Christian Priest to Atheist to Buddhist

[Angrboda]

There's a Linji school of buddhism responsible for the "Zen Slap" that was more or less referenced in I Heart Huckabees.

As part of the iconoclastic tradition, Linji Yixuan would instruct a student to meditate. They could be at this for hours, or days, and Linji would run up, and start beating the everloving fuck out of his student with a cane, or a horsetail whip. Most initiates would continue meditating through the beating, which would continue by surprise attack, until the student either took the whip, hit him back, or shouted at him to stop. The point being, that the student had not achieved enlightenment by tuning out the beating, but by responding to stop it, eroding the distinction between the student and the master.

"The Master [Linji] saw a monk coming and held his fly whisk straight up. The monk made a low bow, whereupon the Master struck him a blow. The Master saw another monk coming and again held his fly whisk straight up. The monk paid no attention, whereupon the Master struck him a blow as well."

~ Watson, Burton (1999), The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-Chi: A Translation of the Lin-chi lu (referenced on Wikipedia)

---

Maybe the muslims simply bring out the worst in people?

Perhaps asking why is a good place to start.

https://www.facebook.com/BuddhistsinBurma

A Buddhist linking to sectarian accounts of the violence in Burma does little to undermine the claim that Buddhists are stirring up sectarian violence.