Corporate Buddhism: oxymoron

by: brooke

Thu Dec 03, 2009 at 14:38:55 PM MST

It's a good read that covers a lot of ground. A snippet:

I bring up Beliefnet and the OneCity blog in response to the highly uninformed and misguided belief that Buddhists in the West and particularly in America only belong to "...the velvet roped circle of artists and smart people that seem to mostly practice in the West" as one Jerry Kolber of OneCity likes to envision himself and the rest of the pack of culture-snobs. This is precisely the same attitude The Tricycle Editors take.

Nichiren Buddhists rarely are accused of elitism. More often, we're accused by elites of being lowest-common-denominator, bottom-feeder Buddhism because, really, you don't have to be smart or literate to chant....

A corporation is a non-human entity with a life all its own, acting on the imperatives of self-preservation and self-enrichment.

People who serve a corporation are serving a corporation. The corporation may have lofty, noble goals, but the truth about all corporations is: the corporation comes first.

Critics of and perceived threats to the corporation will be -- must be -- squelched, trashed or neutralized, even if it means violating a few of those lofty, noble goals.

"Corporate Buddhism" is my new favorite oxymoron, surpassing "anarchy rules" and "kosher ham."

Also, check out The Reformed Buddhist's Dharma Wars: Tricycle Responds.

And Barbara's blog featured a few interesting exchanges.