I think we have to be realistic and not take exposure to the Dhamma as some sort of a panacea for lifetimes of delusion and bad habits.binocular wrote:Like I said, from some neo-Buddhists, not big-style teachers or anything of that sort.kirk5a wrote:Where on earth have you seen that view?binocular wrote: I've seen neo-Buddhists who have the view that the brahmaviharas are not enough - in the sense that anger, hatred, contempt are wholesome attitudes that must also be practiced if one is to attain enlightenment.
I was caught completely off-guard, though, I did not expect that I would ever encounter a person who would make a point of calling themselves a Buddhist, claiming to know exactly what the Buddha knew, often going directly against the Pali Canon, claiming my references to the Pali Canon are dismissable. And that basically, they are the only real Buddhists, and everyone else who isn't like them, the actual monks and the tradition, are just plain wrong. And all this with so much hatred! I have felt physically assaulted just from their words, the energy in them was poisonous.
I mean - the experience of meeting such a person - that is scary, one of the scariest things I have ever experienced.
How can someone talk so much about the Buddha - and yet have attitudes and behave in ways that have little or nothing to do with Buddhism as I know it.
I don't know, and I was not prepared for this kind of challenge.
Reading about people who claim to be enlightened is one thing. Actually having to deal with them is something quite different.
So some people may have had no exposure to the Dhamma and yet be gentle, kind and wise. Others may have spent decades in temples and still behave in the way you've described. Even with an excellent teacher and exposure to true teachings, so much still depends on one's kamma. So I would not blame the teachings, because someone is not yet able to integrate them into their life. But we also may not know what that person was like before they encountered the Dhamma. Might've been much worse!