[TheOtherHobbes]

Much as I admire Thich Nhat Hanh, I don't see how Buddhism is an answer to a culture that operates primarily from exploitation, predation, status seeking, self-importance, and bad faith.

I don't think anyone has that answer, because it's an incredibly hard question - how do you de-toxify a culture whose true values are defined by varying intensities of of sociopathy?

You end up with what you described - vacation and workplace Buddhism, where the more superficial elements of a different moral tradition are used to decorate and sweeten a life of striving that remains oriented towards other goals.

That still has value for the people who can appreciate it - something is better than nothing, after all.

But the Buddhist ideals of community fundamentally contradict capitalist ideals of aggressive ambition, individualism, and acquisition. I see no way of truly blending them without one giving way to the other.

[throwaway91822]

> I don't see how Buddhism is an answer

The origination story of Buddhism starts with a guy with the highest status and wealth, in a society of extreme inequality, leaving his fortunes behind to help everybody (hint hint).

The first ashrams where so radically inclusive, letting people from all caste and gender live as equals, that they were chased out from many villages by armed crowds. (hint hint)

If that's not clear enough, Thich Nhat Hanh literally called his practices "engaged Buddhism".