Hi Everybody, December 30th, on the cusp of the new year. I'm off for a bit of sunshine at the end of this week so I thought it would be good to at least wrap up Chapter 2 before I go, even possibly launch into Chapter 3 of The Case for Buddhism, which is a really crucial chapter that asks, and tries to answer a crucial question in Buddhism, what do we mean when we use the word ' faith.' In a powerfully humanistic religion that has no gods or divine beings to have faith in, what do we mean when we as Buddhists use these words like ' faith' and ' prayer' that inevitably carry so much baggage from our basically Judao-Christian culture.
But let me use this blog, number 9 to round off Chapter 2.
So to recap briefly, in Blog number 7 I answered the question why am I a Nichiren Buddhist? That really describes the journey I personally travelled from deepest scepticism to a profound and enduring commitment to the practice that has unquestionably affected every aspect of my life, as a father and a husband and friend and colleague at work.
In Blog number 8 I introduced the second main strand of the argument I pursue in this book, the science. and try to define the way in which the remarkable body of findings that have come out of sociological and psychological research over the past couple of decades really walk across very much the same territory as Buddhist teachings, since they are profoundly concerned with the values and behaviour that enable us to live the most creative and fulfilling lives, for ourselves, and for the societies that we inhabit.
So as I've said, let me just round of that argument in this post, because to be absolutely fair to any reader I have to ask the direct question, ' Do we need an understanding, or an awareness even, of the science, to develop an effective Buddhist practice.' We pick up the argument on p 35.
' There can only be one answer, and it's in the negative. We do not. But listen to this from the late great historian and philosopher, Arnold Toynbee,
' Science and religion need not and ought not to be in conflict. They are to complementary ways of approaching the universe mentally, in order to cope with it. '
Or this from philosopher Robert Solomon,
' Spirituality is supported and informed by science. The more we know about the world the more we can appreciate it.'
Just listen to the power of that phrase, ' spirituality is supported and informed by science!'
So they are telling us quite clearly that in order to make the very most of this rich and complex life that we are living, we benefit from both kinds of illumination, the spiritual and the scientific. That unquestionably rings true doesn't it?
And this from Tsunesaburo makiguchi, the visionary Japanese educational reformer who founded the lay Buddhist organisation that today is at the forefront of the spread of Buddhist values and beliefs into the western world,
' I could find no contradiction between science, philosophy, which is the basis of our modern society, and the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.'
The fact is that we live and practice in the real world, and the real world is changing rapidly, perhaps most rapidly in the knowledge and understanding of human nature, that lies so close to our Buddhist teachings. In a sense you could say that this social research takes our personal experience of the way Buddhist values and principles shape our daily lives, and places them in a wider global context. And my argument would be that if we genuinely wish, as Buddhists, to reach out to much wider non-Buddhist Buddhist audience, then we can only be helped in that endeavour by some understanding, however peripheral that might be, of this new and immensely revealing knowledge.
But more than that, I think we gain genuine benefit from stretching our understanding in this way. Why? Because, as I've mentioned, we happen to be living in privileged times. We are witnessing if you like the slow building of a wave that is bringing immense social change. The debate and the discussion about what people want for their lives, then obvious concern for personal growth and self-realisation, the understanding of the kind of values and behaviour that enable people to feel good about their lives and their societies has long since passed out of the philosophers and religious teachers into mainstream social debate. It has becoem the stuff of everyday political discussion.
That is I believe a crucial point. Moreover it links in directly with an understanding that has always been at the very heart of a Buddhist approach to life, namely the idea that the pursuit of a sense of well-being at the individual level, has an infinitely deeper and wider significance at the level of society.
As Daisaku Ikeda, one of today's greatest thinkers and writers on Buddhist issues has expressed it;
' In an age when both society and the religious world are wrought by turmoil and confusion ( as indeed they are today ) only a teaching that gives each individual the power to draw forth his or her Buddha nature can lead all people to happiness, and transform the tenor of the times. In other words...there can be no lasting solution to the problems facing society that does not involve our individual life state.'
It is unquestionably a powerful vision and one that immensely relevant to the communities we all live in. It proposes that a movement towards a better society based on the principles of respect for the lives and values of others, and with peace and individual happiness as its objective, cannot just be created as a top down process. It has to start from the bottom up, with a profound change taking place in the lives of countless individuals gradually changing the way the whole,of society functions.
That in essence is the goal to which this book is dedicated. And I ought to add perhaps right from the start that it is written very much for people who have little or no knowledge of Budhism and who could well be as deeply sceptical as I was, about its relevance or appropriateness to a modern western way of life.
The plain fact is that we have a great opportunity to move on from the commonly-held and largely superficial stereotypes of what Buddhism is about. Because we now have this unusual and unexpected conjunction of views. They may be using different idioms and different methods, but essentially both Buddhism and now the social scientists are telling us that a greater sense of well-being at the heart of our lives is fundamentally what we are all seeking, and that there are some clearly defined ways of achieving that objective, however tough and challenging the modern world may be.
So, I'm suggesting here that it's clearly worthwhile to invest a certain amount of time and energy to clearing away those persistent stereotypes that obscure our view of what Buddhism is about, to see more clearlyt what it has to offer.
And we start by unpacking the concept of belief or faith in Buddhism. What's that all about? '
OK . So that's the end of Chapter 2. Quite a long chapter I admit and one that tries to do a lot of work. Perhaps too much work! I hope not.
I hope you managed to get to here.
And I wish you all a creative and fulfilling new year. See you next year!
William Woollard
be no lasting solution to the problems facing society that does not involve our individual life stater.been
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