Buddhism

It was dark and stormy night when I decided to think about Buddhism and what it could possible mean for me.

This was the best I could come up with.

Basically there are four types of lives: normal, enlightened, bad and good. Everybody lies somewhere in between these four. There is not much else in my Buddhism.

Life

Notice there aren’t the “everyone else caused my life to be shit”-life nor the “why didn’t anyone love me”-life and definitely not the “you are all here to serve me”-life. Your interpretation of your reality is your life, if you believe these lives existence, then do so. For me, there are only those four on the diagram.

Life is yours do to whatever you like to do with it. Everyone around you can give you guidance, join you on the journey that is your life but nobody can claim that it is their life neither can you blame anyone if your life is a misery.

We could discuss edge cases: what about abused children, what about rape victims, what about the tortured, what about the maimed. Sure if you now wish to split hairs, go and split your hairs. Each to their own, for the purposes of this text, I am not splitting hairs. For me, all those edge cases are bad lives. People are strange and yes if someone ruined your life, I’m sorry for you but it doesn’t change the fact that it is your life to do whatever you want with. If your life is bad, then end it all. You will have your personal Nirvana after death, regardless of how you died.

Life is like your car, you can do whatever you want with it. Roll it down a hill, let it gently run out of gas or set it on fire - it’s your car. If someone comes along and tells you to paint it red, you won’t just paint it red right?

This is of course only true if you bought your car, if you happen to have a leasing car then you’ll have to bring it back without so much as a scratch on it. All the best of luck with that.

Death

Notice in the diagram above, Death is unqualified, nor is Birth qualified. Is there a good birth or a bad birth for the person being born? For the person giving birth there is definitely a good and bad birth! For the person being born there is only birth and so it is with death, there is only death, whichever form it takes.

I belief Buddhism teaches that each death is an active death. Death when it comes has been actively chosen by us. Be it a natural death, be it an accident, be it a suicide. All deaths are the same if you believe that every death is an active death.

A journey between birth and death

Each life is a journey between two points: birth and death. Each path is a personal journey, none is straight and none is simple. But notice that there aren’t any external influences on those paths. Each path represents someones journey between birth and death, each bend is a decision, each segment the consequences of that decision.

It remains your path, your decision and your segment. This is the journey that each of us goes through and there aren’t external forces making decisions for us, we travel the path.

Unconnected dots

For me, Buddhism is not about birth, death, enlightenment, Buddhism is the journey between these events. That is why the lines are unattached to the dots, Buddhism isn’t about connecting the dots, Buddhism is the journey between the dots.

Nirvana has the same location for every life

Nirvana is the final oneness with the universe. It is the continuation of the spiritual life. Once my physical life has found a closure, my spiritual life will continue with the Universe and the greatness all around us.

Nirvana is constant, no matter what I do on my journey between birth and death. Nirvana, your personal, my personal Nirvana, will remain unchanging throughout my physical lifetime on spaceship Earth.

Everyone will reach their personal Nirvana whether they have been enlightened or not, whether they have been good or bad.

Nirvana is non-universal, it is personalised for each of us. My Nirvana isn’t better than yours, neither is yours better than mine. They aren’t the same and cannot be compared. Nirvana is your personal oneness, happiness and calmness. These are my words for my Nirvana, you might have completely different words to describe your Nirvana. There aren’t any top scores when it comes to Nirvana.

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is similiar to Nirvana, but it is not Nirvana. I won’t reach Nirvana in my lifetime as Nirvana is reached in death. It is the continuation of my spiritual life in oneness with the Universe.

To be enlightened you need to prepare yourself to be at one with yourself, your surroundings and the universe. Then you may be lucky enough to experience enlightenment.

Faith

For me, Nirvana is the core faith of Buddhism, just as God is the core faith for Christianity. Faith for me is the part of a religion that cannot be proven nor shown to be true. You either believe it or not, take it or leave it.

For me, Buddhism does not have a judgemental God who is keeping score to see who goes to heaven or hell. Each one of us are our own scorekeepers. Each one of us will come to our personal Nirvana, regardless of the score on the board.

Finally, for me the pivotal point of Buddhism is the question why don’t we all just commit suicide and be done with it. Obviously 500 million Buddhist have found an answer that does not involve suicide.

As I too have found my answer.

[Part of the Taboo Tiles series.]

Postscriptum

As a religious organisation Buddhism has its failings as many other human-based organisations. For example there is a this documentary from arte (alternative youtube) which presents cases of sexual abuse performed by Buddhist teachers. Specifically the documentary focuses on Sogyal Rinpoche, Robert Spatz aka Kunzang Dorjé and Rigdzin Namkha Gyatso Rinpoche also makes an appearance.

There is also an extensive list of controversial Buddhist Lamas/teachers.

For me, I believe in the teachings not the people. The Dalai Lama has this to say:

You should not say, “This is my guru. What guru says I must follow.” That’s totally wrong! Buddha himself mentioned, “You must examine my teaching”. Similarly if one particular lama says something, you examine whether this goes well according to Buddhaʻs teaching or according to the circumstances in society. Then you must follow. If the lama says something; if you investigate and it’s not proper, then you should not follow the lama’s teaching. Even Dalai Lama’s teaching; if you find some contradiction you should not follow my teaching.

Listen, question, reflect and decide for yourself.