Monday, May 22, 2023

Beastie Boys: Shambala/Bodhisattva Vow

Beastie Boys (Ill Communication); Sheldon S., Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Jew in the Lotus (Kamenetz)
Imagine a Bodhisattva vow taken by most of the members of one of the three great world religions (Mahayana Buddhism), which has about a billion uncounted members in officially communist China. The three world religions are Catholicism (Christianity), Islam (Shia and Sunni but not so much Sufi), and Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana), the oldest being Buddhism, which began as a missionary religion in proto-India before there was a "Hinduism" at the time of Brahmins and their Vedas (ancient "Knowledge Books"). Buddhism spread from the historical founder, Siddhartha Gautama the supremely "Awakened One," north to Tibet (Vajrayana) and China (Mahayana) then to all of Asia and most of the world. The Dalai Lama-loving Beastie Boys (New York Jewish-Buddhist hip hop rappers) give the vow a new spin from their classic album, Ill Communication.

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