"The dangerous American myth of corporate spirituality"

[gatito]

Tell that to someone who is starving, children that go to bed hungry and the exploited masses that crank out endless shit for consumption.

 

Take the case of Steve Jobs who practiced Zen. Jobs used his vision to exploit Chinese sweat shop laborers to make massive amounts of money for the latest and over hyped technology.

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all

 

Quarters for sweat shop laborers. Photo is self explanatory.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285980/Revealed-Inside-Chinese-suicide-sweatshop-workers-toil-34-hour-shifts-make-iPod.html

 

 

I'd be astonished if he was actually practicing Zen.

 

Buddhists don't do stuff like that.

 

Especially Zen Buddhists!

[gatito]

Tao and Zen facebook

 

https://www.facebook.com/TaoZen2012

[Aetherous]

This is an example of the false form of spirituality that permeates our popular culture.

Buddhism states that attachment is one of the three main emotional poisons...and attachment to happiness, attachment to not being around "toxic people"...these are clear indicators of the opposite of cultivation.

Even considering people toxic is opposed to Buddhism. Buddhism considers all sentient beings to be worthy of accepting and helping. What they consider toxic are these negative emotions that are cultivated in the name of making one's false self temporarily feel better, at the expense of others.

 

Just throwing this into the relevant topic...sorry I haven't had time to join into the conversation going on.

 

(on the other hand, there's something to be said for protecting yourself in any way you can, at times...desperate times call for desperate measures, and you can't fault a person who truly needs help to take it from any available source)

Edited December 4, 2014 by Aetherous

[gatito]

@ Scotty

 

Yes, maintaing appropriate boundaries is important, as is avoiding "Rescuing" people (in the Transactional Analysis sense).

[Aetherous]

@ Scotty Yes, maintaing appropriate boundaries is important, as is avoiding "Rescuing" people (in the Transactional Analysis sense).

 

Very true. Although, thinking of people as toxic and being able to erase them from your life completely, then having to tell yourself not to feel guilty about it, I don't view as being healthy in any way.

[gatito]

Absolutely!

[GrandmasterP]

 

I'd be astonished if he was actually practicing Zen.

 

Buddhists don't do stuff like that.

 

Especially Zen Buddhists!

No disrespect to your good self or the Sangha bro and I have the deepest respect for Dogen & Zen in general.

However Zen Buddhism, especially in the west has a shady history of scandal, coercion and abuse amongst some prominent Zennists.

Compared to other branches of Buddhism Zen does not 'score well' on safety and protection issues.

There's been a commission investigating what to do to address these issues set up by the main Zen groups.

That continues its work.

More via this link, it makes sad reading.....

http://www.darkzen.org/articles/uszen3.htm

Edited December 4, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[gatito]

None taken.

 

I stand corrected.

 

Thanks for the heads-up.

[Trunk]

(I only read the quote in the orig post, not the article, but...)

 

1st-world spirituality, yikes.

[somatech]

protectingyourfalseself.jpg

 

This is an example of the false form of spirituality that permeates our popular culture.

 

Buddhism states that attachment is one of the three main emotional poisons...and attachment to happiness, attachment to not being around "toxic people"...these are clear indicators of the opposite of cultivation.

 

Even considering people toxic is opposed to Buddhism. Buddhism considers all sentient beings to be worthy of accepting and helping. What they consider toxic are these negative emotions that are cultivated in the name of making one's false self temporarily feel better, at the expense of others.

 

Just throwing this into the relevant topic...sorry I haven't had time to join into the conversation going on.

 

(on the other hand, there's something to be said for protecting yourself in any way you can, at times...desperate times call for desperate measures, and you can't fault a person who truly needs help to take it from any available source)

But its ok to remove junk food and toxic addictive drugs from our diet if we want to?

 

Some people are overly sensitive and strongly affected by certain toxic people. For some people, one such toxic person could exhaust all their energy and pull them out of balance, in the same way addictive drugs do. We can create boundaries if doing so is necessary for getting better and healing. Sometimes you are not superman, and boundaries can be ok and helpful and benefit everyone in the long run as you get better.

 

Buddhism wants peace for everyone, including you. If your systems can't handle a particular circumstance, and you need to rebalance and change those circumstances thats ok. The middle way..

Edited December 7, 2014 by somatech

[Aetherous]

So true!

[somatech]

As spiritual, new age, Eastern becomes more integrated into the West, we will see more and more misunderstanding, manipulation, abuse of these concepts as well as positive use etc.

 

We will need more common sense, and as always, look to see what the energy is behind any claim or argument to see the real reason why someone is using an argument or concept etc.

Edited December 7, 2014 by somatech

[somatech]

haha... the remaining article seems like an attack on white women...

 

go figure...

 

an article about "systemic sexism" attacking white women practicing yoga and meditation...

 

HAHA...

 

 

haha thats great!

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

the world has always been like this.

Something good is developed to help the poor (of spirit) become wealthy and happy (in spirit),

and it is abused by the rich (of material wealth) in order to delude people into believing that they must give up their limited assets (material and spiritual) to carry on in the way we have always been carrying on (which although often not the worst, is certainly not the best way of doing things).

 

For once, I'm not going to quote laozi or any other books and just put it plainly in my own words;

the fact that everyone here knows this already means that everyone here has the opportunity to change it.

you are all rich enough in spirit that you can help others to improve their situation.

they are right, if everyone focuses on positivity, the situation will improve,

they just haven't mastered being positive yet.

If you are a little further down the road than they,

you should go out and help them roll those wheels toward their destiny

[sillybearhappyhoneyeater]

then again,

just to be a contrarion (because I like doing that),

imagine if these female employees were to work on the assumption that their opportunities were less than the men in their work (which is often true because of workplace discrimination). Imagine then that they put in a huge amount of overtly obvious effort, always did the correct thing and went above and beyond expectations, leaving all of her male coworkers in the dust.

She would have what she wanted in no time and there would be no need to ejudicate.

One of the great sicknesses of the twentieth and twenty first centuries is to feel entitled.

There used to be such a thing as the merit of your work being the reason for your success.

the entitled opinion that because "I deserve it," then I should be able to excell is just wrong and terrble.

So in a sense, yes, the karma aint right.

Her bosses karma is probably even less right, but whose counting (other than a media that would like to use stories like this to hide the real nature of the corporate power structure)>

[gatito]

There's an interesting and relevant discussion here, which includes John Kabbat Zinn's evolving stance on the deployment of Mindfulness in the military.

Initially, he was against it because it increases combat effectiveness and efficiency (as well as significantly decreasing or eliminating PTSD): -

[TzuJanLi]

Very true. Although, thinking of people as toxic and being able to erase them from your life completely, then having to tell yourself not to feel guilty about it, I don't view as being healthy in any way.

Pretending that there are no 'selfs' to absolve the pretender of the guilt of complicity, is the same absurdity as blaming the victim for the crime..

[Owledge]

Those who are living off of exploiting others will naturally try to deny that reality, suppress that inner doubt, by making up stories about why what they're doing is good. This leads to all kinds of bullshit philosophies*.

 

*)This word is often used in a perverted way, by meaning the opposite of the love of wisdom.

Edited December 10, 2014 by Owledge

[balance.]

Pretending that there are no 'selfs' to absolve the pretender of the guilt of complicity, is the same absurdity as blaming the victim for the crime..

 

guilt/judgement/fear/attack arise in situations of self & other. this is dualistic.

 

with I/One/Love, there is sharing and this brings about recognition of innate kinship through the world of form. this also fosters responsibility for healing since all occurs within you.

 

it is proper for guilt and judgement to fall away once there is no recognition of selves--- for what is there then to inspire guilt if all that you recognize is you and the relationships all these terms are based upon are predicated upon a distortion? form begs categorization and description. formlessness/perfected love will tolerate none.

 

but--- recognition of formlessness/oneness in relationships brings with it the responbility for healing all that is fractured in your world upon you. there is no one else more worthy or capable of taking this work on than you. formlessness is perfected love and there can be nothing else. how can there be any trauma on this level of reality if you recognize and see and experience all separation as perfected love? from this awareness arises highest compassion. from this awareness, you are given the opportunity to systematically heal and correct all separation in your Mind. jesus mentioned once that he never healed anyone--- because he only ever corrected aspects of his own mind--- he recognized all others as Self/I/Is/One. Healing is then only ever done on yourself.

 

the tendancy to defer responsibility for healing in a separated mind is great. it's always easy to lay blame on another and wait for someone else to remedy a situation/correct an error. but, by recognizing that the victim is you and thus your responsibility and that somewhere within your Mind are the roots of all conflict on this level of reality are healing momentums that generate some of the greatest shifts in Mind.

 

the people and situations that make our lives challenging are aspects of our minds that are ripe for healing. nothing more. gratitude and love for our enemies/challenges/adversities heals the rifts in Mind that foster these conflicts.

 

Oneness is not a cop-out. Oneness will bring one towards the dark night of the soul. duality is for sleeping.

 

 

 

b

Edited December 11, 2014 by balance.