On Cultural Bias and Ideology in Western Buddhism and Buddhist Modernism
When he was approximately fifteen years old, Tominaga Nakamoto ๅฏๆฐธไปฒๅบ (1715โ1746) was expelled from the merchant academy in ลsaka, which his father had enrolled him in, for writing an essay that was critical of Confucianism. He may also have been forced to leave home, but little is known with certainty about Tominagaโs life. A few years later, he apparently found employment as a proofreader at Manpuku temple of the ลbaku Zen sect in Uji. Buddhist monks traditionally copied sลซtras by hand, and it was Tominagaโs job to check for copying errors. This allowed him to read very many sลซtras, inspiring...
Western Buddhism as an Immature Tradition
There are Buddhisms for all four cardinal directions: Southern Buddhism, Northern Buddhism, Eastern Buddhism, and Western Buddhism. Southern Buddhism is the Buddhism practiced in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand. The term โNorthern Buddhismโ either covers everything else, or only refers to the Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Mongolia. In the latter case, Eastern Buddhism is the Buddhism found in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China, and Vietnam. In the two-way North/South distinction, India is part of Northern Buddhism. In the three-way North/South/East distinction, on the other hand, India is missing, indicating that this isnโt a classification of historical Buddhisms. However, while Buddhism...