A French Buddhist scholar and Buddhist said that Westerners are formidable colonisers. He was afraid that the West will do to Buddhism what was done to other parts of the world and their religions. Reading recently an article about the British Police adopting "mindfulness to beat burnout" and knowing that mindfulness ‘without the Buddhism’ is already a reality at schools, work, hospitals, the army etc, one can ask if this process, isn't happening faster than even the French scholar realises? It's true that everything is subject to change and Buddhism isn't an exception to the law of impermanence. But the colonisation of Buddhism (cherry picking what is considered as useful in Buddhism and ignoring The Buddha’s teachings) is it the most dangerous change for Buddhism and Buddhists in more than 2500 years?

Nov 7, 2018