Best response is from Barbara O'Brien, who is a Buddhist herself, writes a regular column at About.com on Buddhism, and also writes the excellent Mahablog.
If one has failed, can Buddhism help one "recover"? I'm not sure "recovering" is a word a Buddhist would use, but let's go on ... the practice of metta, loving kindness, is essential in Buddhism. Metta is extended to all beings, including those who have wronged us -- even Brit Hume -- and also to ourselves. (See also the Metta Sutta.)Yeah, see, Buddhists have been wrestling with these basic beliefs centuries before Christ was born. They might know a few things. I'm sure that "converting to Christianity" isn't the answer they arrived at.
Sharon Salzberg said, "Metta means equality, oneness, wholeness. To truly walk the Middle Way of the Buddha, to avoid the extremes of addiction and self-hatred, we must walk in friendship with ourselves as well as with all beings."
Destructive behavior is understood to be driven by tanha, thirst, which the Buddha explained (in the Four Noble Truths) was the cause of dukkha, unease or suffering. Buddhism itself can be defined as a path of practice that helps us see through the delusions that give rise to tanha. And people have successfully applied these practices for 25 centuries.
So, we really do not need advice on "recovery" from Brit Hume, thanks much. Let us hope that both Mr. Woods and Mr. Hume awaken to wisdom.
[UPDATE 11:55 AM] And Barbara has a point on what Hume really said here:
In other words, when a national news personality insults Buddhism, that’s OK; when a blogger calls out the national news personality for insulting Buddhism, that’s an attack on Christianity, and unforgivable.The Wingers are changing the subject. Hume got called on his ignorance, so the story is not Hume's treatment of Buddhism on national TV, but how the bloggers are meeeeeeeean.
And the Lefty bloggers are supposed to be the whiners? Please.
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