|
|
An introduction to secular Buddhism - Secular Buddhist Network
Basic elements of secular Buddhism
While all secular Buddhists share a skeptical view of the supernatural deities and processes of traditional Buddhism (e.g. rebirth), there is a wide range of views among secular Buddhists concerning various beliefs, perspectives and practices.
Even though there is no secular Buddhist orthodoxy, all secular Buddhists share a framework for a more mindful and compassionate life.
Awakening in the context in which we find ourselves, this framework is in essence a pragmatic program for human flourishing that has no use for metaphysical beliefs and religious truth-claims. A secular dharma stands for a developmental direction that is typically Buddhist in its open-minded skepticism and its desire to let the dharma speak most effectively, that is in culturally available terms.
Here are six key ideas shared by secular Buddhists:
Secular Buddhism is a ‘this-worldly’ practical and ethical philosophy, focused on the value of the dharma for and in this life.
Secular Buddhists are skeptical of or reject supernatural entities or processes (e.g,. rebirth) in traditional versions of Buddhism.
The Buddha is seen as an historical person, not a God-like figure.
We retain the essential insights of Buddhism while jettisoning cultural ‘accretions’ and practices not relevant to our contemporary world.
A secular approach to the dharma emphasizes the pragmatic and ethical dimensions of Buddhism rather than a set of metaphysical beliefs.
Secular Buddhists believe that we need not only to transform ourselves but to create a society which promotes the flourishing of all.
A core concept of secular Buddhism: the four tasks
An essential idea of secular Buddhism is that the core teachings and insights of the historical Buddha, Gotama, are not ‘truths’ to be believed but a ‘fourfold’ task to help us live our lives in a mindful and compassionate way.
The Four Noble Truths in traditional Buddhism are: 1) Life inevitably involves suffering; 2) Suffering is caused by craving; 3) We can be free of suffering if we stop craving; and 4) There is a way of thinking, acting, and meditating that leads to complete liberation from suffering.
Based on his analysis of the relevant Pali texts and the line of interpretation developed by the English-born Buddhist monk Ñāṇavīra Thera in the 1960s, Stephen Batchelor has retrieved The Four Noble Truths as a fourfold task. For Stephen, Gotama’s teachings about dukkha are not truths to be believed, but injunctions to transform our lives and promote human flourishing in this world.
The four tasks (ELSA) are:
Embrace life
Let reactivity be
See reactivity stop
Actualize a path
Buddhist modernism - Wikipedia Other forms of Neo-Buddhism are found outside Asia, particularly in European nations.[52] According to Bernard Faure – a professor of Religious Studies with a focus on Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism in the forms found in the West is a modernist restatement, a form of spiritual response to anxieties of individuals and the modern world that is not grounded in its ancient ideas, but "a sort of impersonal flavorless or odorless spirituality". It is a re-adaptation, a kind of Buddhism "a la carte", that understands the needs and then is reformulated to fill a void in the West, rather than reflect the ancient canons and secondary literature of Buddhism.[53]
Some Western interpreters of Buddhism have proposed the term "naturalized Buddhism" for few of these movements. It is devoid of rebirth, karma, nirvana, realms of existence, and other concepts of Buddhism, with doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths reformulated and restated in modernistic terms.[6][54][note 1] This "deflated secular Buddhism" stresses compassion, impermanence, causality, selfless persons, no Bodhisattvas, no nirvana, no rebirth, and a naturalist approach to well-being of oneself and others.[56] Meditation and spiritual practices such as Vipassana, or its variants, centered around self-development remain a part of the Western Neo-Buddhist movements. According to James Coleman, the focus of most vipassana students in the west "is mainly on meditation practice and a kind of down-to-earth psychological wisdom."[57][note 2]
For many western Buddhists, the rebirth doctrine in the Four Noble Truths teaching is a problematic notion.[58][59][60][web 1][note 3] According to Lamb, "Certain forms of modern western Buddhism [...] see it as purely mythical and thus a dispensable notion."[60] Westerners find "the ideas of karma and rebirth puzzling", states Damien Keown – a professor of Buddhist Ethics. It may not be necessary to believe in some of the core Buddhist doctrines to be a Buddhist, though most Buddhists in Asia do accept these traditional teachings and seek better rebirth.[61][note 4] The rebirth, karma, realms of existence and cyclic universe doctrines underpin the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism.[61] It is possible to reinterpret the Buddhist doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths, states Keown, since the final goal and the answer to the problem of suffering is nirvana and not rebirth.[61]
According to Christopher Gowans, for "most ordinary Buddhists, today as well as in the past, their basic moral orientation is governed by belief in karma and rebirth".[68] Buddhist morality hinges on the hope of well being in this lifetime or in future rebirth, with nirvana (enlightenment) a project for a future lifetime. A denial of karma and rebirth undermines their history, moral orientation and religious foundations.[68] However, adds Gowans, many Western followers and people interested in exploring Buddhism are skeptical and object to the belief in karma and rebirth foundational to the Four Noble Truths.[68][note 9]
The "naturalized Buddhism", according to Gowans, is a radical revision to traditional Buddhist thought and practice, and it attacks the structure behind the hopes, needs and rationalization of the realities of human life to traditional Buddhists in East, Southeast and South Asia. Gowan posits that for traditional Buddhists, "naturalized Buddhism" might come across as a pale imitation of what Buddhism means in their life.[6]
世俗佛教，其实严格来说，已经不能算是宗教了。更像是哲学和练习方式。
个人觉得，这个更加适合21世纪的我们。
佛教成分：
1）佛家：哲学和原理
2）佛教：宗教和神话
3）佛法：修行方法
世俗佛教很简单，就是把宗教和神话的佛教给剔除，只留下佛家和佛法
|
|
发表于 21-12-2025 03:41 PM
变色卡
千斤顶
楼主
本周最热论坛帖子
1594 
56
