Modern Buddhism is somewhat like a person going deer hunting and coming back with a dead cow. This is the norm. It happens because our cultural presuppositions about Buddhism have little to do with Buddhism; they only add more confusion. Buddhism arose from within the land of India. Before he awakened becoming Buddha or a muni, Gautama was a seer/seeker in the śramaṇa tradition in which the adept has renounced the life of a householder for an ascetic spiritual life. Thus far, all scholars can tell us there is nothing quite like this in the West. Sure, they can go back to ancient Greece and look, but by and large the spiritual world from which Gautama became a great muni and a Buddha (one who is awakened to true reality) has no parallel in the West.
The Buddha describes the śramaṇa tradition of which he was a part of, that it consisted of those persons “who come to the knowledge of the dhamma on their own, not having heard the truths before” (Sañāgarava Sutta). Related to this, we find in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta the newly enlightened Buddha encountering a Ajivika ascetic name Upaka. He tells Upaka, among other things, that he is “untainted by an existent,” but also that he is “self-taught”. Being self-taught resonates with the śramaṇa tradition which is an inward seeking and seeing: seeing the true nature of reality as opposed to being always tainted by existents; chasing one illusion after another which is what the secular, householder life is all about.
For the modern Buddhist practitioner (and I include the average Zennist) there is somewhat of a confused understanding of the śramaṇa path which was absorbed into Buddhism. This is because, for the most part, the modern practitioner has not actually—in their heart of hearts—renounced the worldly, householder life which today means having a good job, a nice home, a nice spouse, a couple of nice kids, and two nice cars in the garage (one day hopefully a BMW). They are still holding out for a kind of spiritual compromise by which they can pursue the śramaṇa path and still, at the same time, have a family enjoying those things which come with this kind of life.
Judging the matter as a whole, we cannot serve two masters at the same time: the holy and the secular. If we try to, we will only end up secularizing the holy, hence, the confusion and coming back with a dead cow instead of a deer. And no matter how many hunters say their dead cow is a deer, it is still not going the change the fact that a cow is not a deer even if our teacher assures us we have a deer. In respect to this, much of the life of a Dharma center is directed more or less towards assuring the group that becoming awakened is relatively easy. It just takes time for our cultural presuppositions to melt away, if they ever do.
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