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This person is part of a weird New Wave of Twitterati Buddhists-not-Buddhists who are happy to throw out huge chunks of the dharma in the name of going their ow
by emptysongglass 4y ago
This person is part of a weird New Wave of Twitterati Buddhists-not-Buddhists who are happy to throw out huge chunks of the dharma in the name of going their own way. It's not bearing good fruits. This person also wrote a long screed on divorce that was really about spritzing their favorite perfume scent and barely mentioning the person they divorced except as backdrop to the great “I”. [1] It's a new wave that thrives on egoic displays like these, undermining big portions of very helpful dharma teachings like ethics.
Look folks, I know it's vogue in a post post post world to deconstruct all the things but there's a reason why Buddhism has thrived for thousands of years producing good, kind people and rebel dharmas have withered on the vine. Yes, there are exceptions but overall, it's been wildly effective as a method for awakening that also spares others violence. That said, there are good rebel dharma people out there like Daniel Ingram who do promote ethics as an essential cornerstone of practice (and it is, try it).
The Twitterati of dharma are not it. They do not come bearing the gift of conscious revolution, they come bearing more poisoned seeds of self delusion because that's what Twitter thrives on: the grand illusion of Self thrumming to the crowd of their creation.
In this particular article, Sasha declares that endgame meditation looks like more neuroses, pride and immoral acts and that's the dirty secret of the community. Well, yes, when your community looks like Twitter and you think you've endgamed Buddhism, that is what it will look like because you are not actually attained in anything other than building shrines to self.
Sasha then declares at the end that one should build strong attachments to things and allow them to wound you, the exact opposite of craving and bondage, which the Buddha asks us to avoid. This person is playing games with the Buddha, playing games with dharma, and writes for a crowd that will pay them to continue playing these games.
My ultimate point here, which weaves in with some of the rebukes I've been writing lately here, is more focus needs to be placed on fundamentals and really grokking them with the aid of actual accomplished teachers who have spent decades endgaming your chosen practice. People of real ethical fiber. People who do not need your money to continue existing, do not want it, and have no motive to take it. People like Thannisaro Bhikku [2] or honest to God forest monks or other renunciates who demonstrate supreme compassion, generosity, and whose actions are blameless. These are people worthy of giving advice on the topic.
[1] https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/my-recent-divorce-andor-dior-homme https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/my-recent-divorce-andor-d...
[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%ACh%C4%81nissaro_Bhikkhu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%ACh%C4%81nissaro_Bhik...
- syawaworht 4y agoYea, I don't think he's reached a point where he's seen the territory apart from the map. His post is still a lot of confusion running in circles in the space of concepts and mind. When it is seen clearly how the mind is delusion, then the rest of the teachings fall naturally from that observation.
- WhiteBlueSkies 4y agoI've lost count of Tibetan masters that have abused their students. Buddhism is simply not what is thought of on first sight and he is absolutely correct about it. It's an incredibly depressing religion. The premise is basically get off the wheel(of samsara) and exist or cease existing in Nirvana and or keep suffering.
- emptysongglass 4y agoThis is why I write returning to fundamentals of practice, which is not Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is the psychedelics of Buddhism: it's not for everybody and many people have touched its live wire and been smoked including teachers who Tibetan Buddhist students are taught to view as infallible deities. Zen has this same set of problems to a lesser degree. Go back to basics. Practice what is good at the beginning, the middle and the end. What brings harmony to you and your relationships. Let that be your test. The depression is assuming life has the lasting qualities we're seeking and continuing to be disappointed until we are crippled. People try and put that on Buddhism because they refuse to see it. The Buddha was actually offering an incredibly hopeful message: see this mass of aggregate sensations for what it is and be liberated, be truly happy without dependence on conditions, without dependence on the world to offer you anything. All it takes is to see people, interacted with people who are living examples of this, paragons of whatever is furthest away from this "depression" you ascribe to Buddhism. They walk around with huge smiles on their face. Every interaction with them is pure love, pure compassion. They do not have bad days and here they are with nothing more than a robe and a bowl to their name. May all people know real kindness, real happiness. I'll tell you here and now, what Sasha is peddling is not it. I strongly condemn what Sasha is offering and other teachers who assume the mantle of power for their own egos. He has abused his position of authority to distort the message of the Buddha, to bring confusion to the path and has brought confusion to his own life that is disharmonious, a life of more attachment not less, a life of imbalance not balance and he is passing out this message to anyone who will listen. This is very bad practice, very bad ethics, because he condemns not only himself, he condemns anyone who buys into his poison.