Since the third of the Four Noble Truths is that the way to free yourself from suffering is to relinquish all attachments, you’re not helping or hurting your cause by not worrying about Buddhism. In fact, you could theoretically achieve nirvana without “being” a Buddhist, and (as your OP intuits) you could keep nirvana out of reach and remain stuck in samsara by worrying about how good a Buddhist you are.
I love this thread. I would love to continue this as an “Ask the Buddhist” or someone could start another and I guarantee there will be questions.
Something about Buddhism really attracts me and it’s not as simple as grasping a fad. When I read about it I do relate, and if I don’t have to worry (or shouldn’t even worry!) about any sort of advancement or supernatural debt I would probably embrace it more. Not that Buddhists are knocking at my door to bring me in to the fold. I’m not looking to be a part of anything or any group anyway. I just want to learn detachment and find that peaceful place.
The thing is, once you get into that state, it’s like the most awesomest drug ever. And it’s legal, free, and healthy.
The trick is getting into that state. The harder you try, the harder you fail. We humans have an amazing capacity to hang on to stuff.
Ask Pol Pot about how the Vietnamese are easy pickings for dictators, too…
Yeah. Obviously it wasn’t my dad who taught you to fly fish.
I already flunked out of the world of neuroscience research. I’m sure I accrued at least one lifetime worth of bad karma from all the leeches and frogs I killed in the process, too.
From the Zen Buddhist perspective, you are already enlightened.
But your grasping mind (which wants to become something other than what you already are) is getting in the way of you realizing that fact! Even grasping after Nirvana is an obstacle. Maybe after a few years of meditation and the guidance of a good teacher, you’ll eventually come to realize that fundamentally there’s nothing to do and nothing to worry about. 
The problem here is putting into words an experience which is free from the confines of all concepts. Any attempt to describe enlightenment will fall short of the goal and not be the whole truth. Those who are careful readers may find what they believe are contradictions in this post.
After reading the preceding passage, many will think of Buddhism as simply a way to zone out and not deal with our problems. But nothing can be further from the truth. There are real life problems that do need action to solve, but we must be careful about causing ourselves stress by creating paper tigers or trying to tackle problems that are beyond our ability.
Fundamentally, from a Zen point of view, reaching that sort of quiet harmony with everything (satori) is only half of the journey. You fee like you’ve done so much work and climbed to the top of a metaphorical pole, and then your teacher tells you that when you’re at the top of the pole you have to let go and keep climbing, so to speak, until you’ve even lost your attachment to that sense of detachment and can just go through your daily life while being at one and at peace with it all.
On top of that, the highest respect goes to those who go about reducing the overall suffering in this world–(Zen) Buddhism that is sterile and confined to a monastery is dead and of no use to anyone.
So well put. When I first started exploring religions, I read about Buddhism and observed Buddhist forums for months. The Buddhist paradigm is just so completely different than what we are accustomed to in the Western world that it took me a loooong time to even begin to grasp the basic concepts. Especially Zen. Zen is so freaking confusing.
And then, one day, I sat down to meditate.
‘‘Oh.’’ :smack:
I’ll go start that thread if it hasn’t been started already.
All right, ‘‘Ask The Buddhist’’ Thread is up and running!
*Skylark throws tomatoes at Polycarp.
That reminds me of a part of Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums. It turns out, Jack Kerouac didn’t know anything about Buddhism, but they through enough words in there. Or, maybe, as the prologue argued, Kerouac was actually writing about his Christianity the whole time (or both?). I don’t know. Maybe.
Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder’s head.
Buddhists generally don’t believe in souls. I think you’re describing a set of Hindu-like beliefs. Some buddhists believe in something like reincarnation but it’s more complicated. It’s usually referred to as “rebirth” or samsara. Of course, if there is not permanent soul, what’s reborn? And if there is no permanent entity, why do non-Western buddhists talk about the different dimensions like hells and devas and coming back as a fox, etc? These may just be sort of allegorical but many Eastern Buddhists take it seriously. The big thing about rebirth is “dependent co-arising” which brings about cycles of “ignorance, mental formation, consciousness, name and form, the six senses, contact, feeling, craving, clinging, becoming, birth, and old age and death”. Nirvana is the cessation of this cycle and suffering. Karma is linked to this because our actions or even no-actions bring consequences that continue the cycle.
Brad Warner, author of a fun zen book called, “Hardcore Zen” uses a common metaphor for this. We are waves in an ocean. We are not separate, nor are we permanent. Something appears to be ‘born’ then ‘dies’ but not really.