Feathers wrote:I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that it's a sign of ungratitude when people don't just adopt what they are told? Can't you be grateful for being introduced to the dhamma, and grateful for being taught it, but still examine things using your own judgement?
Problems emerge when people do their own thing (to which they are of course entitled), but nevertheless call it Buddhism, promulgate it in the name of Buddhism, and expect that others acknowledge it as Buddhism.
Aloka wrote:Yes I'd say that people Ive spoken to in the UK have a lot of gratitude for being taught the Dhamma. I don't speculate about Westerners in general.
Part of the problem here seems to be that we mean different things by "Western(er)."
Some mean the term geographically, referring to people from Europe and the US, and Australia, NZ.
Some mean the term culturally, referring to that characteristic brand of consumerist thinking and being.
I mean "Western(er)" primarily in the cultural sense. So some people who were born and live in Asia can well be Westerners by culture, when they incline themselves to the "American Way."
Your original comment I responded to was:
binocular wrote:Among some Westerners, there is also a sense of entitlement about the Dhamma - taking the Dhamma for granted, thinking that we're owed to get the Dhamma
And there is no problem with my comment, given the underlined word.
daverupa wrote:binocular wrote:holding some epistemological propositions as sacrosanct, tabooing them
Will you please unpack this? Be precise.
Modern science being a prime example, in how it shuns the philosophy of science.