Might Buddhism seem like escapism to skeptical non-Buddhists?
zenguitar
Bad BuddhistNew England Veteran
Say you are interviewing three people, A, B, and C, and you ask them what is each person's goal in life.
Person A says, "My goal is to make a lot of money."
Person B says, "My goal is to be wise, just, courageous, and moderate."
Person C says, "My goal is to escape suffering."
Person A sounds like your typical ambitious individual. The average person can understand this goal, because they probably wish they had a lot of money themselves.
Person B sounds noble and philosophical, doesn't she? The average person might not understand why a person would forgo money for these virtues, but at least wisdom, justice, etc are understood to be virtues.
In contrast, doesn't person C sound, well, kind of ignoble compared to person A and B? Like he wants to crawl into a hole and evade life itself? And yet C is what Buddhism is proposing, isn't it? At least if you look at the wording of the Four Noble Truths.
How do you present basic Buddhism to skeptical non-Buddhists so that it doesn't sound like escapism?
Comments
Why would you waste your time trying to sell Buddhism to anyone?
Well, one reason might be that it could very well improve the world just a little bit.
You are trying to sound logical. It's not really working.
Start by trying to understand what suffering and the cause of suffering means to Buddhists.
There are a million and one goods books on the subject.
@zenguitar
A truth grasped is often rightfully seen by others as just another attachment in the making.
A truth lived though, can be transmitted by everything you do.
How do you know that what you are doing is not escapism?
It only seems like escapism to those who don't understand it. How is working toward ending suffering for all sentient beings escapism? It's more like wading into the thick of the human condition. Those who chase money are avoiding the suffering in the world, and are unconcerned about doing anything about it. That's escapism into materialism. It's chasing an illusion.
On a talk I heard, a buddhist said. You do not have to talk about your meditation etc, just be peaceful just show compassion and everyone will wonder 'why is he so peaceful.' And someday they might ask you and you can tell them.
But sometimes you cannot reach people and that is okay I think. After all someone has to be open, that is why the buddhist said that you should show it in the way you act. When someone is super thin and someone wants to lose weight they will not take the advice as fast.
But if someone is really fat and loses weight all of a sudden everyone will ask what is the deal and maybe be more open to follow that method as welll. Maybe a bad example but you get the gist I think.
Also escapism is fantasy and make believes, buddhism you could try and explain it as raising awareness so you can confront false thoughths that bring suffering. That does not mean you escape. Look at it like a writer that goes on a journey because he has no inspiration people could say he is running away from his work and writing, but instead
he is traveling seeing new things getting new inspiration again not the best example but it should do maybe.
Instead of making it about escaping suffering, make it about finding true peace. People do understand that desire (and it's the same thing). How you phrase things really does matter.
Let us say you are not.
Job done - no ducking Dukkha . . . as goofy said to the goose . . .
Do all three. Making money and then giving it away seems like fun.
I hit them over the head with a bunch of sutras until they understand that there is no escaping Dukkha.
Am I bad?
Do YOU think Buddhism sounds like escapism, @zenguitar?
You have received some perceptive posts here. I have to say, from a purely personal PoV, your recent questions prompt me to suggest you pose fewer questions of their ilk, and do a bit more introspection and reading. Buddhism isn't about how you present yourself or Buddhism to others, or what they think.
Buddhism is about Actions and practice.
It's not easygoing. Sometimes, putting into action what we suggest, is damn hard.
I dunno... I get the impression that either you want to find a way out, or you don't want to put the Effort in....
But as my dad used to say,
"Patience and Perseverance, my dear, will fuck a flea."
Buddhism is about "cessation" of suffering, not about "escaping" suffering.
I bet no matter what person A and B say, deep down, their goal is also related to finding happiness=cessation of suffering.
And I'd say person C has a very simplistic way to present Buddhism, in my opinion.
Very simplistic, indeed.
This summer I was walking in the park and in a matter of minutes on a beautiful summer day stumbled upon a rotting tree stump, and watched as hundreds of bees entered and left their nest in the tree-trunk.
I layered many human notions and ideas of what I was observing as a mental description of what was basically a natural phenomenon. Then I realised my dog had wandered off and had to abandon nature to get on with what it did best!
My dog - well it was just chasing squirrels as usual!
Do you ever wonder what it is within you that poses such scenarios -- and then demands you resolve them?
Yes, a desire to know the truth.
@zenguitar -- I think that the important question is not so much whether Buddhism sounds like escapism to someone else. The important part is whether it sounds like escapism to you. AND...
I think it is important to acknowledge that there is some part of you that does think the whole ball of wax is a bit escapist. You wouldn't be human otherwise. Don't pretend you don't, but rather enter into the thought, chew it, enjoy it and stop running away from it. Don't worry that anyone will hit you on the nose with a rolled up newspaper because you are a 'bad Buddhist.'
If Buddhism is not escapist, how come there are so many people out there who think it is? You've seen the doubt in their eyes. You've heard their attempts to be polite and not call you a five-alarm fool. If it's not escapist, how come all those clear-eyed skeptics aren't themselves Buddhists ... good Buddhists, savvy Buddhists, people who really have the key to a peaceful and clear life?
I know there are those who disagree, but I think that doubt plays a very nourishing role in the practice of Buddhism -- a role that needs to be met head-on. Doubt comes calling and the only question is whether you have the determination to keep going anyway ... keep practicing, keep being the best escapist you know how, keep on investigating and investigating despite all hindrances and trip wires.
Don't worry, most of those who talk the sweetest are not the ones you want to listen to. The one you want to listen to is the true voice that speaks up inside you ... the one that has doubts, the one who refuses to go on pretending, the one willing to work through even the most inviting and feel-good language.
Keep practicing or quit. But either way, know that your life is your responsibility. Convincing others is for snake-oil salesmen.
If you knew an apple was rotten would you eat it? The sense pleasures refer to a tendancy in our mind to grasp. This is the problem we are all working at even if it seems unclear or a blank wall. This leads to our suffering and the first two do not address the fundamental problem and they are like taking a sugar pill instead of a medicine.
Touche'!!
I meant to point you in the opposite direction. For you to 'question' your questions
. To be compassionately curious about the the nature and composition of the questions themselves.
Such persistent, difficult questions imply a persistent, difficult assumption, on your part.
It's sort of like asking a question you already know the answer to, at least partially. If you already know a part of the answer, it shapes your question.
I wish I could come up with a good metaphor. I'm afraid this is sounding like I'm criticizing you. I'm talking about expanding your insight into how you tick.
People go their whole lives never questioning that the world is much, much more than the human senses can see, hear, feel, taste and sense. We need tools to expand our awareness to perceive ACCURATELY the world around us. The same goes for 'the world within us'.
Buddhism appears to be a 'tool' that works on the subtle realities, the ephemeral things, like thoughts. Instead of criticizing or whatever, I mean to point you back toward your internal, subtle mechanisms. What goes on beneath your everyday awareness.
Your questions in your OP, for instance; whatever answer there is, if there is, won't help you understand Buddhism. What a thing to say, I know
. There's nothing wrong with you or nothing you are doing wrong. It's more like you are OVERLOOKING something that you haven't learned to see 
Thus, Buddha's little toolbox comes to the rescue.
This is why the Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching his 'prescription' for the cessation of suffering. This toolset for the subtle is not exactly built into the system. It is discovered, but doesn't work automatically. You SHOULDN'T already know how to do this, but in discovering Buddhism, it's one of the first important lessons.
Unfortunately words on a page can only go so far
Or spoken words, even the Buddha's words, which have been mangled as innocently as they've been understood in full.
Here's what I've learned, and so far it has helped me immensely. If what the Buddha says results in a quandary, some really complicated, practically impossible QUESTION in my mind -- I've misunderstood what he said. It isn't some Olympic feat to understand the Buddha's teachings, they are very simple. What seems 'Olympic' (and kind of is) is breaking through, with insight, the layers and layers (and layers) of unquestioned 'this is what life is' that have built up in my ego or small self over the years. Maybe this is why Zen mind is compared to the mind of a child. It's without all that accretion of 'this is what life is'.
Thus the question a person asks become DIFFERENT questions, as those layers of assumption, cultural collective stereotypes and prejudices get penetrated with insight.
Because it is escapist.
Tsk, tsk . . . Buddhism is the escape from samsara.
There is no escape from Dukkha, which is not quite the same as 'suffering'.
However as @genkaku is well aware, it is possible to sit and confront ones existence and its Dukkha.
It is possible to find the cause and solution.
It is possible to live free of Dukkha, angst, doubt, answering ignorant escape artists or mind yoked Dharmaists.
. . . and now back to the escape plan . . .
@federica, I don't quite understand that bit about the flea. Must be British humor.
Anyway, thanks people, these are great insights. And I promise to stop all the annoying questions and start my "real" Buddhist practice...
(....wait for it....)
NOW!!
By expressing to them that B and C aren't mutually exclusive. To be free from suffering requires wisdom; and wisdom begins by asking the following questions: