Buddhism in the western world is a sanitized and very narrow part of the positive aspects of the religion. Like taking the teachings of Christ and ignoring absolutely everything else about Christian religions and what they have actually practiced.
Really if you look at any religion and pick only the good parts of their teachings, it doesn’t matter much which one you choose as they’re basically all promoting nice things like love, compassion and self-control. The problem is none exist in a vacuum; they’re all affected by their histories and the societies where they’ve been practiced, and knowing humans… it’s always a huge mess no matter where you are.
Buddhism sounds like this incredible ascetic ideal to the Westerner, until you hear about Buddhist terrorists.
Buddhism in the western world is a sanitized and very narrow part of the positive aspects of the religion. Like taking the teachings of Christ and ignoring absolutely everything else about Christian religions and what they have actually practiced.
Really if you look at any religion and pick only the good parts of their teachings, it doesn’t matter much which one you choose as they’re basically all promoting nice things like love, compassion and self-control. The problem is none exist in a vacuum; they’re all affected by their histories and the societies where they’ve been practiced, and knowing humans… it’s always a huge mess no matter where you are.