Authoritarianism

[ralis]

I was just looking at some older files and came across this book that is free online. I think the researcher has a number of valid points. Especially, when it concerns religious authority that generally goes unquestioned. I mean all, no exceptions.

 

Why do humans have this need to yield to external authorities, when it is against their best interest? Fear? The need to fit into a larger group?

 

http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

 

ralis

[Apech]

Thanks Ralis - downloaded looks interesting.

[Marblehead]

 

Why do humans have this need to yield to external authorities, when it is against their best interest? Fear? The need to fit into a larger group?

 

ralis

 

Both, I think, for most people, especially during our teenage years. Some grow out of it, most do not.

 

Peace & Love!

[lifeforce]

Good topic.

 

Something from a zen forum which echoes my feelings on the matter:

 

''Ugh, all this elitist crap about who is or isn't official or in the club has nothing to do with Buddhism, Zen, or awakening.

 

And whether a person is studying or has studied with a teacher has nothing to do with the extent to which they have woken up to the truth.

 

I know from experience that a lot of people who "do Zen" the traditional way are clueless, mired in religious memes, and not awake, while many others have had genuine awakenings without practicing Zen the "official" way. The person who has helped me most on the path has not been any officially transmitted teacher I have worked with, but someone whose Zen practice and life experience is anything but the traditional model. However, he has communicated the heart of the teachings in a no-nonsense way that helped me break through some of my most persistent and pernicious delusions, and is a true spiritual friend. I have no doubt of his authenticity, while many a person in a brown robe has invited my suspicion.

 

It is my hope that the newbies here who put a lot of stock in the chest puffing and posturing about "the true Zen way" will persevere until they too have experienced enough to realize how little stock needs to be put in any of this nonsense. Many fools and pseudo-Buddhists, who care for status, approval, and belonging far more than they will ever care about waking up, wear rakusus, sit sesshin, and claim superiority of those who do not do these things. Practice with any sangha and this will be apparent. The games of status are inescapable. It seems to me that the majority of people in even the Zen communities with the least bullshit are there to nurse a sense of wounded superiority and prove to themselves they are the special, wise persons they suspect themselves to be. These people will never be willing to die or suffer humiliation for the truth because the core of their practice is defending the self. The corollary to this is that many true people have never set foot inside a zendo. This is not to say that many true people do not also practice with teachers in traditional ways, for many people do exemplify the traditional ideal of Zen practice and working with a teacher. It is just to say that there is no reason to revere people who take on traditional forms above those who do not.

 

It may be technically correct to make a distinction about what fits the traditional practice model in Zen, but the focus lately here on reverence for the brown robe seems to me to go against the spirit of Zen tradition. People, all that matters is if you wake up. A good teacher can be of great benefit but where and how one finds one's instruction is a lot less important than the willingness to do what it takes to wake up, even if no one else approves of it or recognizes it as official. My experience has been that one must eventually come upon a fork in the practice road where one realizes how solitary a journey this truly is, and that persisting will mean weathering scorn, not praise. The true person is without rank, and any rank or status bestowed on you by another person is not only meaningless, but can be a great distraction from the central matter of all Buddhist practice.''

[Dreamingawake]

Why do humans have this need to yield to external authorities, when it is against their best interest? Fear? The need to fit into a larger group?

 

You might get a kick out of this!

[RyanO]

You might get a kick out of this!

 

That's hilarious. If that's true...wow. Good for that kid. If not, it still has a point.

[Marblehead]

That's hilarious. If that's true...wow. Good for that kid. If not, it still has a point.

 

I agree! I actually had to work with some of those people when I was in the Army.

 

Peace & Love!

[ralis]

Here is one example of where authoritarianism really does a number on its followers.

 

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm

 

The appeal and sacrifice to the higher cause is probably the worst abuse!

 

 

 

ralis

Edited March 16, 2010 by ralis

[tyler zambori]

Why should anybody suffer humiliation for the truth? If there is no self,

how can they defend it?

[TzuJanLi]

Greetings..

 

Why should anybody suffer humiliation for the truth? If there is no self,

how can they defend it?

It's quite likely that their belief that there is no self, is not a realization.. more likely, it is the result of yielding to the skilled marketing techniques and Authoritative dogma of others.. simply because it takes a 'self' to have the 'alleged' realization of 'no self'.. regardless, humiliation intended is not always humiliation received..

 

Be well..