Oh my goodness, I think I am a Secular Buddhist (Am I?).
Secular: The dictionary defines it as; denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. And (of clergy) not subject to or bound by religious rule; not belonging to or living in a monastic or other order. (This is when I looked up the word on Secular).
I have a long history of study in Buddhism. I started studying in the 1970s when I had seen Kung Fu movies and the television series starring David Caradine. I was enamored with the Shaolin monks and what the wisdom was and how they approached problems. I continued in college reading and absorbing anything I could related to Buddhism, music, art, writings, books and the like. I was deep into it. I had no access at the time to anyone who actually WAS a Buddhist. I had taken many martial arts classes, workshops and spent a long time learning different techniques; throws, arm bars, takedowns, kicks and falls… I still never met any of my teachers that were actually Buddhists. They studied it, but they were largely Westerners knowledgeable about some Buddhist concepts, some Taoist concepts and many cultural concepts that related to the techniques I was studying.
Later I happened to find a meditation retreat hosted by a not so local temple a little ways from my home. I went and immediately became immersersed and enamored by it. I hung around the temple, talked often to the abbot, learned from him and eventually became close friends. I then became
The simili of the empty cup. >>> A good start to approach but not to stay that way. Once you know you know and you should discuss and debate each subject with yourself and with others to see through it and go from there.
Doug’s Secular Dharma explains it as; “it is not a fixed thing, there is no definition, it is something made up as we go along.” It is a practice that we follow.
There are some fundamental differences between traditional Buddhism and Secular Buddhism. Namely rituals and images. It really seems as if it is a more educational study of the practice and attempts to define each of the concepts of Buddhism in more modern non cultural ways. “Devotional practices require you to (sort of ) have a belief in something like a god, because you are debasing yourself in front of something, it has to be something that’s extremely powerful presumably, something that is wise and good.” So
I think this is a pretty good definition in that it is a fluid and changing definition and one that as you start to practice will help you without dogma. Later as you get deeper without drowning, you can begin to see the historical, cultural and psychological benefit of all of those things that you once denied.
(Story of the monks and priests joking around, and then when I asked them why they were not that way in public… basically they said that if they acted as they did when they met in private, they would be ridiculed by their parishioners and they would complain and that would cause more trouble than it was worth. It is better to show solidarity in individuality to gain the slow and gentle acceptance from your own parishioners than to try and force it and shock them. They may leave or abandon or even attack you...
Secular does not mean cherry picking…
Secular does not deny practices, but hopes to reframe them into more palatable forms for the Westerner to practice.
The problem with traditionalists: FIxated in culture and lineage, staunch in their belief in what is right or wrong.
Supernatural attachments.
Reliance on cultural and traditional aspects that …
The problem with secularists:
More often than not, they are reformed from another religion and had a poor experience and did not get deep enough into that practice to lose the self in it.
They drop essential practices as either archaic or
How the Buddha practiced was preserved in a monks aspect. It is a way for us to apply this to our own lives as they are for a lay person. Not as a struct
The middle path…Somewhere between secular and
Practical application of the dharma without traditional supernatural concerns
Doug's Dharma on Secular Buddhism. https://youtu.be/UtRk4qD8a-0
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