Buddhism for Western Minds

In studying Buddhism, I do not seek to convert and identify as a Buddhist, but to enrich my spiritual knowledge and learn from a tradition that has remarkable gifts to offer. In particular, I wish to find out what may be of particular use here in troubled Western culture.

In developing our practice of mindfulness, as Westerners influenced by Buddhist precepts, it is important that we recognize that what we have is not a pure Eastern practice, and nor should it be. What we are experiencing is the enrichment produced by meeting of ancient Buddhist concepts with Western thinking. If we denigrate our own cultural roots or seek some pure, idealized Eastern enlightenment apart form ourselves, we are falling into the all too typical Western trap of seeking some pure redeeming force outside ourselves. It wasn't Yahweh, UFOs, or communism, and it won't be the Buddhists either. To take to heart the directive to seek the Buddha nature within is to necessarily blend the traditions and practices we gain with our own Western experience and being.

In our Western culture, we have too often separated God and divinity from ourselves, and ourselves from nature. These are false separations. While early Christians, and some modern reformers have preached seeking the divine within, Christianity has too often been associated with God as the boss, the overseer, the dominator. Putting oneself below godhood is a false form of humility, one that reinforces the sense of separation of the ego from the rest of being. In our highly individualistic culture, there is a lot of fear connected to allowing the ego to fall away.

Yidam here refers to the archetypal wisdom beings of the sambhogakaya, the realm of pure experience, and emanation of manyfold Buddha aspects.

This practice of seeing oneself as deity, of calling forth the divine within is not one of elevating the ego to greater proportions, but of seeking communion with that which encompasses and goes beyond the ego. The essential practice of Buddhism is not one of worshipping Buddhas, but of daring to become a Buddha in your own right.

Many of us in the West have felt trapped in the machine universe of scientific materialism, and look for a way out. One of the obstacles to moving beyond ego in these times is the fear that there may be nothing more to move toward, that we are just extraordinarily complex robots, and the concept of something beyond the ego just an absurd fiction. While many tribal cultures and mystical societies have developed a larger view of reality, the one offered by Himalayan Buddhists is one that is more fully developed and recorded than most. The intellectual development of Buddhism appeals to the Western mind, and makes it clear that we do not have to choose between a more gut level mystical awareness and our developed thought and philosophy.

Some seem to think that perhaps through some outrageous flexing of Western logic, we can step outside the Western mindset altogether. This is akin to writing lengthy tomes on the uselessness of symbolic communication. We are in fact free to leave anytime, entirely without grasping some extraordinarily complex logic of how the realms beyond this logic exist. There are times to approach the universe with acceptance of its inherently mysterious nature, to know that there is that which cannot be described, only experienced.

While it takes discipline and dedication to attain a Buddha like state of being, this is not some dry exercise of dogma or sacrifice. Buddhist teachers themselves are quick to point this out. While it is easy for us Westerners to fall into traps of puritanical self denial, and look for strict rules that explain everything, we also have from our cultural experience a healthy individualism and willingness to question established precepts. Our individualism, playfulness, and tendency toward heresy and questioning are not opposed to reaching the Buddha nature within. There is no need to choose between individualism and mysticism, any more than to become entrapped by narrow ego in developing as an individual with inherent divinity.

The playfulness and rebelliousness of the liberated Western spirit may have something to offer to Eastern traditions. In cultivating divine consciousness in ourselves, we do not have to reach some detached, ethereal transcendence, but can remain earthy, celebratory, and individualistic.