Something about Buddhism doesnt seem right. To me, Buddhism seems like away to erase your past. A way to erase who YOU are. I suppose this IS the purpose of enlightenment afterall, but it seems...unhealthy. What makes us special is our own identity, and it doesnt seem right that we work to erase who we are. Its almost like brainwashing, forget yourSELF, and be happy. Am i misunderstanding something, or looking at it in the wrong way?
Buddhism has two basic tenets - (1) One should understand karma and that living a life of benefitting others also leads to ones own growth of happiness, and (2) through meditation one can experience an unchanging level of life which is free from relative ups and downs. The culmination of these two tenets is that one can be free from relative and absolute suffering, and pass that benefit on to others. Eradication of ones personality is not a tenet of Buddhism and never was. What has happened is that people lacking meditative experience and yet well studied in Buddhism have misinterpreted Buddha's teachings to mean that one has too renounce everything and live a life of mendicancy. But it's clear that even if one runs to the corners of the world they will still be attached to their body, or at the very least, to their thoughts, and at the very very least, they will be attached to their notions of Buddhism. So it's obvious that living as a hermit even is not true renunciation. true renunciation can only occur in samadhi where the mind goes beyond any relative taint. Tantric Buddhism has solved these contradictions and shortcomings for the person who wants to live a normal life and also practice Buddhism by teaching techniques to improve their personality to allow better karmic action, and also teaches the techniques of shamatha or of obtaining samadhi. Combining these two factors brings the benefits of the Buddhadharma without demanding some monkish existance of self denial. Buddhism truely exists for those who have some yogic background. Without yoga, in the sense of the calm abiding obtained through meditation Buddhism remains a sterile and ascetic religion. With actual practice Buddhism becomes a rare gem which magnifies light and grows in value.
Err, i should have been more specific. Enlightenment is what im talking about. As i understand it, Enlightenment is to let go of the ego in order to fully experience life without personal desire in the way. This is what i mean when i say Enlightenment works to erase ones identity. But i realize enlightenment isnt the goal of all sects of Buddhism.
I thought Buddhism teaches that we are imprisoned through our ego, and we must shed our ego to truely live.
I think that is someone's interpretation. But actual Buddhism teaches that there is no ego, or anything else but that all things that we have come to lable one thing or another are conventionally what they seem but of no ultimate essence whatsoever. Ie., things all are what we have labeled them dependent upon something else in relation, and if you follow anything back to its source then you will find that it comes from nothing at all. A modern physics correlation would be how all the four forces of physics are manifesting from the Unified Field which is a vacuum state. Ie., everything arises from nothing. That might not make sense but if you consider Einsteins General Relativity he states that matter is merely curved space. It's hard to imagine and yet this may well be the reality, that is, that all things are merely the self referral of the empty space that lies within them. If that's the case then all things have never left that empty essence even though they seemed to do so conventionally.
One could argue that we're already brainwashed into believing we have a self apart from the rest. Clearly we are all connected in some extremely important ways. We try to tell ourselves "I'm a doctor" "I'm a mother" "I'm friendly" "I'm Buddhist," as well as our bundle of fears and desires. But is that all we are? Also, if it is our selfhood that "makes us special," then death really is a horrible fate, right? All that value and specialness just, vanishing? Does that sound right?
Who told you that you were special? Is this something your parents told you while you were young? Is it something you read? What do you mean by special? What do you consider indivuality, an identity? If your identity is shaped by Britney Spears records or a sports figure, how can that be you? If you look into every belief and every thought you have you will most likely hear the words of others, putting their ideas into your head. So which ideas have you originally created that weren't first ideas from others? If you had been born in a different country, to a different religion, believing in a different political mechanism, speaking a different language, exposed to a different environment, say, where the media doesn't program our minds, without TV or radio, would you still be the same person that you are now? Probably not. Therefore Buddhists say that who we are is not really who and what we are, that we are the products of other people, and that the only way to truly know who we are is to understand who this "I" is. This "I" is usually the inner voice which we identify with and we call it the ego. But the ego may not really exist. If you really ask yourself, "Who am I?," you probably cannot come to a conclusion. For instance, you are not your profession, you are not your possessions, you are not your friends, you are not your parents, you are not your body because as you grew from a baby to an old man your thinking changed just as your body changed. So this body house this mind which one identifies with. That identification is the ego. But it really doesn't exist. But the ego is not dropped, it is not erased, it is understood. With that understanding, through realisation, one lets it drop on its own, life changes because you see it as thinking patterns conditioned by past experiences. You begin to watch it all the time just as you watch your thinking. But to desire Enlightenment, when it is near to realisation, may be a very scarey experience because it feels like an actual death. Who in their right mind would want to experience death? Not the ego. Therefore it is the ego which fears death. Once you realise that the ego is false (which may be a very painful experience, or so I have been told) then one realises that one's fear is also false. That is liberation. Instead of worrying about enlightenment and dropping the ego, just try to find out where you got this idea that one is special, try to find out who and what this "I" is. Don't just take other people's words that you are special. If you are special, then everyone is special and / or nobody is special. Since Buddhists say that it is the ego which needs to feel special, then nobody is special because everyone believes the same thing. Once you believe that you are special, then you will have to prove it to others and you will have to prove it to yourself. If that is not the reality, then it is a lie. Then you are lying to yourself, just as everyone is lying to themselves. Then why believe in it? Buddhists do not work to erase who they are, they work to understand who they are, more specifically they work to understand who and what they are not.
I just feel that without the diverse personalities we would never have moved on in this world as a whole, there would be no diverse music genres, no differing interests on art, no technology. Thats what i mean by everyone is special. Everyone is unique and serves a purpose in helping society, it seems.
to continue what White Feather was saying, where is everybody getting their uniqueness from, then? i mean, how are people finding out they´re unique? and where do they get it? i think what all this implies is that there is no "I" or ego because we are not individual or divided existences. we (and EVERYthing else) are interconnected with everything else in every way possible, where everything and "you" are one, singular existence.
Even in the animal kingdom, each animal seems to have a unique personality. But in humans personality is usually a conditioned response, our personalities aren't always intrinsic or inherent traits, but fascades which we have erected in response to others. In that sense our personalities, our personnas, are not authentic. If they are not authentic, then how is one to find the authentic essence of the individual. In Zen this is called the sound of one hand clapping.
The personality is not the ego. The ego is merely the thought of self preservation. When one is satisfied and happy then the ego is gone and also one feels compassion. So then fear of dissatisfaction and misery increase the thought of ego while the opposite is true. So doing things which improve the general wellfare of others and which increases ones own wellfare also sublimates the ego. Therefore to act in a way that is in accord with the creation of positive karma makes the world a better place and limits the need for the thoughts of peprsonal space and ego to arise. As there is no ego in actuality because it truely cannot be found anywhere, so also one cannot eradicate something which cannot be found. It's much better to have the wisdom to know how to satisfy the thought of ego and personal territoriality though positive works which satisfy.
