| Call For a New Buddhismmy home page © 1998 Christopher Calder Call For a NewBuddhism "Intelligence is the ability to ascertain the essential."- Jiddu Krishnamurti Who and what is a Buddhist? Historians tell us that Siddhartha Gautama(563? to 483? BC) was the founder of the organizedreligion we call Buddhism. The fundamental meaningof the word 'Buddha' is 'enlightened one.' We know there were manyenlightened ones, many Buddhas, before Siddhartha Gautama's birth, and therehave been many Buddhas after Siddhartha's death. The historic Buddhawas born a Hindu, and the evidence suggests Siddhartha wished to reform Hinduismrather than reject it completely. Siddhartha Gautama died a Hindu,not a Buddhist, just as Jesus died a Jew, not a Christian. What we call Buddhism today is an amalgamation ofthe true teachings of Siddhartha, combined with invented myths and largeamounts of culture derived from the country in which the Buddhism is practiced. Tibetan Buddhism, for example, is as much Tibetanism as it isBuddhism. Buddha's words were handed down for several centuriesthrough oral tradition before a committee was formed to commit the communalheritage, not memory, of Buddha's teaching to written text. Nohuman being who actually met the Buddha wrote any of the famous Buddhistscriptures that present day followers take so literally and seriously. Can we separate the essential teachings ofthe many enlightened ones, the many Buddhas, from mere tradition? Can we bring Buddhism up to date by keeping the essential toolsof enlightenment, while discarding the cultural biases that burden the pathwith unnecessary obstacles? I believe we can create a new Buddhismif we consciously analyze our situation as present day seekers of truth. With this most fundamental definition of the word 'Buddhism,' anyonewho seeks enlightenment can be called a Buddhist. Is Buddhism pro-family? Our lives have changeddramatically since the days of the historic Buddha. Technological advancessuch as birth control have reshaped our most basic human behavior. InSiddhartha's time, if you had sex you were always potentially creating anew child. The strict sexual disciplines of Buddhism were born in aera when sex meant children and children meant no timeto meditate. Surviving with primitive farming methods was difficult,and raising a family under such severe conditions left little energy forintrospection. Today, many people are able to have a full life, a family,and still have the time and energy to meditate. The average adult Americanwatches over four hours of television a day, so most of us can easily spareforty minutes a day for meditation. Scientists have proven throughbrain scans that meditating just forty minutes a day is enough to physicallyincrease the size of the portions of the brain involved in awareness. Youdo not have to give up a full normal life and all contact with the oppositesex in order to find your existential identity. [seescans prove meditation altersthe brain] A rich society brings with it the possibility ofcreating a more complete human being than Siddhartha's era could afford. Which is more important for society: sex, family, and wealth creation, ormeditation, solitude, and detachment? Don't we have a need for all? If you live for seventy years you can easily spend a few years in solitudeand then go on to have a rich family life. Will the added experienceof wife and children make you a smaller person or a bigger person? Byrepressing our procreative desires we are not becoming more whole or holy,but rather we are simply building a firewall inside ourselves that dividesour being into two. Cut into parts we will have less energy, not moreenergy. I believe it is more wholesome to become a fully functioninghuman being rather than to retreat into the misperceived safety of half alife. Back in 1971, when I was twenty-one years old, Ihad an experience I would never forget. I was walking around the largeBaudhanath Stupa near Katmandu, Nepal. There was a large group of monkswalking that day, spinning prayer wheels and chanting in the brilliant morningsunlight. A middle aged monk in his forties came up to me and asked"What's it like to be with a woman?" I was shocked that a good lookingand healthy man in his forties would have to ask a twenty-one year old whatsexual intercourse was like. I had decided years earlier never to becomea celibate monk, and that day engraved my feelings even deeper into mybrain. The Catholic Church has made sex a taboo for priests,and the priesthood has been plagued with scandals of sexual perversion andpedophilia. Many famous gurus from the East have taught celibacy inpublic while seducing female disciples in private. I am not againstany human being having a normal, healthy sex life. I am against lyingand hypocrisy. Sex is as natural to human beings as breathing, eating,and sleeping. How can such an essential activity for the survival ofthe human race be thought of as "unspiritual," and why make it a bigsecret?Extreme Buddhism and self-defense Some, but not all Buddhist circles have apolitically correct insistence on absolute nonviolence. Tibethad no effective army to fight off the Chinese invasion of 1950. Idealismis a form of mental opium. It may feel good for a short while, butthe long term effects can be disastrous. I do not call for war mongeringor aggressive behavior toward one's neighbors. I do suggest thatself-defense is normal, natural, and a basic necessity of life. Everyanimal on this planet has some form of defense mechanism, and human beingsshould have many layers of defense to protect ourselves, our families, andour society. Having an army is not evil; it is just good commonsense.What is relevant inBuddhism? Over the centuries Buddhism has collected a greatdeal of hocus pocus and excess baggage. Meditation is not a verycomplicated affair. It takes time, patience, and whole hearted commitment,but it is not intellectually difficult. Meditation is a gentle andloving step beyond the mind, not a complicated new philosophy that the mindmust learn. The cosmic consciousness we seek is the ultimateblank page. Nothing can be written on it and there is nodogma inside it. No individual can claim ownership of it and no countrycan pollute it with its customs and prejudices. Cosmic consciousnessremains an eternally wild and pure phenomena because it is beyond all ofour minds. Our methods may be organized, but the thing itself is anarchicand beyond the realm of society and culture. Some Buddhistteachers give the false impression that superconsciousness is a mapped outempire that has been conquered and controlled by the great masters. Thisis simply not the case and it is an absolute impossibility. I have met people who think that by learning tospeak Tibetan, Japanese, or Sanskrit they will somehow become more spiritual. The cosmic blank page does not care about your language. TheVoid simply exists and is available to anyone who is open enough to perceiveit. Frankly, Buddhism and all the other religions of the world havebecome, in large part, just nonsense. People are given the impressionthat if they become enlightened they will have spiritual thoughts and willbe talking to deities and angels. A safer bet is that when you becomeenlightened you will become totally silent inside. You will be ableto think or not think, turning the thinking part of your brain on and offlike a radio. As an example of the insanity of some Buddhist circles,one Taiwanese Buddhist group constructed a Godzilla Buddha. It is asteel statue of a standing Siddhartha, so grotesquely monstrous in proportionsthat I am not sure if it is meant to scare little children or prove thatmy God is bigger than your God. Two even larger Buddha statues arebeing built, one in India (500 feet tall), and one in China (509 feet tall),in a war to see who can build the worlds tallest religious superhero. SomeBuddhist sects still preach that there is a"Western Paradise"where good Buddhists go to live after they die. Are they talking aboutBeverly Hills? Buddhism has its own carnival of nonsense, just asChristianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. Buddha's Four Noble Truths(1) Life is suffering. Is human life essentiallypainful from the moment of birth to the moment of death? Even ordinarylife can be full of fun, adventure, friends, romance, good food, music andart. In many ways Buddhism has become an anti-life religion that appealsto those who always see the glass half empty rather than half full. Whyshould we deny the fact that life can be an enjoyable adventure and not justa pitiful veil of tears?(2) All suffering is caused by ignorance. Much sufferingis caused by poverty, accidents, disease, and countless other factors thatcan be addressed by the positive application of science. Even the fullyenlightened suffer physically if they fall down and break a leg. Wehave modern pain killers for physical pain, and psychological suffering canbe lessened by the practice of meditation. Traditional Buddhist meditationtechniques alone have proven inadequate for the Western mind. Morerelevant and powerful methods are available today. [seeMeditationHandbook] Many Buddhists love to debate the meaning of theword 'dukkha,' which was the word Siddhartha used for 'suffering.' Thecurrent fad in Buddhism is to claim that Siddhartha was only refering tosome subtle and esoteric discontent with life, the boredom and unsatisfactoryburden of having a heartbeat. I find this intellectual, analytic trendto be particularly odious as it shows a lack of compassion for all formsof suffering. If Siddhartha was a wise and compassionate man, and Ibelieve that he was, then he must have been concerned with all formsof sorrow and pain, not just with the decadent discontent of the pamperedelite. A real Buddha would never ignore the terrible anguish of a manwho suffers the loss of his wife, or a mother who suffers the loss of herchild. The overly analytic trend of modern Buddhism comes from thehead, not from the heart or the hara, and for me real Buddhismis from the heart and the hara. When Buddhists get to the point where they can onlytalk about life using foreign languages and cryptic and obsolete terms, thenthey have missed the experience of meditation itself, because meditationhas no pedantic element to it at all. The historic Buddha tried touse the ordinary language of his day because he wanted to help people dealwith life as it existed right then and there. Nowadays, Buddhism hasto some degree become a history lesson for cult snobs. Many modernWestern Buddhists are incapable of speaking in terms of the here and now,and continuously rely on parroting second hand Buddhist slogans to get throughany important conversation. For me it is pointless to debate how manyangels can dance on the head of a pin, or the thousand and one definitionsof the word 'dukkha.' Cosmic consciousness has absolutely nothing todo with becoming a myth and dogma archeologist. (3) Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance andattachment. A positive attitude is also needed to overcome suffering,and dwelling on all the potential miseries of life only amplifies our discomfort. Friendship, jokes, and high spirits alleviate pain more quickly. Love, an experience rarely mentioned in Buddhist scriptures, is sucha powerful force that suffering retreats in its presence. The lovelessnegativism of the extreme forms of Buddhism may lead to a sickly and unlovingmind, not to greater personal life energy. (4) To suppress suffering, Buddha recommended the NobleEightfold Path, which consists of right views, right intention, right speech,right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, and rightcontemplation. What are right views? Is a theocracy of Buddhistpriests going to dictate to the sangha (monastic community) how to thinkand what to say? Intense meditation is needed by all, but the difficultiesof determining what is "right action" and "right speech" is fraught withdangers. Was it "right action" for Tibet to fail to develop an effectivemilitary with which to fight off an obvious Chinese threat? What brilliantmonk dictated that "right action" to the sheep like sangha? I am not saying that Siddhartha's Four Noble Truthsare wrong, but rather that suffering should not be the centerpiece of ameditation based religion for the West. A more positive path toenlightenment is possible that is every bit as valid as traditional Buddhismand more suited to the positive Western mind. I see this new Buddhismas an offshoot of traditional Buddhist and Hindu practice, with both theold and new schools coexisting without conflict. This new path hasbeen gradually evolving for decades in the West, and this essay is simplymeant to help codify and clarify that which is already being born. Buddhism started in India, but the countries towhich it spread modified Buddhist teachings to fit their own temperamentand culture. Tibetans now practice Tibetan Buddhism,and the Japanese practice Japanese Buddhism. The original formof Indian Buddhism has become extinct. The West is far removedfrom Asian culture. It therefore seems obvious that a new Western Buddhismshould be quite different in attitude and methodology, while retaining theultimate goal of enlightenment. Siddhartha tried to create anesoteric philosophy for the masses. The problem is, there is no suchthing as an esoteric philosophy, because esoteric people do not need anyphilosophy. All doctrine is a product of the mind, and the esotericleap beyond the mind leaves all philosophies far behind. Therefore,if you create a new religion it should be with the common man in mind. Religion should be life affirming and value honesty, family, democracy,and reasonable nonviolent behavior. Organized religion is useful toelevate the masses to the point where superconsciousness begins. Thatpoint is beyond the mind and beyond any organization, scriptures, rules,or teaching.Is traditional Buddhist compassionhollow? In traditional Buddhism you don't hear much talkabout love, joy, and romance. That is because the essence oftraditional Buddhism is to keep one's focus on suffering and death. Thisconstant remembrance of the negative is supposed to help one become detachedfrom life and thus attain the ultimate freedom of nirvana. The word"compassion" is used by traditional Buddhists repetitiously and unconsciously. Buddhist monks are sometimes taught to visualize sick and starvingpeople and then feel "compassion" for their suffering. Christians aretaught to feed the sick, cure the ill, and to love their spouses and childrendearly. In this way Christianity is a superior religion to Buddhism,because Christian compassion leads to helpful positive action, and is notjust a self-absorbed, self-centered pretense. Unlike Christians, Buddhists are not known for doinggreat charity work, because the Buddhist focus is always on the negative. Why develop a cure for a disease if nature is just going to comeup with a new disease sooner or latter to take its place? Aging, decay,and death are always on the Buddhist's mind, so why bother fighting a futilebattle against the inevitable physical collapse? If your religion makessuffering the centerpiece of your attention, you will not nurture life tomake it better. All your effort is invested in trying to escape life,not in trying to improve the art of living. If your attitudeis defeatist at its core, then why even bother to try? Tibet was ina state of physical ruin when the Chinese army simply walked into that countryin October of 1950. The Chinese took control with little effectiveresistance because Tibetans had not developed a strong and viablesociety.Is attachment to guru better than attachmentto money or sex? Another great problem for Buddhism has been theexcessive worship of gurus, which is an irrational contradiction for a religionthat puts such a great emphasis on detachment. Intense love can bevery positive, but worship and idolization quickly degrade into enslavement. Just because a human being realizes his or her own true identity doesnot make that person a deity. I have been with many teachers, someof whom were fully enlightened, but none of whom were perfect human beings. It is my understanding that all of the enlightened ones remain falliblehuman beings, with weaknesses and the potential for corruption. Self-realization is not self-perfection in any total sense. Itcould more accurately be described as self-expansion. You become vastinside, but not perfect and not all-knowing. Even after full enlightenmentyou can still make tremendous blunders of judgment. Existential intelligence, the knowledge of one'sself, does not automatically give you a higher IQ or a degree in science. The enlightened men I have know have all been pretty miserable at science,mathematics, and economics. They end up living in ivory towers, partcreated by themselves and part created by their owndisciples. Spiritual teachers can even lose their basic commonsense through lack of contact with the more ordinary world we live in. Thelast person you should go to for advice about politics, health issues, orquestions of science is the guru on the mountain, because he is divorcedfrom the world that works, creates wealth, and continues the human race. For Westerners, the East represents an imaginedsource of pure spiritual inspiration. Unfortunately, for many poorAsian monks and teachers the West has meant a source of income and a newlivelihood. Many in the East have long felt that only Asians couldcomprehend the inner art of meditation, and their focus in the West has beenlargely motivated by a desire to raise funds. If you are living ina hut in India or ramshackle monastery in Nepal, a journey to the Westis an opportunity to increase your standard of living. Many Asianswrongly assume that they own meditation as if it were a proprietary culturalcommodity. Westerners must beware that the East is no more innocentthan the West, and many Asian gurus are just as impure in their motivationas our own homegrown variety of spiritual opportunist. Is traditional Buddhismpro-freedom? The East has always had an imperial model for theteacher-student relationship. At worst this has degraded into a corruptand authoritarian charade of spirituality. Tibetans still enthronetheir high lamas in elaborate royal ceremonies. Are we in the Westgoing to enthrone those Westerners among us who attain enlightenment in futureyears? The very idea is ridiculous and counter to our finest principlesof equality and democracy. I have never met any human being who wasso enlightened that he did not occasionally come up with some truly bad ideas. Likewise, it is rare to find an individual so low that on occasionthey don't have a positive suggestion. The West must develop its ownpath, based on our finest principles of dignity and respect forall. A new path is possible Buddha said that life exists as constant change,but many Buddhist leaders want Buddhism to remain fixed and dead like a rock. A new and more direct path to self-realization is possible that avoidstrying to make Westerners look and act more like people from the East. IfWesterners are to find their own true nature, they will have to look deepinside themselves and should not try to imitate the persona ofothers. Americans and Europeans are not the same as Tibetans and Japanese. Trying to think and act like a Tibetan will only make you a false Tibetan,never a real Tibetan, and never a real enlightened Western human being. I love and respect many Buddhist teachers who arealive today. I just hope that a newer breed of teacher will appearthat will actively encourage students of meditation to become total humanbeings. We need a new living Buddhism that changes withthe times and the condition of the seekers traveling the path. Westernerscan afford the luxury of being lovers, parents, meditators, and creatorsof wealth, all at the same time. Buddha gave up his wealth becausehe thought that was the only way to achieve enlightenment. I am sayingthat you can keep your wealth, your spouse, your home, and still make substantialprogress in the art of meditation. Science can give us the added energywe need to have it all. It all is important, and nothing of importanceshould be discarded in the name of spirituality.Christopher Calder email = calderhouse at yahoo.com my homepage Copyright notice: Please feel freeto copy, repost, or publish Call For a New Buddhism (©1998 Christopher Calder). You may repost or publish any of my essayswithout cost, but you must clearly state that the essays were writtenby Christopher Calder, and you must not change any of my words or theirmeanings. I prefer that those who repost my essays install a weblink to my homepage, but that request is not a demand. This is a 100% free website, published only forthe benefit of other students of meditation.Useful linksU.G.Krishnamurti spoke more truth than any teacher I knowof. While other teachers lied and became wealthy, U.G. told the straighttruth and lived a modest life. Lies sell, while the truth is so hardto take that it has little commercial value. Jiddu Krishnamurti was a dry, publiclyhumorless teacher who was uniquely lovable. His powerful vibrationscan still be felt at Arya Vihara, Krishnamurti's former home in Ojai, California.Lives in the Shadow withJ. Krishnamurti This intriguing book is about J. Krishnamurti'spersonal life.Ramana Maharshi Every major religious group in India agreed that Ramana Maharshiwas enlightened.The "God" Part of theBrain, by Matthew Alper. Alper details the logical scientificargument that spirituality is the product of genetics and biochemistry, andthat God, soul, and reincarnation are inventions of the human brain, usedas a device to relieve the tremendous stress of death awareness.Note Opinions expressed on thispage must be viewed as the ideas of an ordinary student of meditation. While I truly believe everything I say, you should not believe anythingunless you see it, feel it, and know it for yourself. I make no claimsof infallibility. In fact I absolutely claim fallibility. my home page
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