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Why I Don't Dig Buddhism - Scientific American Blog Network

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Why I Don't Dig Buddhism

By John Horgan on December 2, 2011

I've been brooding over Buddhism lately, for several reasons. First, I read that Steve Jobs was a long-time dabbler in Buddhism and was even married in a Buddhist ceremony. Second, a new documentary, Crazy Wisdom, celebrates the life of Chogyam Trungpa, who helped popularize Tibetan Buddhism here in the U.S. in the 1970s. Third, Slate magazine, for some reason, just re-published a critique of Buddhism that I wrote eight years ago, and once again Buddhists are berating me for my ignorance about their religion.

I'm a sucker for punishment, so I thought I'd try to explain, once again, my misgivings about Buddhism, in this heavily revised and updated version of my Slate essay (which was put through an especially tortuous editing process). Here it is:
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In 1999, a flier appeared in my mailbox announcing that a local Japanese-American woman would soon start teaching Zen at my hometown library. If I believed in synchronicity, this flier's arrival would have seemed a clear case of it. I had just begun researching a book on science and mysticism, and I had decided that for the book's purposes—and my own well-being—I needed a spiritual practice.

Superficially, Buddhism seemed more compatible than any other religion with my skeptical, science-oriented outlook. The Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman once told me that Buddhism is less a religion than a method for fulfilling human potential, a method as empirical in its way as science. Don't take my word for anything, Buddha supposedly said, just follow this path and discover the truth for yourself.

So I started attending meditation sessions in the basement of my town's library, a castle overlooking the Hudson and finally the chapel of a Catholic monastery (where some of my classmates were nuns, who seemed much nicer than the ones I remember from my youth). I learned more about Buddhism by reading books and articles, attending lectures and conferences and, most of all, talking to lots of Buddhists, some famous, even infamous, others just ordinary folk trying to get by.

Eventually, I stopped attending my Zen sessions (for reasons that I describe in detail elsewhere). One problem was that meditation never really tamed my monkey mind. During my last class, I fixated on a classmate who kept craning his neck and grunting and asking our teacher unbearably pretentious questions. I loathed him and loathed myself for loathing him, and finally I thought: What am I doing here? By that time, I also had serious intellectual qualms about Buddhism. I concluded that Buddhism is not much more rational than Catholicism, my childhood faith.
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One of Buddhism's biggest selling points for lapsed Catholics like me is that it supposedly dispenses with God and other supernatural claptrap. This claim is disingenuous. Buddhism, at least in its traditional forms, is functionally theistic, even if it doesn't invoke a supreme deity. The doctrines of karma and reincarnation imply the existence of some sort of cosmic moral judge who, like Santa Claus, tallies up our naughtiness and niceness before rewarding us with nirvana or rebirth as a cockroach.

Those who emphasize Buddhism's compatibility with science usually downplay or disavow its supernatural elements (and even the Dalai Lama has doubts about reincarnation, a philosopher who discussed the issue with him once told me). The mystical philosopher Ken Wilber, when I interviewed him, compared meditation to a scientific instrument such as a microscope or telescope, through which you can glimpse spiritual truth. This analogy is bogus. Anyone can peer through a telescope and see the moons of Jupiter, or squint through a microscope and see cells divide. But ask 10 meditators what they see, feel or learn and you will get 10 different answers.

Research on meditation (which I reviewed in my 2003 book Rational Mysticism, and which is usually carried out by proponents, such as psychologist Richard Davidson) suggests how variable its effects can be. Meditation reportedly reduces stress, anxiety and depression, but it has been linked to increased negative emotions, too. Some studies indicate that meditation makes you hyper-sensitive to external stimuli; others reveal the opposite effect. Brain scans do not yield consistent results, either. For every report of heightened neural activity in the frontal cortex and decreased activity in the left parietal lobe, there exists a contrary result.

Moreover, those fortunate souls who achieve deep mystical states—through meditation or other means—may come away convinced of very different truths. Shortly before his death in 2001, the Buddhist neuroscientist Francisco Varela (a friend of Trungpa) told me that a near-death experience had showed him that mind rather than matter constitutes the deepest level of reality and is in some sense eternal. Other Buddhists, such as the psychologist Susan Blackmore, are strict materialists, who deny that mind can exist independently of matter.

Blackmore looks favorably, however, upon the Buddhist doctrine of anatta, which holds that the self is an illusion. "Where, exactly, is your self?" Buddha asked. "Of what components and properties does your self consist?" Since no answer to these questions suffices, the self must be in some sense illusory. Meme theory, Blackmore contends in The Meme Machine (Oxford University Press, 2000), leads to the same conclusion; if you pluck all the memes out of a mind, you will have nothing left. She even rejects the concept of free will, holding that there is no self to act freely.

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Actually, modern science—and meditative introspection—have merely discovered that the self is an emergent phenomenon, difficult to explain in terms of its parts. The world abounds in emergent phenomena. The school where I teach can't be defined in strictly reductionist terms either. You can’t point to a person or classroom or lab and say, "Here is Stevens Institute." But does that mean my school doesn't exist?

Then there is the claim that contemplative practice will make us gentler, more humble and compassionate. In Zen and the Brain (MIT Press, 1998), the neurologist and Buddhist James Austin proposes that meditation and mindfulness erode neural regions underpinning our innate self-centeredness. But given the repulsive behavior over the past few decades of so many gurus—including Chogyam Trungpa, who was an alcoholic womanizer and bully—you could conclude that mystical knowledge leads to pathological narcissism rather than selflessness. Instead of shrinking to a point and vanishing, the mystic's ego may expand to infinity. Did Buddhism deflate the ego of Steve Job?

I've had a few experiences that could be called mystical. In The Faith to Doubt (Parallax Press, 1990), Stephen Batchelor, one of my favorite Buddhist authors (see my profile of him here), described an epiphany in which he was suddenly confronted with the mystery of being. The experience "gave me no answers," he recalls. "It only revealed the massiveness of the question." That was what I felt during my experiences, a jaw-dropping astonishment at the improbability of existence.

I also felt an overwhelming sense of life's preciousness, but others may have very different reactions. Like an astronaut gazing at the earth through the window of his spacecraft, the mystic sees our existence against the backdrop of infinity and eternity. This perspective may not translate into compassion and empathy for others. Far from it. Human suffering and death may appear laughably trivial. Instead of becoming a saint-like Bodhisattva, brimming with love for all things, the mystic may become a sociopathic nihilist.

I suspect some bad gurus have fallen prey to mystical nihilism. They may also have been corrupted by that most insidious of all Buddhist propositions, the myth of total enlightenment. This is the notion that some rare souls achieve mystical self-transcendence so complete that they become morally infallible—like the Pope! Belief in this myth can turn spiritual teachers into tyrants and their students into mindless slaves, who excuse even their teachers' most abusive behavior as "crazy wisdom."

I have one final misgiving about Buddhism—or rather, about Buddha himself. His path to enlightenment began with his abandonment of his wife and child. Even today, Tibetan Buddhism—again, like Catholicism—upholds male monasticism as the epitome of spirituality. To me, "spiritual" means life-embracing, and so a path that turns away from aspects of life as essential as sexual love and parenthood is not spiritual but anti-spiritual.

Buddhists often respond to my carping by saying, "You didn't give Buddhism enough time! If you truly understood it, you wouldn't say such stupid things!" And so on. String theorists and Freudian psychoanalysts employ this same tactic against their critics. I can't fault these supposed solutions to existence until I have devoted as much time to them as true believers. Sorry, life's too short.

Some of my best friends are Buddhists, and I enjoy reading and talking to Buddhist and quasi-Buddhist intellectuals, including all those I've mentioned above. I admire the open-mindedness and pacifism of the Dalai Lama. I sometimes drag visitors to my hometown to a nearby Buddhist monastery, which features a 40-foot statue of Buddha surrounded by thousands of mini-Buddha statuettes. A porcelain Buddha smiles at me from atop a bookcase in my living room. I like to think he'd grok my take on the religion that he founded. Remember the old Zen aphorism: If you meet the Buddha in the road, kill him.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

John Horgan

John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology. His books include The End of Science, The End of War and Mind-Body Problems, available for free at mindbodyproblems.com. For many years, he wrote the immensely popular blog Cross Check for Scientific American.

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"Spirituality" Versus "Religion" - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

"Spirituality" Versus "Religion" - Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

“Spirituality” Versus “Religion”

Huston Smith, the grand master of world religions, speaks to Tricycle about his current concernsBy Huston Smith FALL 2001

The Religions of Man, Huston Smith’s classic introductory text, was first published in 1958 and has been widely used in high schools and colleges. Its chapter on Shakyamuni Buddha became one of the galvanizing forces in the rapid spread of interest in Buddhism. The book has since been reissued as The World’s Religions and has sold close to two million copies. Smith has taught at Washington University, MIT, Syracuse, and the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent book is Why Religion Matters: The Fate of Human Spirit in an Age of Disbelief (HarperSanFrancisco, 2000).

courtesy HarperSanFrancisco

I am concerned about the relationship between “spirituality” and “religion” and the way those terms are being used because it’s become increasingly common for spirituality to indirectly denigrate religion. People used to make a distinction between religion and religious institutions, and that is a valid distinction. But then spirituality came along, and everything spiritual was good and everything to do with religion was bad. Religion became equated with dogmatism and moralism. Of course, there are institutional problems with religions. There’s not a single institution that doesn’t have a dark side. Would you dispense with learning because of the institutional problems of universities?

I was born a Methodist and have immersed my life in Christianity, not only conceptually but experientially, as deeply as I could. Christian institutions have committed all kinds of sins. You can’t tag any sins onto spirituality because it’s not an object, it’s an internal virtue, an internal state. So religion has gotten tarred, and within the academy, where I’ve spent my life, it gets very roughly handled.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Buddhism is a religion. And actually Buddhism has, I think, probably the best social record of any of the great religions. Of course, right now monks in Sri Lanka have become vicious little militant leaders. But looking at the whole history, we see relatively few instances where Buddhist teachings were used to justify violent action. There are exceptions, but overall not many.

Now Buddhism is meeting up with secularism. America today, and Western Europe as well, is the most secular society that history has ever experienced. And it remains to be seen if a society this secular can endure. I think the society will endure but move back gradually from its rank secularism. And here is where spirituality plays a very important role. For example, Steven Pinker, head of the Cognitive Science program at MIT, and Richard Dawkins, teamed up to give huge sellout talks in London and Paris—people were scalping tickets! And the title was, “Is Science Killing the Spirit?” Even those people accepted the word “spirit,” because it gathers into itself only positive meanings. For this reason it can be used to good ends, because spirituality can seep into the culture subtly, with less scrutiny and friction than any new religion. But it doesn’t have to gain ground by putting down religion.

In religious studies as a whole, Buddhism is a special case because the Buddha himself had no personal god. It seems clear enough that Gautama felt that this notion of a personal god had become a crutch in Hinduism. So he pushed it aside and that left its mark. But this very aspect is what appeals to “spiritual” interests. Folks feel that they don’t have to make a commitment to a personal god. But of course Buddhism is a demanding, rigorous path. Renunciation, within a monastic context or a secular context, is at the heart of this religion, just like the others. When people choose to define Buddhism as “spiritual” and not “religious,” their view tends to accompany an attitude that says, “Don’t tell me what to do!”
America is not only the most secular society in the world, it is the most individualistic. For many American Buddhists, the favorite saying of the Buddha is, “Be a lamp unto yourself.” Now actually, you find that same thing everywhere in Christianity—“Seek and ye shall find,” et cetera. But in Buddhism, in the absence of a god figure, this can become license to do whatever you want and still call it Buddhism. But Buddhism itself doesn’t support that. All religions, including Buddhism, have organizing principles, proven pointers, to help guide us through our lives. And if you sign onto Buddhism and don’t follow these, well, then you’re left with Saint Ego picking and choosing things that satisfy oneself. That is not Buddhism.

One alternative to this is to find a master. A master gets one beyond choosing only what appeals to one’s own ego. Of course, over the last twenty years we’ve seen abuses of power by gurus. That’s the downside. The upside is that we need models. Children need models, and in the spiritual life we are all children. But how do you know when you ought to be standing on your own feet? Or when you realize: I’m in the presence of somebody who is more on top of life than I am, and I have something to learn from this person. There are people who are further along than we are, and to pour one’s life into the mold of such persons can be very constructive. But when should we put the emphasis on one foot or on the other? There’s no formula.

I’ll be seeing His Holiness the Dalai Lama soon. He’s my guru, so I’m not going to challenge him. But I am concerned about something he’s been saying recently, that “we need a religion of kindness. Kindness is my religion.” Further, he has been adding that religion creates differences and division. This is all true, of course, and it is also true that he’s in a special position in history, which makes it important that his words echo and resonate in the minds and the hearts of people. But I’m afraid that this view accommodates the self-oriented tendency to do what you feel like doing and also falls in with the denigration of religion.
These are interesting times, very promising times in many ways. We may have started to work our way out of our excessive secularism. We seem to be realizing that materialism, secularism, reductionism, and consumerism are inadequate premises on which to lead our lives—that they drain the wonder and the mystery out of life and experience and are dead ends. Buddhism is helping with this and carries the force of being a very old religion. “Spirituality” can’t get traction in history the way religions—spiritual containers, if you will—can. That’s why, for all its sins, the Christian churches have been able to play crucial roles in, say, the civil rights movement, or in keeping the U.S. troops out of Guatamala and El Salvador.

One of the important roles that Buddhism has played in the West is that the West took the esoteric or mystical aspects of Buddhism out of the monasteries and made them available to the laity. This helped revitalize interest in the mystical aspects of Christianity and Judaism. In some cases, it furthered the return of contemplative practices in those religions that had fallen into neglect. Mystics all speak the same language. They understand each other. Buddhism has brought new life to the Abrahamic religions, and this has been a wonderful contribution.

DHARMA TALKS
Material and Spiritual Balance Dr. Bokin Kim

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Mind-Body Problems – by John Horgan

Mind-Body Problems – by John Horgan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

HOME
About Mind-Body Problems

INTRODUCTION
The Weirdness

CHAPTER ONE
The Neuroscientist: Beyond the Brain

CHAPTER TWO
The Cognitive Scientist: Strange Loops All the Way Down

CHAPTER THREE
The Child Psychologist: The Hedgehog in the Garden

CHAPTER FOUR
The Complexologist: Tragedy and Telepathy

CHAPTER FIVE
The Freudian Lawyer: The Meaning of Madness

CHAPTER SIX
The Philosopher: Bullet Proof

CHAPTER SEVEN
The Novelist: Gladsadness

CHAPTER EIGHT
The Evolutionary Biologist: He-Town

CHAPTER NINE
The Economist: A Pretty Good Utopia

WRAP-UP
So What?

THANKS

DISCUSSION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Buddhist Spirituality Mark W. Muesse

explorefaith.org - Buddhist Spirituality

Buddhist Spirituality

Practice, practice, practice

Written by Mark W. Muesse

Read this piece in its entirety

Key Quotes from this article:

Buddhist spirituality is concerned with the end of suffering through the enlightened understanding of reality.
The holy life in Buddhism begins and ends in practice, not belief and doctrine.
Seeking answers to unanswerable questions diverts precious time and energy away from the real of heart of spirituality: the quest of wisdom and compassion.
Buddhist spiritual practice, therefore, is a matter of training: learning and acting to be the persons we truly are.
The Noble Path comprises eight interrelated disciplines that are simultaneously pursued by the aspirant. Each discipline is intended as a guide for helping us to recover our essential natures.
The first aspect of Buddhist discipline is moral behavior.…Morality is understood to be rooted in our very natures as persons. We ought to act in a moral way because it is in our essential natures to be compassionate.
In Buddhism, the first element in moral practice is wholesome action, which is epitomized in the Five Precepts, vows taken by all followers of the Buddha's teachings, whether ordained or lay.
The other aspects of moral practice in Buddhist spirituality follow the principles established by the discipline of wholesome action.
Just as self-centered habits obscure the basic compassion of the human heart, deluded patterns of thinking hinder our ability to understand the world.…The four disciplines of wholesome concentration, wholesome mindfulness, wholesome thinking, and wholesome understanding are ways of restraining the mind and harnessing its considerable powers for the benefit of others and ourselves.
Meditation and meditative awareness creates the space for insight and clarity to occur. The thoughts of a clear mind are free of attachment, hatred, and confusion; the thoughts of an insightful mind are compassionate and selfless. Such thoughts constitute wholesome thinking.
The way to freedom is through disciplines that enable us to give up attachments and exercise wisdom and compassion. This is the Noble Path.

Below is the article in its entirety:

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Buddhist spirituality is concerned with the end of suffering through the enlightened Mark Muesse

understanding of reality. The spiritual practices of the Buddhist tradition vary significantly among its several major varieties, but all of them are oriented toward ultimate freedom from suffering and the cultivation of wisdom and compassion. The spiritual life—or what the Buddha called the noble or holy life (brahmacarya)—is the life lived in pursuit of these ideals.

Beyond Belief

The holy life in Buddhism begins and ends in practice, not belief and doctrine. To practice Buddhist spirituality, one need not subscribe to a particular set of creedal statements. It is not necessary to believe in God or to deny the God's existence. Buddhism does not ask those who would take its path to reject prior faith commitments or to adopt new ones. For living the holy life, says Buddhism, holding particular beliefs is not paramount. Clearly, noble persons have held all sorts of beliefs; saints have been Christian and Jewish, Muslim and Hindu, atheist and humanist. Buddhists, therefore, have no quarrel with other religions and philosophies on doctrinal and creedal issues. Because they understand the goal of the holy life to be freedom from suffering and the cultivation of compassion, Buddhists acknowledge that other perspectives and practices can genuinely mediate salvation.

Because Buddhism is not centered in belief, Buddhist spirituality tends neither to affirm nor to deny answers to many traditional metaphysical questions. In one of the suttas—the collection of the Buddha's discourses—a longtime student complains that nowhere in his teachings has the Buddha explained some of the fundamental aspects of reality. The student pressed the Buddha to provide definitive answers. He wanted to know whether or not the universe was created or eternal and whether it was spatially infinite or spatially finite. He asked if the soul were separate from the body or at one with the body. He wanted to know what happens at death: does the individual survive or dissolve?

These are questions that any thoughtful person might sincerely ask. But unlike other teachers of his time, the Buddha merely refused to answer them. Knowing the answers to matters such as these, he said, is not essential to human liberation and fulfillment. The Buddha was well aware that the world is rife with speculations and theories purporting to provide the answers to these basic questions. In his world, as in ours, theoretical views are a dime a dozen. But in the final analysis, such speculation remains a matter of belief or opinion, for in this life these questions cannot be settled with any certainty. Furthermore, seeking answers to unanswerable questions diverts precious time and energy away from the real of heart of spirituality: the quest of wisdom and compassion. To be wise and compassionate does not require that we settle the many metaphysical questions we might pose.

Becoming Who We Truly Are

In the Buddhist view, wisdom and compassion are intrinsically linked together. One cannot be truly compassionate without wisdom. Wisdom—seeing the world as it really is—reveals the deep interrelatedness and impermanency of all things. When we genuinely recognize this, compassion is our natural response. When we have wisdom, we cannot help but feel compassion. By the same token, practicing compassion helps us to realize our fundamentally wise natures. Living compassionately means to think and act without putting ourselves at the center of the universe, without believing that "It's all about me." To recognize that the whole of existence does not revolve around these little entities we call our selves is the beginning of wisdom. Thus wisdom and compassion arise together. As we become more compassionate, we gain wisdom; as we become wiser, our compassionate natures are more fully revealed.

Wisdom and compassion are also innate. Our fundamental nature as persons is to be wise and compassionate, but years of social and self conditioning have obscured those qualities. We have learned to act and think in self-centered ways for so long that selfishness now seems natural. We need, think Buddhists, a practice, a discipline for reversing the effects of years of conditioning to return us to our true selves. Yet because our habits of self-centeredness are so deep and ingrained, the discipline needs to be gradual and gentle. We cannot expect radical transformation to happen overnight, nor can we expect to be the persons we wish to be simply by willing. Willing must be accompanied by acting. By acting compassionately and wisely, it becomes easier to will to be compassionate and wise. Buddhist spiritual practice, therefore, is a matter of training: learning and acting to be the persons we truly are.

The Noble Path

The basis of spiritual training in Buddhism is the "Noble Path," first put forward by the Buddha over 2,500 years ago. The Noble Path comprises eight interrelated disciplines that are simultaneously pursued by the aspirant. Each discipline is intended as a guide for helping us to recover our essential natures. Four disciplines specifically concern moral behavior and intend to assist in the practice of compassion: Wholesome action, wholesome speech, wholesome livelihood, and wholesome effort. The other four are specific aids for nurturing wisdom: wholesome concentration, wholesome mindfulness, wholesome thinking, and wholesome understanding.

Developing Compassion through Moral Behavior

The first aspect of Buddhist discipline is moral behavior. Morality, indeed, is the basis of many spiritual practices, not only the Buddhist. But unlike many other religions, moral behavior in Buddhism is not commanded by a God who issues specific prescriptions and proscriptions for human beings. Rather, morality is understood to be rooted in our very natures as persons. We ought to act in a moral way because it is in our essential natures to be compassionate.

In Buddhism, the first element in moral practice is wholesome action, which is epitomized in the Five Precepts, vows taken by all followers of the Buddha's teachings, whether ordained or lay. In many Asian countries, learning the Five Precepts is usually the child's first introduction to the Buddhism, and they remain the foundation for living throughout one's life. The Five Precepts are aspirations, promises made and earnestly attempted. As we begin the holy life, we follow the precepts imperfectly. When we fail to live up to the ideals, we simply acknowledge our failure and endeavor to do better next time. Over time, our ability to adhere to the precepts becomes increasingly easier.

These foundational precepts essentially follow the principle of non-harming, an idea that resounds widely throughout the world's philosophical and ethical traditions. Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician, exhorted his students, "First, do no harm." Master Kong, the Chinese sage whose teaching became the foundation of Confucianism, told his followers: "What you do not want done to you, do not do to others." These teachers, like the Buddha, recognized that at its most basic level moral behavior is not a matter of what one does but of what one refrains from doing. Imagine the kind of world this would be if we simply followed the precept to do no harm.

The first precept states this principle in its simplest form: "I will refrain from harming other beings." Some Buddhists interpret this precept strictly and practice vegetarianism and refuse to kill insects. Others, realizing the great difficulty of living in this world without taking life, strive to minimize the amount of harm they do.

The second precept intends to minimize harming by respecting the possessions of other: "I will refrain from taking that which is not offered." In other words, one vows not to steal or covet. Stealing harms others by taking what belongs to them, and coveting fosters selfishness and creates attachment to the impermanent realm of things.

The third precept concerns the potential harm one might cause in the area of sexuality. The aspirant promises: "I will refrain from sexual misconduct." The misuse of sexuality is a source of much pain and hurt in our lives, and sex itself can become an all-consuming passion, creating unwholesome attachments to persons and patterns of behavior.

The fourth precept concerns the misuse of language: "I will refrain from false speech." False speech, in Buddhism, is not only lying and slandering but also gossiping and babbling. "Noble silence" is the Buddhist's preferred state.

Finally, the fifth precept regards the abuse of intoxicants and other substances: "I will refrain from stupefying drink." Unquestionably, the misuse of drugs and alcohol causes great suffering in our world, both for the abuser and for others. Not only does alcohol and substance use often result in addiction, it can dull the senses, hindering our capacity to see the world clearly, as it truly is.

The other aspects of moral practice in Buddhist spirituality follow the principles established by the discipline of wholesome action. Wholesome speech means we should use of our abilities to communicate in the most generous and beneficial ways possible. While the Five Precepts enjoins us to refrain from false speaking, wholesome speech encourages us to speak only kind words and to speak them clearly. Harsh and bitter language, sarcasm, and meaningless chatter are not conducive to the habits of compassion. Wholesome livelihood means we ought to earn our livings in ways that promote the well being of others rather than their harm.

Thus the holy life extends to every aspect of our lives, including our workaday world. This discipline asks us to reflect seriously on the meaning and effects of our work. Livelihood is not merely a matter of getting money for daily living; how we earn our wages has consequences for beings beyond ourselves. Wholesome effort means deliberate attention to developing positive qualities that help relax our self-centered tendencies. These characteristics include generosity, friendliness, and patience. The holy life in Buddhism involves specific exercises for practicing these and other qualities, so the hindrances that prevent their pure expression are gradually removed.

Developing Wisdom through Mental Cultivation

Skillful moral behavior is essential to the holy life, but it is equally important that the aspirant cultivate the mind to see reality clearly. Just as self-centered habits obscure the basic compassion of the human heart, deluded patterns of thinking hinder our ability to understand the world. Buddhism recognizes that the conditioned mind is unruly and undisciplined. It constantly seeks stimulation and excitement. It has an inordinate love of ideas and is habituated to pursue pleasurable sensations and abhor unpleasant ones. It loves to control but is itself rather out of control. The four disciplines of wholesome concentration, wholesome mindfulness, wholesome thinking, and wholesome understanding are ways of restraining the mind and harnessing its considerable powers for the benefit of others and ourselves.

Buddhism does not consider the mind to be the seat of the personality. While in the Western world we tend to identify with our thoughts and feelings, Buddhism encourages individuals to understand themselves differently. The mind may be regarded as a sense organ—like the other five senses—rather than center of the self. Just as the eye senses light and the ear senses sound, the mind senses thought and feeling. Just as conditioning makes us sensitive to certain sights and sounds and insensitive to others, so conditioning predisposes us to certain thoughts and emotions. The effects of mental conditioning can be lessened and ultimately released through the practices of wholesome concentration and wholesome mindfulness.

Wholesome concentration is the discipline of meditation; wholesome mindfulness is the practice of meditative awareness in daily life. Meditation is used throughout the world's religions for various purposes: communicating and communing with the God, gaining deeper access to the soul, and relaxing the body. The Buddha himself used meditation to bring about his enlightenment while seated under the Bodhi tree in Northern India 2,500 years ago. Today, Buddhist practitioners who seek to live the holy life engage in the same disciplines.

Buddhist meditation, or mental cultivation (bhavana) as it is better expressed, is a method for strengthening attentiveness and non-attachment. Buddhism understands that much of our suffering is caused by our failure to attend to the world around us and to our own mental and emotional states. We are so deeply caught up in our pursuits of pleasure and stimulation that we often fail to recognize that the mind's desperate quests and attachments are the very things that cause us to suffer. We rarely stop our incessant activity long enough to observe that seeking pleasure and shunning pain does not bring suffering to an end. The discipline of mental cultivation invites us to stop for a while and watch our minds and bodies at work. It teaches what cannot be gained through words and concepts. With meditation, one can allow the world to teach what it has to offer, what is beyond the constructions human beings impose on it. [more on meditation]

Wholesome thinking and wholesome understanding are supported by mental cultivation and mindfulness, as they are supported by (and support) the other disciplines on the Noble Path. Meditation and meditative awareness creates the space for insight and clarity to occur. The thoughts of a clear mind are free of attachment, hatred, and confusion; the thoughts of an insightful mind are compassionate and selfless. Such thoughts constitute wholesome thinking.

Wholesome understanding is to see reality the way it is, unencumbered by expectation, belief, or defilements of any kind. In the Buddhist view, seeing reality clearly means coming to the deep apprehension of what the Buddha called the Four Noble Truths. These truths are the Buddhist view of the central aspects of existence. They are not beliefs or creedal formulae. The Buddha advised aspirants to the holy life never to accept anything on the authority of another but to verify all claims about the truth for oneself. The Buddha was confident that individuals on the holy path would see for themselves the veracity of these statements.

The Four Noble Truths may be expressed this way:

Disappointment and dissatisfaction pervade life as we know it. Indeed, we suffer far more than we are usually aware.
Disappointment and dissatisfaction arise because we fail to apprehend the impermanent nature of all reality, including our selves. Accordingly, we act in self-centered ways and become unhealthily attached to persons, ideas, and all manner of things. When change occurs—as it always does—our attachments cause us to suffer.
One need not develop unhealthy attachments; dissatisfaction, disappointment, and suffering, therefore, are not necessary.
The way to freedom is through disciplines that enable us to give up attachments and exercise wisdom and compassion. This is the Noble Path.

Buddhist Spirituality in the Modern World

Although it is one of the world's oldest enduring spiritual traditions, Buddhist practice may be more compelling in the modern world than ever before. There are many aspects to this practice that the modern person might find attractive. One of these is what might be called the Buddhist orientation toward truth: never accept anything on the authority of another; only accept as true what is established by your own experience. This attitude toward the truth is quintessentially modern and fits well with the ideals the modern world prescribes. Buddhist spirituality does not ask anyone to believe what he or she cannot believe. Buddhism requires no leaps of faith. The individual need only hold as true what is confirmed by experience. If we must hold beliefs or opinions, they ought to be held lightly, lest they become objects of attachment.

Buddhist spirituality, furthermore, promotes a form of life that provides an antidote to the stresses of modern living. As a counterpoint to the haste and hurry, the noise and confusion of this world, Buddhism prescribes a life of quietness and tranquility, a life of contemplation and gentle awareness. Yet Buddhism is not an otherworldly spirituality. It does not recommend that one live oriented toward a future world to come. The time for living is now, the present moment. A future-orientation makes us prone to suffer by generating expectations that may not be fulfilled. How often does the future turn out like we planned? Buddhist spirituality is not about absenting oneself from this reality but rather fully, completely, and courageously facing it. Illness, old-age, and death are genuine features of life, and it does us no good to act as if they are not. The modern world, with its endless entertainments and diversions, its frantic flight from pain, its busyness and speed, seems far more escapist than the holy life.

Finally, Buddhist spirituality is imminently practical. It provides discipline for the mind and the body, for treating others and oneself. It does not merely say, "Love others"; it shows us how to love others. It does not merely say, "Be wise"; it shows us how we may become wise. Because it is practical rather than theoretical, it may be compatible with other religious perspectives. It does not seek the repudiation of other spiritual and philosophical viewpoints.

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More than 2,500 years have passed since the Buddhist understanding of life was first taught by Siddhartha Gautama. Today, the spirituality he breathed into the world may be more vital than ever.

Everyday Zen: Love and Work, by Charlotte Joko Beck
Nothing Special: Living Zen by Charlotte Joko Beck
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön
Mindfulness in Plain English, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path by Henepola Gunaratana
What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula
The Mind and the Way: Buddhist Reflections on Life by Ajahn Sumedho

Are You Spiritual But Not Religious? 10 Reasons Why Buddhism Works

Are You Spiritual But Not Religious? 10 Reasons Why Buddhism Works

Are You Spiritual But Not Religious?

BY MELVIN MCLEOD| JULY 6, 2017

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Buddhism is about us, our minds, and our suffering — it’s about being human. Melvin McLeod shares 10 reasons why Buddhism has something to offer everyone.

Spiritual But Not Religious. Painting.

Painting by Michael Newhall.

It wasn’t so long ago that most Americans took their religion for granted. You were born into a religion, you lived in it, and you died in it.

Except for a few daring freethinkers, that’s the way it was as recently as the 1950s, and that’s still the way it is in most of the world today. It’s the way we’ve related to religion for thousands of years. Until now. Today, a significant and growing number of Americans do not identify themselves as members of any religion.

According to a Pew Research Report, 20 percent of Americans — one-fifth of the adult population — describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. That’s up from 15 percent just five years ago, and the percentage goes higher the younger you are — up to 72 percent for Generation Y.

There are many different reasons why people become disenchanted with organized religion — the litany is long and depressing — but most continue to yearn for something more than a life of materialism, for something that gives deeper meaning and happiness, for something they describe as “spiritual.”

Are You “Spiritual But Not Religious”?

About a third of the religiously unaffiliated describe themselves as atheists. But the rest — some thirty million Americans — maintain some type of spiritual belief and practice, even though they no longer feel at home in a church, synagogue, or mosque. These are the famous “spiritual but not religious,” philosophically the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. Generally, they’re educated, liberal, and open-minded, with a deep sense of connection to the Earth and a belief that there’s more to life than what appears on the surface.

Buddhism is about realization and experience, not institutions or divine authority. This makes it especially suited to those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious.

Perhaps this describes you. Perhaps, as a reader of Lion’s Roar, you’re one of the many people who has discovered that Buddhism has a lot to offer your life and spiritual practice, without some of the downsides of institutionalized religion.

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To put it another way: Is Buddhism the religion for people who don’t like religion?

Buddhism is unique among the world’s major world religions. (Some people debate whether Buddhism is in fact a religion, but for now let’s assume it is.) Buddhism is the one world religion that has no God. It is the nontheistic religion.

That changes everything. Yes, like other religions Buddhism describes a nonmaterial, spiritual reality (perhaps the realer reality) and addresses what happens after we die. But at the same time, it is down-to-earth and practical: it is about us, our minds, and our suffering. It’s about being fully and deeply human, and it has something to offer everyone: Buddhists of course; but also the spiritual but not religious, members of other religions, and even those who don’t think they’re spiritual at all. Because who doesn’t know the value of being present and aware?

See also: Is Buddhism a Religion?

First, a couple of cautions. Like other religions, Buddhism is practiced at different levels of subtlety, and sometimes it can be just as theistic as any other religion. Buddhism is practiced by people, so there’s good and bad. We come to Buddhism as we are, so there’s definitely going to be ego involved. That’s no problem — it’s the working basis of the path. The key is where we go from there.

Also, much of what I’m saying about Buddhism also applies to the contemplative traditions of other religions. In fact, contemplatives of different faiths often have more in common with each other than they do with practitioners of their own religion. It comes down to how much we personify or solidify the absolute —whether it’s a supreme being who passes judgment on us or an open expanse of love and awareness. In their experience of God, Thomas Merton, Rumi, and Martin Buber had more in common with the Buddha (and each other) than with most practitioners of their own faith.

This is not an attempt to convert anyone to Buddhism. There is no need for that. But those who think of themselves as spiritual but not religious can find a lot in Buddhism to help them on their personal path, however they define it.

The difference is that meditation is the very essence of Buddhism, not just the practice of a rarified elite of mystics. It’s fair to say that Buddhism is the most contemplative of the world’s major religions, which is a reflection of its basic nontheism.

Buddhism is about realization and experience, not institutions or divine authority. This makes it especially suited to those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. Here are ten reasons why:

1. There is no Buddhist God.

Different schools of Buddhism have different views about who the Buddha was. Some say he was an ordinary human being who discovered the path to awakening; others say he was already enlightened but followed the path to show us how it’s done. But one thing is certain: he was not a God, deity, or divine being. His faculties were purely human, any of us can follow his path, and our enlightenment will be exactly the same as his. Ultimately, we are no different from him, and vice versa.

Admittedly, there are lots of Buddhist images that look like gods and deities, all kinds of colorful and exotic beings. The Buddhist cosmos is a vast one, containing infinite beings of different minds, bodies, faculties, and realms. Some are more subtle and awakened, and others are grosser and more confused. Yet these are just the endless variations on the reality we experience right now. It may be infinitely vast and profoundly deep, it may be mysterious beyond concept, it may be far different than we think it is, but whatever reality is, this is it. There is nothing and nobody fundamentally different from or outside of it.

2. It’s about your basic goodness.

Buddhism is not about salvation or original sin. It’s not about becoming somebody different or going somewhere else. Because both you and your world are basically good. With all its ups and downs, this world of ours works. It warms us; it feeds us; it offers us color, sound, and touch. We don’t have to struggle against our world. It is neither for us nor against us. It is a simple, vivid world of direct experience we can investigate, care for, enjoy, make love to.

We are basically good as well, confused as we may be. In Buddhism, our true nature has many names, such as buddhanature, ordinary mind, sugatagarbha, Vajradhara, or just plain buddha — fundamental awakeness. The thing is, we can’t solidify, identify, or conceptualize it in any way. Then it’s just the same old game we’re stuck in now. We do not own this basic goodness. It is not inside of us, it is not outside of us, it is beyond the reach of conventional mind. It is empty of all form, yet everything we experience is its manifestation. It is nothing and the source of everything — how do you wrap your mind around that? All you can do is look directly, relax, and let go.

3. The problem is suffering. The answer is waking up.

Buddhism exists to address one problem: suffering. The Buddha called the truth of suffering “noble,” because recognizing our suffering is the starting place and inspiration of the spiritual path.

His second noble truth was the cause of suffering. In the West, Buddhists call this “ego.” It’s a small word that encompasses pretty much everything that’s wrong with the world. Because according to the Buddha, all suffering, large and small, starts with our false belief in a solid, separate, and continuous “I,” whose survival we devote our lives to.

It feels like we’re hopelessly caught in this bad dream of “me and them” we’ve created, but we can wake up from it. This is the third noble truth, the cessation of suffering. We do this by recognizing our ignorance, the falseness of our belief in this “I.” Finally, the Buddha told us that there is a concrete way we can get there, which basically consists of discipline, effort, meditation, and wisdom. This is the fourth noble truth, the truth of the path.

4. The way to do that is by working with your mind.

So, according to the Buddha, the problem is suffering, the cause is ignorance, the remedy is waking up, and the path is living mindfully, meditating, and cultivating our wisdom. There’s really only one place all that happens: in our minds. The mind is the source of both our suffering and our joy. Meditation — taming the mind — is what gets us from one to the other. Meditation is Buddhism’s basic remedy for the human condition, and its special genius.

The Buddhist path of meditation begins with practices to calm our wild mind. Once the mind is focused enough to look undistractedly into reality, we develop insight into the nature of our experience, which is marked by impermanence, suffering, nonego, and emptiness. We naturally develop compassion for ourselves and all beings who suffer, and our insight allows us to help them skillfully. Finally, we experience ourselves and our world for what they have been since beginningless time, are right now, and always will be — nothing but enlightenment itself, great perfection in every way.

5. No one can do it for you. But you can do it.

In Buddhism, there is no savior. There’s no one who’s going to do it for us, no place we can hide out for safety. We have to face reality squarely, and we have to do it alone. Even when Buddhists take refuge in the Buddha, what they’re really taking refuge in is the truth that there’s no refuge. Not seeking protection is the only real protection.

So that’s the bad news — we have to do it alone. The good news is, we can do it. As human beings, we have the resources we need: intelligence, strength, loving hearts, and proven, effective methods. Because of that, we can rouse our confidence and renounce our depression and resentment.

But while no one can do that for us, help and guidance is available. There are teachers — women and men who are further along the path — who offer us instruction and inspiration. They prove to us it can be done. Our fellow practitioners support our path, while never allowing us to use them as crutches. The Buddhist teachings offer us wisdom that goes back 2,600 years to the Buddha himself. We can go right to the source, because the lineage that started with Gautama Buddha is unbroken to this day.

6. There is a spiritual, nonmaterial reality.

Some people describe Buddhism as the rational, “scientific” religion, helping us lead better and more caring lives without contradicting our modern worldview. It is certainly true that many Buddhist practices work very nicely in the modern world, don’t require any exotic beliefs, and bring demonstrable benefit to people’s lives. But that’s only part of the story.

Buddhism definitely asserts there is a reality that is not material. Other religions say that too; the difference is that in Buddhism this spiritual reality is not God. It is mind.

This is something you can investigate for yourself:

Is my mind made of matter or is it something else?

Does my mind have characteristics, like thoughts, feelings, and identity, or is it the space within which these things arise?

Does my mind change constantly or is it continuous? Is it one thing or many?

Where is the boundary of my mind? Is it large or small? Is it inside me looking at the material world outside? Or are my perceptions and my experience of them both mind? (And if so, perhaps it’s the material world we should be questioning the reality of.)

7. But you don’t have to take anything on faith.

There is no received wisdom in Buddhism, nothing we must accept purely on the basis of somebody else’s spiritual authority. The Dalai Lama has said that Buddhism must give up any belief that modern science disproves. The Buddha himself famously said, “Be a lamp unto yourselves,” and told his students they must test everything he said against their own experience. But it is easy to misinterpret this advice. Our modern egos are keen to take advantage of it. While we shouldn’t accept what others say at face value, this doesn’t mean we should just accept what we tell ourselves. We have to test the teachings of Buddhism against our direct life experience, not against our opinions.

And while modern science can prove or disprove old beliefs about astronomy or human physiology, it cannot measure or test the nonmaterial. Buddhism values the rational mind and seeks not to contradict it in its own sphere. But it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Finally, it is the rare person who can navigate the spiritual path alone. While retaining our self-respect and judgment, we must be willing to accept the guidance, even leadership, of those who are further along the path. In a society that exalts the individual and questions the hierarchy of the teacher-student relationship, it is a challenge to find a middle way between too much self and not enough.

8. Buddhism offers a wealth of skillful means for different people’s needs.

Buddhism is not a one-path-fits-all religion. It’s highly pragmatic, because it’s about whatever helps reduce suffering.

Beings are infinite. So are their problems and states of mind. Buddhism offers a wealth of skillful means to meet their different needs. If people are not ready for the final truth, but a partial truth will help, that’s no problem — as long as it actually helps. The problem is that things that feel helpful — like going along with our usual tricks — can sometimes make things worse. So the Buddhist teachings are gentle, but they can also be tough. We need to face the ways we cause ourselves and others suffering.

Buddhist meditators have been studying the mind for thousand of years. In that time, they’ve tested and proven many techniques to tame the mind, lessen our suffering, and discover who we are and what is real (and not). There are meditations to calm and focus the mind, contemplations to open the heart, and ways to bring ease and grace to the body. It’s fair to say, as many people have, that Buddhism is the world’s most developed science of mind.

Today, people who want to explore Buddhism have many resources at their disposal. For the first time in history, all the schools and traditions of Buddhism are gathered in one place. There are fine books, excellent teachers (many of them now American), practice centers, communities, and indeed, magazines.

These are all available for you to explore according to your own needs and path. You can practice meditation at home or go to a local center and practice with others. You can read a book, attend classes, or hear a lecture by a Buddhist teacher. Whatever works for you — no pressure.

9. It’s open, progressive, and not institutional.

While Buddhism in its Asian homelands can be conservative, convert Buddhists in the West are generally liberal, both socially and politically. Whether this is an accident of history or a natural reflection of the Buddhist teachings, Buddhist communities embrace diversity and work against sexism and racism.

Identities of all sorts, including gender, nationality, ethnicity, and even religion, are not seen as fixed and ultimately true. Yet they are not denied; differences are acknowledged, celebrated, and enjoyed. Of course, Buddhists are still people and still part of a society, so it’s a work in progress. But they’re trying.

Many Americans have turned away from organized religion because it feels like just another bureaucracy, rigid and self-serving. Buddhism has been described as disorganized religion. There’s no Buddhist pope. (No, the Dalai Lama is not the head of world Buddhism. He’s not even the head of all Tibetan Buddhism, just of one sect.) There is no overarching church, just a loose collection of different schools and communities. As you’ll quickly discover if you go to your local Buddhist center, things may run smoothly (or not), but the atmosphere is likely to be open and relaxed. It probably won’t feel institutional.

10. And it works.

We can’t see or measure subjective experience, so we can’t judge directly the effect Buddhism is having on someone else’s mind and heart. But we can see how they act and treat other people. We can hear what they say about what they’re experiencing inside.

What we find is that Buddhism works. For millennia, Buddhism has been making people more aware, caring, and skillful. All you have to do is meet someone who’s been practicing meditation a lot to know that. In our own time, hundreds of thousands of Americans are reporting that even a modest Buddhist practice has made their life better — they’re calmer, happier, and not as carried away when strong emotions arise. They’re kinder to themselves and others.

But it’s really important not to burden ourselves with unrealistic expectations. Change comes very slowly. You’ll also see that when you meet a Buddhist meditator, even one who’s been at it for a long time. Don’t expect perfection. We’re working with patterns of ignorance, greed, and anger that have developed over a lifetime — if not much longer. Change comes slowly for most of us. But it does come. If you stick with it, that’s guaranteed. Buddhism works.

This is not an attempt to convert anyone to Buddhism. There is no need for that. But those who think of themselves as spiritual but not religious can find a lot in Buddhism to help them on their personal path, however they define it.

When I first encountered Buddhism, what struck me was its absolute integrity. I saw that it was not trying to manipulate me by telling me what I wanted to hear. It always tells the truth. Sometimes that truth is gentle, softening our hearts and bringing tears to our eyes. Sometimes it is tough, forcing us to face our problems and cutting through our comfortable illusions. But always it is skillful. Always it offers us what we need. We are free to take what we wish.

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BBC - Religions - Buddhism: Buddhism at a glance - spiritual?

BBC - Religions - Buddhism: Buddhism at a glance

Buddhism at a glance

Standing Buddha in Bangkok, Thailand.

Buddhism is a spiritual tradition that focuses on personal spiritual development and the attainment of a deep insight into the true nature of life. There are 376 million followers worldwide.

Buddhists seek to reach a state of nirvana, following the path of the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who went on a quest for Enlightenment around the sixth century BC.

There is no belief in a personal god. Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent and that change is always possible. The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom.

Buddhists believe that life is both endless and subject to impermanence, suffering and uncertainty. These states are called the tilakhana, or the three signs of existence. Existence is endless because individuals are reincarnated over and over again, experiencing suffering throughout many lives.

It is impermanent because no state, good or bad, lasts forever. Our mistaken belief that things can last is a chief cause of suffering.

The history of Buddhism is the story of one man's spiritual journey to enlightenment, and of the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.

The Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, was born into a royal family in present-day Nepal over 2500 years ago. He lived a life of privilege and luxury until one day he left the royal enclosure and encountered for the first time, an old man, a sick man, and a corpse. Disturbed by this he became a monk before adopting the harsh poverty of Indian asceticism. Neither path satisfied him and he decided to pursue the ‘Middle Way’ - a life without luxury but also without poverty.

Buddhists believe that one day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree (the tree of awakening), Siddhartha became deeply absorbed in meditation and reflected on his experience of life until he became enlightened.

By finding the path to enlightenment, Siddhartha was led from the pain of suffering and rebirth towards the path of enlightenment and became known as the Buddha or 'awakened one'.

Schools of Buddhism

There are numerous different schools or sects of Buddhism. The two largest are Theravada Buddhism, which is most popular in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Burma (Myanmar), and Mahayana Buddhism, which is strongest in Tibet, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia.

The majority of Buddhist sects do not seek to proselytise (preach and convert), with the notable exception of Nichiren Buddhism.

All schools of Buddhism seek to aid followers on a path of enlightenment.

Key facts

Buddhism is 2,500 years old
There are currently 376 million followers worldwide
There are over 150,000 Buddhists in Britain
Buddhism arose as a result of Siddhartha Gautama's quest for Enlightenment in around the 6th Century BC
There is no belief in a personal God. It is not centred on the relationship between humanity and God
Buddhists believe that nothing is fixed or permanent - change is always possible
The two main Buddhist sects are Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, but there are many more
Buddhists can worship both at home or at a temple
The path to Enlightenment is through the practice and development of morality, meditation and wisdom.