[sarasaraseda]

Dear friends,

Soto Zen priest Rev. Jundo Cohen has kindly given me permission to post an excerpt from a book he is writing at the moment. The title of the book will be:

"I DON'T BELIEVE IN BUDDHA!
(That's why I believe in Buddha)

A Guide for the Buddhist Skeptic"



I have a confession to make: I don't believe in Buddha.

It may be shocking for a Buddhist priest to say so, as shocking as hearing a Catholic priest say he "doesn't believe in Jesus". But it's true nonetheless. I am a Buddhist priest who thinks "Buddha" is largely bunk and baloney.

At least, I think there's a lot of "bull" to how Buddha is typically portrayed. I think many of the utterly fantastic Mahayana Sutra stories of Buddhas are ridiculous ... hyper-exaggerated ... just unbelievable! (meaning that they cannot be taken literally any more than children's fairy tales). The imagery is incredibly beautiful ... but the tale just incredible beyond credence, purely the product of human religious imagination. I think the image of a "Perfect Buddha" ... either in this world or some Buddha Land ... as a flawless being beyond all human weakness, conflict and ignorance ... is a fable, a religious myth. I think most of the old miracle filled stories are well meaning fictions, sometimes holy lies, and the golden statues and paintings of Buddhas are but depictions of exaggerated dreams.
............

One powerful aspect of Zen Practice is that [Buddhist Truths] can be true even if some choose to abandon much of the smoky incense, fancy dances and funny hats ... true even as we realize that many of the stories and koans are fabricated skits and set-ups with little historical basis ... true even if we do not believe literally in magical Kannon with 1000 hands and eyes. The profound Truth of this Way is not dependent on particular Indian, Chinese, Korean or Japanese ways, can be just as well lived with or without bells, drums and whistles. The 1000 hands and eyes of Kannon can be seen as our 100000000 human hands and eyes when acting with Compassion in tending to those in need, not dependent on whether Kannon is Kan-nonsence.

This Practice is Bottomless Treasure even as we come to learn that many of our beliefs, stories, koans, histories, lineages, Sutras and Suttas are no less fictional than Peter Pan. The Mahayana Sutras replaced the sometimes silly stories of the Pali Suttas with a bunch of other often even sillier stories ... yet the powerful Truths in each stand undiminished ... and the power of the Zen Way is that historical truth or fiction does not matter in the least. A fictional Kannon is just as compassionate and real as the one of legend.

In fact, Peter Pan speaks to the timeless child in all of us!

So much of Buddhist identity (modern understanding has come to see) is baloney. Buddha is often bull crackers, Bodhisattva tales mostly bogus. Nonetheless, Buddhist Truths are as real as real can be, and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas too (true in every drop of wisdom and compassion in the human heart)! Funny how that works, and the power of this practice is that it can easily hold such truth or falsity without loss of its vitality.
...............

Thus, Buddhas are but fables and lies, Buddhas are human aspirations, Buddhas are True Teachings, Buddhas are Whole and Complete beyond "full" or "lack" or "true" or "false", Buddhas live and breathe in the world when we live and breath Buddhas.


The Buddhist Path is Real


Liberation is Real


Buddha is Real



Any reasonable comments relating to the excerpt are welcome.


with kind wishes

Aloka