faking it

not everything that claims to be Buddhism, Zen or Meditation is - here are some examples:-

fake Zen

I have seen many examples of the name Zen being used for non-religious purposes. There was a local shop that called itself "Zen" and sold hippy/new-age/oriental goods. It did not last very long on a working-class shopping street. Though a friend did point out the it was a lesson on "desire" - 'no-one would ever want to buy anything it had'! Some religions would get annoyed about abuse of their name or if their founder's image was used for the sahep of a candle.

There is also pseudo-Zen being marketed neatly; packaged do-it-yourseld-zen-kits. I recently saw an advert for a box containing a hard back book called Zen, five candles, five stones and a mirror. What are the stones for?

fake Meditation

There are those that sell meditation - books about it or meditation kits. They are actually selling meditation techniques for relaxation. There is nothing wrong with that - I have been known to teach meditation as relaxation. But there is a difference - relaxation techniques help us unwind and escape from the stresses of daily life; meditation teaches us to face the causes stress and the answer to 'life, the universe and everything'. Meditation has to be used in a religious context and can lead us into to strange mental territory.

You can buy meditation kits - I say one recently consisting of a CD, some incense, an incense holder, a tube of hand cream and a bottle of body moisturizing lotion! It was being sold by a drug store!

fake teachers

Beware there are some fakes out there. One person in the 60's adopted a Tibetan-sounding nom de plume and published books on Tibetan mysticism which we largely fictional.

There is a difference between a lecturer and a teacher. A lecturer is someone who tells you about Buddhism; a Teacher is someone who is authorised by a tradition to pass on its teaching. Teachers will only pass on their tradition, they will tend not to compare it with other forms and may know little about Buddhist history in general. A good teacher will offer the teaching for free, or ask for donations to cover travel costs. They will not try to sell you anything, though they may have items for sale. They will acknowledge that their tradition is one of many and not try to pass it off as the one and only and best form of Buddhism.

There are some traveling teachers who seem very convincing but are probably treating it as a profession. I have seen one - who has left his tradition and formed something new. When I saw him speak he did all the right things - smiled a lot, sat quietly between answering questions, had all the trappings of a enlightened teacher. But I suspect that his main aim in life was to raise funds for the organisation he founded. There is nothing wrong with breaking away from a tradition and starting something new - that is how Buddhism has expanded and become enriched. There is nothing wrong with founding an organisation to support the new tradition. But I think this guy had confused the means with the aim. It is easily done. The means had become more important than the aim. I have done it before when in politics - I was in politics to help people; people voted for me because I helped them; so I realised I could win more votes by claiming to have helped them without actually doing so - that is when I got out of it.

fake heroes

This is usually our fault not theirs. Our teachers are human too! They can make mistakes! In fact our teachers telling us about the mistakes they made is a really useful teaching, I find. But we can think that they are superhuman or infallible and when we find that they are not we are disappointed or angry and may start looking for another hero-teacher.

Some of my Buddhist heroes have aspects of their lives that I think are not appropriate. One leading UK Buddhist was a judge who sentenced people to be hanged. One famous Japanese Zen writer turned out to be anti-Semitic. But the problem is mine not theirs - it is my judgment of their life that changes things. The words they have written have not changed at all!

This is something we Brits are prone to perhaps more than most. We like elevating people to stardom because of their sporting or show-biz expertise and then love to knock them off the pedestal we created for them when we find out secrets from their private life. That is why we buy the tabloids in huge numbers!

fake enlightenment

Enlightenment cannot be put into words. Buddhist monks and priests are warned never to boast about the powers they obtain. So beware of anyone who claims to be enlightened or be a Buddha.

Monks work hard on their path to enlightenment. We are told that the historical Buddha left home when he was 29 and gained enlightenment when he was 35. So be wary of "Enlightenment Intensives" that promise results over a long weekend!

Mike Horne, Nov 2002

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