{"id":524,"date":"2009-04-02T13:00:49","date_gmt":"2009-04-02T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/04\/hardcore-dharma-is-the-best-buddhist.html"},"modified":"2009-04-02T13:00:49","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T13:00:49","slug":"hardcore-dharma-is-the-best-buddhist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/04\/hardcore-dharma-is-the-best-buddhist.html","title":{"rendered":"Hardcore Dharma is the Best Buddhist"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1994, Mary Pipher penned the classic psychology-porn book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.\u00a0<\/em> Thus identified, many an angsty adolescent girl (myself included\/higlighted) in the mid-90\u2019s pored over this tome, gleefully fantasizing about developing the dramatic psychosis of the test cases Pipher recounted.\u00a0 Of course the book wasn\u2019t intended for us, it was intended for our parents, to recognize the emotional traps of their own personal \u201cOphelia\u2019s\u201d so we didn\u2019t end up all \u201cRosemary for Remembrance\u201d because some soccer player passed us a \u201cGet thee to a nunnery\u201d note during study hall.\u00a0 However in my house, at least, I was the only one who read Pipher\u2019s book, scanning for inspiration and symptoms of a not-overly-unpleasant mental illness I could develop that would allow me to miss more school and drop Physics.\u00a0 (Whatever I know all the liberal art-sters out there are murmuring\u00a0\u201cBut I loved Physics.\u00a0 Physics and Geometry! They\u2019re the most creative!”\u00a0 Congratulations.\u00a0 I liked Biology and Algebra.\u00a0 We move on.)
\nFourteen years later, the Pied Pipher is at it again, mounting this train called \u201cI\u2019m Distracted\u201d with a new book, Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World.<\/em>\u00a0 Okay, before I commence on a loving and\u00a0good-natured rant, let me first say that I have violated every charge and conflicted every argument that I level.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019ve considered writing some kind of \u201cI\u2019m a young, sexy Buddhist-sinner in this crazy 21st century world\u201d memoire-type book.\u00a0 But maybe I shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Because more and more if you asked (and you didn\u2019t) I would say:
\nPlease.\u00a0 Can we stop with the bad Buddhist thing?
\nOkay, it\u2019s one thing to understand and appreciate the \u201cworst horse\u201d teaching.\u00a0 (The famous statement of Shunryu Suzuki\u2019s that sometimes the worst horse is the best kind of Buddhist).\u00a0 It\u2019s another thing to cut down the fundamental\u00a0dharma\u00a0teachings by saying, well gosh, I\u2019m the worst Buddhist ever, because I\u2019m career-focused \/ lovesick \/ stressed \/ self-absorbed \/ full of anxiety \/ too down to earth \/ not into the new-agey thing \/ resistant \/ whatever.
\nFirstly, it\u2019s a lie.\u00a0 You, me and Mary Pipher know that she is not the \u201cworst\u201d Buddhist in the world – rather she\u2019s a fairly average, overly self-analytical status-anxiety-driven person who is studying Buddhism. It\u2019s a hyperbolic plea, to make us say, No!\u00a0 You\u2019re a great Buddhist!\u00a0 Because you think you\u2019re bad! But you\u2019re not! Because you\u2019re already saying you are!\u00a0 And it\u2019s funny because Buddhism is notoriously non-dualistic! You\u2019re self-aware!\u00a0 Good job! You guys want to read about bad Buddhists?\u00a0 Read the Sarpashana Sourcebook<\/a> (Sanskrit for Poison Eaters) that was put out about the addiction program at the Shambhala Center in Colorado.\u00a0 My past life sometimes wishes it was still a grownup in the eighties, before everyone started feeling so freaking guilty about freaking everything.
\nSecondly, these stories falter by the fact that these ibadatthespirit authors are generally persuasive, charming writers who seem to have their lives together – see Judith Warner<\/a> or the Beat Flay Shove lady.\u00a0 Therefore, all the neurosis that these folks are supposed to be \u201cdown\u201d on – their cynicism, their mind that keeps thinking about \u201cWork\u201d and \u201cAccomplishment,\u201d and \u201cStatus\u201d is actually totally glorified.\u00a0 When I hear Mary Pipher talk about how she\u2019s such a bad Buddhist because she\u2019s got perfectionist tendencies, I then connect those tendencies to her writing a best-selling psychology book.\u00a0\u00a0Hence, for\u00a0some odd\u00a0reason I\u2019m not like, \u201cyeah \u2013 wow, I wish I didn\u2019t have that quality of an excellent work ethic that has prompted your national book tour.\u201d
\nFurthermore, when anyone talks about how it\u2019s hard for them to follow Buddhism because they come from a tradition of tough-talkers (which Piper claims) I have two reactions:
\n1.\u00a0 Every American has a love affair with the authentic no BS archetype.\u00a0 By saying that has led to why you are the worst Buddhist I kinda feel if she\u2019s wrong I don\u2019t want to be right.\u00a0 I know the idea is to say, \u201cAnd still I meditated! Despite my attitude!\u201d yet it\u2019s more like disclaiming, \u201csee you can listen to me because I\u2019m not really like all the rest of these space cadets.”
\n2.\u00a0 If you have to bring up straight-talking how about what Buddhism actually says?\u00a0 The daily Buddhist reminder that your body WILL become a rotting corpse AND that if you invest in the worldly world suffering CANNOT and WILL NOT be escaped is more of a straight-talk express than any regionally-accented \u201cI can\u2019t tolerate people who sit around contemplating their navel\u201d nonsense.\u00a0 Oh \u2013 here\u2019s the interview I watched of Pipher, btw.
\n