It is a truism to say that any explanation of Buddhism must fit with the words of the Buddha otherwise we are not learning anything important about Buddhism. The dark side of this is that we can cherry pick only those discourses of the Buddha which help to make our own spin seem plausible, then reject everything else. This is not an uncommon tactic of beginners who still are unfamiliar with the bulk of the Buddha’s discourses; who also have made up their minds that much of what the Buddha taught was mumbo-jumbo which has no relevancy with modern day problems.
The problem underlying this is many of us want quick answers even if they are wrong. Somehow the quick answer seems more appealing and satisfying than the long, often nuanced answer. Many who come to the temple gates of Buddhism are unwilling to take the time to really delve into what the Buddha taught which is always quite subtle and never meant for profane ears.
I can see why people, especially beginners, want the quick answer. (I must confess, there is always the temptation to give into their demands.) I have no problem admitting that explaining Buddhism is difficult, even to someone who happens to be doing their dissertation on Buddhism. For me, it is much easier to explain Buddhism to those who have been in the territory of the spiritual quest for a long time; who know the peril of going in the wrong direction; but who also know in what direction to travel, spiritually.
The easiest and quite possibly the worst thing one can understand about Buddhism, as far as the quick answer goes, is that Buddhism denies the self; teaches that all is impermanent and suffering. What this is missing is the Buddha taught, as a matter of soteriology, that our self, or true spiritual nature, is not to be found in the temporal body we inhabit, and that impermanence and suffering are the direct result of our strong desire for our temporal body and its deceptive pleasures. For the modern, this is a huge bitter pill to swallow. The quick answer seems better: there is no self; all is impermanent and suffering, and when you die, that is it.
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