Expert: Joe McSorley - 5/31/2007

Question
I was reading a book on Zen called “Buddhism and Zen” recently and came across something I found very interesting in a section of the book structured like a Q & A in which the author poses a question about whether Buddhists believe in a god and answers it with something to the effect that Buddhists believe in God only as a poetical expression of universal law, and therefore the Dharma would be Buddhism’s God.  He then says that one may also view the universe, it’s essential unity and sameness, as a god, reminding readers all along that it would be a mistake to anthropomorphosize the deity in anyway.  Does this mean Buddhist are essentially pantheists?  I’ve read elsewhere that Buddhists are panentheists, viewing “god” as “more than the sum total of the universe,” but this claim makes little sense to me unless the author here only means that god is the sum total of all universes; to otherwise claim that god is the existence and something else outside existence is a complete contradiction, one insisted upon by Christian theology and which disenchanted me with that religion long ago.  
I guess my question would be whether or not it is incorrect, or to hold a wrong view, to be pantheist and Buddhist.  Sorry this may be a confusing and roundabout way of asking this, and this may be trivial as I should be spending more time practicing Buddhism and less time reading about it, but as a Literature scholar, books are hard to put down.
Thanks.

Answer
Dear Jacob,
  
 This is what happens when you try to put two paradigms together.  If that author wants to use the language of other religions and use the word ‘god’ then they are instantly creating a cascade of problems because of what the word implies.  In all my studies of Buddhism I have never once heard any of my teachers mention god or comparing a universal view to a godlike state.  It’s a real problem.  Lately I’ve seen some Buddhists argue the assertion of a soul though Buddhism is clear about the self-being ultimately empty so this is a huge contradiction.  One of the problems with seeing god as the some total of the universe is that it stands against the negation of the universe, in other words, this is a god/universe of existence that stands against non-existence.  This is the type of dualism that Buddhism strives to overcome.  
  Today many people have blended Buddhism to include a more Western version of it. There is a Buddhist quote that goes, “no self without other, no other without self”; this leaves no room for pantheism or any other theism here. There is another quote that goes “ the Dharmas themselves are ultimately empty” so how can there be some substantive dharmic law compared to being an unanthropromorphic god?  
Ultimately you are right; this is a distraction that gets you wondering about other people’s thoughts and ideas and moves you away from your own awakening.  Buddhism is here and now and not some construct.  We need to see who we are right here and now without thought, cognition or belief.  You can’t learn this from a book, now or ever; you must come to it on your own.  Even practicing something called ‘Buddhism’ is a problem for that is something that stands outside of you that you practice.
 If you must read try Zen and Western Thought by Masao Abe or the works of Hisamatsu Shin ichi.
 Good luck to you.
                Joe