parents and buddhism
Posted by Clarity on 23 Mar 2006 at 08:38 am | Tagged as: Buddhism
I’ve been encouraging some of my students to think about going to a Dathun, which is a month long intensive sitting practice, that we do in Shambhala. It seems that for some parents, that is way too much. They think their children will be brainwashed, their money signed away for the rest of their life, … All the usual fears about joining a cult.
I’ve seen this again and again happening here in Slovenia, and I was just wondering if it’s just here or if it’s everywhere like that?
When you started practicing seriously, how did your parents react?
my mom became a nun
hehehe, yeah, I forgot about that. You two are lucky indeed!
Btw - Did you get my email?
only that first one,
did you get my response to that first one?
Sounds like a long stretch of time for parents to be away from their kids. Having six of my own, I can imagine the hesitance.
Have you taken a gradual approach? Have the parents done one-, two-, or three-day retreats before?
Hi Jigdral!
The problem is that parents don’t know a lot about Buddhism, and in Slovenia it is a fairly new thing. So, of course, they are worried, and afraid that their child is going to be seduced by a cult.
Unfortunately, reason is not very effective in these cases, as whatever one says is greeted with skepticism. You know, “they only say that to look nice, but *really* they are completely different…”
I was hoping they would come for one of our open house talks, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Patience it seems is the best option here.