Eight years ago I ranted about the baleful hegemony of “Consensus Buddhism”—which boiled down to “It’s nice to be nice. Also, mindfulness.” And I suggested it was imploding. It’s over now! And diverse, more-substantive alternatives are emerging.https://vividness.live/2011/12/31/one-dharma-whose/ …
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Whereas the political hegemony of Consensus Buddhism is visibly over, its memetic dominance lingers. In particular, all the new alternatives seem to be mostly recycling mid-20th-century export Theravada. Harder-core versions maybe, but can’t we find other sources of inspiration?
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Harder-core Theravada adaptations like TMI or MCTB work well both because all the information is public and because there are online communities where advanced practitioners can guide intermediate ones, and intermediate ones can guide beginners, along with connections to teachers
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Replying to @jplewicke @Meaningness and
They also have Stage 4-style systematic maps of meditative techniques, stages, and effects. Obviously those are going to prove incomplete and need to be left behind at some point in practice, but they're really empowering for beginners/intermediates.
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Replying to @jplewicke @Meaningness and
For an atomized Vajrayana to take off, it'd need to rethink samaya and publish more detailed descriptions of currently secret techniques. It'd also need to find a way to make the transition from one-to-one guidance to one-to-many by providing guidance on public forums.
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The one-on-one guidance is one of the most important aspects to preserve, I think. The one-size-fits-all huge vipassana retreats have a place, but nothing is nearly as effective personalized interaction with a teacher. (Granted, I also have a financial motivation to say so.)
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Yes, this is the critical point. We haven’t got a social structure that we know works, and without that no teacher is going to step up to do the work. The issue is not “the guru model,” it’s apprenticeship.
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I think Dharma Treasure/TMI is a good example of doing this the right way, with a funnel towards increasingly personalized instructions. It starts with a systematic presentation that you can read, then a subreddit for handling common beginner/intermediate questions, then ...
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Replying to @jplewicke @Meaningness and
... group video chats where you can see a teacher interact with the group and answer questions, then one on one teaching time, then if you’re interested you can become a teacher-in-training and learn directly from Culadasa. So students are funneled based on skill/experience.
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Replying to @jplewicke @Meaningness and
There’s an interesting connection with the economic model from Managing the Professional Services Firm, in which organization’s growth rates/size are determined by the seniority levels needed to perform their work. (Work done by beginners = fast growth, done by experts = slow)
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Relatedly, there are nearly no senior people willing to teach Vajrayana in the way students are willing to learn it. The most likely outcome is extinction, although that is not certain.
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