Expert: Joe McSorley - 4/15/2005

Question
Hello, I have just recently decided to convert from being catholic to being Buddhist. I realized I do not believe in god after quite a bit of reflection. I have always believed in the Buddha and most of his teachings but I never thought of changing my religion until just awhile ago.
I should say now I go to a catholic school because it is the only one that offers French immersion. I have had quite a few people question the fact that I can be a Buddhist going to a catholic school. And so I have two questions mainly.
1. If Buddhist's believe all life is suffering then does that mean when someone dies we should be happy cause they're suffering is ended?
2. I received a book on I ching awhile ago and I was using it today when I asked if I should continue trying to become a Buddhist. The answer I got wasn't what I had hoped for. I received what is called "oppression" and it quite clearly states that I should give up on it, that it is pointless to continue. I want to believe in both I ching and Buddhism but this has complicated it quite a bit. So finally my question....
which should I believe? I ching or Buddhism?
If I do follow I ching and give up on Buddhism, I will spend my life wondering whether I made the right decision or not and the other way around if I choose not to believe in I ching.

At first I knew not to listen to others telling me I can't be Buddhist, but after the I ching reading I've become quite confused.
I don't know any Buddhists so I'd really appreciate knowing what you have to say on this.

thanks,
Alex  

Answer
Dear Alex,
Why do you believe Buddhism is best suited for you?  Are you sure you're not trading one belief system for another?  If you look for something that is suited for you then you are just placating your desires and not really looking for the truth.  Many who leave one religion just replace it with a similar system and really don't grow at all.  You've decided you don't believe in a god but why do you believe in an I Ching?   Haven't you supplanted one superstitious belief system for another?  If you ask the I ching the same question 3 times do you get the same answer?  No, so please don't rely on this, it's just a Chinese ouigi board.
 Buddhism's 'life is suffering' should really be 'human life is suffering' not all life.  We are ignorant of the true nature of life and our lives and thus suffer from this ignorance. It is the goal of Buddhism to realize who it is that was born and going to die so that we may break the cycle of the life/death process.  It is not to become eternally alive or dead that's a solution but to break the cycle completely.
 I fully understand your difficulties trying to figure this all out.  I had 12 years of strict Catholic education and come from a huge Catholic family.  You can't apply the West to the East when trying to understand the East.  You have to understand the East on its own terms which is not in your paradigm yet.  You also have to realize that is just as much ‘junk' in Eastern teaching as there is in Western teaching.  No one knows what Christ really taught, that's why it's all on this nebulous thing called faith.  Let's first do an overview on Buddhism:
 Zen/Buddhism isn't really a religion and nothing like Christianity, Islam or Judaism.  Here is a brief history of Buddhism's beginnings and goal:
The historical Buddha was born in 563 AD in the city of Kapilavatsu, 160 miles northeast of Benares, India.  Technically speaking Buddhism is not a religion, it is not theistic ( has no God) and does not have an external means of salvation.  In Buddhism one's awakening and redemption is all through self effort alone.  Historically speaking Buddhism came about because of the life of the Prince  Gautama Siddhartha, who at age 29, encountered for the first time suffering, sickness and death and  wanted to find an answer to the cause of suffering for humans.  He tried to lose himself in the pleasures of the world but found no solace.  He then became an ascetic and this too yielded no answers.  After many years of searching and frustration he finally sat under a tree and declared that he would not move until he understood the solution.  According to legend, several days later, as he glanced up at the morning star his mind became clear and he was enlightened.  From this he postulated the Four Noble truths of Buddhism:
Life (human) is dukkha . (suffering, with no apparent cause),  There is a cause for the suffering. ( avidya or ignorance.), the cause can be abated, and there is a path ( Margo yoga).  What the crux of this is that our minds do not see reality clearly, we do not know who we are, both to ourselves and in relation to the universe.  The cause for this is ignorance of ourselves as egos that blinds us to seeing beyond ourselves.  This can be remedied.  And there are many ways to do this, such as yoga, contemplation, self examination, etc.  When one realizes the true nature of reality, often called ‘seeing things as they are', one has an identical experience to the historical Buddha so there is no hierarchy.  The word ‘buddha' means ‘awakened one' so anyone can become a buddha.  As Buddhism evolved through the centuries there have been many different sects arising.  Therevada is not unlike western religions as they revere the historical buddha as godlike and pray to him.  They have many rituals and prayers, gods, saints and icons.  Mahayana and Zen Buddhism do not ascribe to these practices and strive for a direct awakening.
  So Stephen, this is not something you convert to or ‘follow'.  There are some schools that do have belief systems and rituals to enter them but they truly miss the point of Buddhism.  I've met many people who have ‘become Buddhists' by taking the vows but that has nothing to do with the historical Buddha's teachings. Most people who study Buddhism do so because they have some major questions in life that are not getting answered by other religions or philosophies.  In a sense there is no place to hide in Buddhism.  By this I mean in other religions you can say “ I believe so God will take care of me no matter what” but Buddhism's approach is if you have a problem you must come to the solution within yourself.  
  The biggest point here is that Buddhism, Zen in particular, is not about believing but about  becoming a Buddha or enlightened.  It's like believing in playing a guitar rather than playing a guitar.  In the religious sense the West says, “when you get to heaven you'll be able to play' but the East says , ‘If you don't do here and now you will never do it'.  So stop trying to figure out what to believe in, because that is completely arbitrary.
Faith is not a part of Buddhism like it is in the West.  Faith is contingent upon self-reflection and the mental process.  If one is not exposed to a faith or belief system one does not spontaneously come upon it out of nowhere.  If one is raised in the Jewish, Christian or Islamic faith that is what one generally believes.  It is an accident of birth on which faith many of us will follow.  For others it is something we are taught or learn about later and it makes sense to us but all of it is contingent upon being taught the faith.  What was there before religion?  Is there a religious awakening that is prior to faith?  Is there a religious experience that transcends all faiths?  An experience that is trans-historical and trans-cultural?  I would say that there is.  Many in history have come to a religious or existential awareness that was beyond their faith and generally when they expressed this were then ostracized by their faiths for blasphemy or heresy.  It is the awareness of self as the Universe and the Universe as self.  Meister Eckhardt may have experienced this when he proclaimed “I think the thoughts of God before creation” or Chuang tzu when he said, “ Heaven, earth and I arise simultaneously”.  There is a thread of this type of experience throughout history.
   A problem that I see with faith is that while one who believes expects others to respect his faith rarely do they give this respect to others faiths.  If what I believe is right simply because I believe it to be right then how can I criticize another's faith?  That would give them the ground to criticize my faith.  It's a circular argument, I know, but it is the problem that faith based religions do have.  Just because we believe it doesn't make it a reality.  Many children believe in Santa Claus but that does not make him real.  What does matter is true religious experience.  If a native who had never been exposed to a religion comes to a religious awakening shouldn't he then see the religion that is supposed to be true.  Shouldn't he see ‘Jesus' or ‘Allah' or Krishna?  Has this ever happened that an isolated tribe has a belief in a faith they have never been exposed to?  Not to my knowledge although there are these terribly anecdotal stories of missionaries coming to tribes and being told that ‘they knew this already' only to find they had been approached years earlier by different missionaries.  So you don't find someone coming to this type of experience but you do find those that have come to the trans- historical/cultural experience with no knowledge of other cultures.  These experiences are recorded in Islam, Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism, Shamanism and many other traditions and the experience flies in the face of the system the individual has been raised in.
     Buddhism is not a matter of faith but a matter of realizing what the historical Buddha realized; the interpenetration of all things and co origination.  There is no worship of the Buddha or faith to follow but the arduous work of the individual to overcome their dualistic consciousness to realize themselves as an expression of the Universe, here and now.
  If you want to understand Buddhism then strive to become a Buddha.  Take care,
      Joe