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Jack Frederick

Religion 020

Religion vs Spirituality

Religion as we know it in the United States, is dying. Like you people are turning away

from the “single moral community” defined by “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative

to sacred things” (Definitions of Religion 8). They feel that “moral community” is far too rigid

and strict. They see their beliefs as a far more fluid and individual decision. However, Buddhism

is not necessarily as “spiritual” as you might think. Were in the west we tend to see Buddhism as

a loss system of belief focused around meditation. When in actuality it is almost just as

structured as the Christian Church.

For instance, take into account the strict hierarchy of the Catholic church, perhaps the

strictest of the Christian disciplines. You have to Pope on top, then the Cardinals, then Bishops,

then Priests, then the lay people. Buddhism is not free from many of the problems people

associate with the Christian church. For example, when a woman tries to join the monastic

community the Buddha imposes “eight important rules, that may be ordination for her”

(Therigatha 32). As Buddhism progressed over time “attitudes toward women changed slowly…

so by the end of the period, misogyny [was] far more prevalent” (Therigatha 33). This is why

many Americans are leaving the Christian church because of systemic problems like this. But as

you can see Buddhism isn't necessarily the answer. It has is own strict hierarchy with monastic

men presiding over monastic women. There are clear expectations outlined in both traditions, as

a Buddhist the expectation is that in this life or a future one, you will join the monastic order.

After all the ultimate goal of Buddhism is to become enlightened and enlightenment typically

requires joining the monastic order.

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Even lower on the religious hierarchy, for both Christian and Buddhist lay people there

are rules they are expected to follow. For the Buddhist there are the Five Precepts, “the Five

Precepts forbid killing, stealing, sexual immorality, lying and taking intoxicants” (Keown 114).

This is similar to the Christian’s Ten Commandments which also includes rules against lying

cheating and killing. Additionally, in both religions, the average lay person seeks to achieve

some final goal beyond death. While the concepts of heaven and Nirvana being very different,

with Nirvana certainly seeming more “spiritual” to an outsider; the process in which these two

end goals are reached mirror one another. Both religions expect the practitioner to adhere the

previously mentioned set of guidelines or the will suffer extreme consequences. While Buddhists

will not be punished for eternity like their Christian counter parts, “the circumstance of future

rebirths are determined by the moral deeds a person preforms” (Keown 32-33). So, saying that

Buddhism is better because it’s not “all about rules and just doing what you’re expected to do”

isn’t really a valid argument. Not doing deeds that will have a positive impact on your karma will

have an equally negative impact as not following the rules and expectations of Christianity.

Perhaps your misconception of Buddhism’s spirituality is thought the way modern

religious beliefs are taking shape. The internet in the modern age has allowed for “an

individual’s ability to develop a cohesive religious identity… Identity online is highly malleable

rather than something that is fixed” (Campbell 687). The internet provides a platform for people

to create their own moral definitions and create their own ritual practice. This is what you mean

by “spiritual”. People take bit and pieces a la carte from various sources and mash them together

in their own spirituality. Buddhist has taken a dominant role in this amalgamation of religions,

especially in the west. On page 137 Keown says “one of the most popular Western

interpretations of Buddhism is as a rational philosophy”. We see Buddhism as an ideology or a

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loose set of ideals. This is why so many people see it as a source of spiritual ideas. The spiritual

association Buddhism has gained through the internet explains why many seem to believe that

Buddhism lack a rigid define structure. The internet is a very democratic place, “[it] allows

online groups to transgress established religious structures by taking the normally private

discussion reserved for institutional administrators into public forums… Such acts may

undermine authority structures” (Campbell 688). Tearing down these institutional and

authoritarian barriers has tossed Buddhist ideas into the web for anyone to take and adopt.

This can be clearly seen in the ritual manifests itself in a spiritual setting versus the way it does

in a formalized religious setting. For Buddhists in the real world “ritual is a important religious

practice and it may incorporate physical artifacts” (Connelly 129). There is clear distinction that

Buddhist preform physical rituals. Physicality is a massive part of a ritual, being there to perform

the said actions with your body and to be witnessed by those around you. However, the internet

has become a place where people have taken to preform rituals One such example being the

Buddhist Center that was created in the online simulation game Second Life. Players created a

space where Buddhism can be practiced online though a virtual avatar (Connelly 128). This

space is not truly Buddhist in the purist sense of the word. It has a monastic community, it does

have rules about how people should behave inside the center but none of that extends beyond the

center itself. Additionally, “the Buddha-Center is not affiliated with a specific school of

Buddhism, and … focuses on a ‘Universal Buddhism’” (Connelly 130). This gives the Buddha

center a much more spiritualistic attitude, there is no one answer to Buddhism and provides

opportunities for people to form their own identities with links to books and resources. The space

is also hyper-interactive with plenty of way to engage with Buddhist culture and ritual from all

sorts of branches of the physical religion. The classic archetype of Buddhist ritual is meditation,
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in a temple in the virtual buddha center “22 participants can sit crossed-legged on the meditation

cushions that are positioned in a semi-circle around the pool and face a large buddha statue”

(Connelly 131). One would think that the digital barrier would sperate the members of this

spiritualist community. But to the contrary, one Second Life user named Delani says “[I am]

seeing more and more intermingling of traditions in SL” (Connelly 133). Delani’s statement

makes sense when you consider Driver’s statement of rituals role in society, “Ritualizing plays,

as J Huizinga saw, provides a foundation for culture” (Driver 30). Second life has provided a

space for a community to come together, not to form their own culture necessarily, but to provide

a source where can define their own culture and spiritual beliefs. This again sounds very similar

to what you friend, think of Buddhism. This ritual practice is a clear example of how the West

has taken Buddhism and changed it to suit our own needs.

The antithesis of this western creation of free slowing and lose ideas can be seen it the

more seemingly rigid Christian ritual of worshiping the relics of saints in cathedrals. This is one

example where you are right in your initial statement that Christianity is a lot more “about rules

and doing what you’re expected to do”. This applies to a lot of their rituals, whereas Buddhism

contains a lot of rituals that can be molded and changed very easily-like meditation is in Second

Life-Christianity’s rituals are a lot more structured and can’t really be changed and adapted. The

reason being that a lot of Christian (specifically Catholic) rituals are focuses around items related

to the Saints of that discipline. Each relic has a very specific story tied to it and has different

powers based around the person it represented in life. Parts of souls of said saints are still present

in the relics and can perform miraculous deeds to those worthy of them. Such power is told of in

stories like The Relics of Saint Petroc, where bones of said saint where stolen from their home in

England and are brought to France because the original proprietors of relics where not respecting
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them properly. Only after the relics preformed a number of miracles in France did the Monks of

St Meen notice the bones were gone and had them returned (Doble 403-414). Ritualistic objects

in Christianity all have stories like these that give them a specific meaning. It is much harder to

take the worship of these objects and change what they mean to fit one’s own beliefs. In this

sense the “spiritual capability’ of Christianity is much harder to adapt at least in terms of its

rituals.

Ultimately, your proposed increased “spirituality” of Buddhism is both true and untrue.

Buddhism as a strict religion is almost no different than what you see of Christianity. They both

have clear religious hierarchies and require their followers to follow a strict set of core tenants.

However, you can clearly see that Buddhism is far more adaptable when it come the ideas and

rituals that the religion contains. People all over the West are beginning to construct their own

spiritual belief and a lot of those ideas are coming from eastern religions like Buddhism.

Christianity’s traditions are harder rooted in the faith, so extracting them from their surroundings

is much more difficult. Spirituality is becoming more normal in the US with people defining

their own set of beliefs rather than just subscribing to a pre made one.