"Bathing the Buddha?" Our local IBPS Buddhist temple has photos posted of various activities from their Buddha's Birthday celebration. A month or so ago they had a display of very famous relics (the Buddha's finger?) that is traveling the country.

This is exactly what the Western buddhist seeker is trying to avoid in a religion. It is commonly observed that there is quite a split between Asian immigrant buddhists and western converts. This split is easy to understand. The Asian buddhist (I know this is a generalization) sees his or her religion pretty much like Christians do in the U.S. -- full of ceremony, regular days of attendance and ritual. The typical western convert is interested in avoiding this aspect, or at least of making it secondary to the real practice of meditation and striving for enlightenment.

So I wonder - can these two streams converge?