Accidental Buddhist

[qatarperegrine]

Yesterday, as part of International Week at school, there was a poster session of the religions represented at CMU-Q. I had seriously considered volunteering to make a poster on secularism, since I think it's little understood by many of our students. Before I got around to volunteering, though, I was asked to represent Buddhism; as a somewhat lackadaisical practitioner of Vipassana meditation I'm the closest thing CMU-Q has to a Buddhist.

Putting the poster together was more difficult than I expected. It was easy to decide what topics I should cover ("Who was the Buddha?", "What are the Four Noble Truths?", etc.) but much more difficult to come up with answers to these questions that nearly all Buddhists would agree with. The creators of the other religion posters agreed that this was difficult for their religions, too. (For the record, these were Hinduism, Judaism, Christanity, Bahai and Unitarianism.)

It was also an interesting task to attempt to convey what I find appealing about Buddhism. I love its practicality and emphasis on self-development. I love its agnosticism about the supernatural. I love that the Buddha said that we shouldn't believe things because he said them, but instead should judge based on personal experience. I love that Buddhist ethics are at heart utilitarian -- avoid harming sentient beings! -- and not full of lots of weird rules that have to be somehow reconciled with our modern sensibilities. I don't think I succeeded in communicating these things to the students, but at least working on the poster got me started thinking about these things.

I still don't call myself a Buddhist, mostly because I still have some serious reservations about the Four Noble Truths. (Namely: OK, so I could reduce my suffering by being less attached, but wouldn't I also reduce joy?). I voice this skepticism over and over when I talk to my Buddhist friends; maybe someday I'll be thoroughly convinced by their replies, but that hasn't happened yet. For now, I remain cheerfully secular. Or at least a cheerfully secular person who wears a dharmachakra necklace every day and has Buddhas all over her home and office.


No, I don't really meditate in this silly pose.

Comments

[meshach.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the being less attached resulting in less joy. I know that being aware reduces my suffering. Maybe I'll have something to report if I ever manage to be a little bit less attached. ;)

(also that's not that silly of a pose. *hides in the corner*)

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's silly because my shoes are still on and I'm sitting cross-legged instead of Burmese style, and I have no zafu, and thus my back is not at all straight and thus I'm not comfy and would not meditate well like this. It is not far from a workable pose but it is definitely not a workable pose.

Also, this is not the half-smile of the enlightened, but the smirk of the self-consciously photographed. :-)

We should talk more about Buddhism sometime... I've been doing so with the other member of our Zen triad, and it's been really useful for me.