November 29, 2008
Buddhists are as crazy as everyone else
Buddhism has become the rage lately. And one reason is that people perceive Buddhism as "smarter" than other religions. That it's more about critical inquiry than unfounded belief, that it has less magical thinking and superstition, and that it's compatible with science and Quantum Physics.
Most people who think this have never been in a Buddhist country, where people regularly pray to "Lord Buddha" so they'll win the lottery.
Well, the following news story may put a nail in the coffin of "Buddhists are smarter than other religious followers:"
ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) _ The Cambodian Buddhist community in Rochester is abuzz over what they believe is a miracle: a wasp nest in the shape of a seated Buddha built in the eaves of their temple.
The nest was spotted last week. Elder members of the community say they have never seen an apparition of the Buddha in their lifetimes.
Seventy-year-old Voeun Sor of Rochester says the hive shows the Buddha is trying to tell everybody to seek peace in their lives.
Robert Jeanne is an entomology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He says the Buddha-shaped hive could actually be four different nests formed over a couple of years. He says if someone wants to read miracles into that, that's their privilege.
Moeun Ngop is a 76-year-old monk. He has a more mystical take. He says the insects are trying to communicate Buddha's message.
Let me respond with an old Buddhist expression: Oy, vey!
So, now the Buddhists have joined the "Virgin Mary is in my French Toast" and the "Jesus is in the wood grain of my closet door" Christians.
Ignoring that for a moment, let's look at the rest of the entertaining argument.
"The hive shows the Buddha is trying to tell everyone to seek peace…" Umm… excuse me. This is a WASP NEST. If it was a collection of butterflies in the shape of the Buddha, sure. But WASPS?! Not the first insect I think of when I'm asked to free associate about "peace."
"The insects are trying to communicate the Buddha's message…" Not very well, apparently. If I were trying to communicate the Buddha's message, I'd opt for, oh, WORDS instead of an image of the Buddha that looks all puffy, like he's been stung by a colony of wasps. Besides, how did the wasps learn the Buddha's message? Buddhist teachings say that the preciousness of being born a human is that this is the only existence where you have the opportunity to hear the Buddha's message.
Okay, okay, maybe I'm being a bit too harsh on the 76-year old. He's a monk. He doesn't get out much. And, having been around wasp's nests before, I can understand the confusion. You don't need to listen very hard to hear the little stingers engaged in almost non-stop spiritual practice, repeating over and over their mantra, "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….."
Comments on Buddhists are as crazy as everyone else »
Whenever you have a group consisting of billions of people from cultures all over the world, there's going to be too much variance to generalize. It can't be true that they are all scientific. Nor can it be true that they are all worshiping wasps' nests. Neither extreme works. (A plug for the middle way?)
Actually, it's only when you have a large sample that you can accurately generalize, hence the bell curve and standard deviations. The "middle way," in that case, represents the majority.
I'm not trying to say ALL Buddhists are any way or another, but in the West, there's a prevailing notion that Buddhists are rationalists and not prone to superstition. While this example *may* be a bit extreme (in my experience with Buddhists from Tibet, Nepal, India and Thailand, it's not), my goal is to call into question prevailing notion.
If you think about it, its actually really fitting, as long as the wasp nest is at peace no one gets stung.
Buddhism IS "smarter" than other religions. Buddhists are NOT smarter than followers of other religions.
I recently spent some serious time with a community of Nichiren Buddhists and, as you say, Oy vey!