Buddhism Without Beliefs – 1: Stay with the Question

(For Podcast, click here.  For ITunes version, click here.) 

Today we begin our new book series on Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor.  This book was written in 1997, and it continues to be somewhat controversial among Buddhist teachers and practitioners, as it attacks many of the Buddhist institutions that are the backbone of many Buddhist traditions today.  Sometime, people come to Buddhism after having been disillusioned by their religious upbringing, thinking that Buddhism is fresh and new and different.  While it is different in many ways, Buddhism has also demonstrated some of the exact same tendencies of other religious faiths: to become concretized and institutionalized where the value of the initial questions are forgotten, and power and control are given greater importance.

What Stephen Batchelor has attempted to do is extract the dogma and doctrine that has been painted over the original Buddhist teachings, then we can decide for ourselves what works for us and what doesn’t.  “Dogma” often seems like a bad word these days—we don’t want to be told what to do, right?  But in some ways, we do.  How comforting it is for someone to tell us just do these ten things, and you’ll go to heaven (or don’t do them and you’ll go to hell).  It would make life very simple, very easy.  However, from the perspective of the original Buddhist teachings, no one can tell you what to do in all situations.  One size does not fit all.  There can be certain guidelines (try not to kill, or lie or steal, etc.) but we must be fully present in each moment, to know the wisest response.

In Buddhism, we are encouraged to begin with the understanding that there is a certain vulnerability of living.  Batchelor calls it “the transient, unreliable and contingent nature of reality.”  The Buddha was not a savior but a physician—diagnosing the illness most of us have fallen sick with—of not living fully in each moment, of sleepwalking through life.  We try to concretize life so we can handle it, instead of waking up to what is really happening, to realize that riding the wave of living is the best bet for happiness.  Batchelor points out that by clearly seeing life in all its vulnerability, life becomes the doorway to compassion--for ourselves and for all others.

So, he begins by encouraging us to live life as a question.   Come and have a look... We can train ourselves to stay open, vulnerable, curious about the questions, instead of focusing on what someone else says is the answer.

Charles Fillmore was a co-founder of the Unity Movement and he often said that he reserved the right to change his mind.  Sixty years after his death, there is now a group of people who describe themselves as “Fillmorians”.  If Charles didn’t say it, they believe it has no place in a Unity church.  It appears that falling into dogma is a common pitfall of any spiritual movement.  Once we concretize our beliefs, we cease to explore other options, let go of seeing things from a fresh perspective, and tend to “see” only that which reinforces our own belief.

So, here we are in this moment.  How amazing is it that we can come together on Sunday morning, and not necessarily believe the same thing.  We can sit here together, perhaps each person believing something somewhat different, or having a different experience of each moment.   Yet, how wonderful that we can all still benefit from practicing moment-by-moment awareness together.

Batchelor begins this exploration by encouraging us to stay present with the questions of living—who or what is having this experience?  Who or what is aware?  It’s okay not to be quite sure of the answer.

Religion is like going out to
dinner with friends. Everyone
may order something different,

but everyone can still sit at the
same table.

H. H. The Dalai Lama

A life-time is not what's between,
The moments of birth and death.
A life-time is one moment,
Between my two little breaths.

The present, the here, the now,
That's all the life I get,
I live each moment in full,
In kindness, in peace, without regret.

-  Chade Meng, One Moment  (Author of Search Inside Yourself)

You’re bound to become a Buddha if you practice.
If water drips long enough
Even rocks wear through.
It’s not true that thick skulls can’t be pierced;
People just imagine their minds are hard.

- Shih-wu (1272-1352)