As suggested by my fellow blogger from the Leftorium, I have decided to answer some questions about my particular brand of spirituality, Buddhism. I became a Buddhist after studying a lot of different traditions and after being misled by Christian school during my formative years that meant well but didn't really know what the fuck they were talking about.
The first Buddhist thing I can remember reading was in high school, 10th grade English I think. We read a story about a man who went to the Himalayas (which in Sanskrit literally means abode of snow...didn't know that did ya?) and stayed warm by visualizing a fire in his stomach. I was intrigued at the mental capacity that that must take. I didn't know if it was true or not but it sounded mad cool.
After many years of exploring my mind via hallucinogens I was again introduced to the teachings of the Buddha in college. I took a course on spirituality, self hypnosis and mysticism that changed the course of my life forever. I remember one time during the class when a guest lecturer came in and asked me to lay on the floor so she could hold a crystal over various points on my body.
As she did, the crystal began to spin as if it was being moved by some invisible force (or the wind). She became confused and said she had never met anyone with all of their chakras open. Maaaaaaan I thought that I was the shit. She then told me that although this made me special, it also made me more succeptible to anything that came my way because I was like an open door with no screen. Little did she know that I already knew this after reading, drinking, smoking and screwing anything that came my way.
Anyway, it was after this class that I decided to take the next course being held in Amsterdam which I won't get into right now. In fact I think it'll be my next blog entry: Why Everyone Should Go To Amsterdam At Least Once In Their Life; And No Not (just) For The drugs. The class taught me about the views and practices of the major forms of spirituality and the varieties of religious experiences that were to be had by their adherents. After taking a good look at all of the various philosophies I decided that the Buddha made the most sense. From there I found a community of pracitioners, started going on retreats, graduated from seminary, took vows with a guru for tantric initiation and started practicing some pretty weird shit...drank the Kool-Aid basically.
I'm a full on Buddhist and lots of folks ask me why I decided to go that route, why I would choose to possibly go to hell and forego the freedom of dogmatic monotheism. Why not be a blissed out Christian or a super serious Muslim or go with a more colorful belief system like the Hebrew Israelites?
So here are my top seven reasons for being a Buddhist and why you should think about what the fuck you "believe in".
1.) Buddhism isn't about belief.
You don't have to believe shit in the Buddhist tradition. Everything is based upon your own experience. All that is required of you is to listen or read teachings and then conduct a scientific experiment to see if it works aka meditation. If after thoroughly following the instructions you find that it's some bullshit then don't do it. WARNING: most who have followed the instructions to the tee have actually experienced inner peace. If you don't want peace stay faaaaaar away. Now not believing doesn't mean we don't believe in anything. I believe things after investigating it's reality. If I find it's true then I believe. There is trust that is required for this to work, just as much as trust is required for you to get in your car and believe it will start. Most of the time it does, so you believe that shit but that trust is based on experience. The trust I am talking about is not blind. It is surrenduring to a practice and view that for 2500 years has been repeated with the same results. If you started your car for 2500 years and the shit worked, you would believe in it too, probably for the next 2500.
2.) Buddhism makes sense.
What would you rather believe in?
That you cause yourself and others suffering because of your insatiable and eternally unfulfilled appetite for always needing to be happy by constantly feeding your ego....
That you have the key to your own liberation by looking deeply into how you cause your suffering....
That practicing seeing through this illusion of a self that constantly needs gratification brings true happiness that is not based on anything that I need to obtain from outside myself....
Or...
That I lack the knowledge and ability to solve a problem that seems to be clearly caused by me (I don't know about you but I'm my biggest problem...if you think it's not you stop blaming others)...
That if I supplicate and praise a being which no one has ever met then I somehow will fall under his good graces and will be rewarded, maybe on Earth by winning lotto tickets and other good things that happen to me and maybe in heaven (which no one has ever seen) where everything is all good except for the fact that God apparently doesn't like drugs, sex, violent movies, Playstation 3, masturbation or any of the other thousand things I find enjoyable.
This is not my view of real Christianity. Real Christianity is a rich tradition that would produce more enlightened people if only the people that teach and preach about it knew what to do. As for now the church teaches people a very immature practice and understanding of Christ. In my opinion the world is very fucked up because of Christian teachers.
3. Buddhism is time tested: It's been put through the ringer.
Buddhism has been around 2500 years. In that time there has never been a Buddhist war fought in the name of the Buddha or his teachings. There have been practitioners who have become enlightened. As Jesus said there will be those who do even greater things that I did. In Buddhism those people really exist. You can judge the effectiveness of a practice by the number of people who have practiced it and actually achieved their stated goal. You mean to tell me that in 2000 years there hasn't been another Jesus? And there's maaaaaaaaaaad wars and millions of people killed in his name. As Gandhi said, " I like your Christ but not your Christians". Teachings are passed down orally from teacher to student so that there's no confusion. It's like a game of telephone except the message is constantly clarified so that there's no confusion.
4. Buddhism deals with reality.
I need to know how to live in this world as a human being. In order to do that I need to eliminate as much bullshit about how the world "might" exist and steep myself in how it most definitely exists. Now. I'm not saying that the Buddha absolutely has cornered the market on reality..buuuuut if you read the dharma and the various views of reality you would be hard pressed to not agree. I often think that the reason why people don't read about Buddhism is because it makes too much sense. If you read it and you agree, then what? Oh My God!!!! Then I actually have to do something about it!!! You mean I can't just dumb out?
Buddhism isn't about fairies and deities, even though it has those aspects in some of it's traditions, especially Tibetan Buddhism. But it's more about how this person that I think "I" am exists. Then it asks us to think about how does this world of appearance "really" exist. We take it for granted as human beings that what we perceive through our 5 senses is how the world exists until we consider what it must be like to perceive the world through other beings i.e. animals and insects. The human mind is capable of experiencing the world on a different level than other beings but is flawed in that it comes up with labels and ideas for everything. The labels and ideas don't really exist. But us super smart humans think they do. So therefore we have ideas like up, down, black, white, tall, short, man, woman, etc. None of those words accurately describes what were talking about. There is a famous example where one is asked to describe the taste of candy to another person. Go ahead. Do it. Explain to someone how a piece of Juicy Fruit tastes. You can't without using words like sweet or fruity which doesn't mean shit. There is no way to describe the actual reality of anything because any concept that you use doesn't accurately describe it. Buddhism helps people to engage with reality in a authentic way without all the conceptual distortions that cause us to have likes and dislikes. People with likes and dislikes often piss me off.
5.) Buddhism refutes itself.
Buddhism (like all traditions should do) does not foster an unhealthy attachment to it. It teaches a practitioner that the path of Buddhism is not the essence of Buddhism itself. The essence of a tradition is not found in it's practices, it's books or it's language, nor is it found in its savior figure. It's found in you. If you were to become enlightened you would not disappear into a blissed out state and eminate rainbow light from your eyeballs. You would realize that you are your own savior. The Buddha is not your savior, he is an example. What he did you can do and eventually will do. He did not disappear upon enlightenment; he became aware of how the self and world truly exist. So in essence the Buddha was saying that at the end of your trip there is no escape, there is only continued interactions with other beings, you still go to work, you still have to deal with your significant other, you still have to pay bills but the mind that is doing so is free from causing itself and others suffering which makes for a more enjoyable existence.
Buddhism is also big on disagreements. There are schools in Tibet where students learn how to debate the nature of existence and are encouraged to do so with each other. It's important that we are sure about what words like emptiness and enlightenment really mean and not to just take someones word for it.
6. Buddhism is a path.
Anything you do in life should be understood and should have a practice for actualizing that understanding. If you are currently involved in trying to develop in some shape or form that doesn't have these two components, either adjust what you're doing or give it up and do something else. Everything in life is study and practice. What it means to have a path is just like what it means to go hiking (like on a path..follow me here geniuses). If you go on a hike you would want to know a few things first.
Where the fuck are we going...What direction are we moving in? What's the end goal? Are we just walking forever? Are we walking to a more scenic location? Are there dangerous animals out here? What about pitfalls, rock slides or other harmful entities? Your choice of a spiritual tradition should have a goal in mind i.e. inner peace, heaven, nirvana a Maybach etc. It then should have a series of practices that outline how one is going to reach that goal. It should also teach you about why you are walking that path, the benefit in your daily life from walking that path and how it will benefit others. It should teach you about the dangers of that path and what to expect in the way of potential threats, enemies etc.
If your path doesn't have a set of effective practices and a sound conceptual view GET OUT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME AND LIFE. And that's no bull. There's no use in me trying to get to China by heading due North of Baltimore in my car. Just like there's no use in me trying to be Christ like by believing he died on the cross for my sins. According to the Bible not only is it not true, but it doesn't teach me how to live. For Christians wondering what the path of Christianity is, read Matthew Ch.5 through Ch.13. Read, practice and repeat. The rest of the Bible is good for story time when it's time to go night night or to pull random verses from when you're trying to prove what the never-been-seen-before God wants you to do or not do.
People need direction and they need to know that spirituality is a practice. It's not just memorizing phrases or believing that someone is in my heart. Those types often lead confused lives and end up hurting and confusing others.
7.) Buddhism does not refute the existence of God.
There is a famous story about a man who came to see the Buddha. He asked him about the existence of God, heaven and hell. The Buddha said that is like a man who has been shot with a poison arrow going to his doctor and asking him to remove it, but first to tell the man what kind of wood the arrow was made of, what the name and the caste of the man who shot him is, what kind of metal is the head of the arrow made of and what kind of bird did the feather that makes up the quill come from. Before the man knew all of this information he would be dead.
It is less important to believe in God and more important to solve the psychoemotional ailments that cause us to screw our lives up. Isn't that the whole point of religion? Not that there's some better life out there in outer space past the Pleides Nebula, but that I can experience happiness now, in this lifetime through personal transformation. I have never seen God change anyone. I have seen people change themselves because of finding God, and I think that's how it works. If there is divine grace (which there definitely could be) it is had when I align myself with that which is divine. I only have control over what I do. If there is a God cool, but I think God really fucks with people who try to get their own shit together. I don't think God fucks with most Christians simply because they are more interested in being spiritual children of God, instead of moving out of the house getting their own shit together and realizing what it really means to be spiritually mature.
Whatever you practice, do it fully and make sure it's working for you. It's not my intent to convert anyone but if you're up to it find a Buddhist center and go talk to one of us. You'd be amazed at what you'll find when you really look.
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