"Sadly some in the West who imagine themselves to be ‘Buddhists’ are actually not. Their values and beliefs do not derive from the teachings shared by all Buddhist traditions on such core doctrines as non-self, karma and rebirth. On the contrary, their deepest assumptions reflect modern Western ideas that affirm the absolute autonomy of the individual self, have no consideration of a continuity of lives and assert that suffering may be abolished by a re-ordering of the external world.
There are a number of areas where one can point to a confusion, or simple ignorance, in the Western understanding of Buddhism. These range from the blending of techniques from Buddhist and New Age sources to the notion, held by some, that there is no difference between the Buddhist systems of Mahamudra and Dzok Chen, on the one hand, and the eternalist system of Vedanta on the other. In addition, there is the casual assumption, made by many Western Buddhists, that the dharma is fully harmonious with and supportive of their particular political ideology – a belief that can only result from an absence of serious knowledge of the dharma, a system which cannot be identified with any current ideology - left or right.
However, perhaps the best way to illustrate this lack of knowledge is by reference to matters concerning the beginning and end of life and, in particular, the modern epidemic of abortion. This is an issue on which dharma is uniquely equipped to give the appropriate guidance, since Lord Buddha clearly described the process of death and conception in the sutras and tantras and, at the same time, depicted the taking of human life as the most severe ethical failing. Nevertheless, many Western enthusiasts are surprised when they discover that, in the Vinaya and in the texts on the three vows, abortion, being the deliberate taking of human life, is described as a grave moral fault.
As this example illustrates, unfortunately, many Western Buddhist lack a serious and well-founded confidence in the Buddha’s teachings, a confidence that would have been acquired through study of Abhidharma, Pramana and Madhyamaka. Instead, their minds are full of a mass of contradictory and undigested fragments of teachings, all competing for space with equally undigested fragments of Western thought.
Many Westerners’ understanding of Vajrayana also betrays ignorance of the authentic teaching. For instance: some people erroneously imagine that they have samaya with teachers who cannot give authentic initiations and yet do not realise that they do have such samaya with qualified masters, who have indeed bestowed such authentic initiations upon them. The possibility of their being exploited by fake teachers, who might claim a non-existent authority, is all too obvious here.
One can conclude from these examples of the serious deficit in people’s understanding of the dharma that such ill-educated followers will have little ability to withstand any negativity directed towards Buddhism. When the fashion for Buddhism declines, perhaps as a result of the scandals that we will address in the next section, such people will easily abandon the dharma. After all, they had no intelligent reason to be Buddhist in the first place.
Their superficial understanding of the dharma will not help them to refute the errors of materialism or theism and defend the truth of Buddha’s analysis of the true nature of reality. It is therefore quite likely that some will abandon Buddhism for Christianity or Islam and that even more will join the new religion of anti-religion."
written by Erick Tsiknopoulos Tibetan translator and webmaster at https://buddha-nature.com/
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