Buddhism

Sun - September 25, 2005

Newtonian Buddhism

One fundamental difference between Buddhist and Western (Christian, etc.) views of the universe is that the latter assume that the cause and effect chain from the present backwards must stop somewhere, like a row of dominoes on end. If there is no First Cause to push the first domino, why are dominoes falling now?

Posted at 06:19 PM Read More

Wed - August 3, 2005

some basic buddhist psychology: false enlightenments

Buddhist psychology begins with an analysis that has some features that we Westerners will find familiar, but also some that challenge our customary assumptions. Based on this analysis, we can understand quite a few things that might at first seem peculiar about the Buddhist view of things; in this post, I want to concentrate on how it can help us understand some common misconceptions about enlightenment, and some things about how the Buddhist view of the mind differs from the way the philosophies and religions of the West see it.

Posted at 08:20 PM Read More

Tue - May 10, 2005

Mumonkan 19: neither knowledge nor ignorance

(This is a follow-up to the entry: "Escape from Karma - Or: Follow The Yellow Brick Road?")

Posted at 02:25 PM Read More

Mon - May 2, 2005

Buddhism as "secular spirituality" (2)

Frequently, the people who want to impose their religious beliefs on everyone (the people I call "faith-based imperialists") argue that secularism is a religion, too, so if it is taught in the public schools and so on, so should their beliefs. But calling a secular world view "religious" is like calling a cat a dog and trying to enter it in a dog show.

Posted at 12:28 PM Read More

Sun - May 1, 2005

Buddhism as "secular spirituality" (1)

These days it seems that the "culture war" is becoming a full-scale religious "war." (Fortunately, there are few incidents of actual violence in it so far.) But unlike the wars between Catholics and Protestants in 17th-century Europe, or the pogroms visited by Christians on Jews, the current conflict is not being presented as a war between religions, but between religion and "secularism." As the common terminology which seems to be emerging presents it, it is a battle between "people of faith" and "secular humanism."

I would like to argue in this entry (and probably in a few following ones) that Buddhism can be seen as an entity (call it a religion or a philosophy or whatever you like) which bridges this distinction: a kind of "secular spirituality." It considers questions of life, death, meaning, and purpose which most Americans would consider "spiritual" or "religious," but attempts to answer them in a very different way from the way that is familiar to "religious" folk.

Posted at 01:00 PM Read More

Sat - April 2, 2005

On the Christian view of suffering (2)

An example:

On CNN yesterday, the reporters sounded a little annoyed that the Vatican wasn't constantly supplying them with new information about how close to death the pope was. They were reduced to repeating the same few official statements over and over again, like a chant. They clearly don't place any value on saying the same words over and over until their meaning is carved into the heart.

One of those statements was the vicar general's: "This evening or this night, Christ flings open the doors to the pope," which I heard any number of times described as "grim" words, devoid of "hope." I've heard a lot of things on CNN that left me wondering if the speakers had any idea what they were talking about, but this was surely one of the most clueless. Do you have to be Catholic, or even Christian, do you have to believe in an afterlife, to recognize that the vicar general's statement is the exact opposite of grim, that it is, in fact, full of hope, even joy?

Posted at 01:11 PM Read More

Inevitable suffering

In much of the news coverage of the Pope's death, there has been an emphasis on the idea that the inevitability of suffering in life is an integral part of Catholic (and perhaps Christian, in general) teaching. Buddhism would seem to agree with this idea, but there are important differences, I think.

Posted at 11:10 AM Read More

Sun - March 6, 2005

Escape from Karma - Or: Follow The Yellow Brick Road?

We all remember the symbol of the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy has landed in a place she desperately wants to get out of and is told that the YBR will take her to the Emerald City, from where she can get back home.

Clearly, this is a symbol for every spiritual, personal, and even political quest: the route we all wish we could find to heaven, utopia, or even Kansas -- if that is where we think perfection is to be found. According to Buddhism (and particularly the Zen variation of it), such a road can be found, but just how to get on it is not all that clear.

Posted at 12:37 PM Read More

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