Is it just me, or is Buddhism nihilism in disguise?
Fact: life is suffering
If you utterly quit caring about life, then it won't seem to suck as bad.
That's what the basic teachings are, right? How is this considered good teachings?
Note, there are many parts of Buddhism that I really like, teachings that I think everybody could learn from, but the basic underlying beliefs are disgusting to me.
Would you agree? Or am I misunderstanding Buddhism?
M. Scott Peck, a christian therapist who wrote The Road Less Traveled, starts the book by saying this:
"Life is hard. Once you realize this, it becomes easier."
His point is - anything worth having is worth working hard for,
Often, people whine about "why is it so hard?" Why is it so hard to stay fit? I have to run and exercise every other day!!! Can't I just do it once a month?? Can't I just lightly jog for 5 minutes and then watch a movie?
No. You have to work in this life. That's a fact of life. And people that don't want to work, won't accept that you have to study hard to get a good grade, have to practice to improve a skill, that sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to do - exercise, wash your clothes, etc., are usually unhappy.
But once you realize that it creates discipline, that if you get done the things you don't want to do, you have a lot of time left over for the things you do want to do, you are much happier.
If Buddhism was a pessimistic religion, it would stop with "life is suffering", but it says that suffering is caused by attachment/cravings and wants, and being unattached and releasing ourselves from cravings and wants ends our suffering.
In The Road Less Traveled, a woman came to Peck complaining that she hated her work. He asked her how she ate cake. She said, "I eat the frosting because it tastes best, and the cake last. " He soon found out that she spent 7 hours dreading the work she had to do, and leaving it until the end of the day. She avoided what was unpleasant. She promised to try to do the least pleasant work first, for the first hour. She did so, and came back saying, "It wasn't so bad! And then I could spend 7 hours doing things I loved to do!"
It's the same idea.
Buddhism teaches to just allow things to be as they are.
Most people crave complements, and feel crushed by insults.
In Buddhism, you weigh the insult, but don't hang on to it. You let it pass through you. In the same way, you don't hang on to complements, but also let them pass.
Then you find that you no longer crave nor need complements for reassurance, and the insults only effect you if there is some truth to be learned. If there is no truth in them, you simply shrug them off.
That's the idea.
The way it is explained in Buddhism is that you are on a path toward your home. There are beautiful and ugly things on either side. Despite the fact that you avoid the ugly, and are attracted to the beautiful things, if you become controlled by the pleasures on the side of the road, you will never reach your home.
Most people see life as being full of gratification - doing whatever brings pleasure. You can see this by people that become slaves to their TV, people that medicate themselves by drinking heavily, heavy drug use, shopaholics, etc.
I once had a boss who would eat Skittles and drink Mountain Dew for breakfast. Pleasure - but not necessarily a good meal replacement.
So, to break the cycle, you do the opposite. Instead of thinking about what you "need" (which usualy means want) you give. So many people complain about what they don't have, thinking that if they simply get a bigger TV, a better game system, that one more pair of shoes, they will be happy. But they aren't. So, they tell themselves, just one
more pair, maybe.
But if we spent more time giving to others, we would soon see that it's about giving, and not about receiving, and that is what brings joy.
We tell that to our children: It's better to give than to receive. But we don't practice it, and it's not shown in mainstream culture. It's more about receiving. On one commercial, two women in a suburb look at a car with a big bow, being polite while trying to figure out if it is for themselves, and hoping it is.
Slowly, we move away from "Me" and start thinking about "us".
So, it's the opposite of nihilism. It may be the nihilism of self to make us realize that no one is an island, but all part of the human family, all connected.
