Buddhism without the goal of enlightenment is nothing more than spiritual materialism.
Buddhism's ultimate goal is the awakening into enlightenment. The Buddha did it. Many hundreds of thousands throughout the history of the enlightenment movement have done it. You can do it too. The question is "do you want to?" Can you even think about it as a possibility while living in a culture that promises individual liberty and autonomy at the same time that it delivers you more slavery to desires and distractions?
Buddhism is growing in the West, but too often it is repackaged into forms that are palatable to audiences of seekers that want the benefits of meditation so long as such benefits can fit into their busy schedules and preconceived materialistic notions. "What's all this talk about becoming a buddha?" People ask. "We just want to become more peaceful, balanced, happy beings who can strive to get all we want while adopting the superficial trappings of an exotic religion," people may be thinking.
This process is common and natural. It also has happened in Asian societies that are thought of as Buddhist. "What?" some Asian Buddhists may say, "Me? Become a Buddha? Nirvana? That's too hard. Maybe in some other life." And this is fine because even their practice of Buddhism can at least soften some of the effects of suffering or attachments. Maybe Buddhism helps them to be better people and to treat others in better ways. Still, I wonder if the avoidance of seriously discussing the possibility of awakening into Buddhahood is because we still want the glitzy glamourous and exciting things of samsara. We don't really want to let go of attachments to things that hurt us, so long as we still believe those things are what we want or they can get us all that we want.
But what about what happens when you realize that you may not get all you want? What happens when you realize that Buddhism is about delving into the fearsome territory of the unknown? What happens when you are confronted with a life that has no basis in cultural, social, economic, familial, lifestyle, or brandname allegiances? What happens when you are confronted with emptiness, nirvana, enlightenment? What do you do then with Buddhism when it reveals itself to be more than just a simple lifestyle or series of lifestyle choices? What do you do when you find out that you must change in order to open up, instead of changing the dharma to suit your present comfortable lifestyle of distraction or frenzied business?
"Stop that," people will say. "We don't want to hear about having to open up to something we don't know about." But how can you be a Buddhist if you think that way? How do you call yourself a Buddhist and yet reject, deny, or denigrate Buddhahood, the most precious aspiration and goal of the religion?
What is distinctive and central to the Buddhist path is enlightenment as the goal and the practice. Other religions promise heaven. Buddhism promises that if you engage with the teachings and put them into practice, learning to fully embody them, you will move towards enlightenment. If you die and get reborn in some heaven, that can be good but only because you can practice the dharma. The final goal isn't heaven, it's enlightenment as a fully mature and autonomous human being. Someone fully blossomed into all possibilities. Someone finally free from suffering. A liberated being. One who has awakened from the collective existential delusions that drive our society. A buddha. How can you pursue such a path or walk the walk, if all you are worried about is assuaging your fears of mental imbalance through the therapeutic aspects of meditation?
Sure, if you need to assuage your mental imbalances and other issues, by all means use meditation. It is a gift open for all. But when you call yourself a Buddhist, you may find it best to investigate this religion you are getting into. This religion that is more than what people assume a religion to be. This path that contains philosophical study, psychology, mental opening and spiritual prowess.
A lot of people dislike the word religion. Or they see that Buddhism isn't so god-focused. Or because Buddhism's approach to the spiritual or sublime is different from other religions, they assume that Buddhism has nothing to say on such matters. So these people often think about Buddhism as a mere "philosophy" or "way of life." But such words serve to denigrate the expression of spiritual urgency that is the Buddhadharma by leading people to smugly assume that it can be easily understood or placed into a neat and easily marketable category.
To be fair, Buddhism is not only a religion in most postmodern urban peoples' understanding of the term. A lot of people in our society think of religion as something you do on sunday. Or it is going to Mass, or listening to sermons, etc. Such people may have left their childhood religions because they felt such activities to be shallow. They subsequently have weird ideas about not only their own religion but of the very word and definition of religion itself. So they can't stomach the idea of Buddhism as a religion. But religion is still the best term to use for Buddhism.
The idea of religion, whether or not it is successfully carried out or taught this way, was a connection to the sublime. To a reality that we can't know per se, but we can experience. In this regard, Buddhism is a religion. It is not merely a lifestyle, way of life, philosophy, or system of meditation training. The enlightenment movement throughout history, at its core, despite being at times antagonistic towards religious biases and dogmas, is religious in the sense that there is this thing called spiritual practice that we do. There is this as yet (for most of us) unknowable enlightenment that we strive towards because we taste some of it now. And we can see it reflected in the lives of those living masters we may take on as mentors.
Buddhism is not meant to be merely some pretty accoutrement or accessory to sprinkle into your lifestyle. It is a radical challenge to see for yourself the reality of what life could be like without ignorance, without this deluded self, and then to think, feel, and act from within this approach. It is an inspiration from and an aspiration towards Buddhahood. If you think that you can just package Buddhism into some sort of New Age spiritual sounding slop, some sort of instant point-and-click dharma that is easily for sale, then you will get disappointed after meditating for years and not getting enlightened, now, won't you?
Suck it up though. Don't use your failure to catch a taste of the radical freedom of enlightenment as an excuse to say that it doesn't exist. That is simply not going to cut it. If you can't pass the test, then either try again and again, or give up and try something else, but don't say that there is no possibility of passing. Or that the possibility is too difficult to even talk about, so we had better not talk of Buddhism as anything other than a pretty lifestyle or philosophical outlook.
Without nirvana, enlightenment, selflessnes, emptiness...without Buddhahood as at least the goal, you can't have Buddhism. Sorry, but there is just no way to water that down. I am not going to mince words to allow people to keep congratulating themselves for twisting the radical freedom that the dharma offers into yet another version of the latest spiritual thing for sale in today's market economy. You need an aspiration to be free, to become awake, to get enlightened, in order to sustain Buddhism. You at least need to admit to the possibility of buddhahood in yourself or in others, in order for you to call yourself a Buddhist. It helps to take refuge, but I certainly hope you don't take refuge vows without even thinking about enlightenment as a goal or imagining it as a possibility in this world, right here and right now.
I don't mind if you take some of the teachings and adapt them for your own situation. I don't care if you even buy Buddha images to decorate your living room with (though I may be slightly irritated). I don't care if you mix and match and throw some Buddhist ideas and teachings in to create your own spiritual practice. In fact, if you are authentic in this last one, I'll even encourage you to do so. Just stop trying to equate Buddhism with whatever secular or materialist lifestyle you imagine it to be. Stop trying to take away the poignant mystery of being alive on a path that gets us to be liberated from suffering and challenges us to also help others do the same. Stop calling yourself a Buddhist and yet avoiding all those "deep" or "profound" aspects of the religion because you find them to be too uncomfortable or unsettling. Did you ever think that maybe there was a reason why such things are unsettling? Did you ever imagine that maybe such unsettling experiences are the beginning of your understanding of what it means to awaken?
Just because you don't want to go the full distance doesn't mean Buddhism can be divorced from that distance. Just because you are scared or put off or repelled by enlightenment, doesn't mean the aspiration to enlightenment is impossible for anyone else. Just because you are still trapped in dualistic thinking doesn't mean nonduality is impossible to realize. Just because you have no taste for what you think of as religions based from your own narrow personal experiences, doesn't mean Buddhism isn't a religion with spiritual practices.
For those of you who would reduce Buddhism to a "way of life." Remember that there is a distinct difference between a lifestyle and a life lived in constant awareness of awakening. Buddhism as an enlightenment movement, needs the spiritual confrontation between the possibility of freedom and our fixated sense of who we think we are. Without this confrontation, the dharma gets watered down. When it gets watered down and secularized like every other thing for sale on the market, then dogmas will appear and get refied. If this happens, the living potency of the dharma will become as clouded over as it is in some of our hearts.
Yes, you can taste the sacredness of ordinary life now, but don't then get confused into thinking that ordinary life is all there is to it. Especially since we live in a society that as a whole has no place for awakening and wouldn't even know how to go about supporting those people who are seeking it. Nirvana is here and now, yes! But that doesn't mean it isn't unordinary or that it won't lead you off from this realm of ordinary madness we call society. Just because "nirvana can't be found anywhere outside of samsara," as is often quoted, doesn't mean that such a source of infinite creativity and life is actually samsara. Delusions may be yet another expression of wisdom's dance, but it takes effort to get to the point where you actually experience that directly, and not just intellectually. And if you feel you have realized wisdom, how come you fall prey to delusions and yet again find yourself unable to awaken to full Buddhahood?
To be curt, Buddhism is Buddhism. It must be approached as Buddhism and not as a mere 'religion,' a mere 'way of life' or a mere 'philosophy.' To catch a snake, you must know how to handle a snake, as the old saying goes. To understand emptiness, or nirvana, or karma, or Buddhahood, or any other thing that people often chatter about, you must know how to apprehend and realize them. That takes a lot of effort and practice.
So, feel free to learn any Buddhist teachings and practices you wish. I hope they help you find peace and happiness. I really do. You can even come into Buddhism and become a Buddhist yourself, all the while not personally accepting the goal of liberation or 'enlightenment' for yourself. Just don't go around saying that such a goal is impossible because you find it hard to understand or aspire towards. Don't go around telling others that Buddhism has no such ultimate goal. Because it is sad when you deny awakening as a possibility. It shows how little you value your precious heart that you could think it has no possibility for infinite life. Stop playing games because you read the Heart Sutra and can quote in endless cliched fashion that "there is no goal, no attainment, no..." etc. Did you even really read the Heart Sutra? I ask that because if you use any belief in emptiness as an excuse for your lack of aspiration, it shows how hardened your delusion is. Maybe you should leave such ideas or teachings alone for now and stick with what you can digest. There's no shame in that.
So start with where you are now, whether or not you become a Buddhist or are Buddhist. But remember that the path you are now participating with and walking on is well worn by many who in fact did and will become Buddhas. To say that such a goal or aspiration is impossible is like saying that children can't even become adults. It reduces Buddhism from a full expression of awakening and its reflections to some mere lifestyle. Such a reduction detracts from the mystery of being alive in the first place. It stops you from thinking about anything that doesn't already relate to your own personal thought habits. Instead of being yourself, you'll think you have "lost" it and fall prey to any scheme that will validate your so-called discovery of your self. That is called spiritual materialism and Buddhism's teachings and practices are geared towards helping you to the ultimate goal of seeing through that illusion.
Buddhism offers that real possibility of awakening, of Buddhahood. You don't have to accept it on faith, you can see for yourselves that it is possible. A lot of adults still seem trapped in childhood, yet I don't hear you claim that adulthood is impossible. In the same way you can view enlightenment. A lot of us are still trapped in delusion, suffering and samsara, but that doesn't mean liberation or Buddhahood is impossible. It just means that we need to start trying better.
I don't want to come off like I am attacking you if you think that Buddhahood is impossible for yourself or others. But you must realize that by denying the possibility of Buddhahood, by saying that the goal is unreal or too hard, you are denigrating the whole career of liberation, the vows of bodhisattvas, and the very real presence of Buddhahood in the many past, present, and future masters, bodhisattvas, mahasiddhis, and others. So please stop all of that nonsense. If you think that the goal of Buddhism is too hard, be honest and say clearly that you feel it is too hard for you at this moment. You never know, maybe in a few years you'll realize and fully embody that which you presently think is impossible. Look into the story of Milarepa, if you think your situation makes it any more difficult for you than anyone else.
I'll leave you with a common Buddhist chant just so that you can no longer have doubt about the goal of Buddhism.
"In the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha,
I take refuge until enlightenment is reached.
From the merit of practising, giving, and so forth
May I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all that lives."*
August 9th, 2006
-Irreverend Hugh (a.k.a. "Lets Go Bowlinng")
*Translation from the preliminary verse of the Tibetan Chenresik practice Sang gye cho dang tsog kyi chok nam la
Jang chub bar du dag ni kyab su chi
Dak gi jin sok gyi pay so nam kyi
Dro la pen chir sang gye drub par shuk