PeterC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 5:33 amThis very quickly becomes the Dharma version of "hey, I'm just asking questions..." when done in a very public setting, because you're talking to a very diverse range of views in the audience. Being provocative has a place, but that place is in an individual discussion with one person.zerwe wrote: ↑Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:25 am Yes, he absolutely ruffles feathers and there is some shock value to what he puts out there on social media, etc...Maybe it is overly generous, but I think that he seems at times to use "shock value" to make us examine our own minds and our own biases. I have found things that DJKR wrote made me feel, well uncomfortable, but I was willing to try to explore why.
You're doing Waters a bit of a disservice by not explaining his view in full. He is a life-long pacifist and anti-war campaigner. His statements on this war reflect this, but he is absolutely clear about the moral culpability for this:If I remember correctly, his initial posts about Ukraine, to me, seemed to really be a message about equanimity, the danger of choosing flags, the danger of choosing sides, how ordinary people suffer at the hands of world leaders bound by their own ego minds, etc... Another sometimes confusing popular figure (who places himself in the radical liberal camp--I personally don't have a problem with that) with the same message is Roger Waters. With that said, DJKR also isn't the only dharma teacher I have run into with a similar view on Ukraine. Now, glancing at his page, it seems that he has engaged at a whole other level on this topic.
Note that Waters (a) identifies who is the aggressor, and (b) condemns the aggression. I think in this regard his statements are far superior to DJK's on this topic.“I am disgusted by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it is a criminal mistake in my opinion, the act of a gangster. There must be an immediate ceasefire. I regret that Western governments are fueling the fire that will destroy your beautiful country by pouring arms into Ukraine, instead of engaging in the diplomacy that will be necessary to stop the slaughter. ... I will do anything I can to help effect the end of this awful war in your country, anything that is except wave a flag to encourage the slaughter. That is what the gangsters want, they want us to wave flags
"Asian" is a Western idea in the first place. It's a massive simplification of huge cultural differences. Nobody would think a Dane culturally similar to an American, but the differences between countries in Asia are far greater than that. Does he think, for instance, that a South Korean has moral authority to have opinions on, say, Bangladesh, in a way that a Norwegian doesn't? His statements on these issues are extremely simplistic and haven't really progressed past Lee Kuan Yew circa 1990. His letter to Aung Sang Suu Kyi was terrible - he was (a) trying to assert himself as an authority on "Asianness", and (b) presuming to advise someone who runs a country (albeit badly) on how to handle cultural diplomacy. Totally out of his depth. He should leave commentary on this to people who actually know what they're talking about, and focus on the Dharma, on which by all accounts he really does know what he's talking out.As has been previously posted, much of his internet postings have been focused on western hegemony and how we should butt out of Asian matters--specifically his letter about Aung Suu Kyi and the West. Again, I feel that it forces us westerners to think about a different perspective.
Perhaps I should not have used Waters as an example. I am familiar with what he has said on the matter and agree with his stance.
I feel like with DJKR there are positives and, if it is too far a stretch for people to see those, then maybe just leave it alone.
Shaun