In China, tensions rising over Buddhism's quiet resurgence

[Joe McCarthy]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religio...ion/51034604/1

[arcticwolf]

Interesting. I would question just one thing, why would Chinese convert to Tibetan version of Mahayana branch of Buddhism when they have their own flavors, Chan the granddaddy of Zen being the most prominent. All in all good development.

[sean]

China represses the Uyghurs and Tibetans for three reasons: resources, politics, and history. First, most of China's oil comes from Xinjiang, and the sources of many of its major rivers are in the Tibetan Plateau. Second, the US constantly incites the non-Han peoples in Tibet and Xinjiang to distabilise China. Third, the CCP rose out of an era in which Western powers were carving China's territory to pieces, and it is culturally invested in making sure China never loses another inch of land, especially to Westerners.

China will never lead the world, and it is not clear whether or not they will become a super power. But the Chinese government does NOT have all its shit together. There is still tons and tons of political fighting, corruption, and infiltration within the government, the CCP and the PLA. There also exists an enormous problem with workers from China's rural farmlands (50% of Chinese are still farm workers) migrating into the urban centres to find work. These millions of migrants are discriminated against by the urban citizens and the government as well, who refuse them free medical care, and refuse their children education in the urban schools. China also has enormous problems relating to food supply, the value of the yuan, internal dissent, brain drain, Taiwan, and international pressures against their military operations outside of their borders.

By 2050, China will ultimately disintegrate into smaller states based on ethno-cultural lines. NW China will be a Uyghur Turkic state, NE China will be a Jurchen/Manchu state, SE China will be reserved for the Zhuang peoples, and SW China will be a Tibetan Buddhist theocracy. Central China however will remain in the hand of the Han, as it is the only area with arable land as well as the only area of China not to be rendered uninhabitable by extreme drought or coastal inundation.

I would question just one thing, why would Chinese convert to Tibetan version of Mahayana branch of Buddhism when they have their own flavors, Chan the granddaddy of Zen being the most prominent. All in all good development.

Zen (in China/Japan/Korea) got around violence by the use of "lay brothers". A similar concept came up in Christianity (the Knights Templar/Hospitaller). They basically aren't "real" monks and are more focused on ensuring that the "actual" monks are safe, that the community is protected, and that everything is generally in order. Tibetan Buddhists have a doctrine of compassion and pacifism, whilst Zen Buddhists are more focused on combat and nationalism. Hong Taiji was right that Tibetan Buddhism was the undoing of Mongol Empire. Mongols were Tengri Shamanist. They infused beliefs from Tibetan Buddhism, but the Mongol hordes initially weren't really devout Buddhist.

Pretend that you've never heard of Christianity and some Mormons show up and explain it to you. This is pretty much what you're getting when you try to understand Buddhism via Zen Buddhism.

Tibetan Buddhism is shamanism in Buddhist robes, but it gets results quicker than simple zazen. In Tibetan Buddhism it is believed that humans can create a phantasm or a real being if enough people believe in it's existence and collectively concentrate on it being so for a certain amount of time. Carl Jung also touches the subject in his theory on the Collective Unconscious.

The amount of clinical and academic research and study that has gone into meditation has found immense benefits (including total change in brainwave patterns for longtime Tibetan Buddhist monks towards the gamma brainwave frequency) is undeniable, and you don't need to subscribe to any of the religious dogma in order to meditate and experience the benefits, it is simply neuroplasticity in action, over time.