jundo cohen wrote:Hi,shel wrote:Jundo has explained that his purpose is not to change views but to merely attract potential students who think as he does to his group (treeleaf).oldbob wrote:The Red Queen is a place holder for the savage Buddhists who would destroy into smithereens anyone holding views not the same as theirs.
I do not wish to "attract" anyone to our Sangha, but I do wish to provide a place to call home for anyone who might feel left out of Buddhism by what they might see as superstition, feudalism and discrimination, myth and miracles, fiction claimed as fact and the like which is perhaps endemic to much of Buddhism, despite all the wonder of this Path that shines forth when Buddhism is freed of such narrowness. Others who see Buddhism otherwise are free to so see it (we celebrate such fact and religious freedom!) and also free to find their home and friends on the Path elsewhere.
We do not charge a cent for our Sangha, and we do not chase anyone in the door nor run after anyone who finds it not right for them and chooses to leave. I like to make the presence of our Sangha known so that it may be found by those in whose heart it may resonate because they need such a place and such friends, but we never try to prosthelytize (look up the word if you do not know it, Shel). As with most Sangha, we are tiny on the scale of things ... and so we shall always be.
Why?
Because, when it comes to religion, one really cannot change the views of anyone whose heart is not ready and open to change. Nor should one try. One can only put a viewpoint or teaching out like a seed and, if the soil is ready and the seed is right, it will grow ... or not. If it does not grow in peoples' hearts, then it just will not or was not right.
In fact, one reason that folks will not entertain any religious, philosophical or political view that they are not open to is because of a well known psychological phenomenon called "Cognitive Dissonance" (if you have never heard of it, please look it up, Shel) and the corollary "principle of cognitive consistency".
Thus, when it comes to religion or politics, it is often just a fools' errand to attempt to convince anyone, no matter the seeming facts and evidence otherwise. People (any of us, we are all victims of this in some way ... all of us) will believe what their heart tells them to believe no matter how baseless.The concept was introduced by the psychologist Leon Festinger (1919–89) in the late 1950s. He and later researchers showed that, when confronted with challenging new information, most people seek to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding the new information or by convincing themselves that no conflict really exists. ...
...
For example, Marian Keech (real name: Dorothy Martin) was the leader of a UFO cult in the 1950s. She claimed to get messages from extraterrestrials, known as The Guardians, through automatic writing. Like the Heaven's Gate folks forty years later, Keech and her followers, known as The Seekers or The Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, were waiting to be picked up by flying saucers. In Keech's prophecy, her group of eleven was to be saved just before the earth was to be destroyed by a massive flood on December 21, 1954. When it became evident that there would be no flood and the Guardians weren't stopping by to pick them up, Keech became elated. She said she'd just received a telepathic message from the Guardians saying that her group of believers had spread so much light with their unflagging faith that God had spared the world from the cataclysm (Levine 2003: 206).
More important, the Seekers didn't abandon her. Most became more devoted after the failed prophecy. (Only two left the cult when the world didn't end.) "Most disciples not only stayed but, having made that decision, were now even more convinced than before that Keech had been right all along....Being wrong turned them into true believers (ibid.)." Some people will go to bizarre lengths to avoid inconsistency between their cherished beliefs and the facts.
http://www.skepdic.com/cognitivedissonance.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Gassho, Jundo
Here's to the cognitive consistency of Storkest logic!