2008 Woodie Awards
"Buddhist" nun's methods questioned
Issue date: 4/27/07 Section: Rocket Letters
To the editor:
If the book by Faith Adiele has been recognized as good literature, it seems to give evidence that modern publishing is more concerned with appearances and has little concern for truth.
In her talk, "The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun," Ms. Adiele described how she went through the superficialilites of shaving her head, taking vows that she neither understood nor believed in, and donned the robes of Buddhist nun as part of her going 'undercover' in order to do an anthropology project for her studies at Harvard University. Although she did come to realize certain spiritual insights from her time in the convent in Thailand, in her talk she confessed that she has not been nor is now a believing Buddhist.
Somehow she seems to think that by going through the externals of head-shaving, saying words she doesn't understand, wearing robes, and following the rules imposed by superiors, that is sufficient to justify her book's subtitle claiming that she was a Buddhist nun.
In fact, a more truthful subtitle would say that these were the journals of an imposter 'Buddhist nun,' who by the standards of all Buddhist belief, amounts to a desecration and a lie, totally contrary to one of the important aspects of the Buddhist Eightfold Path, that of always intending to speak truth.
Although her book may make a good read, one must doubt the trustworthiness of its content. And if indeed the Thai convent accepted her, as photos seem to substantiate, one must also wonder about its negligence in ascertaining whether Ms. Adiele was truly sincere in expressing her aspiration to become a nun - or whether she deceived them about that.
Of course, in this contemporary society where fiction is widely promulgated as fact in the media, in politics, and in personal agendas, one should perhaps not be surprised. For some people, however, that does not make it less nauseating or disturbing.
Theodore L. Kneupper
Professor Emeritus
Philosophy
If the book by Faith Adiele has been recognized as good literature, it seems to give evidence that modern publishing is more concerned with appearances and has little concern for truth.
In her talk, "The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun," Ms. Adiele described how she went through the superficialilites of shaving her head, taking vows that she neither understood nor believed in, and donned the robes of Buddhist nun as part of her going 'undercover' in order to do an anthropology project for her studies at Harvard University. Although she did come to realize certain spiritual insights from her time in the convent in Thailand, in her talk she confessed that she has not been nor is now a believing Buddhist.
Somehow she seems to think that by going through the externals of head-shaving, saying words she doesn't understand, wearing robes, and following the rules imposed by superiors, that is sufficient to justify her book's subtitle claiming that she was a Buddhist nun.
In fact, a more truthful subtitle would say that these were the journals of an imposter 'Buddhist nun,' who by the standards of all Buddhist belief, amounts to a desecration and a lie, totally contrary to one of the important aspects of the Buddhist Eightfold Path, that of always intending to speak truth.
Although her book may make a good read, one must doubt the trustworthiness of its content. And if indeed the Thai convent accepted her, as photos seem to substantiate, one must also wonder about its negligence in ascertaining whether Ms. Adiele was truly sincere in expressing her aspiration to become a nun - or whether she deceived them about that.
Of course, in this contemporary society where fiction is widely promulgated as fact in the media, in politics, and in personal agendas, one should perhaps not be surprised. For some people, however, that does not make it less nauseating or disturbing.
Theodore L. Kneupper
Professor Emeritus
Philosophy
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