Marshall Sontag Live!

Ignorance Bad for Objectivity

Capitalism Magazine recently published an article by a little wolf by the name of Wayne Dunn, entitled, "Buddha Bad for Business." In it, he takes an event about the Dalai Lama speaking to businessmen and uses it as an opportunity to attack Buddhism, not even bothering to learn what the Dalai Lama actually said in his speech. His huffing and puffing, however, succeeds only in blowing down a straw man.

Dalai Lama = Buddhism = Anti-Life = Anti-Capitalism = Anti-Business. With his rationalistic formula, Wayne Dunn clearly demonstrates his ignorance about not only the Dalai Lama, but also Buddhism. Perhaps his article might be more aptly titled "Destroying Buddhism with Rationalism in Five Easy Steps." The truth of the matter is that neither the Dalai Lama, nor Buddhism, are anti-life. While Tibetan Buddhists dabble in mysticism (Dunn neglects to distiguish between the different varieties of Buddhism -- likely out of ignorance), their philosophy is largely pro-life and much of it integrates with Objectivism beautifully. To demonstrate, here are a few choice quotes:

"I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness." -The Dalai Lama

"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life." -Ayn Rand

Can you see any difference? I certainly can't. Mr. Dunn points out in his essay that the only way to attain "inner peace" (his quotations -- as if inner peace is some ridiculous pseudo-concept), according to the Dalai Lama and his Buddhist cohorts, is by renouncing "ALL desires... Material things then - even food, clothing and other necessities - are viewed as mere allurements." Except, I have a quote here by the Dalai Lama that seems to conflict with that statement:

"Human beings are of such nature that they should have not only material facilities but spiritual sustenance as well. "

There it is: Human beings should have material facilities. While I'm not exactly sure what's encompassed under "material facilities," I would bet the farm that food, clothing and other necesseties are. And doesn't he seem to speak of the same integrated nature of material and spirit that Ayn Rand spoke so frequently about?

The Dalai Lama has also stated that he sees the value in a romantic love relationship. And good health -- must I even address this? The whole purpose of the four noble truths and the noble eightfold path is the attainment of sound mental health. The third noble truth, the assertion that "suffering ceases with the cessation of craving" refers to a certain type of desire. The kind of desire where you just HAVE to have something in order to be happy -- the kind of desire which causes you to be unhappy because you can't satisfy it. This is the statement that Dunn takes at face value, doesn't bother to inquire further into, and then hastily applies a blanket condemnation to all of Buddhism, including the Dalai Lama.

My intent here is not to defend the omniscience of the Dalai Lama -- I certainly don't agree with everything he believes. Neither is it my intent to defend the sound integration of Buddhism and Objectivism -- this task would be far too time-consuming, and rather impossible in my opinion. Rather, my intent is to illuminate Mr. Dunn's blatant lack of objectivity that he displays with his statements of utter ignorance. It is rather ironic (or hypocritical, if you would like) that he concurrently consider himself a defender of objectivity (which I think we can infer from his references to Ayn Rand and The Ayn Rand Institute), and a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson (misrepresented by Rand herself) comes to mind: "Who you are speaks so loudly, I can't hear what you say." Mr. Dunn applies a similar, albeit twisted version of this: "Who I ignorantly think you are speaks so loudly, I won't even bother trying to hear what you say."

Perhaps I shouldn't be quick to blame, however. Perhaps his problem is that he never learned a philosophy, like Buddhism, that teaches one how to be objective through various practices. Perhaps he never knew about the Mudita Forum in which he could learn how to integrate the valuable aspects of Buddhism with Objectivism. Regardless of the cause, Mr. Dunn remains ignorant of the true nature of Buddhism.

In his essay, he says that according to Buddhism, and the Dalai Lama by implication, "to avoid suffering and discontentment...one must rid oneself of all desires." I would like my guest speaker, Mr. Lama, who is in disagreement with Mr. Dunn, to respond for himself: "I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance." Please, Mr. Dunn, don't make us suffer any longer.

Posted by Marshall at April 30, 2004 12:54 PM