Am I too freaking dumb to understand Buddhism? As we might expect, most teachers of Buddhism would, if you put this question to them about yourself, say no. However, there are a lot of assumptions that come with such a no. If asked this question, I would tell the person who asked it that being too freaking dumb largely depends on how much work and time they are willing to put into understanding Buddhism on its own terms. In other words, there is the assumption that someone will actually take the time to study Buddhism seriously which means they ain’t too freaking dumb.
Often what makes it seem like we are too freaking dumb is, most likely, our impatience. We easily become discouraged because we can’t figure out Buddhism in under two minutes! (If it takes longer than a commercial—forget it!) If you are one of these impatient people you are freaking dumb, to be brutally honest.
Another problem that keeps coming up, which makes us seem too freaking dumb is our closet full of a priori assumptions, mainly about the world and our perceptual grasp of it. We refuse to believe that the world we see through our senses is not the real world. But more importantly, we believe this carnal body with its sensory organs, through which the world is perceived, is who we are (it is not!). Or we might even believe that there is nothing beyond this body; that when we die that’s it—it all goes back to the carbon cycle.
I should mention that our pride helps to make us freaking dumb, too, in which self-interest dominates; in fact, so much self-interest that we try to avoid anything that might disturb or break our sense of self worth (which no doubt is excessive). Such pride is built from illusion; believing of the illusory, ‘I am this’ (P., eso aham asmi).
Trying to be freaking dumb takes hard work! Let’s not forget that. We have to make sure that our teachers only teach certain things that agree with us lest the fictional world we carry about in our heads comes crashing down around us. Perish the thought that our teachers might decide to teach us the discourses (Sutras) of the Buddha! We even believe it is better to dumb down Buddhism, so much that we might believe living with a difficult person is nirvana or Buddhahood is how we deal with our boss or kids.
But maybe the problem has nothing to do with being freaking dumb. The problem could be that, in our heart of hearts, we don’t really want to change—I mean, real change is difficult. As I see it, the majority of people don’t want a religion to change them. Instead, they are trying to find a religion or a philosophy that already agrees with their view of the world. And for some, Buddhism seems okay as long as it is not taken up seriously.
I don’t think anyone is too freaking dumb to understand Buddhism; and it is the job of real teachers to teach people, first, they are more intelligent than they presently imagine; and they have a spiritual responsibility to utilize their brain, which is not going to be an easy task without sweat and tears.
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