đđŒ previous note, 05.02. The Buddhist Worldview
For the purpose of this essay through saddhÄ and to support my own Buddhist practice, I have been trying to understand both the âdominant Western worldviewâ and my own metaphysical beliefs, to see where I sit on the map. Turns out (perhaps unsurprisingly) that the further I get into this, the more I understand there isnât one dominant worldview - more like a patchwork of beliefs that are stitched together to form something that might loosely be called metaphysical materialism or metaphysical realism.
Considering there is no great single edifice I can step out from underneath, I thought it might be helpful to see which beliefs I share with certain expressions of modern science, because getting them out in the open may be a good way of seeing them for what they are.
I am hoping this will help me to see where I donât have to worry about whether my worldview motivates practice or subtly and half-consciously undermines it. Just another angle I guess.
Is Awakening Possible?
Do I believe it is possible for a person to become awakened in this lifetime? Generally speaking, yes I do - however, this belief is a choice and I donât yet have any empirical evidence for it, so for now I take it on faith, or saddhÄ, meaning I believe I have good reasons for believing awakening is possible in this lifetime. If I didnât believe this were possible, it would radically impact the amount and type of effort I apply in my practice.
There are whole living traditions that prioritise scholarship and memorising the suttas because they believe we are too deep in the sasana to become arahants in this lifetime, so they make merit hoping this will cause fortunate rebirth, ideally at the time of Matreya.1 Pure Land practitioners chant the name of Amitabha in the conviction they will be reborn in the realm of Amitabha, and in Sucittoâs pilgrimage account they stay at a small Japanese temple where the whole practice is chanting and banging a drum. There must be numerous other examples.
There are also whole living traditions that prioritise awakening over all else, including the Early Buddhist Theravadin tradition I am planning to ordain in.
The Self
Is the self a permanent, bounded, independent, separate thing? I donât think so. I think it is a process, both real and illusory - a real illusion, in the sense a mirage is real, even if the oasis is not.
Objectivity
I donât believe only third-person facts/observations âcountâ as evidence or as reality. Subjective experience is more effective for understanding what I need to understand: how to be happy. Even if I canât satisfy various metaphysical curiosities I have, also science cannot.
Physical Reality
I donât believe only the physical is âreal,â as in scientific or metaphysical materialism.
Psychic Phenomena
I do believe in psychic phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, prophetic dreaming, astral travel, etc., and I consider its study is not just parapsychology or pseudoscience, but genuine fringe science - once these phenomena are experienced directly, it wonât be âpara-â psychology and their place in the scientific canon doesnât matter. Until then I also have no known good reason to disbelieve the various accounts, which also applies to my faith in rebirth.
Rebirth
| growth | epistemic status |
|---|---|
| đ« seed | â confident |
| An essential aspect of [[07. What the Buddha Taught#Skilful View | skilful view]], I do believe in rebirth, primarily because I came into this world with affinities I canât explain without reference to previous existence. I also have no known good reason to disbelieve the various accounts of rebirth. |
In MN 60, the Buddha claims, very explicitly, âSince there actually is another world, one who holds the view âthere is no other worldâ has wrong view.â In lieu of having our own direct experience of this metaphysical truth claim, it is advised in MN 60 that a wise or skilful person would assume it to be true, just in case - if it isnât true and there is actually no other world, then at least oneâs wholesome motivation yields the fruit of happiness and welfare in this lifetime. Such an argument seems to be essentially consistent with Pascalâs Wager.
I find these grounds to be sufficient for choosing to believe in rebirth, so this aspect, at least, of skilful view, gets a green stamp for epistemic status.
đ© History as Linear Progress
I do tend to believe history is linear and progressing to some idealised evolved state, and that I need to stay and help , but knowing the ripple effect helps assuage this.
đ© Evolution of Consciousness
The view of history as linear progress is something of a problem, because it tends to lead me down paths where I think about how âraising consciousnessâ through becoming awakened contributes to a more-evolved society, which might just be wishful soteriological thinking. soteriology This kind of thinking gets me into the thickets of the bodhisattva ideal and all sorts of other egalitarian values that seem to clash with the teaching to save ourselves.
Dualism
I donât believe in Cartesian dualism or the idea that humans are somehow separate from nature - the mind is certainly not separate from the body. We are all connected, somehow, as described at least by Jungâs collective unconscious and perhaps by Buddhaâs idea of conditionality.
Consciousness
I donât believe consciousness ends at death: I believe
- in rebirth
- and kamma,
- and that appropriate attention somehow results in liberation.
I have questions about the nature of consciousness, its origins, etc., and what happens to it after death and arahantship, but I try to remember the simile of the poisoned arrow, that I donât need to know how it works, just that kamma somehow travels through consciousness, and I am confident that it does.
I would do well to remember more often the simile of the poisoned arrow: asking where the arrow came from, etc., doesnât get the arrow removed, and you could die asking.
I can drive a car without knowing exactly how it works.
Cause of Suffering
I believe clinging causes suffering.
Skilful View
Dependent Origination
makes sense - and enables dependent liberation