Walking the Wall

I’ve been reading Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor because it was recommended highly and because it seemed to be similar to Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s Handbook for Mankind (a book I highly recommend) in that it stripped down the various religious or cultural permutations to the core teachings. That is not say, of course, that the author isn’t inserting his own ideology (that of agnosticism) into it as well.

So far I have found it very interesting–I keep reading a section and then mulling on it for awhile, so while it is a short book, it is going slowly. I was really very fascinated with his explanations of the four noble truths as things to be acted on rather than beliefs. He states is that “the Buddha taught a method (‘dharma practice”) rather than another ‘-ism.’ The dharma is not something to believe in but something to do” (17).

”Each truth requires being acted upon in its own particular way (understanding anguish, letting go of its origins, realizing its cessation, and cultivating the path)” (4).

“The four ennobling truths are not propositions to believe; they are challenges to act” (7).

He also notes these are not linear actions of sequence, but “part of a single continuum of action” (11). Anyway, it is very interesting and held a very “aha” moment for me. I was never quite sure what to “do” with the four noble truths and seeing them as truths to be acted on rather than statements of belief or faith made much more sense to me.

His chapter on Rebirth also grabbed my attention because it is one of those things that I accept that I don’t know the answer to and don’t really feel the pull to “figure it out” as I have decided that whatever it is that happens after this life will sort itself out then. I have had a number of people tell me I’m an agnostic in some sense, but I’m really not sure what that means or rather what the point to that label is. I have always understood agnosticism to mean, in a nutshell, being willing to say “I don’t know” when you just don’t know–though for awhile I admit I had it confused with Gnosticism. It would seem to me that nearly everyone is agnostic to some degree–no one knows everything for certain and has to accept that there are simply things that are not knowable. The author wrote a piece about the Agnostic Buddhist that is worth a read. Anyway, I’m rambling, what struck me in this chapter was that he notes that “agnosticism [or the not knowing for me] is no excuse for indecision. If anything, it is a catalyst for action; for in shifting concern away from a future life and back to the present, it demands an ethics of empathy rather than a metaphysics of fear and hope” (38).

One other little side note, I’ve always felt connected to the number three and the concept of the third road is a powerful one for me and has been for a long time. In fact, the name of this blog came about from a short story I wrote that addressed the idea of two realities or ways of living or experiencing life and the choice to “walk the wall” down the middle and choose a third option. (I have always disliked the black or white, good or bad, believe or don’t believe way of thinking. So I have to smile every time I read about the Buddha’s choice to walk the Middle Path (I also see Jesus following a middle path as well, but that is a whole other discussion). Anyway, in this chapter the author writes that while we might think we are bound to either believe or not believe in something (in this case, rebirth–or…life after death…heaven and hell…nirvana, whatever is the case)–sometimes we forget there is “a third alternative: to acknowledge, in all honesty, I do not know” (38).