I dont want to be a buddhist!
I’m tired of taking the high road, being compassionate, embracing my enemy, etc etc. I don’t believe in reincarnation or enlightenment so, really, what is the point? I’d rather be angry than apathetic. I’d rather be real – even if that somwtimes means ugly, spiteful and immature – than some fake new-age, my parents were hippies so we all sit around reading Life of Pi bullshit.
Mar 25, 2013
Awesome. Totally get where you are coming from. But Buddhism and new age crunchy bullshit are not the same thing.
Well intended, middle-class, atheistic, white people go in for all that new age bullshit to fill a spiritual void. But most of the time they can’t be bothered to read a serious book on the subject. They read self-help garbage instead of spiritual scholarship, most often because they are lazy and not too well educated.
Buddhism isn’t about being happy or dishonest. And enlightenment isn’t some kind of magic box you open. Buddhism is largely about acceptance. According to Buddhism suffering is grace. Hardship is a lesson that brings you closer to accepting reality. And reality isn’t happy or sad. It just is.
I recommend that you keep hating on new age BS because it’s feel-good crap but maybe consider that Buddhism is centuries older and a lot deeper than these people are either able or willing to understand.
Plus Life of Pi was really a shitty novel.
Buddhism does ask you to be compassionate for yourself and for others. Neither are easy.