Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das
I got a lot out of Awakening the Buddha Within, despite the fact that it kept rubbing me the wrong way. When I read the book on world religions that I enjoyed so much, I got the idea that Buddhism was a rather non-spiritual religion, not really a religion at all but a way of living your current life. In fact, I remember that book saying that Buddha said he didn’t know if there was another world but he knew that there was a present world, so why not make the most of it.
Maybe I imagined all that.
Anyway, Awakening the Buddha Within is pretty heavy on mysticism and spirituality. The concepts of karma and rebirth are used to explain “why” you ought to be good. (I could have sworn karma and rebirth were Hinduism.) And to me that makes Buddhism no different than any other religion. I dislike the concept that we can only behave under threat of punishment. I believe it’s perfectly possible to do the right thing because it’s the right thing and to improve yourself for the here and now of it. Considering that Buddhism is all “here and now” I don’t know why Lama Surya Das leaned so heavily on an imaginary “after”.
Then there’s meditation. He did explain some good non-voodoo reasons to meditate, such as that meditation teaches you to focus your mind and to be here/now. On the other hand, he threw in a lot of voodoo too, including chanting and some hogwash about being more enlightened if you do some number of cycles of some number of meditations. It’s all ridiculous ritual, which isn’t what I was interested in. There was also a fair amount of worshiping of Buddha and other “enlightened ones”. Pretty sure Buddha was anti-worship, especially with regards to himself.
I understand that Buddhism has evolved since Buddha’s days and also that it has branched out through the years into different schools. Lama Surya Das even does a good job of explaining why it’s important for Buddhism to adapt to its environment. But I sure wish I could find a book that stuck to the original plan. No religion, no ritual, no worship, no threats, just how to be the best that I can be here and now.
Despite what I consider to be the flaws of this book, it has a lot of value.