Over at a website called Answers for Hope, I found a blog entry titled An internal critique of Buddhism. It's quite misinformed, making a number of assumptions based on linguistics and false information. I tried to comment there, but the comments are moderated, and it doesn't seem like they want anything critical of their article to be seen by anyone.
In the interests of making sure that accurate information is out there, here is a slightly modified version of the comment they didn't post.
"Bhikkhus, these two misrepresent the Tathagata. Which two? One who explains what has not been stated and uttered by the Tathagata as having been stated and uttered by him, and one who explains what has been stated and uttered by him as not having been stated and uttered by him. These two misrepresent the Tathagata." Anguttara Nikaya 2.23.
Please allow me, out of compassion, to provide a few corrections.
First, you said, " Buddhism is actually a branch of Hinduism at least in part." This is incorrect. While there is some overlap in terms of art - kamma, samsara, etc, the contextual use is radically different. Though the Blessed One studied the vedas as well as the teachings of other contemplatives and ascetics at the time, there is little in common between vedanta and the Buddha's dhamma-vinaya (see "Vedanta and Buddhism: A Comparative Study" by Helmuth von Glasenapp, bps wheel 002). There are some similarities, but they are superficial at best.
Next we have the statement that, "One of the major focuses of the Buddhist is the presupposition that everything is an illusion." This is not true. There is nothing in the vinaya, suttas, or abhidhamma that teaches this. When something is spoken of as illusory, it always qualified as to illustrate that while something exists, it does so based on conditions, exercises a period of actuality, then dissolves to become a condition itself. Things are real and do exist, but it is a wrong view to impute a sense of the everlasting or eternal or a transcendent essence (see the Patisambhidamagga, as well as Anguttara Nikaya 4.49).
"Buddhism is mute on the concept of god or gods. They are silent on theism." Not true. Gods, in a sense, exist in Buddhism. They are the devas, beings born into celestial realms due to the fruits of good kamma. However, like all beings, they are subject to suffering and death.
"This is why Buddhism is a self centered religion."
In a sense. Dhp 276, "You yourselves must strive; the Buddhas only point the way. Those meditative ones who tread the path are released from the bonds of Mara." Sutta Nipata 773, "Having desire as their fetter, bound to the pleasures of existence, [people] are hard to release, [and] indeed cannot be released by others..." Digha Nikaya 16, "All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness." However, the Buddha repeatedly exhorted his disciples, monks or householders to act with the welfare of all beings in mind. Sutta Nipata 149 - 151, "Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will."
"That is an interesting paradox in that the ego is really an illusion within Buddhist thought. That implies that one ought to selfishly deny selfishness from yourself which does not really exist. That idea ends up in rejection of personal identity, love, communication, and personal relationships (no mom, dad, brothers, sisters, etc). The truth that there is no truth must be true. Which is another self refuting claim."
This is a wrong claim. The ego is not illusory so much as it is a wrong view to say that something is the self due to the three characteristics of existence. It is not correct to say that there is not self, so much as the world should be viewed as void of a self as views of a self or of non-existence are the two horns that the Buddha taught against. As such, the other claims of negation of identity, love, etc is incorrect as well. The Buddha nowhere says that truth doesn't exist. If this were the case, how could the precept against false speech be urged? And of course there is family. Samyutta Nikaya 15.14-19, "A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find... A being who has not been your father... your brother... your sister... your son... your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find." Hence why one should love all beings with the love of a parent for a child.
"Another issue within Buddhism is known as the four noble truths. Assuming they have a standard of truth anyway they confirm everything in life is suffering and the soul is out of place and seeks wrong things. The second truth is result of desire. All men suffer because we lack what we want and receive the trouble, which we do not desire. This desire to have and to own things is the cause of our suffering. An important part of enlightenment is the understanding that suffering is just an illusion."
Of course there is a standard of truth. The dhamma-vinaya is an ocean of teaching about the moral laws of the universe. By laws, in this sense, it is not mandates imposed upon the universe by consciousness (in flagrant violation of the not-self characteristic), but descriptions of the functioning similar to the way math describes physics.
The first noble truth is the truth of suffering. The Buddha defined suffering in Samyutta Nikaya 56.11 as, "Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, association with the unpleasant is suffering, dissociation from the pleasant is suffering, not to receive what one desires is suffering — in brief the five aggregates subject to grasping are suffering." Notice the that the five aggregates, that is materiality, perception, feeling, formations, and consciousness, are defined as suffering. This is not just desire for physical things or sensual experience, by clinging to ideas and such. Suffering is not an illusion so much as it is conditioned and that we suffer of our own making through clinging. Think again of the Buddha's final words in DN 16.
"The third truth is the will to remove desire and to not feel tempted that things are real. The problem is, if all desire is error and increases suffering, then the desire to rid myself of desire is an error and actually increases suffering." This is an elementary misunderstanding. See Samyutta Nikaya 51.15 and Majjhima Nikaya 126. Of course, that ignores that the Buddha didn't speak of <i>desire</i> but <i>tanha</i>. To put it another way, the word tanha <i>can</i> be translated as desire, but this is a very poor word to encompass what is meant by the word, and as such has led to a very grave misunderstanding.
"The forth [sic] truth confirms how to destroy desire, however that is contradictory to the previous truths of destroying desire, which is a desire within itself." It is an aspiration after tiring of the whole mass of suffering. See Majjhima Nikaya 13.
The four ennobling truths should not be thought of as mere doctrinal statements, but as facts by which to be inspired. As put in the Patisambhidamagga, suffering is to be understood, it's origin is to be abandoned, that there is a path to cessation is to be realized, and that path to be cultivated.
Last, "Buddhism ultimately fails to supply an epistemological justification for truth, knowledge, reason, and everything. All is an illusion. You must use reason to reject reason. Rejecting reason is self refuting and requires reason. That which is self contradictory is false, therefore Buddhism is false." Ignoring that there is no teaching of illusion, buddhism definitely does have all of those. I recommend the Theravada Nyaya ("Logic and Epistemology in Theravada Buddhism") for a short but comprehensive overview of this. If what you said is true, buddhism would false, but what you have said isn't true.
Edited 6/30/13 to add that I've found another instance of this happening to poster Ydemoc at the blog Incinerating Presuppositionalism on the entry "Klouda-ing the Issue." Comments beginning with the one time stamped June 22, 2013 5:04 pm.
May all beings be happy and free from suffering.
No comments:
Post a Comment