The Disadvantages of Buddhism Lite
For the last couple of years, it would be fair to say that I’ve been ‘off the reservation’ as far as Buddhism is concerned. This is where life has taken me, and I need to follow the path I’m currently on. I’ve gained a great deal from the teachings of the Buddha, and it was tempting for me to just continue to use a buffet-approach to this philosophy. In the end though, I decided that Buddhism-lite was a complete waste of my time – it could teach me nothing more, and it would just reinforce my own bullshit.
can you buy Lyrica online What is Buddhism-Lite?
The term ‘Buddhism-lite’ is usually used to refer to a western approach to these teachings where we just cherry-pick the bits we like and ignore the rest. Buddhism has a reputation for being a very tolerant religion, and there is no real authority to say what people should and shouldn’t believe. It is probably for this reason that Buddhism is very appealing to westerners who have developed an aversion to very dogmatic forms of religion. It also fits in well with the modern idea that our individual freedom is of utmost importance.
Perai
What is Wrong with Buddhism Lite?
For me, the purpose of any spiritual path is to help me escape my current level of bullshit. I see all of these philosophies as being like kegs of dynamite that are designed to blow my world apart. The problem with Buddhism-lite is that it removes the gunpowder that would cause this explosion. If I just pick the parts of this philosophy that fit in with what I already believe – it just keeps me stuck where I am. In fact, it’s worse than that because weak-tea-Buddhism might not only mean I’m more entrenched in my worldview, but it can delude me into thinking that I’m making progress.
Buddhism as a Raft
The Buddha compared his teachings to a raft to get us to the other side of the river. He suggested that once we get to where we need to go, we should abandon this raft because it will just hold us back. The problem with Buddhism-lite is that we take all the functionality out of the raft, and we go nowhere. The tool that was designed to destroy our worldview is being used to keep us trapped in it. This sort of leads to the question – if we are so satisfied with what we have now, why do we need the Buddha at all?
I think it is a mistake to change Buddhism to suit our current beliefs – it should be the other way around. These days, the belief system that most of us have will be strongly influenced by is scientific-materialism. In fact, most of us are so entrenched in it that we don’t even realise that it is a belief system. This means that when we come to Buddhism, we want to remove all the yucky-woo-woo-stuff because it doesn’t fit in with what we want to believe. We can then cherry-pick away at this philosophy until we are left with a vehicle that is incapable of taking us anywhere other than where we already are.
Buddhism is a Tool
I now see Buddhism as an important tool that helped me to escape a ton of beliefs that were making my life miserable. The teachings worked because of what they contained and not what I put there. Buddhism gave me nothing – it took things away, and this is what I needed more than anything else. I believe all philosophies and paths have the same purpose. They take us further along the path until we reach our goal, or until we need to abandon them for something else.
I’ve just discovered your blog somehow – when searching for Thailand related links, I think, and feel like we’ve been on extremely similar emotional journeys even though I’ve never been much of a drink. (Difficult childhood, and self-destructive tendencies I had.)
I wish you’d provide more details on some of your posts though – like why you came to these realizations. It helps other people follow your thought processes too.
Sometimes I think this about Buddhism, and sometimes I think that trying to think too hard about your belief system is a bit like ‘mental masturbation’.
Hi Ergo, thanks for the comment. The things is that these posts are my thought processes. I’m working it out as I go along, and this blog is my journey.
I’ve found that the more I let go of beliefs, the better my life becomes. I suffered a great deal in the past because of my belief system, so I’m now very wary of any belief system. My path in life seems to be all about abandoning beliefs, and this is why I tend to talk about it a lot on here.
Your use of the term Buddhist-lite as being a generalisation for the Buddhism of the West amused me. I understand why you use it, and would like to consider my reactions to it. I will speak mostly of the West and Theravada, and whilst I agree with you that the Western Theravadins are probably “lite” compared to some of the Buddha-Sasana – more extensive theoretical studies that I believe go on in Thailand – “Buddhist-heavy” for
comparison, I find much of the discussion amongst these western Buddhist-lite as dogmatoxic – poisoned by dogma. I consider that many of these westerners are intellectuals and enjoy the extensive theories that are discussed, and
for them this intellectualism is supposedly Buddhism – a supposed spiritual understanding. Is it the extensive theorising they withdraw from or is it the rituals? Do they not then consider their Lite version superior because they meditate?
I then compare this Lite with what I believe goes on for many as Buddhist-heavy. I imagine (I have never done it myself and only surmise this is happening) that the Buddhist-heavy is lectures and courses of more intricate aspects of Buddhist theory, this is simply more extensive dogmatoxicity.
But is either what the Buddha taught? Or the intention of what the Buddha taught? Or what is truth or reality? Now I contend that what the Buddha taught is Truth, and I cite as my expert Ajaan Buddhadasa (I don’t know the suttas). And when he talks about Buddhism he might use Pali words but he doesn’t proliferate with excessive theorising, he says the purpose of Buddhism is to quench suffering, that the cause of suffering is self, and he uses the methodology of Paticasamuppada for upadana – to stop the clinging to I and mine. Is this Buddhist-heavy, Buddhist-lite or neither?
On a personal note this “neither” might well be synthesised as “taking the universe as it happens and enjoying it”, what gets in the way of that? Self.
Hi Bill, I didn’t really consider the Buddhist-heavy issue, but you may have a point.
Maybe they are variations on a theme?
Perhaps it would have been better for me to have used the term ‘lifestyle Buddhism’ or “feel-good Buddhism”
I suppose the point that I was trying to make was for these paths to be effective they need to make us less certain about things – they have to break us out of our current conditioning.
I don’t understand what you are trying to say as what you called Buddhism-lite is certainly not Buddhism. You also wrote “Buddhism gave me nothing”. Just to be sure you have not learn any “wrong” Buddhism, do you know the Noble 8 Fold Path ? Do you find anything wrong with it ?