Buddhist Romanticism

Thus what we have, growing from the Romantic experience of religion,
is a body of religious teachings whose ultimate goal was untested and
untestable; whose sense of duty involved no sense of honor—in that it
focused not on the consequences of one’s actions but on the sensitivity of
one’s feelings; and whose attitude toward truth offers no guarantee of truth
over time.
It would be too flippant to say that these views were inspired solely by
sex, drugs, and novels, for the Romantics were heirs to a sober European
tradition of science, philosophy, and literature that provided them with the
materials from which they constructed their worldview, and that taught
them how to present their views in a subtle and sophisticated way. But the
fact that a tradition of this sort has become one of the dominant currents in
Western religious thought is enough to give pause. And the fact that this
body of teachings has become one of the main standards against which the
Dhamma is measured, and to which it is often forced to conform as it comes
to the West, gives rise to two questions:
How did it happen?
And is this the best way to get the most out of the Dhamma?
The second of these questions is the more important of the two, so to
provide some perspective on how to answer it, the next chapter will focus
on what the Dhamma teaches, with particular attention to points that run
counter to what the Romantics taught. That way, when we then address the
first question, we can stand somewhat outside of our own culture as we
watch the way that culture gave rise to Romantic religion and fostered its
spread through the modern world. This will also help give us a sense of
what is at stake in allowing Romantic religion the final word on
determining what counts as Dhamma here and now.
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