West Cobb Church

Buddhism and the West to the eyes of the Erudits of the west

John Walters, a British journalist converted to Buddhism, writes in his THE Gasoline of Buddhism: "This, in the West, is a period of gigantic progress, equipment and economical. .... It often is praised that all has in America, with his material progress narcotic, changed for the better. But that of man? All can appear happier; hold is itself not nevertheless happier. Today, as statistics proves, a bigger proportion of people than never before of worries in the madness. The psychiatry became a big businesses because of the fears of men and of women that they go crazy". "A number growing men and the women, disconcerted by equipment and the ideological chaos of, finds today that the teaching of the Buddha retrieves them to feel and the clarity, to serenity and to peace".

Trevor Ling, Superior Lecturer to the University of Leeds, writes: "In the other quarter there is a suspicion that the religion in the West betrayed the man to the point more important in life, and therefore a tendency to find the direction in the east Religion".

"There is enough proof that in the people of Europe of the West desires to find a coherent and significant system of values. ... The this can be that the words and the manner of the Buddha have a lot of to contribute at this point in time history to religious life of the West".

According to Dr. Donald K. Swearer, "Among the students of American high schools in this moment there is an active and growing interest in the Asian religions. While to recognize the call edsotedrique of Buddhism and the other Asian religions, this interest did not simply leave it the young rebellion against the religious establishment. Rather, the a lot of engagements of student in these sectors reflect an authentic quest for a significant series of values and a method of life viable. Is or the interest growing in Buddhism simply preserves it young. John Cobb, a remarkable contemporary theologian, observed that Buddhism offers one of the alternate religious one more irresistible today, and ministers of Christian using insights and the buddhist practices become less and less rare. In fact, an United friend of minister of Church of expression wrote recently to ask that the news on Buddhism zen to be used in an ained a high class of school of church".

"Buddhism becomes more and more popular to the United States. His popularity rests not only on the call that it has among the students of high school or the role that it played in to influence culture of "hip". It offers a serious religious option for a lot of inhabitants of the west, and it can prove to have well a significant impact on judaeo-chredtien thought and practices. Alan Watts those illustrate of which it thought adamantly was influenced by Buddhism, and even so fervent a mystical Catholic as Thomas Merton deeply was implied in Buddhism before his premature death in Asia while to visit buddhist center".
"Nevertheless, among all the varieties of Buddhism that the one can find in America today and all the forms of buddhist practice, no aspect of Buddhism has a stronger call than a meditation, especially among the youngest people".

"The buddhist meditation is appealing for a lot of reasons, be sure. For some it offers a retirement of the chaos and the complexity of world of today. For others it can use a means of oneself introspective comprehension; and, for always of others the this is the means to attempt seriously to seize the truth of Buddhism".

In the words of another American writer: "Today Buddhism and the buddhist art spread themselves around the world, east of Japan to America, west of India to Europe".

"With the advance of science and of psychology a lot of the oldest times suffered. Their convictions went against the new knowledge and the new knowledge won. But in this conflict the teaching of Buddha did not demand adjustment. His wisdom all surrounded that the modern thought can conceive. On 2,500 years ago the buddhist ones had resolved already a lot of the problems that modern psychology discovers always".

"The this is maybe significant that while the powerful empires construct on eagerness and the oppression never lasted for more than some centuries, altruistic life of the buddhist community carried it without accident by 2,500 years... The knowledge of Buddhism is looked for with the interest growing in the West, for him offers to a personal philosophy to neutralize the fragmented condition of corporation of the west where a lot of not individuals longer directions it left, or person in charge of, the community in which they live. The expressions of this distress are seen in the student demonstrations, the hippie, the hippie ones, and of others that wish to abandon, or change a corporation that they does not feel any longer provisions their needs".
As it was written by a learned German, Ernst Benz: "A lot of these European students of Buddhism became of the convert to the new faith. They were so active in the creation and the direction of buddhist organisations-questions in which ones the buddhist Asians less are inclined to engage".