Once there was a boy who was seeking the Dharma in the mountains of Appalacia. It was a scruffy place, with abandoned coal mines, and mountains that had been rendered topless by explosions. It had the look of warfare, though the only troops were the local police and the troops of unemployed men hanging around the local liquor store. He wandered on foot, wearing smelly clothes that he was afraid to wash because the only thing holding them together was their dirt.
One day as he wandered he heard a melodious sound. He went to see what it was, and it was coming from a clearing and a small broken down house with a sign saying "Nitzpah Sect". By comparison to the others in the neighborhood this house was a castle, so he followed the sound. He heard inside people chanting. They were saying "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo." He was struck by their attitude and faith, and so he immediately fell in with them.
Leading them was a fellow who looked like he might have been a redneck Buddha. He was big, he was bald, and his neck was a virulent red. The man was literally a redneck. He sweated in the coal heated room as he talked, and his face was hung with meaty jowels. Yet out of his mouth came the wonderful words of the Buddha. The boy resolved to practice this Buddhism.
But then this man started to talk about other things. He said, if you want to practice this Buddhism you need to understand that we have to fight the "evil Chutzpah Sect." When he heard that talk, he realized that this man was possessed by some devil and wondered if he had come to the right place after all. But he asked the man, what fighting the evil Chutzpah sect had to do with practicing Buddhism, and the man said that he couldn't tell him. He was so angry that he couldn't think strait.
So the boy decided to visit the evil Chutzpah sect, which was headquartered in another cabin across a narrow stream from this one. He got up to leave, and the big man said, "don't leave, or I'll brand you as a traitor." The Boy of Candy Mountain said, "I am just going to use the restroom and I'll be right back" and left.
He journeyed across the stream and visited the evil Chutzpah sect, which operated out of an equally ramshackle building that had been built in the ruins of a building that had been donated by people who were now in the Nitspah sect. This place was led by a fellow wearing grey robes, who was also bald. This fellow was reciting the Lotus Sutra, and it sounded so Beautiful that Candy Mountain boy wanted to embrace everyone there and chant with them. He followed along as best he could.
When the chanting ended, the robed fellow started handing around a plate for donations, and Candy Mountain boy asked him: "Do you know the Buddhist Dharma?"
The Robed fellow told him that he indeed did know the Dharma and that he should seek out priests like himself to learn it. Candy Mountain boy asked "why does the Nitspah sect want to destroy you?" The priest answered, "because they are evil heretics who refuse to worship the treasure of the priest." At that point Candy Mountain Boy understood why the Nitspah people hated the Chutzpah people, but in his sorrow and joy he didn't say anything. Rather he learned everything he could from the Priest, and then went back across the river.
When he got to the Nitspah building it was gone. It seems it either had burned or it had never been there. The redneck was standing in front of the liquor store with all the other locals. Candy Mountain Boy asked him "what happened to the Building" and the fellow said, what Building? The man then told him that there used to be a church on that site but it had burned down in a dispute between the local Baptists over admitting black people. These people had never heard of Buddhism and only knew the Christian Fundamentalism of the region.
Candy Mountain boy was perplexed. He crossed the stream to the Chutzpah Temple, and it too wasn't there, had never been there, except perhaps in his own imagination or as an alternative time line.
He then realized what had happened. These people had erased all traces of Buddhism in their lives with their conflict and had even wiped out the good they had done in the past.
Candy Mountain Boy resolved to practice Buddhism without blame or rancor directed at anyone and was grateful that the Buddhist Gods had taught him something about the Dharma and that he hadn't erased his good roots by evil thoughts words and deeds. Eventually the Rednecked man practiced Buddhism again, and teachers were brought into the region whom were genuinely humble and knew Buddhism well enough to teach it correctly.
Chris