Buddha without Buddhism?

Depending where you live and what sect of Buddhism you follow, your practice may resemble anything from quiet contemplation to an elaborate ceremony. Some people may not even think about the Buddha’s teachings, while others may be offering water and flowers to various statues. While the latter example encompasses important cultural traditions, it may keep Buddhism from gaining widespread acceptance by an increasingly skeptical population.

To be honest, one of the only reasons that I do not identify with Atheists is because they tend to immediately dismiss concepts like enlightenment or reincarnation as mystical mumbo-jumbo. However, this is far from the actual reality of the situation. At its core, the main assertions of Buddhism can be examined using the scientific methods. Our hypothesis is that there is a state of consciousness that allows for higher levels of happiness, compassion, and satisfaction, and achieving this state of mind is a repeatable activity. A number of techniques are available for us to use to test whether this statement has any truth, most notably the practice of single-pointed concentration. Anyone who honestly sets out to complete this experiment properly will find credibility in the Buddha’s teachings, and as neuroscience develops the results will become increasingly objective. This characteristic distinguishes Buddhism from all other religions.

Sam Harris contends that ancient Buddhist ideas about introspection and the mind may soon gain traction in the scientific community. When this happens, ‘Buddhist meditation’ will go the way of ‘Christian physics’ and ‘Muslim algebra’; the facts will be accepted for what they are. I think that most Buddhists would agree that their way is not the only way. Is there any difference between meditating in a bar and meditating in a temple? Do you get better results if you are wearing a robe instead of a suit? Are your chances of enlightenment higher because you spend more time studying the sutras? Will you fail to attain enlightenment if you do not believe in reincarnation? The answers to the above questions should be clear to anybody who truly understands the Buddha’s teachings.

It is my belief that Buddhism sacrifices nothing if it becomes a philosophy or science instead of a religion. In fact, may just make the concepts more acceptable to people who would have previously dismissed them due to the oftentimes negative label of ‘religion’.