BKWSU using Chinese and Japanese Buddhist aesthetics

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filthy shudra

ex-BK

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BKWSU using Chinese and Japanese Buddhist aesthetics

Post18 Jul 2010

ex-l wrote:I notice another BKWSU retreat center in the USA called Anubhuti Retreat Center in Novato, California. Anubhuti means "spiritual experience" and their courses and retreats include classes in Tai Chi and Hatha Yoga.

I am noticing more and more that Western BKs using the aesthetic style of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism - a lot of the art on their books, CDs and fliers has "Buddha" shaped meditators or Japanese style paintings etc. Why aren't they using Hindu icons?

OK, there is a lot of cultural crossover between India and countries that adopted Buddhism. But the Zen aesthetic is closely linked to its philosophy - which is 180 degrees opposite to what BKs teach. Just like Hindu Brahminism woud refuse to acknowledge its debt to Buddhism, the BKs will never acknowledge how much (all?) of what they teach or how they portray themselves is borrowed
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Is this all part of the confusion that the last couple of posts mention? An inner conflict between aesthetic sensibility and what is consciously believed?
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ex-l

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Re: BKWSU using Chinese and Japanese Buddhist aesthetics

Post18 Jul 2010

filthy Shudra wrote:I am noticing more and more that Western BKs using the aesthetic style of Chinese and Japanese Buddhism ... Is this all part of the confusion that the last couple of posts mention? An inner conflict between aesthetic sensibility and what is consciously believed?

You make a few good points here.

The first and obvious one being that the BKWSU will do whatever it takes to sell, without any sense of integrity, pirating any other culture and religion as it goes. A second one, perhaps, being a dissonance between what the Western BKs value and what the Hindus and Hindu leaders think ... a dissonance so great that I think we were fooling ourselves and they allowing us to fool ourselves for as long as we were good for giving money and doing free labor.

Personally, I really liked the kitsch value of the old Hindu advertising imagery ... but that is what it was deadly, killer kitsch.

Then there are the spiritual ethics that you mention, the low class Spiritualist Nuclear Holocaust Cult adopting Buddhist and Zen imagery ... two schools which would tear Brahma Kumarism apart philosophically AND which the Brahma Kumaris would call "degraded and impure". Too "degraded and impure" to follow ... but not to asset strip to market their brand of spiritualism.

Lastly, one has to ask what are such Brahma Kumari adherents really experiencing or consciously believing? The BKs have no way of assessing the individual's experience. They have very little to no monitoring system. They don't. Their main concern is if one is conforming to the expected, external norm and adding value to their estate ... and delivering money, goods or free labor. Or being good PR.

This is probably where individuals like Lucinda Blisset and Bronwyn Kirpatrick come in ... and why they are allowed a certain amount of flexibility and to financially benefit from the association. It is good for the BKWSU's business, so they are allowed. All of which is surely contrary to good spirituality.

In short, the BK would use anyone and anything that moves them forward ... and then claim that they inspired it all 5,000 years ago anyway.

Given that the WRITTEN HISTORY of China goes back to a very non-BK, non-Silver Age Shang Dynasty (circa 1700 BC to 1046 BC), given that the world was meant to end around WWII 1950, 1976, 1986 to 96 and yet still 20% of the world's population (China) remains unserved. It makes asset stripping Chinese culture over Indian culture an even bigger BS factor.

The very unheavenly Xia Dynasty of China is dated back to 2100 BC to 1600 BC. Explain that to the 5,000 Year Cycle Adherents.

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