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| Hitler Youth? |
No, it's Buddha's Birthday Celebration...
South Koreans celebrate Buddha's Birthday with a Lantern Procession
More Pix and article at the Vancouver Sun
Transcultural shock
Isn't it strange how a particular symbol can produce an immediate gut reaction of horror and menace in Westerners (at least those of a certain age), and yet seem completely innocent to people of another culture?
The swastika has been an auspicious symbol in Buddhism for 2500 years, long before the Nazis appropriated it for their own evil purposes. But this hasn't stopped the European Union proposing to ban it, in a somewhat belated attempt to address the continent's problems of the 1930's, coupled with an arrogant display of EUrocentric cultural ignorance and control freakery.
Maybe it's time to rehabilitate the swastika, and reclaim it for its rightful owners, though I don't expect to see it displayed prominently on Western dharma centers anytime soon.
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| This might raise some eyebrows in Tunbridge Wells |
From the viewpoint of Buddhist philosophy, the Eurocrats' knee-jerk swastikaphobia clearly shows how the mind projects attachment or aversion onto objects, which in themselves are neither intrinsically good nor bad.
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