Pages

Monday, May 2, 2011

An Ancient Buddhist Model For Today's World


From Lewis Richmond @ Huffington Post:

In my ongoing effort to find ways to adapt Buddhism to modern American life, I have long been influenced by the example of Vimala-Kirti, the "householder sage" of ancient India (pictured). According to the Vimala-Kirti Sutra ("sutra" means scripture), Vimala-Kirti was a wealthy layperson or householder who was one of the Buddha's leading lay disciples. Even though he was a householder, however, his wisdom was said to exceed that of all of the Buddha's leading monk disciples. Much of the Sutra is spent recounting arguments between Vimala-Kirti and the monk disciples about Buddhist doctrine -- disputes which Vimala-Kirti invariably won. The notion of a layperson's wisdom excelling that of a monk is only one of many radical notions put forward by the Sutra....

Continue reading here.

No comments:

Post a Comment