Buddhism Without Beliefs – 2 - The Path

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

We are continuing 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 much of Buddhism today.  Buddhism has demonstrated the exact same tendencies of all other “religions”: a tendency to become concretized and institutionalized where the value of the initial questions are forgotten, and power and control are raised up in importance.  So, today we become explorers, willing to go back to the original teachings and find out what was actually taught.

Buddha discovered what he saw as a way of living, called The Path, or Dharma Practice.  Dharma as we say at the beginning of each session is the Truth about reality as transient, unreliable and contingent.  Another helpful definition to understand is that The word "Buddha"is translated as The "Awakened One"—not the savior, not the messiah, not the prophet--just simply awake.  A key component of Buddhism that is distinct from other religious practices is that Buddha never claimed to be anything other than an ordinary person who learned an extraordinary thing, that anyone can learn and practice.  This is one of the four aspects of Buddhism that makes it unique—you must take personal responsibility for following the path—no one can bless you with enlightenment, no one can cause you to become enlightened.  Teachers may help point the way, but only you can awaken.  You can’t ask someone to awaken for you. 

In the book, Batchelor quotes The Buddha from the Kalama Sutra, by saying,

“Do not be satisfied with hearsay or with tradition or with legendary lore or with what has come down in scriptures with conjecture or with logical inference or with weight of evidence or with liking for a view after pondering over it or with someone else’s ability or with the thought, “The monk is our teacher.”  When you know IN YOURSELF: ‘These things are wholesome, blameless, skillful and being adopted and put into effect they lead to well-being and happiness,’ then you should practice and abide in them…”  

The teaching in the Kalama Sutra is arguing against blind faith, encouraging us that we have personal responsibility to come and have a look, but to continually question if it makes sense, if it works, by trying it out.   It is often questioned whether Buddhism is a religion at all.  The word "religion" is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system, but religion differs from private belief in that it has a social aspect, beliefs enforced often by peer group influence (or pressure!)  So, I challenge each of you here to decide for yourself whether Buddhism is a religion at all or simple a set of practices that we can do alone and together, without demanding a belief through blind faith.  The only “faith” you must bring to the practice is, as we discussed last week, a curiosity as to whether this particular set of teachings is of any value. 

The fourth component of Buddha's first teaching, the Four Noble Truths, is the Eightfold Path.  The Path a this clearing that was made by those before us, and that we are keeping the path clear ourselves by continuing to walk it.  When we can’t find a path, when it feels like we are wandering without direction, we feel lost, in samsara (perpetual wandering).  We want to feel like we are “going” in the right direction, in some direction with meaning.  So, we can explore this path, which is essentially a clearing away of what is not working. 

Three components of a path:

·         A direction

·         Moving freely

·         Part of community

This path is about exploration, a willingness to see ourselves and the world in a different way, a curiosity to ask what is really going on here?  Most of us find that our thoughts and emotions seem to be driving us.  They seem so real, so concrete.  And even though there are thoughts and emotions that torture us as at time, those thoughts and emotions are all that we have known, so for me to sit here and say, don’t believe them!  That might be a scary possibility.  What would happen if we DIDN’T respond to our thoughts and emotions in habitual ways?  We each have a standard reaction to thoughts and emotions about how the world works—sometimes thoughts like the world is a scary place, or that we must fight for what we want because if we don’t, we won’t get our piece of the pie.  It’s me against you--perhaps these are the thoughts you have grown up with as well.  So, we are often stuck in the cycle of samsara— stuck in a unskillful reaction to a common recurring thought and emotion.

Buddhism is about getting off the merry-to-round of our knee-jerk reactions.  We can decide to step off and take a fresh look.  You can ask yourself the question, "What path might provide the most happiness and joy?"  It might seem scary to not respond in an old conditioned way.  I was at home this last week, and I began to have a very strong emotion of anxiety.  I wasn’t sure where it was coming from—I was just sitting at my desk reading.  And yet, I felt consumed by this sense of anxiousness.  I wondered, “Was there a cause?  Was I worrying about something specific?”  It didn’t seem to have any particular cause.  I had the urge to want to fix something, to do something to make this uncomfortable feeling go away.  But, instead of my usual myriad of distracting coping responses, I decided to just sit with it, to become curious about it.  I’m going through menopause, so having the arising of weird and crazy emotions has become somewhat normal for me.   I always hated to admit that we women have emotions that arise out of nowhere—you men might have already witnessed this.  But, I’m not letting the guys off the hook.  There is that curious thing called testosterone that some of you may be aware of.  Have you ever fallen in love or in lust with someone for all the wrong reasons, someone you know wasn't right for you?  Ever made a fool out of yourself for love or for lust?  I'm hoping we can all relate to emotions that may not be based on the reality of the situation.

What does anxiety feel like?  I sat in this discomfort, trying not to resist, wishing for it to pass, but doing my best to just be curious.  Stephen Batchelor points out that our cravings and aversions are what are driving our unskillful thoughts, words and actions. We crave pleasure and hate pain.   The Buddha discovered that we always have a choice about how to respond, we do NOT HAVE to respond in unskillful ways.  We have a choice to take a different action, or no action at all. 

Part of the joy of living is that each of us, we get to choose the path we’re on.  Batchelor encourages us to explore this new path of Buddhist practice.  There is a clearing away of the stuff that obscures our way.  Thanks to those that came before us, we can move freely in this new direction.  And the path becomes more clear as our fellow travelers keep going in the same direction, and we are keeping the path clear for those that come after us.  We are adventurers; we are explorers; we are path clearers.  This is the tremendous role you can choose that helps not only yourself but those around you, and those who follow.  I encourage each of you to consider having the courage to try this new path, because courage is contagious.