Western Buddhism and Anti-Intellectualism, Reductionism

This is something I’ve noticed for a while, but couldn’t quite articulate it until real recently. It seems that in Western Buddhism, especially in Zen circles, people can get into a deeply anti-intellectual mode of thinking. When asked difficult questions about Buddhism, the response comes back “just sit”, or “shut up”, or “beliefs and labels don’t matter.” Having studied texts such as the Lankavatara Sutra, I understand why someone would say this*, but I think Western Buddhists are taking anti-intellectualism and reductionism a little too far. I particularly enjoy watching online forums where someone whose losing an argument retreats by saying “you have no right to decide whose a Buddhist and who isn’t.”

I think what bothers me most about the entire anti-intellectual movement that new Buddhists gravitate towards is that at heart is disrespects the Buddha and so many people over the countless generations who really tried their best to follow Precepts (however imperfectly), follow the texts and otherwise strove to follow the teachings of the Buddha. When someone else comes along and asserts online or to other new Buddhists that the Buddha didn’t teach morality, or that he didn’t even teach enlightenment or rebirth, this strikes me as a disregard for the Buddha and his teachings, and is not the true Dharma, not the true teachings of the Buddha.

Back in the old blog, I had quoted a certain sutra of the Buddha from the Pali Canon, the Saddhammapatirupaka Sutta (SN 16.13), or the Sutra of the Counterfeit Dharma. The sutra beings with Kashyapa, a disciple of the Buddha, asking the Buddha this question:

“What is the cause, lord, what is the reason, why before there were fewer training rules and yet more monks established in final gnosis, whereas now there are more training rules and yet fewer monks established in final gnosis?”

He’s asking the Buddha why in the beginning of the Buddha’s ministry, many people attained Enlightenment and there were few rules, but now there are many rules and few people becoming Enlightened.

The Buddha’s reply is important:

“That’s the way it is, Kassapa. When beings are degenerating and the true Dhamma is disappearing, there are more training rules and yet fewer monks established in final gnosis…”

The Buddha’s point is that as the true Dharma disappears the Buddha must resort to more training rules to keep people in line. But what causes this disappearance?

“These five downward-leading qualities tend to the confusion and disappearance of the true Dhamma. Which five? There is the case where the monks, nuns, male lay followers, & female lay followers live without respect, without deference, for the Teacher. They live without respect, without deference, for the Dhamma… for the Sangha… for the Training… for concentration.

When people lose respect for the teacher, for this teachings, and for the community, then the Dharma is obscured by what the Buddha called the “Counterfeit Dharma”. People practice Buddhism for power, for showing off, or just for a sense of gratification; all of these happen in various religious communities, and all are signs of not respecting the teacher. I think this bent toward anti-intellectualism, or reducing Buddhism to its “roots” is just an ego-trip for people who really believe that they know something many other generations of other Buddhists didn’t. In a way, it’s a kind of Western Imperial arrogance, because we assume that Asian culture and its Buddhist history is backwards and that good ol’ Western Rationalism and logical Reductionism will save the day.

It’s not that all this studying makes us better Buddhists, but helps us appreciate the tradition to which we’ve inherited. I think it’s fair to say that you can never have too much gratitude in life; you can have too much pride, however. I just can’t understand why people nowadays throw away all this with witty pseudo-Zen quips about “just sitting” or other nonsense. Instead of throwing it away, be humble and admit you don’t understand it. As with gratitude, you can never have too much humility.

Namuamidabu

* – The Lankavatara’s message, among other things, is that every phenomena, thought and idea are all empty and impermanent. This is certainly true, but I suspect people assume that it should therefore be thrown away as a means to Enlightenment. Actually in the Buddha taught that this effort to rid the mind of such concepts was an even worse delusion, or in his words “better to have an illusion of a self, than to not have one.” Instead, the Buddha taught to look past the discerning mind, to the real mind, which is in effect the Dharmakaya itself (in Pure Land Buddhism, the mind of Amida Buddha).