Boiling Down Buddhism

For my first proper post I'm going to talk about Buddhism.
But instead of giving the usual spiel about who Buddha was, his crazy antics as a prince and his long sit down under a tree, I want to discuss how Buddhism fits into my personal philosophy, what aspects of it I find to be beneficial and how I see it relating to the real world. For that other stuff you can go to wikipedia, or one of a billion or so other blogs - or maybe even a book if you're feeling really adventurous.

So... Buddhism. What can we say? Well, Buddhism is like a detective novel - you have your detective who's only after the truth, but between him and the truth are a bunch of clues and characters, some of which are helpful and others a hindrance to his quest.
In Buddhism you have various schools, a number of sutras, countless Bodhisattvas, a myriad of different paths and methods to enlightenment (one of which found in the Pure Land School consists of a faith-based system not unlike the faith-based salvation of protestant Christianity - much to my own perplexity).
Now don't get me wrong, these things are all fascinating in their own way, but for someone who's not looking for a reason to circumambulate their house chanting "Om Mani Padme Hum" or prostrate themselves in front of an icon of Kwan Yin, they are limited in their usefulness.

Like a detective, the seeker of the core of Buddhism needs to separate out the fundamental aspects from the ornamental extravagances. In doing so we are left with some pretty common sense teachings that aren't hard to grasp and don't require supernatural intervention to comprehend.

What Buddhism boils down to is this; the concept that people have a tendency to become attached to objects, entities and events in their lives. And when those things are taken away from them, or are never given to them or in some other way denied them, they get stressed, depressed, panicked, angry or in a multitude of other ways cause themselves suffering.
The Buddha taught "Hey, relax guy. There will always be points in your life where something you crave or delight in is withheld or taken from you, in fact it'll probably happen every day. But here's the thing, if you listen to what I have to say I can help you let go of your attachments and cravings, I can help you see how the world really functions and how you can best function in that world."

In short, practicing the teachings of the Buddha (often called the middle way) can help you learn to be happy with what you have, and not grieve when what you do have is gone.

This fits neatly in with the various other components of my philosophy. The importance I place upon Oblivion i.e. that aspect of reality which is constantly taking from us, be it time, material possessions or our lives, is somewhat equivalent to what the Buddha termed anicca or impermanence - all things change, all forms are temporary, and all forms are eventually destroyed.
Oblivion eventually consumes all things, there is no point in ignoring this fact, or denying it. In fact, comprehending this simple truth is fundamental to learning how to detach from the temporary phenomena that surround us, and in doing so relieves us of the suffering which that temporary nature inevitably engenders.

The simplistic nature of the Buddha's teachings have been expounded in relatively few places, I can only presume that this is because most Buddhists embrace the whole of the religion (or at least the whole of what their particular school determines to be the religion) rather than looking for the fundamentals alone.
Of those few places, I can recommend two from personal experience;
First a book by Stephen Batchelor titled Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening.

Second a website, Ryu Cope's Bad Buddhist Radio, the link to which can be found in the Website Link section of this blog.

I plan to give both of these excellent resources their own individual reviews at some later date, so stay tuned if that sounds interesting to you.

You've probably noticed that I haven't really gone into any of the teachings themselves, that's because this is an overview - you didn't expect me to exhaust all the juicy bits in a single post now did you? You can expect many other Buddhism related posts from me ladies and gentlemen. If going by this post that prospect scares you, please don't run and hide, because I'll also be posting lots of other mind-destroying abominations for you to play with too.

And if you disagree with anything I say about Buddhism, here or later on, feel free to post a comment so that I can tell you in precise terms exactly how wrong you are. :)

Ceryx