mybuddhistblog number 139

Hi Everybody,
I'm just continuing this process of flicking through The Case for Buddhism and picking up themes and issues that I wasn't able to cover on the first pass. At the moment we're talking about Buddhism and humanism.
There are of course many profound implications that arise from Buddhism's basic humanism. By no means least is that since it isn't about a God of gods, we have to be careful about how we use key words like  'faith ' for example and ' prayer.'  They occur all the time in the writings of all religions, including Buddhism. But if there isn't a God to have faith in or to pray to, then clearly these words will mean something very different in Buddhism, from the way we commonly understand them on the basis of our Judaeo-Christian heritage. And it goes without saying doesn't it, that it's crucially important that we have some understanding of what that difference is.

Thus one key implication that is absolutely fundamental to anyone approaching Buddhism for the first time, is that the wisdom and the understanding that has been generated by this process of evolution down the centuries on the nature of human life and motivation and relationships is passed on to all men and women on the basis of equality. Complete equality. That is such an important point, but it's one that is extraordinarily difficult to grasp, even for those who have been practising for many years. Because we are so accustomed in the West, we might even say conditioned, to believing that there is this vast unbridgeable gulf that normally exists between the teacher, the bearer of the wisdom, the Jesus of Mohammed figure, and the rest of humanity, us ordinary human beings. That gulf simply does not exist in Buddhism.

Shakyamuni tells us repeatedly , so that there should be absolutely no doubt, that he is simply one of us. Indeed for him to be deified in any way by his followers would run counter to the central thrust of his teaching. It would deny if you like the central idea that the life state he achieved, filled with hope and optimism and courage and resilience, despite the toughness of his life, is available to all of us. We can learn that is how to achieve it in this lifetime. That learning is indeed what the practice is all about. '

Nuff said for today I think.
Hope it's clear.
See you next time around.

William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon