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Buddhist assassin at Navy Yard prompts debate about stereotype of peaceful faith
Washington Post ^ | 9/18/2013 | Michelle Boorstein and Elizabeth Tenety

Posted on 09/18/2013 3:12:41 AM PDT by markomalley

In the aftermath of the Navy Yard shootings, gunman Aaron Alexis’s interest in Buddhism seemed at odds with conventional Western stereotypes of blissed-out meditators.

Buddhism scholars and bloggers were quick to note that Alexis’ spiritual profile didn’t fit with the image of someone unloading a gun and killing 12 innocents in a crowded military office building.

Yet some saw a chance to challenge the peaceful stereotype and unveil some topics Buddhists discuss amongst themselves. Is the peaceful Buddhist an illusion? Do Buddhists and Buddhist temples deal directly enough with the topic of mental illness? And in fact might Buddhism in particular attract the mentally ill?

“As Buddhism has spread in the West, it has put forth and maintained an image of being a peaceful religion,” Buddhist ethicist Justin Whitaker, author of the American Buddhist blog, wrote Tuesday. “This is a myth.”

Buddhism can seem particularly appealing to “mentally unbalanced people seeking to right the ship of their lives, to self-medicate, to curb their impulses, or to give them a firmer grip on reality,” Clark Strand, a contributing editor to the Buddhist publication Tricycle magazine and a former Zen monk, said in an interview.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: aaronalexis; buddhism; faith; navyyard; navyyardshooting
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1 posted on 09/18/2013 3:12:41 AM PDT by markomalley
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To: markomalley
Quick! Everybody!! This guy belonged to one of those weird religions! Let's attack that faith! Let's paint with a broad brush and bring into doubt everything we may have ever assumed about Buddhism! Maybe it's dangerous. Maybe it should be illegal. Maybe we should have special laws against people who practice such a violent religion.

I mean, c'mon, it's not nearly as wholesome as Islam.

2 posted on 09/18/2013 3:18:01 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (21st century. I'm not a fan.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I bet he hAd anoher unmentioned religion. People adopti;ng budhism as opposed to born in it tend to navigate around it and play with other faiths.


3 posted on 09/18/2013 3:24:58 AM PDT by lavaroise
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To: ClearCase_guy

Buddhists have been well documented to perpetrate violence on Christians. Same with Hindus and Muslims.


4 posted on 09/18/2013 3:42:24 AM PDT by EricT. (Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Big brother is watching you.)
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To: markomalley

I know of one person who is technically Jewish, but seems to think he is Buddhist. He is also schizophrenic (but is taking his meds). He is off, even with meds. The leftists I know often seem to gravitate toward Buddhism. Most are not dangerous, but some could be under certain circumstances. I think Buddhism became chic in the US due to people like Beatniks and Hippies - leftists rebelling against mom, America and apple pie.


5 posted on 09/18/2013 3:45:20 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: markomalley

Media is just trying to trash Buddhists in an attempt to show that “they all do it” to give cover to Muslims being such hotheads and animals.


6 posted on 09/18/2013 3:46:09 AM PDT by shalom aleichem
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To: ClearCase_guy

This guy was about as much of a Buddhist as the Westboro Baptists are Christians.


7 posted on 09/18/2013 3:46:39 AM PDT by shibumi (Cover it with gas and set it on fire.)
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To: EricT.

He may have used Buddhism as a cover and was not one to begin with.


8 posted on 09/18/2013 3:48:58 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: markomalley

With eleven of the victims being white this is a black on white hate crime!


9 posted on 09/18/2013 3:49:07 AM PDT by stockpirate (My great, great, great, great, grandfather fought in the Revolution, stand up patriots......)
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To: PghBaldy

LOL at the comments at WaPo... They are FREAKED out. It is disturbing how defensive (presumably) Americans are about a foreign religion. Probably the same lefties who mock Christians everyday when they can.


10 posted on 09/18/2013 3:51:38 AM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: markomalley

Really, are they really going to launch into some in-depth discussion of Buddhism; one the media has NEVER pursued with relation to Islam?

Whatever this man’s motives (if he had any coherent ones) they don’t seem to be about Buddhism. It’s not like he ran around shooting people saying “Here’s your nirvana right here!” or anything like that.


11 posted on 09/18/2013 3:54:58 AM PDT by jocon307
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To: markomalley

The reality is he was just another “angry black male” - nothing more than that!


12 posted on 09/18/2013 3:58:42 AM PDT by newfreep (Breitbart sent me...)
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To: markomalley

This nut was no Buddhist...he pretended to be one so that he could go to Thailand and get some noogir from the local working girls.


13 posted on 09/18/2013 3:59:01 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: markomalley

Didn’t monks and nuns develop kung fu? Just because a person doesn’t start trouble doesn’t imply that he/she shouldn’t neutralize it. The Creator bestows blessings, one of which is one’s body. It’s only proper to take care of it.


14 posted on 09/18/2013 4:03:14 AM PDT by Silentgypsy (the seed spawn of zor-ketthraa!.)
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To: markomalley

Is there any evidence that religion with the cause for his rampage or another case of the media jumping the gun. Oh maybe that’s the wrong term to use.


15 posted on 09/18/2013 4:04:32 AM PDT by McGruff (No wars for Arab pipelines!)
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To: markomalley

The nut job murderer wasn’t a Buddhist. His only incentive for going to a Buddhist temple was to impress the Thai girlfriend who snubbed him.


16 posted on 09/18/2013 4:06:43 AM PDT by BuffaloJack (Gun Control is the Key to totalitarianism and genocide.)
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To: McGruff

“Is there any evidence that religion with the cause for his rampage or another case of the media jumping the gun.”

There isn’t even evidence that Buddhism is a religion rather than a philosophy; unlike Hinduism (from which Buddhism was born) they don’t have a deity.


17 posted on 09/18/2013 4:09:01 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic war against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: markomalley

No Buddhist he.

I know and have worked with Buddhists(all of Asian extraction). They are gentle people.

this guy’s religion was poser.


18 posted on 09/18/2013 4:23:22 AM PDT by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: PghBaldy

Here’s my theory: The guy knew he had problems with anger. So he joined Buddhism in a last ditch attempt to control his anger. It’s that simple.


19 posted on 09/18/2013 4:25:12 AM PDT by RadiationRomeo (Step into my mind and glimpse the madness that is me)
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To: McGruff

The only time people attribute their actions to their religion is in the case of Islam, which actually commands its followers to be violent, something the media conveniently overlooks.

This killer never attributed his attacks to Buddhism, and in fact the only thing that might be deduced was that he was motivated by a racial obsession, since all of his victims but one were white and he supposedly took the time to pick them out and aim at them rather than just shooting indiscriminately.

What he really was, of course, was crazy, and crazy people often go with some political or external obsession to justify their craziness to themselves. But he was obviously also trying to use Buddhist meditation as a sort of self-treatment mechanism. Clearly, it didn’t work; however, it was certainly not the cause of his rampage.


20 posted on 09/18/2013 4:27:10 AM PDT by livius
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