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When I try to describe the routine prejudice we encounter as Buddhists in Scotland, most folk just don't believe me. I have had colleagues at a new job threaten to resign rather than working with me. But Tory MSP Murdo Fraser really capped it ...
Murdo Fraser reported to police over call for 'no more Buddhists' at Rangers
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25523701.murdo-fraser-reported-police-no-buddhists-rangers-call/
@yetiinabox That's so weird, Will. Considering that we had the first Buddhist monastery in the west, and that the word compassion is carved into the official mace at Holyrood.
There is a very funny and warm book called "BuddhaDa" by Anne Donovan, about a Glaswegian house painter who gets interested in Buddhism and how his family react. Hilarious and wonderful. Recommend!
Technically not the first - Samye Ling is a wonderful place, but there was a Kalmyk monastery in Belgrade from the 1920s (!).
And yes, it is weird if you're from the friendly bits of Scotland: some layers of Scottish society are open and tolerant, but some really are not. Here in NE Scotland I think we run up against the evangelical Kirk rather a lot.
I will go find BuddhaDa and re-read it.
हिति , in Nepāl Bhāṣā, is the word for a shared community water tap. Even in modern Newar cities, these ancient structures still pour out fresh mountain water piped through ancient underground filters and conduits. They are a place to wash, to talk, to drink, to meet the locals: a nourishing, refreshing social-ecological place.
