A Few Comments on Buddhism

Apologies in advance for another rambling, unfocused post.


Other than Christianity, my main religious interest has been Buddhism, mainly the Theravada and Chan (Chinese Zen) schools. Buddhism is sold in the West as a "rational" religion, in fact not really a religion at all, but more of a philosophy. It is claimed that there are no gods in Buddhism, that it is based on experience, not scriptures.This is probably what you think is true of Buddhism as well, among other things, such as that it is a "peaceful" religion. To an occasionally hyper-rational person such as myself, this kind of practice was quite appealing.


I cannot pin down exactly why I became disenchanted with Buddhism. I certainly haven't thought about it as much as I have about Christianity, mainly because I never spent as much time "dabbling" in it as I did with Christianity.


Anyway, a couple years ago I discovered, little by little, that the myth of Buddhism that I briefly sketched in the first paragraph was not really true; that Buddhism, almost from the beginning, placed a lot of emphasis on faith, prayer, and scripture, and that Buddhism has a violent past just like Christianity -- in opposition to its principles, just like Christianity, but there nevertheless.


But more interesting, I also discovered "folk Buddhism," both in my personal travels to East Asia and my reading about Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, which is the most accessible form of Buddhism. I think that my burgeoning interest in this more, well, folksy form of Buddhism was a major factor in softening me up to take a second look at Neopaganism. Chanting and praying to Amitabha or Guanyin, even if I didn't quite believe in them, made it possible for me to take a less literal, restricted approach to spirituality.


I hope this brief, personal post inspires readers to learn more about real Buddhism instead of the sanitized version you've been sold in the West. I will write more about my experiences with Buddhism (of all kinds) in the future.