Can Westerners truly become Buddhists?

[plwk]

I think India is the most accepting culture I've lived in so far. When I was staying in Ladakh on the second day an Indian gentleman insisted on buying me breakfast because, as he said, "We should support holy men." I insisted I was no holy man, but accepted breakfast. He actually watches Ajahn Brahm's videos online and thinks highly of him. To most Indians, I suspect, a westerner being Buddhist or even a Sadhu isn't so unusual. Hell in India nothing is really unusual. That's the beauty of Mother India.

Tsk tsk shave the beard....

[Indrajala]

I think India is the most accepting culture I've lived in so far. When I was staying in Ladakh on the second day an Indian gentleman insisted on buying me breakfast because, as he said, "We should support holy men." I insisted I was no holy man, but accepted breakfast. He actually watches Ajahn Brahm's videos online and thinks highly of him. To most Indians, I suspect, a westerner being Buddhist or even a Sadhu isn't so unusual. Hell in India nothing is really unusual. That's the beauty of Mother India.

Tsk tsk shave the beard....

I was also wearing my Zen monk outfit (samue) and said I was living at the stupa.

Actually some other people asked to take my photo. They said, "I want a picture of the Japanese monk."

Huh? Okay...

[Yudron]

Mirage--Regarding the deities, if you are a Vajrayana student of the Nyingma school it would be difficult to dispense with them, because people see the their internal 100 peaceful and wrathful deities manifesting externally in the bardo, or, if they become a sublime practitioner, they may see them externally during the bardo of this life as well. Note: they are not seeing a Tibetan painting of deity, but deity itself. Their appearance in the bardo may be very bright and very loud, so that untrained people my not recognize them as their own divinity... they may have aversion, as you do to their portraits in art. So, we do various practices to learn to recognize and love them.

[Indrajala]

Topic split. For discussion of east and west philosophical exchange see here:

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=11957

[Nikolay]

Mirage--Regarding the deities, if you are a Vajrayana student of the Nyingma school it would be difficult to dispense with them, because people see the their internal 100 peaceful and wrathful deities manifesting externally in the bardo, or, if they become a sublime practitioner, they may see them externally during the bardo of this life as well. Note: they are not seeing a Tibetan painting of deity, but deity itself. Their appearance in the bardo may be very bright and very loud, so that untrained people my not recognize them as their own divinity... they may have aversion, as you do to their portraits in art. So, we do various practices to learn to recognize and love them.

I certainly would not want to "dispence" with deities, I find their existence (so to say) very inspiring. I just think that the same painting, for example, may send all the right signals to a Tibetan ("majestic, divine, beautiful, intimidating" - depends on the deity, of course) and some very different signals to a person raised in a different culture ("umm, weird"). I find it detrimental to my practice.