Buddhist Privileged: Why people complain about r/Zen

Let's begin with what "White Privilege" means: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/fall-2018/what-is-white-privilege-really

How does this apply to Buddhists and their constant drone of "what we believe matters more than what Zen Masters say about Zen"?

In other words, [Buddhists] are more often humanized and granted the benefit of the doubt. [Buddhists] are more likely to receive compassion, to be granted individual potential, to survive mistakes.

We see this endlessly in r/zen:

1. "I go to a church, and that matters more than what some old books say"
2. "My family is Buddhist from Asia, so we're more authentic than some mythological Chinese Master".
3. "Who should we believe? Some high school book report about a 1,000 year old text you can't read without a translator or somebody who actually got ordained in a modern Buddhist church?"

​​​​​​​So, what can I do once I recognize my Buddhist privilege?

• Don’t take it personally or use discomfort as an excuse to disengage.
• Learn when to listen, when to amplify and when to speak up.
• Educate yourself.
• Educate fellow Buddhists
• Risk your unearned benefits to benefit others.

And please, before anybody says "hey, White Privilege is so much more of a social problem than Buddhist privilege", just don't. Two wrongs don't make a right, and anti-vaxxers killing hundreds of thousands of people doesn't make gun violence less of a problem.

Submitted September 09, 2021 at 07:00AM by ewk https://ift.tt/3E1RXuU