In case I do not make myself immediately clear, I will provide some background.

Morgan likes to examine Buddhist teaching with great intellectual rigor. He is particularly concerned with the Buddhist notion of "no self," and how practitioners might move closer to this ideal. Morgan sees delusion in much Western meditation that he feels would not further the "no-self" ideal--including, apparently, my own.

At first, I felt stung by Morgan's ignominious mention. Now, I can pinpoint the reason for my discomfort.

I dislike having my practice lumped into the "self-centered" category. I dislike the category itself; I believe it's a grossly unfair one to apply to Westerners.

In the entry in question, Morgan also linked to an essay by John Hite. Is Hite American? It would stand to reason. We are so in love with fundamentalism of one kind and another here, and have been ever since the damned Puritans.

Reading this piece by Mr. Hite, a Buddhist, recalled for me Cotton Mather's fire-and-brimstone from the pulpit: You're all shit, and you're all going to hell. As Hite asserts, we're all "self-centered, ego-deluded" shit--yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's one, true path to heaven (elucidated by Mr. Hite and his ilk); all others are "false." Sigh.

I am not some New-Age Pollyanna, of which we have admittedly a few here in the Bay Area. I do not believe meditation will only make my life won-der-ful, or that its pitfalls should not be discussed--far from it.

But Morgan's critique overlooks that seated meditation practice evolved in a cultural milieu very different from our own. Sitting is difficult for Westerners. There's the tremendous practical inconvenience, to many of us, of sitting regularly, and then there are the rigors of meditation itself.

The most engaging and constructive teaching about seated meditation for Westerners, then, focuses on how to work with obstacles faced by nearly all Westerners who want to practice. Good teaching about meditation for the West does not wax moralistic about "whether we're doing it right."

Who would I be, to make that determination about Morgan's practice? Who is Morgan, to make it about mine?
4:55:12 AM    comment []