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A Non-practicing Buddhist !! - dhamma musings blog post
Just yesterday someone described themselves to me as a non-practicing Buddhist. I cannot say that I have heard this term used before an...
Still munching on it.
You either practice or genuinely try to practice the Dhamma and accept its main philosophical propositions or you do not. If you do you are a Buddhist, and if you do not you are not. You can be a former Buddhist, you can be a bad Buddhist (a far from endangered species) but you cannot be a non-practicing Buddhist.
IMHO I guess the question is, are you practising to open yourself and to serve truth, or are you trying to conform to an idea what it means to be a Buddhist (the two are not mutually exclusive...but some people just love the Buddhist bling)?
This is just another "game of definitions"...
AFAIK you are officially a Buddhist after Jukai - but is that so? IMHO just taking Jukai doesn't make you a Buddhist, and on the other hand you can be a Buddhist without taking Jukai!
However, I think many people see Buddhism as a kind of philosophy.
So someone who shares Buddhist philosophic views (and/or even took Jukai), but does not meditate, live/breathe Buddhism or perform any Buddhist rituals, might call themselves a "non-practicing Buddhist".
Most people in a Sangha, however, see Buddhism as a practice (I see it as such). And for these folks the term "non-practicing Buddhist" does not make sense.
Who decides what definition is right? I know someone who considers herself a Buddhist, but the only thing she does is putting loads of Buddha statues around her flat/appartment, using Buddha wallpapers on her smartphone and read some quotes from the Dalai Lama she comes across on the internet. However, in her daily life she behaves pretty much according to the "eye-for-an-eye principle" or the "fight-fire-with-fire principle".
What is Buddhism? Let's face it, just another word and category to get rid of. Just another concept people can fight over. I prefer to call it a finger pointing at the moon.
A friend of mine professes to like Soto Zen but not so much that she actually meditates. Like others, I am not sure it is terribly helpful to worry about definitions, though.
A teacher once told me not to worry about anyone else's practice and just concentrate on mine. Unless I am specifically asked about something, I find this to be good advice.
As we all have Buddha nature, I would say those who are actively participating in trying to awaken that nature are Buddhists. The key point being active, Buddhism as a verb not a noun. It might not be meditation. But if there is any sincere effort I would say that qualifies, even if one is not aware they are defined as "Buddhist".
By the way I am way less Buddhist than thou. ( Buddhist bragging)
By the way I am way less Buddhist than thou. ( Buddhist bragging)
Ok, I am laughing so hard right now!!! Only a Buddhist (whatever the heck that means, more in a bit) who was a former Christian can really appreciate what you are saying lol!!!!!
As for what a Buddhist is, to me, a Buddhist is a verb, not a noun. And that has such a different meaning in Buddhist terms than it does in Christianity, as we are studying in our precepts right now. I identify myself as a Buddhist to those around me who understand what that means. To others, well, I've sheepishly said "I'm Buddhist" not really feeling comfortable in my own skin when I say that. Why is that? Because, to me, only another Buddhist really understands what a Buddhist is--not in a high and mighty exclusive club way---but there is this understanding that it's not a religion, and yet it is a religion, it's non-spiritual (no anthropomorphic god) and yet it is spiritual. It's emptiness, and yet so full of information and knowledge. I could go on and on here, but I think you all will understand what I mean
Some folks in Asia may be "culturally Buddhist" from their family and traditions, but not believe or practice it much.
Some folks might chant the name of Amida or the Lotus Sutra, but not meditate. Some might meditate.
I do feel that Zen Practice takes Practice ... that one must Practice sitting on a Zafu (and bringing the Teachings and Precepts to life in life), not merely in an armchair.
I recently read a book by a Tibetan Teacher called "What Makes You --Not-- a Buddhist", by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse. I am not going to recommend the book to people, cause much of the book did not really ring my bell. However, he makes the point that to be a "Buddhist" one must basically believe in four classic fundamental views (known in Buddhism as the "Four Seals"). I agree with him, as do most Buddhist Teachers I know of all stripes. Here they are (I borrow different wording than he used) ...
1 - All Compounded Things are Impermanent
2 - All stained emotions (driven by greed, anger, ignorance) lead to suffering.
3 - All Phenomena are Empty; They Are Without Inherent Existence
4 - Nirvana is Peace.
Basically, most all Buddhists I know, of all flavors, agree on these views (although we differ on how to express these, and how to realize such Truths too). More on the "Four Seals" here:
Jundo, forgive me for introducing this information below, as it is not directly related to Zen, but from Advaita teacher, Robert Adams (he was a Zen proponent for the purity in direct practice).
ChicanoBudista, your questions immediately brought this story Robert shared at one of his satsangs to mind:
There was once a girl who was born into a house of prostitution. And across the
street in front of the market place there was a preacher, a holy man. He used to exclaim the
virtues of God and talk about the house of prostitution. How it was filled with sinners and
he told people to repent.
Yet the girl who grew up in the house of prostitution was twenty-three years old.
She used to look out the window everyday and cry to herself and she would say, "How I
wish I was like that Holy man, how I wish I was spiritual," and she would imagine in her
mind that she was a holy person and yet go on with her work.
Now they both got old and died and went to St. Peter to go into heaven. St. Peter
told the man, "You can't come in you've got to go to hell," and he told the girl, "you can
come in." So the Holy man became dumbfounded and said, "Why? For all these years I've
proclaimed your goodness and your virtues. I told people to repent. How can you let her
in when she was a prostitute and leave me out?"
And St Peter said, "You've been a hypocrite. You were very worthy and talked a
lot and said nothing. In your heart you thought every body was a sinner but you. Whereas
the girl in her imagination, in her feelings, always was thinking of God. So she can come
in, you can't."
The point is this: It's not what you say. It's not what you proclaim. It's what's deep,
deep, deep in your heart that determines what happens to you. It's not reading books, it's
not studying, it's not going to classes. It's sitting by yourself, becoming quiet, going deeper
and deeper within yourself. Transcending your mind and your body until something hap-
pens.
Shinjin datsuraku, datsuraku shinjin..Body-mind drop off, mind-body drop off..
The point is this: It's not what you say. It's not what you proclaim. It's what's deep,
deep, deep in your heart that determines what happens to you. It's not reading books, it's
not studying, it's not going to classes. It's sitting by yourself, becoming quiet, going deeper
and deeper within yourself. Transcending your mind and your body until something hap-
pens.
This is True, as True as True can be.
But there are also some basic Buddhist Teachings, Precepts and Practices (hand in hand with Zazen) without which this Way turns into misguided mush. Sitting Zazen without those is a bit like trying to fly a plane with no experience in flight school or knowledge of basic aerodynamics!
Even the "Way Beyond Words & Letters" Zen Guys of old who burned their Sutra Books knew what was in them before they burned 'em. (They just knew how not to get hung up in the "chicken and egg, angels on the head of a pin" excesses of the philosophy in the books).
Zen has never been about "just sitting alone" even as we "Just Sit" ... and there have always been countless Teachings and Practices hand in hand with "Just Sitting". Just ask old Dogen, for example, who ... although "Mr. Shikantaza" ... was a walking encyclopedia of traditional Teachings (including the Four Seals) and Practices, and wrote page after page on the Proper Practices of Cooking, Bathing, using the Toilet, Eating, Kesa wearing and many more. Same for Hakuin, Hui-Neng, about any Zen guy I can name.
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