Does Meditation Change Your Philosophy?
Just posted this to Mudita Forum….
In response to Mike Enright:
When I started my interest in buddhism I was told that if I meditated regularly I would eventually take on the buddhist philosophical positions. This came about because I was very interested in debating and understanding buddhist ideas say on the self and karma. My basic state of mind was that there was a lot to be said for some of these ideas (i.e. they desirved attention), but also that many of the statements of buddhists were too bizarre to really understand. The response was that the guy could go statement by statement with me, but it would be easier for both of us if I stopped reading and started meditating.
Has anyone found that to be true?
I have been meditating on a daily basis for eight years, and practicing Buddhist-style meditation (aided by several lengthy Buddhist retreats and many Buddhist books) for the past four.
During this time, a number of Buddhist psychological insights which seemed hollow before, have become deeply meaningful:
* The importance of cultivating mindful awareness throughout one’s daily life
* The sense in which one’s suffering is largely self-created
* Ways in which the conventional experience of the self is misleading and can be harmful
* The cleverness of the mind in perpetuating its own illusions of control, deprivation, and desire
At the same time, my underlying philosophy has not changed. I still believe reality is fundamentally objective (not created by our experiences), that reason (and the principle of non-contradiction, in particular) is of supreme importance in life, that everyone should follow an ethic of enlightened self interest, and that the organizing principle of a moral society is that of individual rights.
I know few practicing Buddhists who would agree with any of these principles, much less all of them.
Defining what constitutes Buddhist philosophy, per se, is a challenging task. Even if we chose one school of Buddhism to focus on, there are often inconsistencies. The one common denominator that I frequently see is a kind of thoroughgoing pragmatism: “the true is that which works” (to reduce suffering).
This leads to bizarre philosophical conclusions such as:
- Perception is an active process ==> There is no objective world
- Concepts don’t exist “in the world” ==> All concepts are illusory
- The conventional experience of self leads to suffering ==> There is no self
In this fashion, psychological insights are elevated to the level of philosophical absolutes, and the results often aren’t pretty. However I find that it is quite possible to recognize and incorporate the practices, and the resultant insights, without accepting the philosophical conclusions that Buddhists have attached to them.
So, returning to the original context of your question: In order to be won over to your friend’s Buddhist philosophy, I suspect you would need to both meditate rather consistently and accept his explanations of what you experienced when you meditated.
What have you found?
Also, a similar statement was given to me regarding vegitarianism. They said that if I meditated seriously I would become so mindful of the suffering of animals when I ate that I would stop eating meat. Has anyone experienceed this?
Not me.
I follow the D’Adamo diet for blood type O, so I eat meat in large quantities for the health benefits. I was also raised on a farm where we slaughtered animals on a regular basis, so killing and eating animals feels to me like a normal part of nature.
My wife Kathy and I buy most of our meat from a company here in town that raises animals in a free range environment, and they’re killed quickly. There’s not much man-made suffering for them to experience before they land in our fridge.
At the same time, I am very close to the animals in my life, and I suppose if I conjured up images of them suffering, I might lose my appetite temporarily. But why would I want to introduce such suffering into the world? 
“mindful of the suffering of animals”
What about plants, which are sentient ?