My problem with Buddhism.
Posted: June 3, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment
I’m a student of several religious traditions, but mainly Catholicism (of course) and Buddhism, which I sought out in graduate school. As with Catholicism, I found a lot that was useful and some that was not. In the latter category was the emphasis on “being in the present moment.”
I just traveled up the East Coast on a road trip, staying with dear friends and family, including my Aunt Laura, who’s a lifetime meditation practitioner. We were on the porch watching a thunderstorm yesterday and I told her about this problem with Buddhism. I’ve meditated on and off for the past ten years, but it never stuck. My happiness—not to mention my career—depends on being able to not be in the present moment, but to be inhabiting another time and place entirely. I wish I had a GPS device that tracked my physical location with one dot, and with another, my actual location. Which would jump all over the universe.
I wonder what the Dalai Lama would have to say about this. Maybe, Buddhists being Buddhists, he’d just agree with me, and then we’d go out for Shirley Temples.
monica byrne 
I happened to be one of the ardent passionate seekers of Buddha concepts. Although, I am surely not an authority to speak for or otherwise this concept. I would like keep only a statement here. Buddhism and Buddha have no connection whatsoever, they are completely two different individuals. Now, such statements might raise the eyebrows of those who constantly contemplate on monoism and dualism, etc. But without getting into such complications, the quoted statement in your post is really true esp. when you try to look at every moment of your life in connection to it. Your work is the same. You get paid to do things that benefit in the future, but the way you work is always present and you are really worried only about it, not the future benefit. That’s how you end up being a disciplined worker, whatever is your work. Try to read the same quote also in connection with the concept of Karma (in the language of Bhagawadgita) or Dharma (in the language of Dharmasutra). I am sure you might have already studied all of them, but just a free advice, you see. I am free work for last couple of hours 😉 But your open mind to want to learn such a wide spectrum of wisdom is surely admirable.