Recently Brad Warner mentioned an interesting insight he had into religion and its appeal, especially Christian radio. Brad wrote in part:
"They talk about how to live a moral life, how to deal with marriage difficulties, how to just be excellent to each other and so on. Some of the advice is even kind of good...But then just when I think everything's okay, they start slipping in stuff that's either just plain mean or simply bat-shit crazy. And then ZING! they're right back into talking about how to be a good person. And I'm like, where did that come from?...There are probably people out there who sincerely want to learn how to be decent human beings. Knowing of no other source of information on that subject, they get plunged into the bat-shit crazy stuff and end up associating being bat-shit crazy with being a good person."

He's right. The moral advice is mostly good, but the extrapolation of that moral advice is sometimes wacky. However, while I agree with Brad's observation, my experience is similar but from the opposite side of the fence. That is, I see a lot of what I consider bat shit crazy stuff coming from Buddhists, mostly in the form of liberal politics. I try to walk the eight-fold path, and I work at my vows. I'm sure other people do too. But I don't understand how a certain reverence for the Buddha dharma leads you into some left liberal nearly Marxist view of politics. I don't get it. But frequently I'm confronted with a conversational detour that begins with one of the precepts and then veers into "so therefore, anybody that doesn't love Obama and his policies is an ingnorant redneck."

Huh? You know it's true. Most America Buddhists are so far to the left politically that they can't even see the mainstream. In part that's fine. I don't want to outlaw anybody's views. I don't even care very much about CHANGING anybody's views. What I don't understand is the linkage between your Buddhist practice and your leftist politics. I don't see it. Why is there this identity politics thing going on whereby if you practice Buddhism, you're automatically assumed to hold the same liberal views? And yet that assumption is clearly there, as seen over and over by comments made during dharma talks, by comments on Brad's blog, and by the bumper stickers on the vehicles of my fellow practitioners.

I like Buddhism, but I don't like most Buddhists. To me the practice is about seeing the truth in all its unflattering reality, the truth uncolored by opinion or dogma. To too many of my fellow zazen buddies on the cushions next to me, it's all about being nice. Fuck nice. Let's find out what reality is so we can deal with that.