{"id":747,"date":"2009-08-11T15:36:28","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T15:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/08\/secularizing-buddhism-making-it-accessible-or-stripping-the-roots.html"},"modified":"2009-08-11T15:36:28","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T15:36:28","slug":"secularizing-buddhism-making-it-accessible-or-stripping-the-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/08\/secularizing-buddhism-making-it-accessible-or-stripping-the-roots.html","title":{"rendered":"Secularizing Buddhism–Making it Accessible or Stripping the Roots?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vince_Bio1.jpg\"A Guest Post for the <\/i>One City Blog<\/i><\/a> by Vince Horn of <\/i>Buddhist Geeks<\/i><\/a> (Full Bio Below).<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

It’s a very common and hip thing today to want to make
\nBuddhism<\/a> secular.  Many very
\nworthwhile organizations and movements have this as their guiding premise.  One need only look at the work that
\nMind and Life Institute<\/a> is doing to make meditation<\/a> mainstream in the sciences,
\nor the work that Jon Kabat-Zinn<\/a> has done with the Mindfulness-Based Stress
\nReduction<\/a> technique, to see the far-reaching impact of making Buddhism secular<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, I’ve had many great conversations, for the <\/span>Buddhist
\nGeeks Podcast<\/span><\/a><\/b>,
\nwith some of the leaders in this movement, including the founder of the Mind
\n& Life Institute, <\/span><\/span>Adam Engle<\/span><\/a> and Zen priest <\/span><\/span>Norman
\nFischer<\/span><\/a>.  Each of them has extremely good reasons
\nfor making dharma secular, and so it’s hard not to appreciate the work that
\nthey are doing.  But still, I find
\nthere is something limited about that being the only<\/span><\/span> or even main
\napproach that we take toward transmitting
\nDharma to the West.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/i><\/div>\n


\n<\/p>\n

But let me be clear about
\nwhat I mean when I say, “making Buddhism secular.”  I mean, specifically, the attempt to strip away the cultural
\ntrappings of the tradition, while preserving and re-packaging the “essence” of
\nthe tradition (which usually has something to do with meditation practice).  In the process the religious language
\nis jettisoned and new “less religious” language is used instead.   Phrases like, “Buddhism is more a
\nscience than a religion” or “The core technology of Buddhism is meditation” are
\nindicators of the secular impulse. 
\nThe problem is that Buddhism is a religion.  And it’s a science. 
\nAnd it’s more besides…<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Secularization is Sexy<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Before I get into some of
\nthe problems I’ve noticing with the assumptions behind secularizing Buddhism, I’d
\nlike to acknowledge the very beneficial results of this movement.  <\/span>The main one seems to be that some of
\nthe wonderful meditation practices and perhaps some inkling of the models
\nbehind them, are able to enter more “mainstream culture”.  <\/span>I’ll get into why assuming that
\nmainstream Western culture is secular is a problem in a moment, but for the now
\nlet’s just assume that there are many people who are being exposed with these
\nsecular Buddhist practices who otherwise wouldn’t.  <\/span>That is a wonderful thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connected with that we see
\nthe field of “contemplative science” beginning to be validated, and a whole
\nhost of scientists making their careers out of that intersection.  <\/span>There are also many ways in which
\nBuddhist-based meditation practices<\/a> are making their way into educational
\ncontexts<\/span>.  <\/span>So, it must be acknowledged that there
\nare very real benefits coming online from some of these movements, and those
\nshould continue.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Is the West Really
\nSecular?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

And now, some of my larger
\nconcerns.  <\/span>One is that we assume
\nthat mainstream Western culture really is secular.  <\/span>Has anyone noticed that in fact, we have an incredibly
\nReligious culture?  <\/span>It’s a little
\nless so in some parts of Europe, but in America nearly %85 people self-identify
\nwith a religious tradition.  <\/span>Does
\nthat make us a secular society or a highly religious one?<\/span><\/p>\n

And let’s not confuse the
\nseparation of Church in our political process–which incidentally was designed
\nto support evangelical Christians who were being persecuted, not atheists who
\nwere afraid of religion corrupting the government–with having a secular
\nsociety.  <\/span>We have a governmental
\nprocess that tries its best not to be influenced by one particular religious
\ntradition, but we have a country full of religious people who actively
\nparticipate in governance.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And then there’s this strange
\nidea that there really exists a strong dichotomy between science and religion,
\nand that for something to be scientific it can’t possibly be religious (and
\nvice versa).  <\/span>But is that actually
\nthe case, and do we really need to strip anything that resembles “religion” out
\nof Buddhism for our culture to be able to tolerate it? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Ouch, Those Are My Roots!<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The other problem with the
\nsecular approach is that it often, in an attempt to distance itself from “Buddhism
\nas a religion”, strips away the historical significance of the Buddhist
\ntradition.  <\/span>If you’ve spent anytime
\nstudying the history of Buddhism, you’d see pretty quickly that it is an
\nancient and<\/i><\/span> constantly evolving
\nreligious tradition.  <\/span>It has a
\nseries of both practices and beliefs that have spread and mixed with many other
\ninfluences.  <\/span>Buddhism as it entered
\nTibet from India melded and mixed with the Shamanistic Bon tradition
\nthere.  <\/span>As it entered China it
\nmixed with Confusionist and Taoist influences, and now as it enters America it
\nis mixing with our scientific culture and strange beliefs about the extreme
\ndifference between religion and science. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with not seeing
\nhow Buddhism has evolved, and in not seeing ourselves as a part of Buddhism’s
\nevolution, is that we can believe we are somehow the holders of the “essence”
\nof Buddhism.  <\/span>But what is the
\nessence stripped from the practices, realizations, models, and people who have
\ncontributed to this living tradition? 
\n<\/span>Is there really such a thing? 
\n<\/span>Could it be that the whole idea of there being an essence to Buddhism
\nthat is distinct from it’s extraneous forms–those forms that are so irrelevant
\nthat we can simply ignore them or dump them–is coming from a set of cultural
\nassumptions that exist here in this place and time?  <\/span>We need to recognize that possibility, and see that there is
\na kind of violence in trying to strip something from its historical roots, and also
\na kind of arrogance in thinking that we can even do that successfully. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Some Questions Moving
\nForward<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Some questions that I would
\nask myself and all those who consider themselves influenced by the Buddhist
\ntradition:  <\/span>Are we so embarrassed
\nby certain components of Buddhism–the adherence to strict moral codes, the
\nmagical and mythical pantheon of Buddhist cosmology, the metaphysics of enlightenment,
\netc.–that we feel the need to throw them all out without further
\ndiscourse?  <\/span>Or, can we hold the
\npain of knowing that all the amazing teachings that come out of the Buddhist
\ntradition also come with things that we might not like or understand?  <\/span>And if we acknowledge that, might it
\nmean that each of us has to grapple with the past, present, and future of
\nBuddhism and its relationship to our lives?  <\/span>Can we really trust that things like the Mindfulness Based
\nStress Reduction movement are carrying the full potential of the Buddhist
\ntradition forward?  <\/span>Is it that by
\nsecularizing Buddhism we are running the very real potential of losing
\nsomething of incredible importance, while trying to ditch what we consider the “non-essential”? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These are questions that I continue
\nto ponder, being both a lover of the wisdom that’s carried through the Buddhist
\ntradition and a lover of innovation and the new forms by which that wisdom can
\nbe carried.  <\/span>My intuition is that
\nboth can be honored– tradition and innovation–but not if either one is valued
\nat the expense of the other.  <\/span>And
\ncertainly not if we don’t ask ourselves these hard questions.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

————————————-<\/b><\/p>\n

Vince Horn<\/b> lives as a modern monk. He spends part of his
\nyear in silence, meditating, introspecting, and developing spiritually. The
\nrest of the time he spends engaged in the world, where he produces and hosts
\nthe popular show, Buddhist Geeks, works in the production department of the spiritual publishing company Sounds True<\/a>, and writes for various publications–including on his personal blog Numinous Nonsense<\/a>–and enjoys living in Boulder, Colorado with his wife Emily.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Guest Post for the One City Blog by Vince Horn of Buddhist Geeks (Full Bio Below). 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His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. Ethan lectures regularly at universities and venues around the country on Buddhism, meditation, contemporary culture, and activism.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/author\/enichtern"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}