Jed McKenna on Buddhism
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Being critical of Buddhism isn't easy.
Buddhism is the most likable of the major religions, and Buddhists are the perennial good guys of modern spirituality. Beautiful traditions, lovely architecture, inspiring statuary, ancient history, the Dalai Lama — what's not to like?
Everything about Buddhsim is just so... nice. No fatwahs or jihads, no inquisitions or crusades, no terrorists or pederasts, just nice people being nice. In fact, Buddhism means niceness. Nice-ism.
At least, it should.
Buddha means Awakened One, so Buddhism can be taken to mean Awake-ism. Awakism. It would therefore be natural to think that if you were looking to wake up, then Buddhism, i.e., Awakism, would be the place to look.
::: The Light is Better Over Here
Such thinking, however, would reveal a dangerous lack of respect for the opposition. Maya, goddess of delusion, has been doing her job with supreme mastery since the first spark of self-awareness flickered in some chimp's noggin, and the idea that the neophyte truth-seeker can just sign up with the Buddhists, read some books, embrace some new concepts and slam her to the mat might be a bit on the naive side.
On the other hand, why not? How’d this get so turned around? It’s just truth. Shouldn’t truth be, like, the simplest thing? Shouldn’t someone who wants to find something as ubiquitous as truth be able to do so? And here’s this venerable organization supposedly dedicated to just that very thing, even named for it, so what’s the problem?
::: Why doesn’t Buddhism produce Buddhas?
The problem arises from the fact that Buddhists, like everyone else, insist on reconciling the irreconcilable. They don’t just want to awaken to the true, they also want to make sense of the untrue. They want to have their cake and eat it too, so they end up with nonsensical theories, divergent schools, sagacious doubletalk, and zero Buddhas.
Typical of Buddhist insistence on reconciling the irreconcilable is the concept of Two Truths, a poignant two-word joke they don’t seem to get, and yet this sort of perversely irrational thinking is at the very heart of the failed search for truth. We don’t want truth, we want a particular truth; one that doesn't threaten ego, one that doesn’t exist. We insist on a truth that makes sense given what we know, not knowing that we don't know anything.
Nothing about Buddhism is more revealing than the Four Noble Truths which, not being true, are of pretty dubious nobility. They form the basis of Buddhism, so it's clear from the outset that the Buddhists have whipped up a proprietary version of truth shaped more by market forces than any particular concern for the less consumer-friendly, albeit true, truth.
Yes, Buddhism may be spiritually filling, even nourishing, but insofar as truth is concerned, it's junkfood. You can eat it every day of your life and die exactly as Awakened as the day you signed up.
::: Bait & Switch
Buddhism is a classic bait-and-switch operation. We’re attracted by the enlightenment in the window, but as soon as we’re in the door they start steering us over to the compassion aisle. Buddhists could be honest and change their name to Compassionism, but who wants that?
There's the rub. They can’t sell compassion and they can’t deliver enlightenment.
This untruth-in-advertising is the kind of game you have to play if you want to stay successful in a business where the customer is always wrong. You can either go out of business honestly, or thrive by giving the people what they want. What they say they want and what they really want, though, are two very different things.
::: Me Me Me
To the outside observer, much of Buddhist knowledge and practice seems focused on spiritual self-improvement. This, too, is hard to speak against... except within the context of awakening from delusion. Then it's easy.
There is no such thing as true self, so any pursuit geared toward its aggrandizement, betterment, upliftment, elevation, evolution, glorification, salvation, etc, is utter folly. How much more so any endeavor undertaken merely to increase one's own happiness or contentment or, I'm embarrassed to even say it, bliss?
Self is ego and ego is the realm of the dreamstate. If you want to break free of the dreamstate, you must break free of self, not stroke it to make it purr or groom it for some imagined brighter future.
::: Maya's House of Enlightenment
The trick with being critical of so esteemed and beloved an institution is not to get dragged down into the morass of details and debate. It's very simple: If Buddhism is about enlightenment, people should be getting enlightened. If it's not about enlightenment, they should change the sign.
Of course, Buddhism isn't completely unique in its survival tactics. This same gulf between promise and performance is found in all systems of human spirituality. We're looking at it in Buddhism because that's where it's most pronounced. No disrespect to the Buddha is intended. If there was a Buddha and he was enlightened, then it's Buddhism that insults his memory, not healthy skepticism. Blame the naked emperor's retinue of tailors and lickspittles, not the boy who merely states the obvious.
Buddhism is arguably the most elevated of man's great belief systems. If you want to enjoy the many valuable benefits it has to offer, then I wouldn't presume to utter a syllable against it. But if you want to escape from the clutches of Maya, then I suggest you take a very close look at the serene face on all those golden statues to see if it isn't really hers.
::: About the Author
"Jed McKenna is an American original." -Lama Surya Das
Jed McKenna is the author of "Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing" and "Spiritually Incorrect Enlightenment", published by Wisefool Press. Coming in 2005: "Spirituality X" and "Jed McKenna's Notebook". Visit http://www.WisefoolPress.com to learn more.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jed_McKenna
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Solipsism is defined as the belief that the only thing you can know for sure is that you exist, and that any other true knowledge is impossible. But, like I say, it's not really a belief. It's just the way it is.
Jed McKenna's book "Spiritual Enlightenment, The Damndest Thing"
p72http://www.scribd.com/doc/6136445/Spiritual-Enlightenment-The-Damndest-Thing
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Buddha is the only person in history that has produced literally thousands (recorded in scriptures) of students (even when he was still alive) that was enlightened. And of course countless more after he passed on.
Buddha literally had an army of enlightened guys. Which basically proves the success of Buddha's teachings.I wonder what does Jed Mckenna have?
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Hi AEN,
That's a good response to the opening post, because of course, what he says is somewhat confrontational.
But that can be useful because it may help you to see how you are identified with and feel the need to defend the teachings of buddha.
Remember the saying, "if you see buddha on the road, kill him", this is because all teachings will eventually need to be left behind if you are truly interested in the truth.
One person who really understood this is Nathan Gill, in his writing called "Clarity":
This communication about clarity has no particular relevance or significance over any other part of the play. It carries no merit and has no point. There is no purpose for You to find Yourself.
So Buddhism, is another part of the play, of the appearance, but like the rest of the play, it exists for it's own sake. The belief that you need to do something in order to find your true nature is just that, just a belief.
from "Clarity":
Spiritual life has no particular relevance to clarity – it is simply part of the play of life. But because of what appears in the play as the individual’s evolution through progressively ‘higher’ or finer stages of life, it is confused as a prerequisite to clarity.
The ordinary character, occupied with all the usual affairs of human life, perhaps becomes interested in religion or self-improvement. There could be a movement towards seeking enlightenment and maybe an interest in non-duality.
But this progression is not necessary for clarity to appear. Clarity could appear at any time in any character in the play. None of the apparent stages in the play of life has any ability to produce clarity. Advaitic knowledge has no more a special ability to create a condition for clarity to appear than does any other part of the play.
Spiritual life is based on the presumption of individuality, with reunion with the whole as the projected goal. And as a means to achieve this goal of reunion, an array of exotic techniques and methods are provided in the play, to ‘purify’ the individual, to get rid of the ‘I’, to become enlightened, etc.
The fundamental point that is missed at every stage of the individual’s quest is that the individual – being played by You, who are Consciousness – is already what he or she is seeking. Nothing can make the seeker any more what he or she already is.
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Thanks for sharing.
As Zen Master Huang Po says:
So if you students of the Way are mistaken about your own real Mind, not recognizing that it is the Buddha, you will consequently look for him elsewhere, indulging in various achievements and practices and expecting to attain realization by such graduated practices. But even after eons of diligent searching, you will not be able to attain the Way.
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As to performing the six paramitas and vast numbers of similar practices, or gaining merits as countless as the sands of the Ganges, since your are fundamentally complete in every respect, you should not try to supplement that perfection by such meaningless practices. When there is occasion for them perform them; and when the occasion is passed, remain quiescent . If you are not absolutely convinced that the Mind is the Buddha, and if you are attached to forms, practices and meritorious performances, your way of thinking is false and quite incompatible with the Way. The Mind is the Buddha, nor are there any other Buddhas or any other mind. It is bright and spotless as the void, having no form or appearance whatever.
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...and the truth shall set you free...
