I am not a Buddhist, at least not officially. I have never attended any sort of Buddhist teaching group, monastary or anything of the sort. Frankly, I know precious little about Buddhism.
My introduction to Buddhism was, as most things were, via the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (aka, Jehovah’s Witnesses) in their book on comparitive religion, “Mankind’s Search for God” (MSFG). MSFG had a lot to say about Buddhism, including a bit about the teachings and history and they end with the following:
Enlightenment Without God?
51 Accounts of the life of the Buddha relate that on one occasion he and his disciples were in a forest. He picked up a handful of leaves and said to his disciples: “What I have taught you is comparable to the leaves in my hand, what I have not taught you is comparable to the amount of leaves in the forest.” The implication, of course, was that the Buddha had taught only a fraction of what he knew. However, there is one important omission-Gautama the Buddha had next to nothing to say about God; neither did he ever claim to be God. In fact, it is said that he told his disciples, “If there is a God, it is inconceivable that He would be concerned about my day-to-day affairs,” and “there are no gods who can or will help man.”
52 In this sense, Buddhism’s role in mankind’s search for the true God is minimal. The Encyclopedia of World Faiths observes that “early Buddhism appears to have taken no account of the question of God, and certainly did not teach or require belief in God.” In its emphasis on each person’s seeking salvation on his own, turning inward to his own mind or consciousness for enlightenment, Buddhism is really agnostic, if not atheistic. (See box, page 145.) In trying to throw off Hinduism’s shackles of superstition and its bewildering array of mythical gods, Buddhism has swung to the other extreme. It ignored the fundamental concept of a Supreme Being, by whose will everything exists and operates.-Acts 17:24, 25.
53 Because of this self-centered and independent way of thinking, the result is a veritable labyrinth of legends, traditions, complex doctrines, and interpretations generated by the many schools and sects over the centuries. What was meant to bring a simple solution to the complicated problems of life has resulted in a religious and philosophical system that is beyond the comprehension of most people. Instead, the average follower of Buddhism is simply preoccupied with worshiping idols and relics, gods and demons, spirits and ancestors, and performing many other rituals and practices that have little to do with what Gautama the Buddha taught. Clearly, seeking enlightenment without God does not work.
Buddhism was basically summarized as being irrelevant to the belief or non-belief in God, it has little or nothing to say about God. Therefore, the Watchtower Society summarily dismisses Buddhism (of course) because they (of course) advocate a strong belief in an all-powerful divinity. Going back and reading the MSFG book now it makes me chuckle a little about how each religion is presented just so that it can be dismissed as a failed attempt to find the true religion, which is of course available from the publishers. Judaism, all other forms of Christianity, Taoism, Shinto, Hindu, etc, etc, etc, are all shot down one after another and in looking at this now I kind of smirk a little at what a relatively shoddy propaganda job the book is. It is obviously written by Witnesses, for Witnesses to help them feel OK with dismissing the rest of humanity and their attempts at spirituality as futile.
I have found that the discovery that there is no rational reason to believe in God has been liberating but at the same time that there are still fundamental realities of the human condition that I am dealing with. There are the big questions about mortality, evil, my place in the universe and the feeling of being a tiny insignificant speck in the center of an unfathomably vast uncaring universe in which I play no meaningful role whatsoever. Granted, there are emotional factors at play here (how to deal with fear? how to not feel hopeless or irrelevant?) but there is also the need for practical solutions to the management of life that don’t require kowtowing to a mythical deity or putting off reality for some imaginary future paradise. Buddhism was invented to crack this particular nut, more as a life philosophy than a religion.
A life without superstition is not rootless or meaningless, in fact, quite the opposite. A life without superstition is overwhelming because there is so much meaning, you are so connected to everything, that it’s nearly impossible to know how to steady your mind, to quiet yourself, to manage the vast scale of everything so that you can just live an effective human life. I know what I want. I want to do good, I want to leave a mark for future humans, I want to learn everything I can, I want to experience a full life and die satisfied with how I’ve lived. Those are “what’s” but the big question has been, “how?” and I’ve found some intriguing ideas in what Jennifer Hecht calls “graceful-life philosophies” and in what I’ve read of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism. While Jesus too is credited with having taught many things that can help a person manage life and life a productive, happy and moral existence, it is hard to pay attention to those beautiful teachings when they get mangled by Paul and his Christ mythology, the pagan Gospel stories, the fake Orthodox history, eschatology and absurd Protestant morality. I am pro-Jesus but I am anti-Christ. The man (if he really lived) said some good things (if you actually concentrate just on the sayings that are likely to have actually come from him) but once he was transformed into a Son of God and layers of superstition were piled on him, well, it’s just too much work to sift through it all.
So, I prefer a more secular approach, something simpler, something more about calming my mind, learning to focus on the relative nature of time to cherish the moments and savor everything. I prefer ideas and concepts that enrich my understanding of the world, remove false superstitions and equip me to not feel overwhelmed by everything and to rather feel part of it. Buddhism seems to fit the bill, in a very secular form so I am now studying it a bit and I like what I’m finding. I’ll write more on the subject when I have more to write….
More From Ryan Sutter
- God As I Knew Him – Part 4
- Jehovah’s Witnesses Literature Banned as “Extremist” in Russia
- my last post as vioman
- Buddhism Diary
- Myanmar
