About “Me” and Buddhism
Damian Hospital file photo
I first started to study Buddhism seriously in 1998, and embraced quickly the Buddha’s (Siddhārtha Gautama) experiences, world view, and philosophy. Like many born in the United States, Buddhism is not something that is easy to grasp or to be exposed to. In the West, “spiritual guidance” is usually via the Church or the Bible.
I had studied world religions in college, and my upbringing was from the Judeo-Christian mythos like so many Americans, so my preconceptions of Buddhism were ignorant, especially since it wasn’t taught in schools or shown in pop culture.
Before studying it, I thought Buddhism was about reincarnation, vegetarianism, pacifism, monks, Yin and Yang, spirits but no God, statues, celibacy, and Tibet. You have to understand that even with the current historic Internet penetration in every household, most Americans know nothing about Buddhism, nor do they really care.
When the mainstream media does cover Buddhism, it usually shows China vs. the Dali Llama, Richard Gere, Asian natives living like nomads, or monks burning themselves. There has been no hit movie, popular TV mini-series, commercial, marketing campaign, awesome comic book series, or young preachy celebrity or athlete to bring awareness.
But there are plenty of books. Loads of books. I started to digest as many as I could get my hands on. One thing that was kind of frustrating was that there are so many schools of Buddhism, and some books don’t distinguish which one they are representing. The different branches have major differences. Thus, learning Buddhism this way could be a bit confusing.
Over time, I felt that the early teaching of the Buddha resonated with me; these core teachings are mostly preserved in the Theravāda tradition (Doctrine of the Elders). I find other sects to be too ritualistic and based on local religious customs. That’s not to say that I reject them; on the contrary some aspects help explain Buddhism and help my awareness of how we skew the world by labeling things and some stories and beliefs aid me in seeing how death is not to be feared, for example.
Whereas the early Buddhism I like is based on logic, discipline, self-awareness, and meditation, some of the later interpretations add emotions, imagery, and myths to help us conceive the core concepts. For example, the Buddha refused to debate about the afterlife, but later traditions created a whole system describing what happens. Although I take such stories with a grain of salt, they do help me get the message. I do have issues with some later traditions making Buddha a super-human, so I don’t focus on that.
But the great thing about Buddhism, and the reason why the word “religion” does it no justice, is that Buddha wanted us to experiment, test, and modify, as long as we stayed within the Middle Way and took heart with The Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. There are no “commandments” or “sins”. It’s about awareness, growth, and seeing the world correctly to appreciate its beauty.
I am writing this blog to apply Buddhism to everyday life and news here in America.
