New Zen School 坐禅

There are many books on popular spirituality currently doing the rounds which propose a kind of instant enlightenment, through the idea that you are already enlightened, if only you would realise it, and focus your attention on the ‘here and now’. These doctrines and teachings are at best silly and at worst seriously misleading. Enlightenment is not easily come by, and takes years of dedicated hard work to realise. It is a special type of insight, not to be confused with lucid states of awareness, or beatific experiences. Most people engaged in spiritual practices and disciplines are firmly locked into mind-games, and into weird and wonderful experiences, believing certain types of thinking, and certain types of experience to be divine in origin. This type of auto-suggestion and clutching at consoling ideas is understandable, but still very feeble-minded, if you think about it. You need to be a lot more hard-headed if you want to be a Buddhist.

1     The purpose of Buddhism is Enlightenment.

2     Enlightenment is a special order of metaphysical insight: rare, elusive, subtle, and beyond the understanding.

3     Direct experiences of God, or the Greater Self, or Universal Consciousness, or Infinite Bliss and all the rest of it, are not Enlightenment. They are peak experiences which are basically no more than modifications of ordinary states of being, and which are really quite gross and primitive when compared with the lucidity of insight. They are obstacles on the path to truth, and need to be understood for what they are.

4     Meditation has its place, but is no guarantee of progress towards a greater understanding. If you are able to use your mind properly, and engage all your mental functions in the service of clarity of thought, there is no need to meditate. Undirected meditation is a waste of time, as is ‘just sitting.’  You would be better advised to have an enjoyable discussion down at your local.

What is Buddhism ?

Buddhism is basically a quest, rather than a religion. It is a way of approaching the ultimate questions of life, but of approaching them in such a way that you find yourself on a metaphysical journey, rather than simply joining a community, and participating in that community as a believer. Buddhists are expected to seek out the truth for themselves, and to discover it for themselves – right in front of their own eyes -  rather than accept anything on trust, or faith, or authority. Nothing less than the highest standards of demonstrable proof will do. The demands Buddhism makes on those who would follow its path are radically different from any other religion or philosophy of life.

Buddhism begins with the human condition. The human condition seems to have something fundamentally wrong with it, and a something which can’t easily be put right.  The human condition feels incomplete, and uncertain, and mysteriously wrong. It’s an unpleasant situation to be in. And, in its own peculiar way, the human condition is constantly crying out for some sort of resolution, some sort of answer to itself. Why are we the way we are ? What does it mean ? What’s the point of it ? What’s the point of anything ? These are the basic Buddhist questions. And if you take up the challenge of trying to answer these questions on their own terms  – and to the highest possible standards – then you are a Buddhist. If you accept ready made answers, or cling to a system of beliefs, or take refuge in consoling fantasies, then you are not. Buddhism is very clear on this.

The basic philosophy of Buddhism is summed up in the life story of the Buddha himself. The Buddha was an educated and sensitive person who became profoundly troubled by the question of human suffering. The issue became so all consuming that he gave up his privileged lifestyle, and everything to do with it, and devoted himself completely to trying to solve the problem. He studied and practiced all the available religious solutions, from yoga to philosophies to mortification of the flesh, but found them all wanting. Nothing worked. So he abandoned every kind of traditional practice and thinking, and decided to work things out for himself. In this way, he was ultimately reduced to himself, and to his mystifying metaphysical conundrum: how to solve the problem of the human condition. After a long period of profound meditation and reflection, working at the problem in his mind from every conceivable angle, the answer suddenly came to him. It dawned on him as a flash of metaphysical insight. This ultimate metaphysical insight is termed ‘enlightenment’, and it is characterised as a once for all, complete and final liberation.

The important feature of the life story of the Buddha is not so much his enlightenment, as his complete rejection of every type of hand-me-down solution to the problem of the human condition. He put every theory of human salvation to one side, and struck out entirely on his own. He knew from his own experience that religion is a form of self-delusion, and that religious teachers don’t know the answers, but simply pretend they do, on the basis of faith, coupled with an extremely dubious ‘authority’, itself based entirely on faith and delusion. Acceptance of such thinking may satisfy weaker minds, but it can never satisfy a Buddhist.

But what about enlightenment itself  ? Is there such a thing ? Is it not just a subtler form of fantasy ? Until such time as a questing Buddhist achieves enlightenment for themselves, they cannot know whether or not it is just another religious illusion. Perhaps it is: you’ll have to judge for yourself. But unlike other religious illusion, it does no harm to strive after it,  because it stretches one’s capacities to the utmost, and cleanses the mind of all forms of religious silliness.  Striving after enlightenment will never result in complacency, or self-righteousness, or self-satisfaction, because you are constantly reminded of your inadequacies, and how far your understanding falls short of any ideal.  In Buddhist terms, if you are not enlightened, you still have everything to do.

Genuine Buddhism may seem a cold and lonely path, devoid of the usual cosy consolations. It might even seem heartless, when compared with religions which welcome and encourage all manner of sentimentality. There is undoubtedly an element of austerity in Buddhism, but this is characteristic of any kind of serious human undertaking. You have to be able to stand on your own two feet, and to be able to negotiate self doubt, failure, and despair, if you want to achieve something of value. You have to be grownup about it.  If nothing else, Buddhism can offer a certain maturity of vision, at least as regards the quest for metaphysical knowledge.

A final point. If there is something intrinsically wrong with the human condition, which makes it a state of suffering, then, by implication at least,  there must be something which could put that right. This is a simple, basic  intuition at the very root of the Buddhist quest which, in its primordial simplicity, predates any and all forms of religious fantasy about salvation. If Buddhists want to have faith in something, to drive them forward, and give themselves something to hold on to, then they can have faith in that simple intuition.