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Progressive
Buddhism
An Open Letter
to Buddhists Everywhere
"It is proper for you,
Kalamas, to doubt, to be uncertain; uncertainty has arisen in
you about what is doubtful. Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what
has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor
upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise;
nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias
toward a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's
seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, 'The monk is our
teacher.' Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are
bad; these things are blamable; these things are censured by the
wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and
ill,' abandon them.”
"Come, Kalamas. Do not go
upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon
tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor
upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning;
nor upon a bias toward a notion that has been pondered over; nor
upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, 'The
monk is our teacher.' Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These
things are good; these things are not blamable; these things are
praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead
to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them.”
(AN III.65 Kalama Sutta,
"The Instruction to the Kalamas," translated from the Pali by Soma
Thera)
Observations
-
Buddhism in its original form
may not be meaningfully understood and/or practiced in our
contemporary societies; problems arising from linguistic,
social, and ideological positions prevalent more than 2,500
years ago can become a stumbling block in the face of the
rational seeker of awakening;
-
Present-day Buddhism is in danger of becoming, especially in
non-Buddhist traditions, an exercise in exotism for the
bored and dissatisfied. The mind, in search of new objects,
wanders from one distraction to another, and obscurantism
quickly becomes the only way an uprooted tradition can
survive in foreign soil;
-
The question is
the following: can we, in the voluminous literature and practice
of Buddhism, locate, recover, and keep the obvious simplicity of
the Middle Way and adapt it to our present needs?
What is Progressive Buddhism?
Progressive
Buddhism is not a new fad. In it, there are no rituals, no conversions, no
initiations, no sacred books, no chanting, no exotic foreign
languages, no esoteric teachings, no secrets, no surprises.
Progressive Buddhism is only a convenient term (which can be
changed to suit different needs) to describe how the advice
given by the historical Siddharta Gautama can
be practically and usefully adapted to any contemporary
environment with the aim of producing awakening. Progressive
Buddhism re-starts every time a historical change takes place
and is therefore not tied to a person, time, or place. As such,
Progressive Buddhism is and should be constantly changing.
What is this?
These
are not “vows,” because a vow binds; we have theses which are
rational observations that can and should be amended when
changes in people, time, and place occur. These statements are,
therefore, part of a continuous work in progress.
The
Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
-
The historical
Siddharta Gautama, the awakened, was a guide and, like all
human guides, was liable to faults, mistakes, and errors;
-
“Buddha” means the
awakened and enlightened;
-
“Buddhism” is the
system of the awakened and enlightened;
-
“Dharma” is
one of many
bodies of knowledge and guidance towards awakening and
enlightenment;
-
“Sangha” is the
group of people working towards awakening and enlightenment;
-
The awakened was a
human being, the body of guidance are useful ideas and
suggestions, the group are normal people like us discussing
and practicing together;
-
What need, then, do we have of the terms “buddha,” “dharma,” and
“sangha,” other than as examples? Too much attachment can
only build our ego and help others build theirs;
-
Our only refuge is our mind,
our reason, and our practice;
-
We want to evade
mind control, brainwashing, power, intimidation, and their variants and
attendants like hierarchies, exoticism, esotericism, ritualism, and
obscurantism.
Masters and Disciples
-
Masters and disciples are
travelers on the same path to awakening; all are humans;
- Our
only temple or monastery is our own self, our own independent mind, and the intimate group of
friends who meet for the practice;
-
Our biggest enemy is
ideological oppression, under any guise: visible or
invisible; brutal or subtle; physical, spiritual or
rational; we will denounce it first and foremost amongst
ourselves and then whenever and wherever we find it.
Code of Conduct
-
We will take no
money, gifts, or favors, either directly or through
donations; all of these will, sooner or later, corrupt; we
will likewise give no money for Buddhist teachings, not even
in the form of donations;
-
We denounce all forms of
ideological and physical violence; we denounce all wars and
conflicts; we refuse to take sides in any of them.
Practice
-
We will dress, speak, and conduct ourselves
according to our time, country, and culture; Siddharta did so
himself: he dressed, spoke, and conducted himself according to the fashion of his age
and culture, not
according to that of thousands of years before him;
-
We will adapt the
body of teachings to our time, country, and culture, making
the necessary changes where needed;
-
We will not be
exotic or outlandish in and out of our meditation practice.
The question foremost in our mind is “Why do this? What is
its purpose? Can we do it or say it in simpler terms?”
-
The question should
always be: “Is this right?” and “What do we do with it now?”
Re-read the Kalama sutra for guidance or, better, for an
example;
-
“What we don’t
understand, we will not do”: guidance has to be in the
simple, everyday language of the country where it is
uttered;
-
Patience and
generosity, not rudeness and heartless discipline;
-
Transparency, first and foremost: no obscurantism of
ideas, conduct, dress, words, and tradition;
-
The awakened
as well as
the searchers for awakening are normal and inconspicuous
persons;
-
The system of
awakening is specific, functional, and practical: it is not
a collection of platitudes about virtue and sin;
-
Each
civilization/culture must strive to develop its own system
of awakening; the historical example of Siddharta Gautama,
the awakened, can be useful;
-
Mindfulness is at
the heart of our practice, but it can only lead to awakening
through the rational paths of psychology and science;
meditation, when practiced, must be adapted to our time, and
cleansed of ritualistic remnants.
Beliefs
-
Woman and man are
equal as regards awakening, as well as animals and all
sentient beings; none is above the others, none is “luckier”
to have been born as such;
-
Siddharta's words,
as recorded in the historical suttas, must be read in
context and, in order to be of any use to us, must be
cleansed of the understandable idiosyncrasies (linguistic,
ideological, etc.) prevalent at the time they were written;
-
Tradition is mostly
of historical importance; if it is not built upon and
adapted to present-day circumstances, it is at best a dead
weight;
-
All forms of
sorcery, esotericism, magic, and superstition are remnants
of an age past; ours is an age of
reason and science;
-
Devas, asuras, gods, demons, rebirth, mystical/magical
powers, and other otherwordly beliefs are gently kept aside
until scientifically proved;
-
There is nothing
Sacred, Everything is sacred.
© 2006-2008 The Buddhist Society of Lebanon |
