One of the things I like most about Buddhism is that it’s a science, the science of life. Now science usually has a very sec connotation, but in fact we are here talking about the most romantic science there is, where nothing is excluded. Buddha said to never take his words for truth without us discovering it for ourselves and he said so for a reason. There is a saying in Zen Buddhism which says; If you meet the Buddha, kill him. Now this sounds of course rather harsh, but it is not at all meant to provoke aggression, it means that whenever we are trying to find truth outside of ourselves, we are doing something wrong. Instead of attributing the course of our lives to external forces, and creating dogmatic believes around them, we start from the very naked point where we say; what is it exactly we’re dealing with here? Buddha said; life is suffering, but there is an antidote. Life is an enormously complex puzzle for us human beings and Buddhism is nothing less than the science dedicated to solving it, what works and what doesn’t? This way it doesn’t condemn about good and evil, but much more in term of causes and consequences, A causes B, very much like in science. On top of that, this science has been lasting for over 2500 years and has spawned many marvelous teachers who have crystalized the teachings even more. Many Western people started practicing Buddhism because religion din’t work for them, so they tend to go much more to the core of Buddhism without falling for the typical Eastern traps in which Buddhism is created into some sort of religion. It is my believe that this is the way the Buddha wanted his teachings to be practiced, so that we can become fully human with good hearts thriving on our own wisdom. When the Dalai Lama talks about compassion, it’s not because this is written somewhere and we have to follow it blindly, it’s because he knows that it works and he encourages people to find this out for themselves. We find out everything for ourselves, with great teachers along the side line the helping us, but eventually everyone travels his/her own journey.
A great advocate of this pure view on Buddhism is Ven. Robina Courtin. Although her style of teaching might be somewhat unusual (she is not exactly the typical quiet nun), what she says goes very much to the core of the teachings, without any bullshit.