Re: Virupa: Pure land or Theravada? Who is a Thera?

Hello Samanera Baker,
There's a tendency among people trained in academic and
scientific disciplines to be very forthright and direct in their
questions, in the interest of expedience and getting straight to the
heart of the matter.
Last week I sat on a jury for a criminal trial, and I have a
pretty fresh perspective and experience of what a judge would
consider argumentative. Gunnar simply asked for clarification on
some confusing points - questions that many list members were
wondering about. Your claim of Gunnar being argumentative would be
overruled by an impartial judge. In fact, the judge would quickly
point out that your post below is argumentative. Certain key words
and phrases are dead giveaways. You might have better luck
challenging relevance of Gunnar's questions in court, but on this
list, it's customary and natural for list members to wonder and
inquire about a new member's background, especially if they have a
name that suggests they are ordained in a particular Buddhist order.

-fk

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, samanerabaker@... wrote:
>
> > In a message dated 2/4/2006 12:08:07 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> gunnargallmo@... writes:
> > As Virupa in a later message tells us he is married,
> > he is by definition not a Thera according to the
> > Theravada use of the word, and when writing to a list
> > where most members are mainly interested in Theravada,
> > he is confusing matters by using this title.
>
> Who's Confused? I didn't get very confused. As a matter of fact
Rev. Virupa was simply answering a question posted by another member
of this list about a book. And then Gunnar, who obviously should
spend more time meditating and less time nitpicking, sat back and
started all this bickering. As i've found in my study of the
Sutta's,. Lord Buddha made it very clear not to worry yourself with
other peoples errors, but to focus on your own. Someone who is from
the Theravada Branch of Buddhism would have certainly known that.
I'm sure this post is falling on deaf ears since Gunnar is so
obviously interested in arguing. So my closing statement is, Who
Cares what Virupa addresses himself as? But I guess if it's
confusing to you, I understand why it would cause a problem.
>
> [this msg has been edited by the moderator]
>