Buddhism?

"I don't know much about it but I think it's cool." - my neighbor

My wife and I are Zen Buddhist monks. We met at the monastery during our training years there. After we left in 2010, we got married, had a baby and have been living a normal family life ever since. We still study and practice regularly at home and also work normal jobs here in Utah.

When people we work with, or our mostly Mormon neighbors, find out we are Buddhists, they often say something like, “oh, I don’t know much about that but I think it’s cool”. Since pretty much everyone we know here is very nice, we kind of chalked it up to a general courteousness, but it ends there. We know that most people are very reluctant to talk about religion which is why they don’t typically ask any follow up questions.

We don’t ask them what they think is cool about Buddhism, or try to get them to check it out, but if they ask any questions we’re happy to answer as best we can.

Buddhism is very deep, and full of principles and practices that, while quite logical and reasonable, are hard for most Western people to take in. There’s also the association with strange Eastern dress, art, and ceremonial stuff that we think puts people off, at least here in Utah. We dropped a lot of that quite awhile ago because the outward appearance of Eastern Buddhism is strictly cultural anyway and has no real bearing on the principles and practices. Some people like it, and that’s fine, but for us it’s kind of irrelevant so we don’t get into that unless we’re called to do some ceremony and then we might put on on robes for the show if they want that.

Day to day, though, we are just another American family in the neighborhood and we look and act like everyone else for the most part.

What’s interesting to me though, and what is the basis of this article, is why a lot of people think Buddhism is cool, and yet very few really take it up seriously.

I’ve read that a large number of people in the United States identify as “spiritual but not religious”. Part of this is due to a general resistance to “organized religion”, which Buddhism very much is in the East. In the West, with a few exceptions, Buddhism is practiced pretty loosely.

Another interesting thing factor is how Buddhism came into the West and quickly got mashed up with a variety of other Eastern religions, North American indigenous traditions, and pop psychology. It’s what I think of as California Spirituality. Bits and pieces have been pulled from Buddhism, Yoga and Hinduism, and Western ideas of indigenous religions, along with an openness to drugs like Ayahuasca and mushrooms.

California Spirituality is definitely not an organized religion and allows people to “find their own path” and make up their own personal religious principles and practices that feel good. Sometimes I think Westerners main goal in life is to feel good all the time, and California Spirituality fits the bill for many people. It’s not all bad but there’s a problem that makes me concerned.

If looked at closely these religions don’t always agree, and in fact, have some very different principles and practices, and ultimately some very different goals.

I think most people don’t look very deeply into their real philosophy. If they did they would start to see these differences and have to decide which route to take to assure themselves they have life and death figured out to their own satisfaction.

This takes some real work. People don’t like to work unless there’s some real benefit at the end. Buddhism promises enlightenment and an end to suffering in this life and possibly a rebirth in fortunate circumstances in the next. I guess that’s not enough for most people to tackle a religion that is mostly foreign to Westerners. Buddhisms formal competitors mostly promise a chance to go to heaven but you have to abide by their rules. California Spirituality is pretty vague in its promises, other than to feel good now. That’s an easy route for most Westerners and I assume that’s why it’s so popular. We’ll see where it ends up.