<aside> 🚧 This page is under construction. In fact, compared to other pages that either have half-written, or absent content, this page is even more intensely under construction. I've been jumping around between sub-headings and the order/content is liable to change significantly still. The gist is here - but it's very messy. The reason it's public-facing at all is because some other pages depend upon the context that this page provides.

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<aside> ☝️ This post belongs to the Meditation feature category. As part of Stage 1 - Getting Interested.

As such, it assumes you've read the content on both the above pages, in that order. If you haven't - seriously please do so, the context is important.

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Disclaimer RE: my take on Buddhism

Basically:

Meditation and Buddhism are inextricably linked.

So, if we're starting from the vantage point of 'meditation' and working from there - the best framework within which to practice and develop meditation, and make progress towards [WIP] Enlightenment (it's a thing), has gotta be Buddhism.

Addressing the misconceptions

Alright, let's take a moment here quickly to quell the many inevitable misgivings or misconceptions that many of you are likely to have:

• As far as I'm concerned, Buddhism is not a religion.

  <aside> 🔥 In case you missed it: Disclaimer RE: my take on Buddhism For some, Buddhism is a religion - and I have no intention of disparaging that 🙏

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• My take is that Buddhism is closer to a philosophy, and most accurately I think best defined as a school of teaching, with practical outcomes that one can verify through direct experience.

• The Buddha was a real historical person, who wasn't: magic; a guru; in possession of any superhuman abilities or powers; a subject for worship. He was, in essence, a teacher.

  <aside> 🔥 Again, for some many, the Buddha was/is a subject for worship, and perhaps literally "superhuman" in some sense or other. As you'd expect, there are many 'competing' (or incompatible?) views on this, and that's fine I think.

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• There are no beliefs you must hold that Buddhism demands of you: this includes the belief in reincarnation; supernatural or superhuman powers; deities, gods or otherworldly phenomena.

  • It's true that these are intertwined with Buddhism in some respects, and in some schools/cultures/traditions much more than others, but if these are deal-breakers for you, don't worry, you don't have to believe these things in order to find Buddhism useful.

• [WIP] Enlightenment (it's a thing) is a real mental phenomenon that happens to people in our own time, though it won't make you: perfect, infallible, omniscient, magic, outwardly superhuman.

  • You needn't renounce the world, become a monk or a nun to seriously pursue or aspire to attain this goal in your lifetime, and its compatible with living a 'normal' life in modern society, with loved ones, family, modern technology, and so on.

Ruthlessly practical

Buddhism literally means "[how to] become enlightened". It's ruthlessly focused and practical - a way to take Contemplative Fitness to its extreme, to its penultimate goal, through very detailed and structured training - of which meditation is one facet.

There's in fact very little ambiguity in Buddhism! One could even argue that perhaps it suffers from too much content (maybe that staggering wealth of content in fact makes it a little ambiguous). But, to its credit, the core philosophy of Buddhism is famously summarised into two core lists of "do these things" that get you there.

<aside> 👆 This post isn't a 'History of Buddhism' or 'Buddhism 101', so if you want to learn more about those lists, seek them out: they're called The Four Noble Truths, and The Eightfold Path, and it's not unlikely that you might have already heard of them. Also, arguably the latter is nested within the former, and ergo it's actually one summary list of teachings.

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So here's my attempt at a quick summary regarding Buddhism: