After a couple of years of studying Buddhism, and embracing the tenets of Mahayana Buddhism (along with some Taoism), I have yet to get involved in a sangha.
The three gems of Buddhism are the Buddha (or Buddha nature, in some variations), the dharma (roughly –– and I mean very roughly –– equivalent to a gospel or a dogma) and the sangha, or congregation.
In the early seventies, as I've mentioned before, I was a devout 'born-again' Christian for about four years. I was totally caught up in a doctrine that today seems to me nonsensical and basically heretical.
I went to church all the time: Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, sometimes Friday night, Bill Gothard Institute, Navigators classes, plus various Bible studies and other activities. I was surrounded ten to twelve hours a week by people who were being indoctrinated the same way I was.
If you haven't been there, let me tell you it's easy to be persuaded of the goofiest notions on earth if you're surrounded by people who think the same thing. I don't care how smart you are, or how good your critical thinking skills are. One of David Koresh's followers was a Harvard law graduate. Peer pressure leads you to accept without question. If you're lucky, something comes along to jolt you out of your intellectual lethargy (thank you, Hal Lindsey, for what I'm sure you would consider unintended consequences of Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth).
Part of the reason I've avoided 'joining up' with a Buddhist community is because I don't want to find myself tripping down the same mindless path that led me to fundamentalism in the seventies.
What I believe about Buddhism is really what I believe. It's not something I talked myself into because I wanted to be accepted by a social group, or because a Sunday school teacher was leaning on me about it.
It would be great to know more people who share my beliefs, or who are struggling with the same questions I have. But I don't want to end up being more worried about fitting in than about learning the truth, and I know that I have had a weakness in that direction in the past. I don't want to be lured into force-feeding myself a bunch of crap so I won't be ostracized by other people who have force-fed themselves the same crap.
8 comments:
I truly believe that the reason we see the world we do TODAY is because of what we have done. To that end, if you had not been "born again" then you probably would not have discovered your current belief. On one hand you have believed in something, so on the other hand you are not afraid to try again until you find the right fit for you. That is based on the hope there is a better way to live one's life, hope is what truly defines us from those that walk on all fours. It is hope that makes me want to see tomorrow. I understand the fear of the "cult". I fear it too and that is why I do not choose to embrace anything either. I fear that those "stronger or smarter" then I will lead me down a path I am not willing to go down, but tend to be a willing subject and easily hyptonized.
You want to bake me muffins...
You want to bake me muffins...
You want to bake me muffins...
Okay, that sounded like maybe I was being dismissive of your comment, and I didn't meant it that way.
Sorry.
Your post reminds me very much of the state of affairs in martial arts, before Bruce came along and shook things up---almost entirely because he refused to stick with one style of martial art, but absorbed what he found useful from all of them.
Reject dat Groupism, man!
you ARE a martial arts kicking Bruce Lee MUFFIN....so there
Love ya,
rj
kvjpzaby
I get concerned with joining a religious community as well. I sometimes fear that within a group I will be completly delusional (as if I'm not enough on my own), somehow lose basic logic, as well as enslavement of my very soul; not to mention the politics in every kind of group imaginable, which grate on my nerves.
All for what? Community? Self-improvement?
I was listening to the latest Watts podcast and he said, "The biggest ego trip going is getting rid of your ego." I have been blinded by this I’m-so-spiritual-see-me-work-on-myself delusional thinking, especially within groups I’ve been involved with.
Perhaps it all comes down to a balancing act of some kind? I dunno.
rjdpr
I think of the Wednesday Paseo dinner and movie group as my tribal congregation. That's not meant as any kind of a joke, although it's kind of funny.
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