I deny afterlife, reincarnation or rebirth. But…
I think I really am a Buddhist after all.
Because, you know, those four truths work, make sense; and the path just seems reasonable.
Besides, how hard is it for an atheist to align with a “religion” that rejects the existence of a soul while at the same time affirming the value of life? A nontheistic philosophy whose founder said, in essence, that we are to accept nothing on faith; if something seems like nonsense to us, we’re free to reject it? One whose major modern proponent has said that, to the extent Buddhism disagrees with the findings of science, it is Buddhism which must change?
So anyway, I guess you could say I’ve got a hobby, and I expect it’ll be keeping me occupied for a while.
(I said it was a busy month. I did not say it was all work related.)
19:30 on December 3rd, 2007
I often think of Buddhism and Zen and Taoism are philosophies and (especially Buddhism) psychologies.
- ttc
18:18 on December 4th, 2007
That’s an interesting take on it. There are definitely strong religious overtones to Buddhism — for instance it asserts (fairly regularly) the reality of either rebirth or reincarnation, but I suspect that’s due to its origins. Buddhism came into existence in the Indus River Valley, in the heart of Hinduism, which regards reincarnation as a literal truth. Had it emerged in, say, Arabia, it might have a completely different take on that.
What’s interesting to me is that Buddhism also explicitly teaches there is no such thing as a soul, and is founded on principles of not accepting any declaration on faith alone. So to my mind the religious overlay may be an ex post facto artifact that was not explicitly taught by Siddhartha Gautama, assuming of course he ever even actually existed.
It’s a little like the way Paul (née Saul of Tarsus) modified the messages of the gospels in order to form his church, putting his own hardline spin on a set of teachings which are actually very open and inclusive.