Buddhism is an Authoritarian religion

Buddha with his serene smile and Buddhism with its four noble truths and the eight-fold path seems the perfect answer to the authoritarian religions such as Christianity or Islam.  The four noble truths deal with suffering, with the origin of suffering, with the possibility of liberation from suffering, and finally with the prescription for liberation from suffering—the Eight-Fold Path.  The Eight-Fold Path deals with Wisdom, Ethical Conduct, and Mediation through eight principles of rightness.

While it is apparent attachment to human desire may result in suffering and the rules of the Eight-Fold Path seems a beguiling process for alleviating the suffering, Buddhism requires surrender of perception on matters that are inherent to the Buddhist ideology-religion or to a Buddhist Guru. The surrender-control praxis was discussed in the blog-post (The Appeal of Authoritarianism-August 9 2018). There is a major difference between learning from a teacher and submitting to the control of a Guru or the ideological equivalent thereof. An individual should never give up her internal locus of evaluation, but the individual should always be open to counseling that identifies ego-driven destructive behaviors and the means for correcting those behaviors.

Kim iryop in her essay, “Reflections of a Buddhist Nun” explains her view of Reincarnation, “This life is only one short chapter in the innumerable chapters that are the lives and deaths to come.  There are endless garments called life that need to be changed through transmigration. There are those who think that there is only one life and one death and that this death is the end. Such people are like dolls that lack the mind of a human. In facing death, they tremble like a goldfish that feels fear when the water in its tank is changed.” 

Iryop’s beliefs are not subject to proof and are simply cut from whole cloth.  In my view Existentialism should begin with the premise that existence is a mystery.  Given that existence is a mystery we should embrace the mystery and nonetheless create meaning in life. It has been perplexing to me to find a number of young students I have been in class with who reject the idea of a Christian afterlife out of hand, but readily accept Reincarnation as a truth.

Mark Vernon of The Guardian reviews “Confession of a Buddhist Atheist” by Stephen Batchelor and states:

“Reincarnation and karma are rejected as Indian accretions: his study of the historical Siddhartha Gautama – one element in the new book – suggests the Buddha himself was probably indifferent to these doctrines. What Batchelor believes the Buddha did preach were four essentials. First, the conditioned nature of existence, which is to say everything continually comes and goes. Second, the practice of mindfulness, as the way to be awake to what is and what is not. Third, the tasks of knowing suffering, letting go of craving, experiencing cessation and the "noble path". Fourth, the self-reliance of the individual, so that nothing is taken on authority, and everything is found through experience.”

Since “nothing is taken on authority” and “Reincarnation and Karma are rejected” Batchelor eliminates the elements of Buddhism that are Authoritarian and these elements are precisely the elements that make Buddhism as commonly practiced Authoritarian.

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In a prior blog post (Alan Watts:a Guru in the Age of Aquarius December 6, 2015) I relate an experience of being with Watts at a dinner preceding his lecture at Lafayette College in April 1968 in which certain of his actions contradicted what he had been teaching us in the course of the discussion
during the meal.