This is a cartoon that was made from the American point of view about Buddhists. Obviously it is a negative stereotype which basically portrays Buddhists as people who don’t think about “important” things in life and focus their attention on frivolous issues. The problem lies with the definition of “important” because focusing on meditation and trying to get to the point at which you are enlightened is really important to Buddhists and not necessarily important to normal everyday Americans. On the other side of the spectrum Buddhist monks probably wouldn’t think that Americans that worry about money every second of every day are “thoughtless” in the sense that it has no purpose in the long run.
In the book in the chapter about Buddhism in the west Brad Warner further explains the practice of zazen which relates to this stereotype. To explain zazen he wrote:
“There’s a story in which a Zen master hears about a wandering monk who says, “If a clear mind comes, let it come. If a cloudy mind comes, let it come.” The Zen master grabs him and yells, “What if neither a clear mind nor a cloudy mind comes?” The monk says, “I hear they’re having a big sale on underwear at JC Penny” and wanders off. The master says approvingly, “I thought this was no ordinary monk!””
This story confirms the stereotype to a certain extent. It confirms that people practicing zazen do actually sit and focus on nothing that Americans seem to think is important. However, the stereotype does not confirm that they focus unimportant issues according to the Buddhist themselves.
This certain stereotype in my opinion is all a matter of values. Personally, I think that the practice of zazen that he mentions in the book seems to me to be just as important, if not more important, than the thoughts that most Americans burden themselves with. Also, I feel that the religions that Americans are most familiar with have a lot to do with their perceptions of religions such as Buddhism. In Christianity everything is so concrete and the proper ways to follow are laid out for you that I think that they have difficulties imagining that someone can reach their goal (enlightenment or heaven) in their own way.
