It was on a cloudy day in August when my mother told me that we would be visiting a temple to pray for the dead. Feeling confused, I asked her why. She told me that it was the 17th month of the lunar calendar, also known as the ghost month, and that we needed to pray and make sacrifices for the hungry ghosts (餓鬼) to avoid being haunted. When we got to the temple, the entire congregation stood in a dark room of red, gold, and black in front of a grand statue of the Thousand Armed Guanyin (the Bodhisattva of Compassion). We kowtowed to her and the monks began chanting, their Chinese Buddhist prayers almost sounding like a song. The chants filled my heart as I knelt on the floor, before eventually the chants ended and the service was over. Afterwards, the celebrations began with people lining up to receive stir fried food that the monks cooked, which, although seasoned very mildly, satisfied me completely. This memory is one of my favorites and is often what comes to my mind when someone asks me what being a Buddhist looks like.
It was because of experiences such as this that led to my shock when I entered school and began to see how Buddhism was taught in an academic environment. The way that the doctrines and core beliefs of the religion were presented as being so different from what I had personally seen was something that I could not comprehend. In my classes, I remember being taught that Buddhism was an atheistic religion that based its view of the world around suffering and taught that the only solution to this pain was detachment. Not only this, but oftentimes when people are asked what comes to mind when they think of Buddhism, their first answer is almost always meditation and images of monks living aesthetic lifestyles. These prevalent and common misconceptions about the religion resulted in incorrect conclusions such as the idea that Buddhism is not a “religion” but rather a “philosophy,” or that Buddhism is somehow a world-disaffirming religion teaching its followers to turn away from the physical world and live ascetic lifestyles. All in all, Buddhism is presented in such a pessimistic light that it results in an unfaithful view of the religion, discolored by misconceptions.
The most common of these misconceptions for me was the belief that because Buddhism lacks a creator deity, that the religion is atheistic or that Buddha is not a “god.” Both of these misconceptions are discolored by a fundamental misunderstanding of Eastern religions as well as an improper comparison of Buddhism to Abrahamic religions. Buddhism is very internally diverse, and while atheistic or non-devotional schools of Buddhism certainly do exist, there are Buddhist theists as well. In certain instances, Buddha is referred to as “Lord Buddha,” with his ascension into enlightenment being akin to becoming a part of all of existence. Many people view Buddha not only as a higher power to whom they pray, but also one that actively calls on them. In many cultures such as in Chinese Buddhism, reciting the Buddha’s name is a form of prayer and is believed to actually be the Buddha calling on them. With so many different sects and internal cultures, it would be wrong to say that deity worship or veneration of the Buddha is entirely absent from Buddhism. At the same time, Buddhism is flexible and some sects of Buddhists are allowed to worship whichever deities they would like — including deities from other spiritual traditions. Altogether, the various sects and differences within Buddhism demonstrates that while Buddhism can be an atheistic religion, not all of its followers are atheists.
Similarly, another prevalent misconception that has discolored the views of others towards Buddhism is the belief that Buddhism is a world-disaffirming religion that teaches its followers to be detached from a world that is characterized by suffering. This explanation is only partially true and serves to paint Buddhism in a much more pessimistic light. The word Buddha, used to describe one of the many constants in our lives was not exactly describing suffering, but instead something more akin to “dissatisfaction.” This was meant to explain that human attachment to material things and material desires ultimately result in these feelings of dissatisfaction. This, however, does not apply to our feelings for others, particularly loved ones. Righteous feelings such as love are understood to come out of positive attachment, and in many schools of Buddhism, it is for this reason that a certain degree of attachment is actually encouraged. This is even reflected in the way that certain Buddhas are conceptualized, with the aforementioned Guanyin being an example of a Buddhist deity that represents attachment in her compassion and selfless love for her devotees.
All of these misconceptions seem to ignore that the largest aspect of Buddhism is not mindfulness nor detachment, but rather to reduce suffering and harm. A majority of Buddhists live common lives never practicing things such as meditation or even reading scriptures. To most Buddhists, their religious duties involve preventing further suffering by minimizing the harm that they cause and by taking up practices that prevent harm to themselves. All Buddhist doctrines such as the eightfold path are presented in this framework; for example Buddhists are taught to not lie because it is viewed as a form of verbal harm. While one reason why Buddhists are taught to prevent harm is because of the karma that their negative actions will accrue — another Buddhist doctrine that is commonly misunderstood. Karma is not divine punishment but rather more akin to Newton’s third law of motion and its idea of equal and opposite actions and reactions. Karma is something like cause and effect, rooted in the belief that every action has equal consequence. In this way, doing harm to others is doing harm to yourself, and doing good to others is doing good to yourself. This belief in positive actions having universal consequences, though, does not only come out of karma but also the belief that Buddhism is the universality of life — another belief often left out of the discussion in Western circles. Buddhists believe that the lives of all sentient beings can and possibly will be the past or future lives of individuals or loved ones. This extends not only to the animals around us but also to the people that we interact with. In this way, Buddhism teaches that life is universal and that we should be kind to others as we are to ourselves, a principle that is arguably the most important foundational belief of the religion.
Ultimately, I find that my experiences with Buddhism have almost run completely contrary to the way that I have experienced learning the religion in Western academic circles. Simply put, the anecdote I began with is one that demonstrates the spirituality, kindness, and attachment that remains consistent throughout the many lives of Buddhists. While Eastern spirituality is becoming increasingly better known about in the West, it is far too often discussed in a way that is disingenuous to the true beliefs that Asians themselves hold. Altogether, although Buddhism is a well-known world religion, it deserves to be seen without misconceptions and in a way that is representative of the spirituality of its followers.