I chose two pictures, the stereotypical Buddha shirt and a political cartoon. When I think of Buddhism I think of the fat rub my belly Buddha. The cartoon was made just for sarcasm and to pick on Buddhists. The common mis-perception is that Buddhists sit around all day in the mountains and mediate. They wear robes and try to help everyone with their problems. Until I took this class and fully learned about Buddhism I was one of the many people that had stereotypes. On the topic of stereotypes, I wonder what Buddhists think that Christians do... ie work all day, care about themselves etc. I wish that there was a way to rid people of their stereotypes and a way to set the record straight about religions. The most common way that stereotypes are shown to the world is mass media from TV, radio, cartoons, graphic art, websites etc. In many of these media displays the Buddhists are perceived as carefree, out of it, and mediate all day. I think its ironic that some Munks or Buddhists websites or media material publish stereotypes about themselves. Many people follow gurus and think that they are all knowing, I found a quote in Warner's book that I thought was very ironic to the stereotype. "Its important to show that all of us in this Eastern spiritual master game are no more supernatural than an Catholic priest, rabbi, minister, shoe salesman, or fishmonger." (xii) I think this is quite ironic and yet states that he thinks that no one religion is more powerful than another. Another quote that I found relates to my earlier thought about how Eastern religions perceive Western religions. "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 Penney" and wanders off. The master says approvingly, "I thought this was no ordinary monk!" (78). This book strikes me as a satire to Buddhism and almost pokes at it. Warner does an excellent job at relating his book to the common era and doesn't make it a boring read.
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