Buddhism

Reality is made up of yin and yang, seeming opposites that actually aren't. Atoms wouldn't exist without positive and negative charges, so neither would we. Thus when I wrote recently about my main gripe with Buddhist meditation, I knew that I wanted to balance that negativity with some positive props. After all, a bunch of Buddhism-themed books reside in my morning meditation area. I enjoy them a lot. Except when they get into my gripe zone, explicit or implicit claims that human consciousness somehow is able to enter into a state of pure observing -- either of the inner mind…

I've reached a point in my churchless evolution where most religious, spiritual, mystical, and metaphysical writings now irritate me more than they inspire. Even my big collection of Rumi books sit dustily on a shelf -- though I went through a period not long ago when I couldn't stop immersing myself in Rumi's enticing prose and poetry. Buddhism is a sometimes exception. Sometimes, because my attraction to Buddhist literature depends on how non-Buddhist it is. I like "Kill the Buddha" stuff, where the author urges us to throw away Buddhist dogma in favor of our own personal experience, even if…

I've read lots of books about Buddhism and Zen. Often the core teachings get submerged under a bunch of confusing verbiage. So it was refreshing to pick up "The Zen Teachings of Master Lin-chi" and find a wonderfully clear introduction by the translator, Burton Watson.Of all the world's "spiritual" faiths (using that term loosely), Zen Buddhism and it's iconoclastic cousin, Taoism, strike me as being the least religious'y. Burton makes this clear. I'm not endorsing what he says as the gospel truth -- that'd be opposed to what he says, even if I heartily believed in it. I just wanted…

Yesterday, during my Tai Chi class, I had an insightful flash moment that encapsulated how I look upon Buddhism (and also other forms of spirituality) these churchless days.We started off by doing the Yang Long Form. I'm familiar with the form, which, not surprisingly, is long. About twenty minutes worth of prescribed movements, though we usually breeze through the form a bit more quickly.Tai Chi often is described as "moving meditation." Yeah, it seems that way to me. Just as when I do my unmoving meditation, sometimes while doing Tai Chi my mind is calm and centered, and other times…

Lots of people believe in what philosophers call "mind-body dualism." Or if they're mystically or religiously inclined, they'll say that the soul is the non-physical side of who we are.Regardless, this is a dualistic view of life. It's nothing new. Plato was a dualist, as was Descartes. Nowadays, science has discredited the notion that human consciousness has a metaphysical aspect. Mind states clearly are related to brain states. There's no convincing evidence that consciousness exists separate from a body.Yet belief in an immaterial soul or mind that survives physical death is still widespread. Most Christians believe this. So do most…

Ooh, I'm so excited! It's just what we needed to spice up the New Year -- a new front in the religious wars. Brit Hume of Fox News has dissed the 350 to 500 million Buddhists in the world by saying Tiger Woods needs to ditch Buddhism and embrace Christianity in order to recover from his infidelity scandal and be a great example to the world.Not surprisingly, this has irked Buddhists, who usually are pretty darn mild-mannered. I'm not sure what a Buddhist "jihad" or "crusade" would be called, but the Progressive Buddhism blog has started one against Brit Hume.Could…

Proving, or not, that profound insights are found in the strangest places, I'll share some of the lyrics to an atonal song that I made up and love to "sing" (using that word in its absolutely loosest sense) in the shower.I love my dog.I love my cat.Only problem is, I don't have a cat.It's hard to loveWhat you don't have.This is how I also feel about loving God. Or, my self. Except seemingly there's more evidence for a "self" than for "God." Buddhism, though, seizes on that seemingly and runs with it to an intriguing, reasonable, and scientifically defensible conclusion.I…

Often people say that it's hard to tell whether Buddhism is a philosophy or a religion. This makes me give it a semi-enthusiastic churchless thumbs-up. I enjoy the Buddhist way of looking at reality. It's the religious side of Buddhism that gives me pause. So whenever I come across a writer who is knowledgeable about subtracting religiosity from Buddhism, I'm eager to read what he or she has to say.My favorite author in this genre is Stephen Bachelor. His "Buddhism Without Beliefs" is a terrific book. When I feel in the need of some godless inspiration, I pick it up.As…

Oh, yeah, in my true believing days I knew people who were so damn proud of how humble they were. And who acted like jerks while preaching high-minded morality to others. So I could relate to Arj Barker's slickly produced and smile inducing video where he raps out his claim to being the Sickest Buddhist. (embedded at end of this post) You can read the lyrics if you can't understand all of them, thanks to YogaDork. Sample:I’m the illest Buddhist you’ve seenall the ladies wanna meditate with meI look so serene when I bust a lotusbut i don’t have an…

As noted before, I used to be a lot more attracted to Buddhism than I am now. My churchless scientific leanings cause me to shy away from faith-based religiosity, and I've learned that while Buddhism talks a pretty good "spiritual science" game, the actual playing is lacking.Owen Flanagan, a philosopher, explains why in his "The Really Hard Problem," a book I'm enjoying.The really hard problem is how meaning is possible in the material world. To me it's obvious how this is done: each of us makes our own meaning, right here and right now. No metaphysics required.However, religions want us…

My churchlessness must be heading into even deeper irreligious territory, because lately I've been enjoying criticisms of some minimally churchy spiritual systems -- such as Buddhism -- that I used to identify with.The problem I'm having with Buddhism is that it really doesn't deliver on the promise I often have heard from Buddhists: "You don't need to believe anything; just study your own mind and observe what is experienced in meditation."Well, that sounds good. But actually there's a pretty extensive list of preconceptions in this supposedly conceptionless faith.Reincarnation or rebirth. Karma. Non-existence of the self. The four noble truths (including…

Bummer. I thought I was going to enjoy B. Alan Wallace's "Mind in the Balance," since the subtitle points to an intriguing subject: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity.But the book turned out to be a disappointment, largely because Wallace is disturbingly anti-science and pro-religion, which shows that Buddhists can believe with blind faith in weird stuff just as other religious fundamentalists do.Right away I saw inklings of this. A sentence on page 1 had me nodding agreeably with Wallace:What's been hidden is meditation's role as a precision tool for exploring consciousness and the universe scientifically -- that is, using…

A few years ago I laughed my way through an Onion piece, "Search for Self Called Off After 38 Years." Then I wrote a blog post about the notion, saying that some friends and I had just been talking along the same lines.I told them that when I peruse my extensive personal library, searching for some spiritual inspiration, usually the only books I can stand to read have Buddhist, Zen, or Taoist themes. All the rest seem too damn dogmatic now. Buddhists and Taoists don’t waste much energy searching for a true self because they don’t believe that it exists.…