An Australian Approach to Buddhism - Week One

“NO WORRIES”

(an Australian approach to Buddhism - Week One)

“No worries”. It’s possibly the most iconic phrase in Australian history. It conjures up an image perhaps of a carefree nation that is so laid back, the problems of everyday life just pass them by, as they spend another day surfing at the beach, throwing a prawn on the barbie or knocking back a stubbie on the veranda with a few mates. Yet, as we know, everything is not always as it seems in this amazing and diverse country that is Australia. The reality, according to those who work out these things, is that Australia has the highest level, per head of capita, of mental illness in the form of depression, stress and anxiety disorders, in the entire developed Western world. So, it would seem, that in reality, Australians do quite a lot of worrying. The aim of this course is to explore together how the teachings of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, are possibly more relevant today than they were over 2,500 years ago, as long as they are approached on the basis of one's own cultural conditioning and from the perspective of adopting a practical lifestyle change to alleviate or eradicate those worries, without recourse to religious belief or institutionalised dogma.

In reading this material it will, in my view, be helpful from the outset to have an understanding of the way that I suggest you approach your engagement with its content. At times, when and if, you experience anything of a negative reaction, I suggest you come back to this page and re-engage with the approach I am about to set out. It is based on an early Buddhist text called the Kalama Sutta and is also known as the Buddha's charter of free inquiry. It is, in my view, a text of vital importance, as it moves the individual away from blind faith or belief, towards their own direct experience and is, in my view, a safety precaution against coercion or manipulation. Although the wording is my own creation, it has been authenticated by a Buddhist Pali scholar and a Theravada monk as being a realistic reflection of the original.

The Buddha’s Charter of free inquiry

It is unhelpful to simply believe what you hear just because you have heard it for a long time.
It is unhelpful to follow tradition blindly, merely because it has been practiced in that way for years.
It is unhelpful to listen to rumours.
It is unhelpful to confirm anything just because it is stated in a scripture or text.
It is unhelpful to make assumptions.
It is unhelpful to draw conclusions by what you see and hear.
It is unhelpful to be fooled by outward appearances.
It is unhelpful to cling to, or become attached to any view or idea just because you are comfortable with it.
It is unhelpful to accept as fact anything arrived at by logic.
It is unhelpful to be convinced of anything out of respect or reverence to your teacher.

It is helpful to go beyond opinion and belief.
It is helpful to reject anything that, when accepted, tried and tested with integrity, leads to mental anguish in the form of ill-will, greed and inappropriate view.
It is helpful to accept anything that, when accepted, tried and tested with integrity, leads to the practice of loving-kindness, contentment and clarity.

This advice is a guide to what may be of benefit when developing criteria for what is and what is not conducive to making authentic progress on the Dharma path.

If we understand the charter of inquiry correctly, we will have noticed already that Buddhism is not belief based. It is a thing to be tested and challenged in relation to our own lives, our own direct experience, so that we can move towards the alleviation and eventual eradication of our worries. It is a thing in action. It is a thing to do. It is a thing to practice. So, what are these worries and how do they arise and cause us on-going difficulties in the form of mental anguish? To explore this from a Buddhist perspective we will need to start at square one with an understanding of how Buddhism began.

It could be said that the story of the Buddha is all about worrying. To get to grips with its reality we need to let go of all the intellectual stuff and mythological stuff that’s been added in to give it a greater credibility, which was always unnecessary, but inevitable,in my view. His journey starts with worrying about stuff. He took off to see how he could stop worrying about stuff. He found a way to stop worrying about stuff and did his best to show people how they could stop worrying about stuff as well. In my view, everything else got added in by other people and just gets in the way and causes more worries, so if we really want to get back to the source we need to dig a little deeper and be more open to what we discover along the way.

The life story of the Buddha could be said to be, in many respects, an important teaching in itself. It shows clearly that this is a human process and not one created by an external, divine, higher intelligence, entity or energy. This is a very human story about human potential. When you think of the Buddha or see an image of the Buddha you are, I suggest, being invited to witness your own potential as a human being. When you see that serene pose and gentle smile it sings out to you, yeah this guy knows what it’s all about. And what usually comes next is. I want some of that. What you don’t know however, is how to get it. The likelihood is that for most of your life you have been looking in all directions for an external experience that would match that expression of the Buddha and what you will eventually come to realise, when you engage with the Buddha’s teachings with integrity, is that your dream can never be fulfilled by external sources no matter how hard you try.

The historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, we are told, spent over forty years travelling around Northern India attempting, as best he could, to communicate an experience that was realised in the concentrated states of sitting meditation. This experience is referred to here as ‘Clarity’ and elsewhere as enlightenment, nirvana or awakening. This experience of clarity involved no element of faith or belief. Those things would, I suggest, automatically fall away within the experience of clarity. What was realised within the experience and later communicated by the Buddha has come to be known as the Buddha-Dharma, or here as the Dharma, which in its most simplistic description would mean, the way things are in reality.

As the Dharma spread to other countries and different cultures, it began to absorb local customs, traditions, beliefs, superstitions, rites and rituals. This was inevitable. There is no other way, in my view, to communicate the Dharma effectively, without reference to what exists culturally and historically. It seems to me that the Buddha did the same throughout his teaching life. He used Indian culture and pre-existent religious belief systems to communicate what he had discovered within that experience of clarity. The Dharma he taught is a practical solution to the difficulties that exist or arise for all human beings. As almost all of those difficulties will be as a result of cultural conditioning it is important to understand why, as someone who has been thoroughly conditioned by Western culture, it can be helpful to approach the Dharma from a Western perspective, if what you learn or discover is going to be of any practical use to you in your everyday life and practicality is what the Dharma is all about.

There are so many different versions of Buddhism that now exist, that it has become practically impossible for anyone to know what is and what is not Buddhism, outside of the cultural context of where it is being taught and practiced. For the average Westerner this can be very confusing. They think they are being drawn towards Buddhism, but what they are inevitably being drawn towards is a particular form of Buddhism that is associated with a culture that is alien to them. They then have to try and distinguish what is Buddhism from what is actually Indian, Tibetan, Japanese, Chinese or other Asian culture and this can take forever and can be a crippling distraction. The form of Buddhism taught and practiced within each of these different expressions of the Dharma

are equally valid and perfect for those whose conditioning is dependent on that culture, but it provides, in my view and in my experience, limitations for anyone else, other than as an intellectual or religious pursuit.

To understand this point it might be helpful before we go any further to have an understanding of what Buddhism has become in the 21st century so that we can make distinctions that might support what I have just said should anyone take issue with it, which of course you are fully entitled to as it is just my view based on my experience and not yours. The word Buddhism is a fairly new addition to the English language. As far as I am aware it came into general use somewhere around the mid 1900’s when travellers first bought back news and views from Eastern countries. Back in the day of the Buddha there were no Buddhists and no Buddhism. There was just the Buddha and his followers who were fellow wanderers. The word Buddha is a term that means something like ‘awakened one’, or ‘one who is awake’. The reference to the word awake relates to the experience of clarity. It is an expression of the realised mind, the bodhi mind. In effect, anyone who has realised clarity is a Buddha and this is where the confusion begins, because we also use the word Buddha to relate back to one particular historical character who is known as Shakyamuni Buddha.

In reality, what we have now, in my view, is a number of new expressions or communications of the experience of clarity that have evolved at different points in history and by other realised beings who walked the Dharma path. We also have expressions or communications of the experience of clarity that do not have the word Buddhism attached to them that point towards the same experience but via a different path or method. For instance, (and I’ll give you an over exaggerated example to show you how ridiculous it all is) if I, as a Dharma practitioner, was waking through the park eating an orange and clarity was realised, I would become a Buddha. What I communicated following that would then be Buddhism. It is likely, that as part of my communication, I would link the experience to both walking in the park and eating an orange and would possibly suggest that all you needed to do to realise clarity is to walk in the same park as I did and work towards finding the right orange that will assist your breakthrough into reality. So, it comes as no surprise then that the Buddha promotes mediation as the primary key to unlocking the experience as that is what he was doing at the moment clarity was realised.

In many respects it would have been more helpful if new names were created at each new communication so it was not too confusing and misleading for people but that is outside of my control. But for the purposes of this course I am going to create my own words so when I use the term Buddha or Buddhism you will know that I am referring to Shakayamuni Buddha and what he taught. References to other forms of Buddhism will be in the form of Theravadanism, Zenism, Tibetanism Pure-Landism, and Shingonism. Let me make it very clear, I am not being dismissive or being disrespectful to any of these great traditions. I recognise that they all have equal validity as expressions of the Dharma. It’s a bit like when you go to Bali and buy a Billabong ‘T’ shirt. You can get an original there or you can buy one that is made of very different material but looks the same. It’s very hard sometimes to spot the difference and the same thing happens in Buddhism. The approach here is, ‘why settle for a copy when you can have the original?’

If we were to peel back all of the multi-layered developments of Buddhism, so that we were back to its roots and then put to one side what was then Indian culture we would be left with the Buddha’s Dharma. Despite early reservations about being able to communicate the Dharma effectively, the numbers of his followers grew very quickly,despite his non-evangelical approach to teaching. It would appear that the vast numbers that are often referred to in Buddhist texts, are something of an over exaggeration of the reality of the situation according to archaeological surveys and scholastic investigations.