Is it Because...?
June 16, 2008 Yesterday I received an email from a Pure Land practitioner. I have not heard from him in a while so was glad to hear how he was doing. He told me that he "had been going through a series of distractions, learning about other Buddhist traditions, but kept being drawn back to Pure Land." He then wondered why it "seem[ed] so difficult to be at peace in a Buddhist tradition."
It's an interesting question to try to respond to.
Thinking about Christians and Jews I know, I have to say that these people do seem settled in their choice. In my classes here in Elkhart and South Bend, there are several people who attend either the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship or Unity Church of Peace. I haven't heard them saying how they try a church in one denomination for awhile and than in another. Yes, they attend my classes, but I focus on teaching about causality and ethics, not religious practices.
But in countries I have been in both the West and the East, a good number of Buddhists do seem to move around within the different traditions. They'll go listen to a visiting Theravada master one week, a Tibetan master another week, and a Pure Land master still another week.
Why?
Is it because westerners were not brought up in a Buddhist tradition while Christians and Jew were usually raised in their religions, so they are practicing the religion their parents did? But if that is the case, what about in Asia? I know many Malaysians (Malaysia being a country I have been fortunate enough to visit on several occasions) who also do not solely focus on just one tradition within Buddhism. I saw a similar occurrence of not settling on just one tradition in Singapore when I was based there for a few years.
Is it because people today misunderstand what the Buddha said to the people of Kalama about belief, that people today feel they can pick and choose from the different traditions and formulate their own style of practice?
Is it because people feel that since all the teachings are equally good, they do not need to choose just one?
Is it because we do not know that we need to settle on one practice as soon as we can so we can advance on the path to enlightenment, rather than widening the path where we stand, transfixed by all we hear?
I could go on asking "Is it because..." but I'd like to change this from a one-nun lecture to a group discussion. Why do you think people often find it "so difficult to be at peace in a Buddhist tradition."? Or do you perhaps feel that this is not an issue for many Buddhists?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
Reader Comments (6)
I do think your point of not being born into a Buddhist Tradition is a valid one. Many Buddhists who are born into a Buddhist Tradition have an anchor. They have a temple, and or teacher/priest that is part of their lives as they grow. Since Buddhism is so new in the west, we are still finding our way. Besides, the grass is always greener on the other side. Things will be better in this tradition. The teachings will be better in that Tradition. This is how we think. If anyone has been on e-sangha (a buddhist discussion board) they can see that 1) many people like to discuss and argue doctrine not practice, and 2) many jump from one tradition to the next. So the question is why?
One story I can share from my own personal experience is that I live very close to a large Chinese Monastery. It has given me wonderful opportunities to learn about Buddhism. This is where it stops though. There is no resident teacher, ie. no anchor and it is mainly non-denominational. You can find books on Pure Land, Therevada, etc. This can be very confusing to many beginners and people come and go very often. It is great for tourism, but...
So, I do not want to end on a sour note. I am very grateful to everyone that has touched my life through Buddhism. They are all my teachers. I would love to hear from others.
Amituofo-
Gary
Perhaps we could think of each dharma door as one of those leaves. My own background is in both Theravada and Pure Land. The Theravada leaf has really strong meditation practices and works brilliantly with thoughts and feelings and (in my case) confusion! Yet it mostly ignores the body and is not especially socially active. I am not pointing to these as faults, but rather as examples of a leaf being a leaf and not a tree, ie a focused and therefore partial approach. Pure Land has wonderful chanting and an emphaisis on vegetarianism and of course the promise of being reborn in the Pure Land! It has less to say about working with specific emotions, (again this is not a critisism or even especially accurate, but an example of a concentration on one area that necessitates less emphasis on other areas).
Changing subject. The typical behaviour of someone watching television is to look for one interesting programme on one channel and then when that is finished look for another interesting programme which may be on any channel. We do not limit ourselves to the channel, it is the content that we are interested in. This is not good or bad in itself, it is a comment on how lay people are in a position to follow their preferences because that is just the nature of lay life. The level of commitment is an individual decision.Of course the danger here is that we remain at a very superficial level of practice and are tourists rather than travelers. Contrast that with monastic life where there is a much higher level of renunciation, ie no choice! In this situation the leaf becomes the tree until the teacher/tradition decides the practitioner is mature enough in one way to be exposed to others. This is also quite ok because each leaf is sufficient, each dharma door takes us to realisation (ideally).
This level of practice is always going to have less uptake! It is an interesting thought to wonder how important oil prices would be in a world filled with Buddhist monks and nuns!
I think another question that follows from what I have written is to what extent can dharma doors be usefully combined in a lay context? I find the concept of upaya, skilful means, useful but potentially dangerous here. In my own situation I have benefited enormously from the teaching, compassion and guidance of Theravada monks, yet even when staying in a Theravada monastery I would privately keep up my chanting and dedication of merit to being reborn in the Pure Land. Each practice addresses a need that I have, each door offers help with presenting conditions of mind. The choice becomes part of my journey and the dangerous edge is always between being a dabbler and adjusting practice to suit need and conditions. This is both the pleasure of lay life and its burden. In contrast monastic life offers a 'one stop solution' which gives incredible reassurance and support of a whole tradition, but may (even deliberately) frustrate what I think I need!!
Sorry for the lengthy rambling,
Richard
www.lifechoicemeditation.com
I explore, I think, because my initial, but not totally comfortably connection to Buddhism was through my sister's and nieces connections with the Tibetan Tradition, so exploration of their mores and traditions happen automatically when family gets together. This exploration and inquiry serves to make me more settled in Pure Land Practice, I believe.
Often, it seems, we humans spend time and energy seeking out the bigger, brighter, shinier, easier reward, whatever goal we seek, in our daily practices, be they spiritual, financial, social or physical.
Who doesn't dream of weight loss without the effort of diet and exercise? Or success in school without study? So it is, I think, with our spiritual selves. We want the peace and rewards that come from practice, but want the easiest way to find these. so we jump around hoping to find "an easier path". Such is our delusion, and it is only with time (Patience? Wisdom?) that we realise that it is by this diligence and adherence to one mode of practice that we find our peace.
Or am I deluded? LOL
Judy
[emailed in as a comment]
Your point about living next to a non-denominational monastery is a good one.
I was extremely fortunate in Dallas in December 1993 when I decided one day that I wanted to get back into Buddhism. (I had read about karma as a teenager and it struck a deep chord like nothing else had done.) I went to a bookstore and bought a bunch of books on Buddhism and started reading. I also looked around for a monastery or temple. Zen, Tibetan, Theravadan were all available but I had no idea how or which to select.
Three months later, I found the Dallas Buddhist Association, which was strictly a Pure Land cultivation center. All schools were equally respected, but only Pure Land was practiced. There was not a resident English monastic to teach but there was a very good translator who conducted weekly practice sessions and translated Master Chin Kung's lectures when he came to teach that summer.
The focussed teachings and practice were really helpful. I did not find myself going in one direction one month and then later starting off again in another direction. For some people it might have seemed restricting or even boring. For me it was ideal, because there were people to guide me along one path. Later, with a stronger base, I could look at other traditions in an attempt to learn how to become a better Pure Land teacher. But that single approach was ideal for it served as that anchor.
The monastic path is one of renunciation. That doesn't just mean television, new clothes, and eating out a lot. It also means letting go of our perceived ideas of what we want or think best for ourselves. Since we're so deluded, we cannot discern what is really good or bad for us. So, yes, that 'one stop solution' makes a lot of sense. But not just for monastics. I know laypeople, who have cultivated their good fortune, who can also make the daily decisions that enable them to immerser themselves in that 'one stop solution'
Also, thank you for the insightful "lengthy wanderings"!
Very good points and thank you for the permission to post your email here.
We live in a culture that loves to market the quick fix. We expect our technology to do the work for us and science to create modern miracles so we can sit back and enjoy the results. It is tough to grow up and realize, we have to do the work ourselves for the results to be really meaningful.