Buddhism

[rossum]

I was also curious what you view as the evidentiary basis for your belief in Buddhism. You have referred to your perception that your practice of Buddhism has “delivered” on certain promises it made.

The Buddha said that his method would reduce, and eventually eliminate, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief and despair in this life. The Buddha did so and other Buddhists have been doing it since. For my own part, my Buddhist practice has reduced them.

Could you elaborate on that a bit, and explain in what sense these “deliverables” constitute grounds, in your view, for belief in the metaphysical claims of the religion, apart from merely finding the practices useful for certain pruposes. Are there other strands of evidence that you see as supporting the truth of Buddhism?

Buddhist metaphysics encompasses many things. The best place to start is probably the Four Noble Truths:* Suffering Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering (dukkha): Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are suffering; association with the unbeloved is suffering; separation from the loved is suffering; not getting what is wanted is suffering. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are suffering.

• Orgin And this, monks is the noble truth of the origination of suffering: the craving that makes for further becoming - accompanied by passion and delight, relishing now here and now there - i.e., craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.
• Cessation And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: the remainderless fading and cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release and letting go of that very craving.
• Path And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Source: Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta - Samyutta Nikaya 56:11

This is in the form of a ancient Indian medical diagnosis: 1 - diagnose the disease; 2 - state the cause of the disease; 3 - confirm that the disease is curable; 4 - state the cure. As is usual with Buddhism the emphasis is on the practical; there is a disease which needs to be cured and the emphasis is on following the prescribed cure. The “five clinging aggregates” in the first truth are the Buddhist analysis of the human personality.

Meditation shows that these truths work. We can observe the changing state of our own consciousness, we can see desire arising and the discontent it causes. We can observe the dissatisfaction we feel with material things, when the anticipation (desire) does not match the reality. We can observe the dissatisfaction we feel with other people when they do not act in ways which we anticipate - the real person does not match the mental image we hold of them inside our head. Suffering can be analysed as a mismatch between the projection of the external world that we all carry round in our heads and the actual world that exists out there.

Meditation trains us to reduce our expectations, to avoid projecting what we want (desire) onto external things. The techniques work, and the metaphysical analysis behind them seems to work also.

As to the heavens, hells and reincarnation: if I wanted to remember my previous lives I would follow the instructions in Chapter 13 of the Visuddhimagga; in principle I can confirm this for myself. If I want to confirm the existence of nirvana for myself then I just have to become enlightened: the Buddha attained nirvana aged 35 and died at age 80. Death is not required to attain nirvana.

rossum