A very interesting video c/o Brad Warner, a Zen Buddhist teacher based in California who is apparently something of a maverick. In this video, Brad explains why he can´t stand (other) Buddhists. My impression is that he rejects all forms of evangelizing worldviews: Christianity (conservative or liberal), the Hare Krishna, dogmatic atheism-materialism...but also most forms of Buddhism. Brad talks at some length about his upbringing in rural Ohio and his encounters with various cults and cliques in high school and college.
Brad´s brand of Buddhism is a non-dogmatic form of Zen. It´s open-ended enough to include God (if you can prove his existence!) or reject reincarnation (if you can´t prove *its* existence). Apparently, Brad often gets into trouble with more dogmatic Buddhists who can´t stand anyone questioning or down-playing reincarnation. Their usually passive-aggressive attitudes might turn aggressive-aggressive! Judging by some previous videos, Brad doesn´t really care that much about "the Buddha´s original teachings", "early Buddhism" or the Pali Canon, which also rubs many Buddhists the wrong way.
Somewhat ironically, the Buddhists our bro can´t stand seem to be Americans. I got the impression that White American Buddhism was very non-dogmatic, but Brad evidently has problems with the opposite kind of people! But - like he points out - even "liberals" can be pretty dogmatic and have a missionary mentality.
Final point. I absolutely agree with the observation that the Hare Krishna sound strangely "Christian", although I would say its their attitude rather than their formal message. Many of them do come across as newly converted and somewhat naive "fideist" Christians with the same evangelizing impulses. Interestingly, they often have a very positive view of Jesus...
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