UCLA Buddhist Scholar Gregory Schopen

From our very own UCLA:

"As one of the world's leading authorities on Buddhism, Gregory Schopen has shattered many myths, notably the notion that Buddhist monks in ancient India renounced money and property.

Schopen finds the widespread Western fascination with Buddhism "highly artificial and a little bit silly because it takes place completely in the abstract." The average Westerner is not interested in the "totality of what Buddhism is – a way of interacting and being human – but with a certain set of free-floating ideas that have been connected with Buddhism," he explained, adding: "I have a problem with that."

One of his favorite images of Buddhism as it's practiced in America is from a photograph of devotees in a Thai Buddhist temple in Los Angeles: "All the local Thai people are doing worship to the Buddha image in the front; in the back is a whole row of white guys meditating," said Schopen. "These are completely different approaches to the same phenomenon – the picture is worth a thousand words."

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