This is an interesting thought -- Pound and Tibetan Buddhism. But, as I
contemplate it, I'm struck by the options that Pound would have had.
Tibetan Buddhism is comprised of so many schools and approaches.  The
effects of Buddhism on Pound would have depend on which school he chose to
study.

Mahayana? Theravada?  Tantric?  etc. etc.

Anastasios

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dirk Johnson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 9:43 PM
Subject: Re: Julius Evola


> Charles:
>
> I enjoy your comments, but I must be a stickler on this one:  in China
> today, the most important commandment is "Thou Shall Not Be Tibetan Or
> Believe As Tibetans Believe".
>
> Racism. Extermination. Genocide.  A complete eradication of a people and a
> culture.  As terrible as any crime in history, such as the successful U.S.
> genocide against the North American Indigenous Peoples or the attempted
> genocide by the Germans of the Jewish people, to name just two extremely
> evil enterprises. Science and progress have been invoked since 1954 as
> excuses to eradicate the Tibetans.  To me it makes the Fa-Lun Gong
> controversy seem relatively light.
>
> Also can't help wondering how Pound's attitude toward Buddhism may have
been
> different had he encountered some of the more serious Tibetan Buddhist
works
> instead of Confucian works attacking the popular and superstitious Chinese
> expression of Buddhism.  I am NOT saying that all Chinese expressions of
> Buddhism were either popular or superstitious (nor that much of the
Tibetan
> expressions aren't popular or superstitious), but these are certainly the
> forms of Buddhism that are attacked in the Cantos via the Confucians.
> ...incense... Buddh rot ...burnt paper.. gets mad if he doesn't get it...
>
> Man by negation is a more serious (also Confucian) charge, but one based
> upon false and superficial readings of Buddhist philosophy.  At least if
Ez
> had become infatuated with Buddhism instead of with Confucianism he would
> have been less likely to become obsessed with economics and less likely to
> go down the path of perdition so well described by Leon Surette in _Pound
in
> Purgatory_.
>
> Tibetan Buddhism is certainly more "mytho-poetic" than Confucianism: art,
> dance, poetry, music, theater, sculpture, philosophy, history, and so
forth
> are not separate disciplines, but mutually expressive.  Though the various
> differences between them are obvious, the Tibetan culture is the closest
> survivor in the world to the pre-Classical Greek cultures in the sense of
> not being fragmented while at the same time being exceptionally literate.
> (If there is another equally similar or more similar, I'd love to be
> enlightened.)
>
> I've long though that Pound missed a great opportunity to encounter a
> living, unified cultural tradition when he chose confucianism over
Buddhism.
> The mis-translated _Tibetan Book of the Dead_ would have served him far
> better than Mencius and Muss, especially since the resonance with Canto I
> would have been superb.
>
> Of course, then we wouldn't have the Pisan Cantos, the lack of which I
> wouldn't REALLY wish on anybody.
>
> Dirk
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: charles moyer [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, January 26, 2001 1:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Julius Evola
>
>
> Wayne,
>     Thank you for that information. You write, "I wonder why you link this
> 'high-minded' racist (Evola) with Robert Graves?"
>     It seems to me that in the sense of being traditionalists, looking
> beyond and above any charges of "racism", Pound, Evola, and Graves had a
> similar view of the value of ancient wisdom. Call it mytho-poetic,
> Hyperborean, or Celtic- whatever-it translates somewhat  the same; that it
> is something in the past worthy of examination and even perhaps of
revival.
> Progress, however, teaches us to formulate new "crimes against humanity"
as
> recently in China where now it has been decreed "Thou shalt not not
believe
> in science".  How's that for high-mindedness?
>     I would like to see your notes on Evola. I leave it to you as to the
> venue.
>
> CDM
>