Actual Buddhism

 Here is my Perplexity thread, which dives deeply into Buddhism. For those who claim that Buddhism is not a religion, it's essential to go beyond the basics (Noble Truths, 8 Fold Path) and look at what actual, practicing Buddhists believe.

A few things pop out:

• Nothing written down until over 400 years after death of Buddha.
• Reincarnation, even the divinity of Budhdha a theme
• Other gods feature in the stories

There is no definitive proof of the Buddha's existence from his own time; the combination of later textual and archaeological evidence, along with the historical impact of Buddhism, leads most scholars to accept that Siddhartha Gautama was a historical figure. However, many details of his life and career as recounted in Buddhist traditions are difficult to verify historically.

Approximately 22 years passed between the death of Jesus and the first Pauline epistles.

The Pali Canon is the oldest written account of Siddartha's life, written 454 years after Buddha's death.

We know that the New Testament is full of fanciful accounts that further the agenda of whoever wrote the book. One example is the Virgin Birth story, which supports the claim that Jesus was/is the Messiah fortold in the Old Testmanet. In fact, "Jesus" means "saviour". Jesus Christ effectively means Saviour Saviour. Just what we were saved from and who Jesus was were worked out in the two centries after His death. All this was plainly the work of very human imagination and creativity.

The bottom line is that Buddhism has no special claim to be different from Christianity. It's historical basis and theology is all the work of human beings conducted, for the most part, in the broad light of day.

The claim that Buddhism is "non-theistic" is a bit evasive. The claim is that the gods a Buddhist believes in are not the same as the Christian God. They do not merit worship, nor were any of them involved in the creation of the Universe. Gods are downplayed to the point where they play no effective role in the Buddhist world view, but rather participate in that world along with human beings. To me this seems a rather primitive version of Theism if we regard religions of the "book" as being "sophisticated" and polytheism as "primitive". It is clear that the Buddhist canons elevate Siddartha himself in all his incarnations and "bodhisattva" to god-like status, partly by bringing the gods down to the human sphere. This reminds us of the Greek and Roman world, where the gods are subject to all the mortal flaws of character and even breed with humans (part of Jesus' story once the mythologists got to work).

The Buddhist worldview is not much different from that of the Romans, where philosophy and ethics became separate from religion and ritual. In stoicism, we see the gap narrow to the degree that an overlapping body of believers are attracted by both Buddhism and Stoicism as philosophies, leaving the "gods" out of it.

It seems best to characterize my own "path" as being informed by a skeptical view of all of this - certainly not "religious" or "theistic". It is applied philosophy.

By the way, the Zen branch of Buddhism is quite a bit crazier than the Pali Canon. It is full of magical ideas that leave the modern reader smiling, such as the idea that our final stop on our journey to enlightenment will be a life in Japan.

With this in mind, it is best to characterize my path as being informed by Mindfulness (with a capital M). Unfortunately, advocates of Mindfulness often tip their hats at Buddhism, as if Buddha invented mindfulness. This may lend some credibility to the ideas in Mindfulness.  But that's a trap. In my own case, it leads me to take Buddhism much too seriously independently of Mindfulness. For example, I took a lot of time understanding the 8-fold path and the Noble Truths. Why should I give this little package of insights and advice as unique over "7 Habits?"

With this in mind, it's probably time for me to go back and re-read things like 7 Habits after the ideas there being central to my thinking for many decades. Time for a refresher? 

It's also worth noting that the biographical story of one Buddhist monk gave me much practical insight, being responsible for my renewed interest in Buddhism. It is always a good idea to separate a person's actual life from what they claim to be their central beliefs: Learn from people, the problems they faced and the solutions they found.