A personal take on Secular Buddhism
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY MBSR & MBCT
Mindfulness is a big buzz word in our culture these days. However, the origins of this practice, Buddhism, is gradually being taken out and the practice secularized because this ancient eastern religion does not fit neatly into our western scientific framework. This process offers us the ability to use the practices in a practical manner that is more in line with our western psychological views, yet at the same time, loses a lot of its intended meaning that make sense of these practices. The secularization of Buddhism and mindfulness practice is inevitable as this ancient tradition moves westward. That being said, this process has its pros and cons that prove its usefulness as well as the parts of these practices where we are going to be missing the mark for which it was intended.
Buddhism has without a doubt, many ideas and beliefs that are unquestionably from an eastern cultural framework. In Leandro Durazzos article Post-religional perspective and secular Buddhism, he talks about the aim of secular Buddhism as its being adopted here in the west (2015). I regard to secular Buddhism Durazzo writes, “instead of seeking the compliant to any traditional teachings from Eastern Buddhism, it focuses on its practice and understanding though lay approaches, Western and even agnostic understanding about beliefs on subjects like karma, rebirth, metaphysical realms of existence, etc.” (Durazzo, 2015, p.3). These traditional beliefs are hard for those of us who grew up in western cultures to really wrap our heads around and these beliefs may even turn some people off enough to dismiss the whole practice. So, in adopting or even taking out these eastern beliefs we then end up with a more user-friendly framework for people in the west to use. Furthermore, according Robert Marx in his article Accessibility Versus Integrity in Secular Mindfulness, by changing terminology “the term ‘mindfulness’ helps to make the practices it denotes acceptable in secular contexts because it sounds as if it has nothing to do with Buddhism” (Marx, 2014, p.2). Marx goes on to say that he believes ‘mindfulness’ may be the result of a union of sorts of Theravada and Zen traditions with empirical western science as a skillful means that enables Westerners who may be put off by traditional Buddhist format, to access the life-changing befits of the practices. (2014)
There is, however, what I consider to be a down side of stripping the traditions down in order for it to become more useful and palatable for Westerners. Historically, as Buddhism spread into new areas during different time periods and encountered different cultures, it shifted and morphed into ‘new’ forms or schools, yet never stripped the “Buddhas dharma” from Buddhist practice. On the flip side, in some cases, what I notice today as it takes root in the west is a totally stripped-down version of these teachings that doesn’t give credit to where these practices originated. For example, the MBSR program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn uses the four foundations of mindfulness as a tool for the clients to track thoughts and emotions as they arise. The second foundation, vedana, or feeling tone, is used in MBSR as a way to recognize and record pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral events while putting it down in diaries. Marx says of this “without the Buddhist context, we miss the more significant point about how our reactions to vedana form part of a chain of causal associations.” (Marx,2014, p.3). The Buddha laid out the path to the complete cessation of suffering in a way that was very pragmatic and everything was linked into the path for a reason. As people in the west cherry-pick though these teaching we will see that the path may be incomplete and we may never get any sense of relief, let alone full enlightenment, which of course is not a popular or realistic goal in our Western scientific culture.
As Gethin states in The Foundations of Buddhism, “given its great diversity and its long history, the task of introducing Buddhism is a daunting one” (Gethin, 1998, p.2). With the dharma taking hold here in the west, what we are seeing is a whole new form of practice that is taking a new shape while finding its place in our culture. What we are getting is traditional Buddhist meditation being meshed into psychotherapy as well as ‘self-help’ seminars and literature all the while taking the mainstream over with its promise to reduce stress and help us find true happiness in our consumer culture. It is true that modalities like MBSR and MBCT are useful and helping many people. These practices will always be missing a piece here and there from which the teachings were directed. While we in the west may never embrace all of the metaphysical aspects or the idea of karma and rebirth, we will at least get a taste of what the Buddha taught through this mindfulness movement. We then will be able to make our own decision on whether mindfulness is enough or if we want to immerse ourselves in the dharma from which these practices arise.
Durazzo, L. (2015). Post-religional perspective and secular Buddhism: Stephen Batchelor and the post-metaphysical religion/Perspectiva pós-religional e Budismo secular:Stephen Batchelor e a religião pós-metafísica. Horizonte, 13(37), 592–604.
Marx, R. (2015). Accessibility Versus Integrity in Secular Mindfulness: A Buddhist Commentary. Mindfulness, 6(5), 1153–1160.
Gethin, R. (1998). Foundations of Buddhism. OUP Oxford.
