Shambhala, once the proud publishers of Pocket Books such as The Zen Teachings of Huang Po, are now mass-publishers of love, empathy and caring—or in other words, your ever-prevalent new age bookstore. In my email box are incessant titles of stuff such as “Seeking out Deeper Connections”, the deep as in the emotional garbage that is the sewer-hole of our mass-infected world, and connections as in wounded souls seeking incessant solace and surface sharing and stroking. The popular guru on the block is Pema Chödrön, who increasingly looks like she’s morphing into some kind of character right out of The Hobbit.
All is reduced now to psychophysical trappings because they will say, that’s where the Market is. Well, if one keeps catering to the Mass Market, then one eventually becomes the exact antithesis of what Gautama Buddha authentically taught—transcending all the crap that creates more and more suffering. It’s a Catch-22 syndrome, you try to focus on alleviating pain and it only recycles into extra-inning “Kum ba yah”sessions that generates more weak-willed people (Plus $$$), who are totally dependent upon someone else for their self-worth. Social media 3.1
Oh Huang Po, please come back!