retrofuturist wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 8:38 amSo, by your logic, because people in Thailand speak Thai, somehow, magically, the Thai language is Theravada too?
Some people in Thailand drink Krating Daeng... is Krating Daeng Theravada too?
Again you are relying on false equivalences.
By all means, practice your syncretism, but to insist that practices you like somehow are Theravada because someone in Thailand taught them to you, is so absurd.
Tell you what is absurd: to deny the obvious. That is absurd. Tantric practices exist within Thai Theravada whether is it runs contrary to your belief in orthodox purity or not. It is a bit of a "like it or lump it" situation, denying the existence of these trends will not make them disappear.
Frankly, it seems like stealth proselytisation to me... akin to Hindus who try to absorb the Buddha into their pantheon, and go on to claim that it's all just Hinduism, so who needs Buddhism?
No. Like all the Hindu shrines in Thailand, it just means that practicing Theravada Buddhists in Thailand have absorbed the propitiation of Hindu deities and tantra into their practice.
retrofuturist wrote:I most certainly am not.... but since words seem to mean whatever you would like them to mean in any given moment, how can I refute what you say in a way that will be comprehended by your definition-distorting post-modernism?
So only your definition of Theravada is valid and the reality of Theravada Buddhism in Thailand is a fantasy??? You have to admit that is a rather weird stance to take.
I'm not equating Theravada Buddhism with Buddhavacana. Personally, I don't believe the Buddha taught the Abhidhamma Pitaka, but that doesn't make the Abdidhamma any less Theravada than those aspects that I do believe are traceable back to the Buddha himself. Abhidhamma is Theravada - Tantra is not.
I'll take it that this is your opinion, otherwise I would have to ask: On what authority do you draw the line as to what is Theravada Buddhism and what is not?
Again, to whatever extent it is traceable back to the Pali Canon and the commentaries.
There is a crap-load of stuff in Theravada Buddhism that is not in the Pali Canon and the commentaries. It seems that you are looking for some sort of purity. Unfortunately for you, your idealism does not reflect the reality. This, of course, may lead to dissonance.