The crisis of American Buddhism

"After Buddhist Ethics" is a work by David Chapman, available at one of his websites. Chapman is a strongly heterodox Buddhist, and belongs to a supposedly Vajrayana-inspired group called Aro gTér, of which I know next to nothing. I previously reviewed Chapman´s "half-book" titled "Consensus Buddhism", available at the same site. "After Buddhist Ethics" covers much the same ground, but with a more specific emphasis on ethics (and Buddhism´s lack of it). I found the work interesting, since it describes the American (or is it Californian) Buddhist milieu based on personal experience. It was just as bad as I expected! 

The "Buddhist ethics" promoted by American Buddhists (who are all White, Boomers and privileged) turn out to be indistinguishable from left-liberal American middle class values. Or rather these values pre-SJW/pre-BLM (the younger generations are more savage and fanatical). Everyone is supposed to be "nice", politically correct, non-judgmental and "compassionate". Racism, sexism, homophobia, conservative values and environmental destruction are all seen as not very nice. Presumably you´re supposed to vote Barack Obama. The milieu is effiminate, and often female-dominated (cis-womyn). Even worse, it´s frequently disorganized, meetings always start late, everyone acts like an immature teenager with no sense of responsibility, structure or proportions. 

The author believes that Buddhism in the United States is often used as a status marker. By claiming to be a Buddhist, you signal belonging to a high-status in-group of educated, well-travelled and sophisticated people, who are simultaneously both brave and compassionate. And presumably rich, too! At one point, Chapman exclaims that Episcopalianism and Buddhism are both "middle-class sects" in the US - a covert sarcasm against Allan Watts? One of the reasons why Consensus Buddhism (the author´s term for left-liberal US Buddhism) is in crisis today is that it no longer works as a status-marker. The 2010´s are not the early 1960´s. Today, left-liberal values are mainstream and even somewhat bland or boring. Consensus Buddhism has nothing to offer over and above this, except the previously mentioned structurlessness and meetings that always start late. (Early US Buddhism seems to have been more structured and in general required more effort.) Even mindfulness meditation has been secularized, so the Consensus Buddhists aren´t unique on that score either. 

Chapman points out that there really aren´t any Buddhist ethics to begin with. The original Buddhist scriptures did contain rules of various kinds, some of them related to morality, but didn´t offer a coherent philosophy or system of ethics. Indeed, what looks like ethical rules are really a kind of ascetic practices. Only a monk can consistently suppress his sexual passions, refrain from killing, watch his tongue, and so on. Traditional Buddhism was patriarchal, accepted the caste system and the feudal order, and accepted slavery. There are stories of the Buddha accepting "slaves and other livestock" (!) as gifts. In historical fact, even Buddhist temples owned slaves. Indeed, sometimes *the monks* were a kind of slaves! And although the author follows a "Tibetan" path, he acknowledges that the Tibetan peasants were serfs before the Chinese invasion (which he nevertheless opposes). There is also an entire history of Buddhism supporting the wars of Buddhist and even non-Buddhist rulers. 

During the 19th century, Asian Buddhism was modernized by reformers such as Siam´s king Mongkut (who had been a Buddhist monk before becoming king) or the Sinhalese activist Anagarika Dharmapala. This is sometimes known as "Protestant Buddhism". However, these reformers *imported Western ideas* and incorporated them with Buddhism, including British Victorian values and an attitude strikingly similar to that of Western Buddhological scholars or Christian missionaries. This Westernized Buddhism was then exported back to the Western world, where it changed even more, gradually becoming decidedly less Victorian and more explicitly leftish. (Unless you believe that there might be a connection between Victorian puritanism and puritanical political correctness, something this author sometimes does believe.) Thus, the only "Buddhist ethics" that seem to exist are those which really come from outside the Buddhist fold altogether! Unless, of course, you want to claim that feudalism, slavery and patriarchy are ethical...

The author´s alternative is based on the theories of Robert Kegan (whose books I never read). I can´t say I was thrilled. I get the impression that Kegan´s theories of human cognitive development have no universal validity, since his "stage 3" corresponds almost exactly to the histrionic immaturity of late 20th century and early 21st century American teenagers and college students (especially female ones). "Stage 5" corresponds to an idealized version of postmodernism and multi-culturalism, presumably reflecting Kegan´s own political affinities. Funny how that works, aint it? Chapman has considerable problems making Kegan´s ideas stick universally. Thus, he claims that pre-modern cultures are "stage 3", including traditional Buddhism (!) and medieval villages of subsistence farmers (!!). The idea that pre-modern cultures looked anything like American teenagers is funny, to be sure. Chapman´s own ideal explicitly rejects middle class values, in favor of both upper class and working class values, or something the author *thinks* are such values. In reality, it seems to be the "values" of the declassé and decadent upper-class hedonist, which may indeed be similar in some superficial ways to the hedonistic acting out of the lumpenized underclass (*not* the organized working class). I´m not surprised that a Tantrist would embrace such values, and indeed Chapman exemplifies it with a huge orgie! Indeed, I get the impression that the author is really an atheist-materialist or agnostic, and that he embraces Tantrism mostly because he gets his kicks that way... 

That being said, I nevertheless found "After Buddhist Ethics" interesting, and might continue exploring some of the topics covered. Link below! 

After Buddhist Ethics