{"id":773,"date":"2009-08-27T08:40:59","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T08:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/08\/buddhism-for-dummies-i-dont-think-so.html"},"modified":"2009-08-27T08:40:59","modified_gmt":"2009-08-27T08:40:59","slug":"buddhism-for-dummies-i-dont-think-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/08\/buddhism-for-dummies-i-dont-think-so.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddhism For Dummies – I Don’t Think So"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently noticed that the “For Dummies” franchise had a book called “Buddhism for Dummies”.  This made me laugh. Buddhism is a philosophy (and, in some areas of the world, a religion) full of deep-sounding expressions, lots of
\nquiet time alone, and complicated teachings that could (and will)  take a lifetime (or two)
\nto unravel. The Buddhist path suggests that you simultaneously be okay
\nwith where you are in your life, recognize that there is a more
\npeaceful and compassionate way to live and that there is a well-worn path to that
\nway, and to recognize that none of this matters because you don’t
\nexist. 
<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

In Buddhism, there’s no externalizing responsibility for the good and the
\nbad to fates or gods or god or holy ghosts; karma, once you really
\nstart to understand what that means, is as rational as 2+2=4 or the
\nrecipe for water. No judgement here unless you choose to bring your
\nown, but it’s a fact that as you travel the world you’ll meet some really smart people, 
\nregular smart people, people of average intelligence, and dumb people. I’ve noticed that everyone I meet who is practicing Buddhism is regular smart, or really smart, and I’m wondering what’s up with that.
<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


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

Though
\nBuddhism is huge in Japan, it’s well known that most Buddhist practice
\nin that country is centered around rites of passage – birth, marriage, death – and
\nBuddhist “monks” and “nuns” are paid by laypeople to do the dirty work
\nof daily meditation and ritual on their behalf.  Is this because most
\nlaypeople are lazy or disinterested in the journey to enlightenment?
\nNo- that’s too easy – most people are not that lazy and do desire to
\nbetter themselves. I think it’s because Buddhism require a level of
\nintelligence, sensitivity, nuance, and understanding beyond the grasp
\nof the average person.  I do not say this sarcastically or meanly. 
\nIt’s simply what I’ve observed. Buddhism (as practiced as a daily way of life, vs. an arms-length religion), with its emphasis on self-reflection and investigation, self-selects for the more intelligent among us.
<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Buddhism
\nis very appealing to people who are addicted to “a-ha” moments and the
\npossibility of transformation. It takes a certain level of wisdom to be
\ninterested in a-ha and transformation. Buddha himself started the
\nteachings because his hungry intelligence sent him to the world to do
\npractical experiments on his own mind – and it takes a big mind to
\nundertake such an effort. The teachings themselves derive from his own
\njoy at his own “a-ha” moment – THE a-ha moment – and his compassion,
\nsensitivity, and eloquence as a teacher. All of this takes smarts.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m
\nnot suggesting you have to smart to be Buddhist. No more than you have
\nto be smart to write a book, or understand Algebra or Physics.
\nEverything can be learned by anyone who tries hard enough, no matter
\nhow smart (or not) you naturally are, but some huge percentage of people are going to be
\nself-selected out of any pool that requires above-average intelligence, because the work you have to do to make up for a lack of natural intelligence is too hard.  Buddhism is
\nhard even if you ARE smart – it requires constant vigilance,
\nconfronting painful issues, and making decisions that sometimes seem
\ncounter-intuitive – and if you have a hard time just trying to
\nunderstand the basic concepts before you even get to the hard work, you
\nmight not stick with it, even though the benefits are out of all proportion to the work you put in, no matter how hard you have to work at it.
<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

I
\nknow that there a lot of people who call themselves Buddhist or meditators who sit
\neach day and meditate and think about their to-do list, or what they’ll
\nhave for lunch, or a recipe for cake, who aren’t doing the work to find the gap between their
\nthoughts. They’ve  mistaken meditation for a stress-release technique
\nrather than as a means to investigate all the amazing ways we lie to
\nourselves.  And I know people – religious and non-religious, smart and not-as-smart  – who
\nwouldn’t bother with Buddhism either because it doesn’t appeal, or they
\ndon’t get it, or they don’t want to do the work  – some of whom have more
\ncompassion and wisdom in their left hand than some Buddhists ever will
\nin their whole mind. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s
\nnot a secret that a lot of smart people abandon religion in their adult
\nlives, or re-contextualize it based on what they know to be true about
\nrational thought or the way they think the world works.  Of course, a
\nlot of smart people do stay with and deepen their own religious
\ntraditions – this is not to say that being smart necessarily translates
\ninto being non-religious.  But it does seem that people come to
\nBuddhism in particular with a spirit of inquisitiveness and investigation and
\nintelligence, usually because some other path of discovery isn’t
\nworking, or their family-chosen religion has failed them in a state of
\ncrisis, or they recognize that there is something rippling at the edges
\nof perceived consciousness that seems worth a curious sniff or two or twenty.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Buddhism
\noffers a highly logical, deeply tolerant, slightly complex, and
\ndeceptively simple means to understand the true nature of things. It
\nalso offers a highly logical, deeply tolerant, slightly complex, and
\ndeceptively simple means to engage in lots of philosophical sounding
\nconversations while pretending to try to understand the true nature of
\nthings.  Perfect for smart people to faff about with – or to experience true transformation. <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

My
\nexperience with Buddhism (with myself, and others) is that it tends to
\nattract people who are highly intelligent, sensitive, creative, and
\nself-absorbed.  None of these things make it easy to find the gap
\nbetween your thoughts, but since we also tend to be the trend-setters
\nin culture (by virtue of our leadership through our intelligence,
\nsensitivity, creativity, and self-absorption) perhaps our devotion to
\nthe Buddhist path will inspire others who will make the teachings more accessible to less over-analytical folks, who can do it better than we
\ncan, because they are less “Monkey Minded” than we are. That could lead to a true personal and cultural transformation, even. Regardless of the work involved, I’ve encountered no path better suited to creating an easeful and meaningful way of being in the world than Buddhism.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe the real trick to Buddhism is to become more stupid?<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

Is Buddhism only for smart people?<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

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

I recently noticed that the “For Dummies” franchise had a book called “Buddhism for Dummies”.  This made me laugh. Buddhism is a philosophy (and, in some areas of the world, a religion) full of deep-sounding expressions, lots of quiet time alone, and complicated teachings that could (and will)  take a lifetime (or two) to unravel.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism"],"yoast_head":"\nBuddhism For Dummies - I Don't Think So - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/08\/buddhism-for-dummies-i-dont-think-so.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buddhism For Dummies - I Don't Think So - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently noticed that the “For Dummies” franchise had a book called “Buddhism for Dummies”.  This made me laugh. 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