Well, you don't seem to give much importance to the process through which people may come to discover the Buddha's teaching, which is a very important point when it comes to teaching in western countries. Yet, you criticize the choices made by those who attempt to deal with this problem and regard them a "not good enough". This is how burmese Theravada, imo, is for a large part crippled by elitism and superiority complexes. But some people are more primarily driven by loving-kindness and take people as they are to make them achieve what is at their reach.mettafuture wrote:I don't proselytize.The minimal goal maybe to introduce someone to the teaching of the Buddha. That alone is a big achievement.
Besides, it has little to do with proselytism, because in the general case, people come to courses and retreats, not the contrary.
You repeat the same arguments, so I have to repeat the same counter-arguments: do you think that teaching anapanassati is not being authentic? Also, someone may be very interested in the teachings of the Buddha and yet not feel interested in the widely corrupt, dogmatized and ritualized religion that Buddhism is. This is my case, and I know there are a great many like me out there.mettafuture wrote: But if someone shows an interest in Buddhism, I believe it's important that they get an authentic, gradual, and complete overview of the teachings.
For the rest, I agree that people who want to dig deeper should get a complete overview of the Buddha's teaching, but that comes over time, as and when they get ready for it (unless of course they look it up themselves, which is also the case of many). But that excludes buddhist teachings that aren't the Buddha's teaching, like the abhidhamma, or the visuddhimagga.