The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Once upon a time Buddhism was a Philosophy insulated from Religion and Superstition. For sure it was one of the great gifts to the world; an actual Spiritual Technology based on Scientific Observation of the Self and the Psychological Overlays that divide us from our True Nature. Beyond that as part of its system it contained an actual Methodology for Implementing the Truths discovered through Self Awareness.

I do know that some still seek the Path sifting away the Detritus that has collected around the system but many delve superficially into the popular writers and speakers on the subject and involve themselves in the jargon and vocabulary of the day while using it to rationalize the questionable behaviors that led them to seek self improvement in the first place. Meditation provides an escape from real life relationships and non attachment provides an excuse for the lack of accountability for their actions. The superstitious adornments of beads, bracelets, Buddha dolls, Kuan Yin dolls and Nag Champa incense provide the semblance of a Spiritual lifestyle.

I know a guy who owns a poorly run little trading company in China. He has a brand of Buddhism I have frequently run into there. He has broken every business deal he ever made when it became inconvenient to keep it. He routinely deals unfairly with workers and shows them the door, cheating them out of their salary on the way out. He has never taken the time to learn his business or develop craft or integrity. He has a little statue that he puts fruit in front of and plays an annoying recording of a Buddhist song endlessly. He burns incense and wears a silly looking oversize beaded bracelet and goes to pay monks money on certain days. He has DVD’s of Buddhist masters lecturing on scripture and verse. It is funny that none of this ever leads him to question his behavior or lifestyle. Those monks who run those temples have played an important role in the demise of Buddhism and its devolution into a folk religion and superstition. They are fortune tellers, actors, amusement park workers, beggars, charlatans or salesmen. It is a multi-million dollar business devoted to the superstitions that if someone pays people to pray for them or if one burns expensive sticks of incense they will have good health and most importantly prosperity. The belief in various realms filled with boogiemen and other kinds of retribution are used to frighten and guilt trip people into parting with their money.

In the US the systematic commercialization and trivialization of the real Practice of Buddhism has taken a different form but its results are dramatically similar. It has been incorporated into the New Age movement which has a fair stock and trade in trinkets, trappings and fortune telling. All in all it has brought about a leveling of the playing field. We must make our own path cut from the whole cloth of our lives. The systems that rise up in the New Age quickly become inadequate to the real task of Enlightenment or even the prospect of Self Improvement. Perhaps Systems are too systematic and Churchianity of all sorts is less useful in this regard whether Scientology, NLP, Integrated Awareness, Dolphin Breathing, Angel Reiki or Buddhism. The King is Dead, Long Live the King.