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#2222
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Highlights
editors Gloria and Mark are on
hiatus for a few days and I intend to be my own raucous sidekick
during that time. Here's a little from the irksome fictional
character known as Jed McKenna.
Jed
is making a fuss where there isn't any. We know
enlightenment isn't about self-improvement, bliss, or anything we
can get. But he needs to tell us what enlightenment isn't about.
Yeah. Okay. He needs to tell it. And I need tell that he needs to
tell it. We're all nuts, man. Sanity's gotta be better than this.
--Jerry Katz
from http://www.family-content.com/articles/data/20050206133053.shtml
Blues
for Buddha
By Jed McKenna
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.
-Jed McKenna
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.