Buddhist or not.
This article came up in my social media. Shambhala SunSpace » Stephen Schettini: “Why I’m Not a Buddhist”
Here’s a thing I don’t get. Guy doesn’t want to be a Buddhist. No problem, don’t be. You tried it, didn’t suit you, fine. Why make the big hoopla over it? Same with Sam what’s his name, the atheist guy…oh yeah Sam Harris who’s had more than a few pages in Buddhist publications.
And why do Buddhist magazines publish this? It’s really odd.
I decide not to be a Muslim, Christian, Jew or Wiccan, do I expect their publications to put my articles there? Would they? Not too likely. Seems like a lot of these guys are hating on Buddhism but still trying to get some attention or make a buck off of it by scraping a few things off and repackaging it. Are the magazines that desperate for content?
Same with Batchelor and the Speculative non-Buddhism crew and a whole lot more.
Unhealthy attachments are…unhealthy.
And attachments.
Saying you are not religious or a member of a religion while espousing the doctrine and practices of the religion is the new religious. Awfully complicated I think.
I found Schettini’s piece mildly interesting. I call myself a Buddhist, but I don’t consider that a statement of fact: partly because “Buddhism” is so ill-defined, and partly because my relationship with it is complicated, and not a matter of tribal membership. Saying “I am a Buddhist” is more like a political stance; it’s saying “there is enough of value in ‘Buddhism’ that I want to promote it, and I acknowledge my debt to its history”. I could also say I was a non-Buddhist, in that I don’t accept any version of Buddhism uncritically. I think that would be less useful, although perhaps also “true”.
Schettini didn’t leave Buddhism to become a something-else-ist. If he had simply converted to Christianity, that would be entirely uninteresting. But he maintains, and teaches, Buddhist practices. (Ditto Glenn Wallis.) So these guys are walking the boundary; they are right on the edge of “Buddhism”. That seems potentially useful in pointing out where the boundary is. And even for those of us who continue to consider ourselves Buddhists, it may be useful to have them pointing out problems from an informed and somewhat-sympathetic standpoint. (Whereas criticism of Buddhism from evangelical Christians is unlikely to have any value.)
Duff, thanks for that video, and also the WSJ piece about it you linked in your post!
I liked some things about the video a lot (while disagreeing with others, obviously).
Interested to see that there are responses on YouTube from Muslim, atheist, and Perennialist perspectives. (Maybe others.)
I’d like to do a Buddhist response… alas, so many fun & useful things to do, so little time!
Cherchez la critique de la critique.
I thought Batchelor was a Buddhist. Just not “that kind” of Buddhist.
“Unhealthy attachments”?
To label attachments as healthy or unhealthy – IS attachment! *L*
What makes you a Buddhist? Can you be a Buddhist without knowing it? “Anyone who accepts these four seals, even independently of Buddha’s teachings, even never having heard the name Shakyamuni Buddha, can be considered to be on the same path as he.” – – Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche… http://rational-buddhism.blogspot.com/2011/05/rational-buddhism.html