I think it is more than that. People are shallow, sure, that's nothing new. But I wouldn't say that there is no change recently in the degree of various cultures mixing around. I had a most interesting conversation with my Indian-born co-workers the other day about how their parents want the grand-kids to be more traditional than is going to be the case, and the parents just want them to be some what Indian, but can already see the great gap between their upbringing and their kids upbringing.
We celebrate Diwali at my work place, Chinese New Year, Superbowl Sunday, and Christmas. Sure, the Diwali is different than in Andhra Pradesh, but it's not some external trendy thing US born folks are doing - it is a gift offered from the Indian born folks for their pleasure and for us US born folks to enjoy as well. I think your words over-emphasize the power of commoditization - the flower blooms among the mud after all. My obligatory Zen joke: there is no deeper meaning in zen. There is just the zen meal and the zen art and the zen bulletin board. On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 12:17 AM, roloro1557 <[email protected]> wrote: > The "New Age" movement (in the US at least) is also partly responsible for > this. > > Also (at least in the US) spirituality is commoditized like everything else > and every 10 years or so there is a new spiritual fad. In the 80's Native > American spiritual tradition was all the rage, then in the 90's it was > Celtic. . . > > I don't know what it is now because I haven't been paying any attention > (happily). > > On a broader cultural level anything Asian has been "hot" here in America for > probably at least the last 20 years- art, food, spiritual, cultural ideas, > etc. But it is all very shallow and most Americans have no real grasp of the > deeper meanings. The label of "culture vulture" is very true of many if not > most Americans in my observation. > > And yes, I'm an American, just in case anyone was wondering. . . . > ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
