What is wrong with Buddhism?

What is wrong with Buddhism?  Lots.  Certainly in the west you have the situation where it is a bit like a game of chinese whispers.  A tells something to B, who tells it to C who tells it to D and by the time it gets back to A it has changed beyond all recognition.  To paraphrase Douglas Adams "Buddha was just this guy, you know".  It was just someone who said some clever stuff.  It could have been B it could have been his friend, it could have been Batman.  It doesn't really matter. 

They said something, eventually some other people wrote down their interpretations of it and eventually it got translated into dozens of different languages.  Things got changed at each step of the process.  Everyone had their own agenda and the world two thousand years ago is a very different place.  What was a good analogy back then probably doesn't make much sense these days.  It is a bit like shakespeare.  Good stories but you try sitting through an authentic production.  The language is so different to to modern English that you would need a translation from (old) English to (modern) English to make any sense of it, let alone get the jokes.  

Poem - The journey to Enlightenment

I

Are we there yet?
No.
Are we there yet?
No.
When do we get there?
Never if you keep asking.

II

Are we there yet?
No.
Are we there yet?
No.
How long until we get there?
We will know when we are there.

III

Are we there yet?
Yes.
Are we there yet?
Yes.
But we haven't left yet?
I know.





A poem about enlightenment in three parts.  For what that's worth.

Lesson 3 - This is as good as it gets

Warning, this contains spoilers regarding enlightenment.

Most religions have some sort of pay off at the end.  Christianity has Heaven and Buddhism has enlightenment.  Even Zen books say that with lot of meditation you will eventually reach enlightenment.  Lots of people do a lot of meditating but for what?  The answer?  Nothing.  There are the stories of someone asking what enlightenment is and being asked if they had done the washing up in response.

As far as I can tell the pay off is that THIS is enlightenment.  You are a living, breathing person, in this wonderful world and you have the options to do whatever you want (within reason).  What more do you want?  This is literally as good as it gets, and if you want something else, something special or mystical, then that's your matter.  Not Zens.

Ok, that is a bit of an anti climax but what do you want?  Zen is really just a state of mind.  I get the feeling when people get fed up with major religions they try a bit of Buddhism or Zen.  However they bring some of their baggage with them and over the years they have both been corrupted by other religions.  Hence you get the ceremonies, the robes and outfits and the followers.  This can sometimes give the impression that "Buddhists" are sort of missing the point of being a Buddhist.  You read the books and do the practice in hope of finding something.  Whatever it is you find, is really just going to be what you think you are looking for.  If that makes sense.  If you think you have become enlightened, chances are, you probably haven't.  By actively striving for "something", you are never going to get the real "something".

So, just live your life.  It doesn't get much better.

Lesson 2 - Don't be a dick

Buddhism has the Eightfold Path.  This essentially the same as the Ten Commandments and other lists.  It is a set of things that someone decided are a good measure of character.  Various teachers have come up with their own but these are always subjective.  Personally I think it comes down to one simple phrase, borrowed from the TV show “The Last Leg”.  Don’t be a dick.  Deep down we all know how to behave and what is considered good or bad.  If the only thing stopping you from shooting someone is that it might stop you getting into heaven then you have got your priorities wrong.  Do unto others... and other great cliches are cliches for a reason.

I am not going to list what I think is right as that would purely be my list.   What I would say was , that it  is all about intent.  Killing and stealing are generally considered bad. But what about stealing a loaf of bread to feed your starving family or shooting a burglar?  I’d pass those off as being legal matters and not something relevant to this discussion.  Just ask yourself are you hurting anyone or breaking the law by doing something?

To sum up, you can eat, drink, smoke and shag as much as you like, but do it for the right reasons.  If you are doing it to cover some deep seated unhappiness then you probably shouldn't be doing it.  

Lesson 1 - Shit happens. Live in the moment

The first main Buddhist bullet point is the Four Noble Truths.  Life is suffering and all that.  Most of what has been written about this can be written off as mis-translations and misunderstandings.  It doesn't mean that you have to put up with any sort of suffering just because it says so.  Shit happens and you get over it.  Life is suffering just means that the world isn't quite how we want it and we should accept that.  Suffering really just boils down to wishing something had or hadn't happened in the past or pinning too much on what may happen in the future. 

If you got dumped at college and still sit around thinking about it, then that is probably not going to bring them back.  Evaluate what you did and how you handled the situation and move on.  Just mak sure you don't make the same mistakes twice.  Similarly if you are hard up and need some money, then doing the lottery is not really going to solve your problems.  If you keep telling yourself that you only need one more lucky break then you could spend the rest of your life waiting for that break.  You could just make a plan how to earn/save the money you need.  In both cases what happens next is up to you. 

I have never been one for nostalgia so half of that is easy.  What has happened has happened.  It is history, so there is nothing you can do to change it.  There are things I have said and done that I wish I hadn't but what's done is done.  People have reasons for doing things and that's fine.  The future is a different matter.  There are things that i would like to do with regard to an imaginary five year plan I have but I know I have to work towards that.  Each thing I do now is a step towards where I want to be.

I know people who are hung up on the past and wish something had never happened or something had never changed.  Well, what can you do?  Nothing.  Those people will just have to live with those feelings of regret for the rest of their lives, or until they accept it.  Similarly, People think "I am not happy now as I don't have X".  Well, there is no guarantee that getting X will actually make you happy.  X might turn out to be the wrong colour or the wrong shape or the wrong person.  Then you are back to square one.  There is no harm wanting things, just don't get hung up on it.

My name is Shaun and I am a Zen Atheist

Hi.  My name is Shaun and I am a Zen Atheist.  The aim of this blog is to get a couple of things written down that I have been thinking about for a while.

What is Zen Atheism?  Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?  Well, not really.  As I see it, Zen doesn't really have much to do with Buddhism and so could be seen as a good framework for atheism as well.  I will use the terms Zen and Buddhism interchangeably.  While there are lots of schools, teachers and interpretations out there I count them as as one.  I'm not even sure I count Buddhism as a religion, more a self help guide.  But before we get into that, a little bit about me.

I didn't grow up in a religious household.  My father was the wrong branch of Catholic and so nowhere nearby would christen me.  I did RE at school, but mainly as I liked the teacher and it looked easy.  I didn't really get anything from it other than there are a lot of conflicting beliefs out there.  Everyone has their own god and everyones god is right.

In my teenage years (80s) I got into the Beats (Kerouac, Burroughs, etc) and read Robert Pirsigs "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".  I don't know if the books reflected something in me or I got something from the books, but something about it all clicked with me and I started to notice Zen everywhere.  Or at least in all the cool books and films.  I then read a couple of the standard Zen texts (Suzuki, etc) on it and promptly gave up.

Skip forward twenty years (00s) and I pick up Brad Warners "Hardcore Zen" while on holiday in New York.  That really spoke to me as a) it was written in the context of the real world and b) It didn't seem too hung up on the whole Buddha thing.  I Recently picked up Alan Watts book on the subject and I consider that is more of a halfway house.

Buddhism doesn’t have any god figures or creation myths.  It is just some ideas someone had.  There isn’t even a definitive book.  The way I see it, Zen is a bit of a puzzle or riddle.  There is no prize at the end but it's fun to try and work out what it all means.

I don't go to any groups, I don't have a teacher, so this is all self taught.  I believe Zen (and life) can be summed up in three statements.

1. Shit happens.  Live in the moment.
2. Don't be a dick.
3. This is as good as it gets.

And these will be explained in the posts that follow.