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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Doctrine of the Main Enemy [Stalin] or Buddhist wisdom?

Martin, a Pure Land believer writes: A Nichiren believer wrote: "...from a Nichiren Buddhist perspective, if I turn someone away from a provisional teaching of Buddhism, I am acting like a father to him."  This is known as the doctrine of the Main Enemy (see Stalin, about 1932).

Me: Lets say you have a son. Your son is an A student who scored 1500 on his SAT's. He meets several worldly, cheerful, and youthful army recruiters who are lurking around the high school like cats spying for mice (an analogy to our so called Buddhist priests and present day Buddhist scholars). These recruiters tell your son of the greatness of the intelligence, chemical, biological, and radiation divisions of the Army. They take a special interest in your son, go out to eat with him, tell him about the Japanese, southeast Asian, and Italian women, the camaraderie, the special friendships he will develop in the army, and the peace and security of being among the worlds greatest fighting machine. They tell him he will have his choice of assignments and will get a bonus of $64,000 for a mere six years of service. You are a wise and perspicacious father who knows the truth about the army, these recruiters, their promises, and their practices. Your son has a chance to enter into the accelerated medical program of the Boston University Medical School on a full scholarship because of his original work on  the reversal of the reproductive mechanism of the HIV virus. Would you just sit back while your son made a decision that would adversely affect his destiny and possibly the destiny of all mankind (because of his brilliance and understanding of the mechanism of the growth and transmission of the HIV virus)? Would you not at least sit down with him and attempt to persuade him of the benefits and risks of the decisions that will shape his future and possibly the future of all mankind? Would you fail to tell him of the possibility that he might, rather than securing a choice research position in Army Intelligence, be placed in Infantry and sent to the front lines?

Don't liken me to Joseph Stalin. If you can not discern the relative profundity and merits of the various teachings both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, that is no fault of mine. 

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