Influence

When I learned about the concept of syncretism, I loved it. Instead of keeping ideological purity, the idea of syncretism is to meld good ideas together. Buddhism has always transformed as it entered into each country. In Tibet it melded with the ruggedness needed to stay there, and the magic. In China it melded with Confucianism and Taoism. If there's a melding of America, it's an antipathy towards spiritual materialism. It's a kind of religious freedom, that rejects calls to unite the USA under one religion, no matter what Michael Flynn thinks.

Hinduism perhaps worms it's way into Buddhism through Buddha Nature ideas. Maybe the guru relationship in Tibetan Buddhism is a Hindu import. Nevermind, now it's Buddhism. To understand the history of Buddhism you have to accept that these ideas were taken in and made Buddhist.

As Buddhism interacts more with Christianity, the appreciation for Amitabha, the Bodhisattva of love, is connected to Buddhism. You can be reborn in a pure land. Pure Land Buddhism is a kind of Christian import. Nevermind, now it's a Buddhism hybrid.

The cult of love is just a kind of emotional flavor of altruism, of the Bodhisattva ideal. I'm not sure if the historical Jesus really talked about love, I think it might have been a palatable assertion along the way. Never mind. Syncretism is good in my book. Nothing would survive without the white hot gravity that pulled in ideas. No human wants to exist on one system. Godel's theorem says one system will never be complete. We need a bag of ideas to draw from. Part of my journey studying philosophy in college was to understand some of the ideas at our disposal. To me psychology says we're never going to be completely integrated, but trying to evolve integrity is a good practice. There's a certain kind of clarity in meditating a lot and understanding your mind, that lends to increased integrity.

The melding of Buddhism to self help and modern psychology is also a something that guardians of purity can talk about. Lots of people come onto r/Buddhism and ask how to cope with things. Maybe the larger perspective of Buddhism can help with meaning and coping. But it's a pretty radical idea.

I'm surprised Buddhism caught on at all, that it's still alive. It's a pretty intense solution. You meditate a lot, once you have built a foundation to support intensive meditation, and seek to attain a level of objectivity of mind and mindfulness and kindness. There's a all kinds of flowery metaphysical talk but from an enlightened perspective, it can seem like it's a certain level of mindfulness and insight.

The project of pushing on and on and on is never done. "I'll quit when I die," says Jerry on Rick and Morty. People go onto r/Buddhism and think "how can I do an end round of all these complications," and, "tell me the direct efficient path." That's not a bad instinct, but the world doesn't answer itself on Reddit, it's just a place to talk about things. The revolution won't be televised, it also won't be written about on Reddit. 

We live in extraordinary times. With rapid changes, there are lots of experiments in how to be. Humans are fairly conservative. Love, kindness and metta never go out of style. We can get intoxicated by technology. I can, I know that, and I think it's universal. I've seen the Amish in Mcdonalds watching the TV. I'd rather have a syncretic inclusive bag of ideas to guide me through complex times.