my buddhist blog

Hi Everybody,

Back at the keyboard. Been very busy this weekend getting my son Sebastian back to uni, so I missed the Saturday session. I'm trying to do posts on Monday's and Saturdays to keep things moving. Got a whole book to cover!

So we're in the middle of Chapter 3 which is called Buddhism and Belief, and which deals with this central issue of waht we mean by ' faith ' in Buddhism. So we pick up the story on p 43

' Thus a Buddhist practice is esentially about empowering people, enabling us to use all the resources that we have, spiritual as well as intellectual, to build strong and meaningful lives for ourselves...and for others...the two are inextricably interlinked. It's about learning how to think of ourselves in terms of our relations with other people, in term sof compassion and altruism, rather than our acquisitive individualism. Because Buddhism, perhaps more than any other religion...except possibly the 'religion'
of science...brings constantly to our attention the profound implications of the fact that we al live in a totally joined up world. The world's media may have been talking about the Global Village for only a decade or so, but Buddhism has always taught it. and now we've all caught up. We all now understand that nowhere in the world is very far away any more; that what happens on a dusty street in Palestine, or in an African township, or on a remote part of the Japanese coastline, can touch and change all our lives.

So these distinctive elements of Buddhismm that we have been talking about in the past 2 or 3 blogs; its - its essential humanism, its dynamic humanism as it's sometimes called because its purpose is to change and move our whole lives towards the positive end of the psectrum
- and its unbounded inclusiveness,
are perhaps the key qualities that give Buddhism its universal relevance and its astounding, everlasting modernity. It may have begun in the deer park in the little town of Sarnath in Northern India all those  years ago, when Shakyamuni first sat down to talk to a small group of people about his newly-won ideas, but in no sense is it ancient, in no sense is it stuck in time, or backwards looking. It continues to be powerfully about the here and now of our lives.

Witness to that is the fact that over the past 40 or 50 years, many tens of thousands of people in Europe and the Americas for example, and elsewhere, have chosen to place a Buddhist practice at the very centre of their lives. For the very first time in its history, during what might well be described as the most materialistic and possibly the least spiritual of all the ages of man, Buddhism is flowing strongly westwards, out of Japan and Asia, and into the western-way-of-life parts of the world. Indeed never before in its history has Buddhism spread so rapidly or so widely in terms of geographical area, and never before have so many people in the West turned to Buddhism to find answers to their questions about life, the universe and everything.

Moreover there are no easy answers to explain away this proces. It's not an age thing, young or old, nor is it confined to any particular social grouping. Indeed it's noteworthy that the people who have adopted a buddhist practice in the west come from all walks of life, all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of careers, from actors and accountants to plumbers and television producers and taxi drivers and traders in the city. Ordinary people, living in the real world, bringing up their families, and pursuing their careers, and individually making the choice to put it all together under the overarching framework of a Buddhist set of values and principles. It is a genuine revolution of sorts. Indeed it has been described by some religious historians as a new departure in the religious history of the West. One knowledgeable commentator has gone so far as to describe this modern movement as being of similar significance in the history of Buddhism, as the Protestant Reformation was in the history of Christianity ( Nur Yalman Prof. of Anthropology at Harvard. quoted in Sekiyo Shimbun 26.11.93)

What makes it all the more remarkable I think is that this global movement is taking place not on the backs of missionaries or itinerant teachers as you might expect, or anything resembling them, but slowly, steadily, almost imperceptibly, in a truly modern way, as a result simply of people talking to other people, largely on a one-to-one basis. ' This is my experience, you might find it useful in your life.'

The very basis in a sense on which this book is being written.

Moreover it's taking place in an age, as I've said, that is far more notable for its rampant materialism and its widespread cynicism than for its religious commitment, and despite the fact that a Buddhist practice is genuinely demanding. It calls for application and effort and commitment, because we are learning a new set of life skills, fundamentally new ways of thinking about ourselves and our relationships, and how to think about the tough and challenging stuff that is inherent in all our lives.

Clearly it is fulfilling some perceived need for a stronger and more meaningful spiritual life for many people, a searching for something more to life; a reaction perhaps against the powerful influences of cynicism and materialism at work in society. There is just so much more to hunger after in shopping malls and supermarkets and on the web that we can find our lives almost entirely taken up with ' stuff.' With the doing and the arranging and the acquiring and the moving on from one event, one party, one club to the next. But is that enough? Is that what we really want/ The point is that we are undoubtedly spiritual animals, however much we may try to convince ourselves that we are not.

Madonna once told us most persuasively that this is a material world and that she is very much a material girl. That may indeed be so, but ther is a powerful line from Bruce Springsteen that bring sus a completely diferent message, and one that reflects perhaps a growing change in social sentiment.

' It's time to start saving up...he says...for the things that money can't buy...'

The things that money can't buy...what can he possibly mean, other than a deeper and more meaningful spiritual life, beyond the bounds of mere materialism. '

Good place to stop I think. I love that playing Bruce off against the old Madonna,
who has herself of course long since built a more powerful spiritual dimension into her life, but that's another story.

Hope these bite-sized chunks are about the right length.

See you on Saturday.

Best wishes, William Woollard