening at university level.
"If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would the stain of miserliness overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared."
Iti 26
Arali
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:37 pm

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Arali »

Modus.Ponens, Lol thank you, that was pretty much my initial response as well.

Justsit, It was really hard for me not to do that, especially because the author insists that Buddhism 'has to adapt for modern western audiences'.

Coyote, the book is written by the university, I'm in stage two of the formal complaint procedure. In this stage they contacted the author:
"With regards to the rewording and replacement of the source material in the box on page 171, Dr ---- adds that summarising Batchelor's depiction of Buddhist theory within the space afforded in this chapter required an inevitable exercise in simplification. Dr ---- would agree that in doing so the richness and complexity of the source material was necessarily lost. Turning towards your concerns about the omission of the eightfold path, Dr ---- interpretation of the four truths as actions includes the understanding that the point of the eightfold path is to cultivate the capacity to embody the first to third noble truths. In the point about 'becoming more effortless', the author is drawing on the metaphor of Buddhist practice being like a walk through a meadow of long grass. Each time you walk the path it becomes slightly easier."
They go on say their depiction of Buddhism is accurate, that ‘a number of experts and Buddhist practitioners’ found their chapter to be accurate, and so on. There only concession is they admit to getting the Buddha’s name wrong, and reversing the date of birth and death. If I reply, the next and final stage is the Vice-Chancellor, but I'm not sure what to say that I haven’t said already.
daverupa
Posts: 5980
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by daverupa »

Maybe you can try to get a footnote or a 'suggested reading' endnote added, with a balanced reading list.
  • "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting oneself one protects others? By the pursuit, development, and cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. It is in such a way that by protecting oneself one protects others.

    "And how is it, bhikkhus, that by protecting others one protects oneself? By patience, harmlessness, goodwill, and sympathy. It is in such a way that by protecting others one protects oneself.

- Sedaka Sutta [SN 47.19]
User avatar
Kim OHara
Posts: 5584
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Kim OHara »

the box I've posted was from Stephen Batchelor a "Buddhist teacher".

I contacted Batchelor. He had no idea what they were talking about.
This alone is enough to demonstrate that there is a factual error in the text.
It may look trivial but it is one that the author can't brush it off as a difference of opinion amongst Buddhists when challenged on it.

:namaste:
Kim
User avatar
Ben
Posts: 18438
Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:49 am
Location: kanamaluka

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Ben »

The Four Noble Truths happens to be one of those things that the vast majority of Buddhists are actually in agreement with.
If Stephen Batchelor has also denied that he has reduced the 4NT to what has been quoted then it would be a good idea to follow up with the previous suggestions. Not only is the material factually incorrect but it appears that it has been erroneously attributed to a respected author.
What isn't clear is whether the quoted material is in a text that is published by the university or whether it is a text published elsewhere but utilised by the university. If you don't get any traction with your complaint - continue to take it up the food chain until you get to the Vice Chancellor and then include your previous unsuccessful attempts to raise the issue with the relevant department.
Wishing you all the best,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
User avatar
Modus.Ponens
Posts: 3853
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:38 am
Location: Gallifrey

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Modus.Ponens »

Even wikipedia's summary is (much, much) better than this thing.

If they were actions, they would be called the four noble actions, not the four noble truths. And I fail to see where these actions are a necessary adaptation to the western modern world.

I shouldn't be surprised, though. A few months ago the case of a buddhist scholar at Oxford was discussed here at DW. He left buddhism for unsubstantiated objections to the buddhist path. An Oxford PhD in buddhist studies making such mistakes should have given me the adequate imunitary cells.
'This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution of all fabrications; the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding.' - Jhana Sutta
plwk
Posts: 1462
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2010 5:14 am

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by plwk »

Well, Arali, if you have exhausted all channels within the system to get it corrected, the last resort would be inevitable though: legal action.
Getting the support and petition power from the local Buddhist Community may help to bolster your case to get that fixed, challenging their purported 'Buddhist experts'
Of course, if you're up to be a crusader or else it's back to toeing the line, as they expect you to...
...especially because the author insists that Buddhism 'has to adapt for modern western audiences'.
Sure, Buddhism has a long history of 'adaptation' wherever it landed but not to the point of what Abhasita Sutta warns all about... they are perhaps trying to pull a fast wool over your eyes as I see it...
User avatar
Kim OHara
Posts: 5584
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2009 5:47 am
Location: North Queensland, Australia

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Kim OHara »

plwk wrote:Well, Arali, if you have exhausted all channels within the system to get it corrected, the last resort would be inevitable though: legal action.
Getting the support and petition power from the local Buddhist Community may help to bolster your case to get that fixed, challenging their purported 'Buddhist experts'
Of course, if you're up to be a crusader or else it's back to toeing the line, as they expect you to...
...especially because the author insists that Buddhism 'has to adapt for modern western audiences'.
Sure, Buddhism has a long history of 'adaptation' wherever it landed but not to the point of what Abhasita Sutta warns all about... they are perhaps trying to pull a fast wool over your eyes as I see it...
There's no need for conspiracy theories. Realistically, it's far more likely that the text was written quickly by the nearest person in the department who wasn't too busy at the time. Now that it has been challenged, everyone concerned is simply trying to protect their own reputations, firstly by denying there is a problem and secondly by saying it doesn't matter because it's only a legitimate difference of opinion - "They responded that these are matters of contention among Buddhists and that the box I've posted was from Stephen Batchelor a "Buddhist teacher"."

:namaste:
Kim
User avatar
Ceisiwr
Posts: 22286
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:36 am
Location: Wales

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Ceisiwr »

I'm shocked :jawdrop:

How does that pass for buddhism
“The teacher willed that this world appear to me
as impermanent, unstable, insubstantial.
Mind, let me leap into the victor’s teaching,
carry me over the great flood, so hard to pass.”
User avatar
Aloka
Posts: 7797
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 2:51 pm

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Aloka »

This 21 minute extract from a talk from Ajahn Amaro "Practising with The Four Noble Truths" might be helpful in some way.


Jhana4
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2011 5:20 pm
Location: U.S.A., Northeast

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by Jhana4 »

I think this is one of those situations where change is only going to happen when the company realizes it and its reputation are out in the spotlight.

How about going to one of those petition sites, creating a petition with a polite of the situation, inviting prominet monks & profressors to sign the petitionm and then posting links to the petition anywhere where people might care?
Last edited by Jhana4 on Sat Aug 17, 2013 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes:
One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles.
The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.
User avatar
DNS
Site Admin
Posts: 17169
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:15 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos de América
Contact:

Re: Distorting the Dharma [Advice]

Post by DNS »

Modus.Ponens wrote:I'm shocked by such a distortion! Jesus!

Thinking about it, Jesus might be the reason...
I think you might be on to something. Attend to suffering is listed as the first "truth". Christianity seems to focus a lot on suffering and how it was "necessary" for Christ to suffer on the cross for the sake of the rest of us. As Buddhists we know that suffering is not something we welcome, but something we want to overcome, not by attending to it, but rather by eliminating it.
Post Reply