Re: Life Duty Death
Marty G. Price (mprice@Ra.MsState.Edu)
Thu, 21 Sep 1995 18:54:04 -0500
On 21 Sep 1995, Raven wrote:
> Joseph Askew (jbask1@MFS06.cc.monash.edu.au) wrote:
[still chattering about Chinese Buddhists--snipped]
Raven's reply:
>
> Make up your mind whether the Muslims are Chinese or not -- since your earlier
> claim (that ALL Chinese are Buddhists) depends on Muslims being "not Chinese".
>
> Then compare the figures for "Adherents of Religions by Continental Areas"
> in the World Almanac or Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year with your
> statement that all 1.2 billion Chinese are Buddhists.
>
> 1995 World Almanac (page 731) shows just 334+ million Buddhists worldwide,
> of which 332+ million are in Asia; Chinese folk religionists amount to
> just under 141 million (all but about 3E5 in Asia, unsurprisingly), so we
> could stretch a point and add their "Buddhist elements" to get a grand
> total of 373+ million Buddhists in Asia, 375+ million worldwide, still far
> short of 1.2 billion.
>
> But no doubt you claim to be more accurate than these sources.
>
[Much more of this lesson snipped]
Perhaps it's time to reprise where this damn thing started, since I was
responsible. In a posting:
I made reference to Karma as including the direct, earthly results of our
actions, a concept familiar to many neo-pagans, lots of new age types,
and an additional cross-section of persons interested in ecology. I also
refered to this as "The First Law of Karma." I can't tell you if I
coined that phrase or stole it, because I honestly don't know. Re: Woody
Guthrie on musical creativity, "Oh, I steal from everybody." Likewise,
my chatter on ethics generally and specifically is likely to include
everything from Immanuel Kant, who I seriously studied about 20 years
ago, to whatever pop writer I've last read who turns a phrase well. And
I can't always remember my sources, or find them again.
My chatter won't include much unadulterated stuff from Hinduism or
Buddhism; those are two areas I've never really studied.
Joseph read my "First Law of Karma" remark and
assumed Karma was a Chinese term (?)
assumed Karma was originally a Buddhist term (?)
assumed all Chinese were Buddhists (??)
assumed I claimed to be Buddhist (???)
Asserted he knew Chinese (?????)
I stopped responding to the thread when he called me a communist. I
admire Raven's tenacity, and his evident success in persuading Joseph to
open a book, if only to locate a description of a single Chinese character.
I am responding this time basically to say, this is growing old. I used
the term Karma as the eclectic & eccentric neo-pagan I am, and would
prefer to see challenges to my usage from other pagans than from
non-believers who thing I'm Buddhist.
Blessed Be,
Red Deer
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