My Theory about Voodoo

[lobster]

Why keep making this turgid pseudo-religious stew, which tastes of everything and nothing at all?

oh you said voodoo not woohoo . . .



I would suggest that all we have is the distinct flavours of orthodoxy, from Vajrayana to Zen, from Therevadan to Nichiren. All these started as soups.
It is inevitable that the Dharma Centres of Africa begin to include and adopt as Dharma protecters indigenous and perhaps (but unlikely) originating forms.

The inevitable dharma debate will need the greatest skills to ensure a peaceful emergence. Should be fun . . .

[underthetree]

I would suggest that all we have is the distinct flavours of orthodoxy, from Vajrayana to Zen, from Therevadan to Nichiren. All these started as soups.
It is inevitable that the Dharma Centres of Africa begin to include and adopt as Dharma protecters indigenous and perhaps (but unlikely) originating forms.

You're absolutely right. That's syncretism in action, though: inevitable wherever the Dharma (and all other faiths) make landfall in an unfamiliar culture. That's how we got Vajrayana. What I was ranting about - - is the seemingly inexhaustible drive to see everything in everything else. The Victorians did it with the Lost Tribes of Israel, for instance. I'm sure every culture has done it, but essentially it's just a parlour game. And in a way it smacks of cultural imperialism.Because one identifies strongly with a certain group, one wishes to see that group at work everywhere. Buddhists in West Africa. Lost Israelites in Albion. Aliens in the Nile Delta. It's often a validation of a dominant or subjectively desirable culture, not uncommonly (at least in recent history) to the detriment of a culture seen as backward or less capable.

Why not give the Egyptians credit for the Pyramids? Why not allow Voodoo to be the original creation of the Yoruba etc?

Whereas syncretism is great. It's inevitable, it's life. It's about us as human beings.

[Aemilius]

Itis a matter of seeing deeply what really takes place in the human mind. Fact is that enlightenment or realizing shunyata is like a Black Hole, the normal psychological laws cease to function in its neighbourhood, when approaching it. This can manifest and very often it does manifest in strange ways.
Society receives enormous benefit from its creative force, but it doesn't acknowledge its existence. I have checked it out in the official literature of the mental health care professionals, and there it says very clearly that meditation and other such practices are regarded as symptoms of a serious mental imbalance. We also have the Tantra Induced Delusory Syndrome (TIDS), -ever heard of it?
Any person who has been close to the real shunyata is being used by the society, and by the established religions, for everything he has gained or attained. After he has been drained of everything, he is declared to be "insane" or "mentally deranged".
With the help of massive dedication prayers and other such practices the positive qualities gained from visiting the black hole of shunyata are transferred to officially accepted persons, to persons that are put on pedestal instead of the real ones. The real ones are hidden away in mental institutions, and anyway they are unrecognizable for normal citizens, if you happen to meet them on the street somewhere.
What has this got to do with Africa? The force of enlightenment has exited in Europe and in Africa for a very long time, both cultures have developed their own ways and strategies of dealing with it. You can't see the Black Hole directly, but you can recognize different phenomena that are caused by its existence.
Tibetan buddhists are being used by the european culture for this purpose, it is a form of dishonesty, a complicated play. A system of honorary positions is samsara, authentic nirvanized persons are outside of it.