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October 17, 2005
There is no God in Buddhism ?
Buddhism is probably the only religion which does not talk about God. It does not say that "God does not exist" either. It just does not bother about God. It does not even offer an explanation why it avoids to talk about God.
The main concern of Buddhism is "you" i.e the human being. All it tries to do is to study the human condition; why is human being the way he is. And it proposes some techniques to alleviate human suffering.
Buddhism is all about living a life in harmony with one-self, in harmony with others & in harmony with environment.
What a wonderful religion! May be, the label "religion" is a misnomer for Buddhism. If you are really looking for God, go somewhere else. But if you are honestly looking to improve yourself, try some of Buddhism techniques.
The main technique of Buddhism is Meditation. There have been attempts to imbue Buddhism with lot of analytical theory but main theme is always the technique rather than theory. A lot of people would like to indulge in theorizing as a substitute to the actual work; but such people would be disappointed. Stop analyzing and start working on the actual issues.
Even if you are not convinced of the methods of Buddhism, don't worry; at least take the inspiration that it is you who can do anything at all for you. God is for those who like to shift the burden of responsibility from themselves. In my opinion, God is very damaging to the health. Just the thought that "somebody (i.e God) is going to take care of me when I am in trouble" is a comforting but is a destructive notion. It makes you dependent on somebody else. Sorry, you are responsible for yourself.
But there is a recursive danger now. Ok, now I take responsibility for my self and hope that it would ensure the results. Well, even that is a dangerous assumption. Sorry, you can't even rely on the assumption that hard work pays off.
A lot of people like to call themselves Karma Yogis. They say that they leave the fruits of the action to God. But by asserting that such a path is going to lead them to happiness is again a dependance. Now you are depending on the efficacy of the Karma Yoga technique. Sorry, you can't even rely on assumption that by leaving fruits of action to God will make you happy.
So, what do I depend on now ? Doesn't such freedom cause anxiety ? Yes, it does. All you can do is to learn being comfortable with the utter chaos. Learn to tolerate the ambiguities. Learn to tolerate fuzziness.
Posted by nachiketa at October 17, 2005 03:55 PM