Reply #36: Two more modern examples [View All]

First, Adolph Hitler tried to co-opt Tibetan Buddhism. The Reich mounted an official http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_German_expedition_to_Tibet">expedition in 1939 for that purpose. I have read that the Nazis actually persuaded a few monks to come to Germany to support the "Aryan" cause. I do not know how strongly the monks held to the violent side of Nazi "philosophy". That Hitler and several members of his inner circle were dabblers in or obsessed with occultism is now widely known.

Second, there is a political/religious movement in Japan called http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soka_Gakkai">Nichiren Shoshu Soka Gakkai. It was derived from, but not the same as, the Buddhist school of Nichiren. (At least, not the "orthodox" Nichiren school.) The group is very nationalistic and allegedly fascistic, but seems to have undergone a great deal of internal reform since the 1970s.

None of this should be taken to imply that Buddhism is an evil or fascistic movement; merely that it, like other religions, is subject to the same excesses.

--p!