re: #296 The Sanity Inspector

Yeah, American Buddhism-Lite is annoying—just another avenue for overgrown adolescents to meditate on their own inner wonderfulness. Apologies to any serious devotees of The Paths who may be present.

I once read a very interesting article by an American Buddhist who wrote that he thinks that one of the factors involved is that Asians are by and large raised in cultures that favor the community over the individual, and therefore, the inward and solitary focus of Buddhism provides a counterbalance. Americans/Westerners, he said, are taught to see ourselves as individuals, and value that highly, from early on, so the danger of Buddhism to us is that we easily become navel-gazing assholes.

Now, since he himself was a practicing Buddhist, I assume he believed there was some way around this, but I thought it was an interesting insight.

If my rephrasing of what he said reveals my total ignorance of Buddhism, sorry. I try.