nyonchung wrote: ↑Mon Nov 15, 2021 6:45 pm
I met Eric in the early 80's - I saw as well the situation quite closely in France: my verdict: shared responsabily. Incredible lack of common sense. I will not go into details, but when the land where now stands "Temple des 1000 Bouddhas / Pelden Shangpa La Boulaye" was given to Kalu Rinpoché, he said to the lama-in-charge and a few select ones: "No need to build a big temple, don't get into debt, really a small structure will be enough"
there was then - not including the retreat centers - some 3/4 lamas and a dozen residents.
This is of course not what was told next day to the general public (grrrreat temple!) - debts, troubles ... know of another case... where the sponsors draw a lama into a mess that he increased willingly (karma).
Rinpoché's idea was to create a main practicing, where people coming out of retreat could stay (as they do in Tibet) and from where lamas will be sent to teach in the smaller centers (mots of them needed no permanent setting).
And it was supposed to be the seat of Bokar Rinpoché ... rest of the story available on request only.
Culture clash, reciprocate misunderstandings on a large scale ... then yes, there was competition: highest stupa, largest temple (nobody thought of maintenance), now almost empty since years ... not to mention retreat centers
I mentioned in another thread that, for all his Guénonism, Denys Eysseric (Karma Ling, and even if he found of course necessary to have his own center, had a more rational approach and used his money well - he got a serious mishap, arson 4 years back - and I checked y'day, now fully in "full consciousness"
tingdzin wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 7:41 am
I heard that someone offered to build Sasaki Roshi a big temple, but he declined the offer. His institutions were meant to be lean and practice-oriented. That being said, stained glass is beautiful as long as it doesn't show the Sacred Heart of Jesus or something like that.
I hope we've learned our lessons.
I'm reminded of Downton Abbey where the Crawleys exist to keep up the castle.
Personally, I have impulsive administrative habits and if I was invested as a member of one of those communities with nice buildings I'd probably wear myself out trying to keep up the property. More clear eyed practitioners would likely just avoid these places and find a comfortable shack somewhere where the living is cheap.
I hope institutional Buddhist communities endure so that they can keep up the elaborate practices that have been developed over the centuries... but I'm afraid we're going to go deep into a phase of human history soon where material profligacy is simply not going to be an option due to scarcity and expense of resources. I think the same way persecution in China pressured Chinese Buddhism to largely pare down to Chan and Pure Land, we will see similar pressures on sanghas around the world - material scarcity is going to affect the expressions of Dharma.
Malcolm wrote: ↑Mon Nov 15, 2021 4:40 pm
One of the things I admire about Eric Columbel, the director of Tsadra, is that he has no interest in bricks and mortar. He is only interested in books. He understands that the future of Dharma lies in translations, not expensive properties.
Strikes me as wise. The teachings are the seeds. If/when circumstances arise for robust Buddhist institutions, they'll grow from there rather than have empty buildings dropped on the landscape with the expectation that they'll fill up naturally.
More generally, maybe we can say that this kind of thinking, building stuff without really thinking about the practicality, is a symptom of the mind set that has dominated for the last century or so and gotten us into this environmental predicament we find ourselves in now.
"Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum."