Im grappling with this because Im a materialist athiest but I find alot of the axioms on how to live a life in buddhism to be extremely beneficial for me. mindfulness and the 8 fold path have always intrigued me and recently as I have gotten into guided mindfulness more (which often have many buddhist inspirations for obvious reasoms) I find myself trying to anchor myself and detach so to speak from things that bring me suffering etc.

my issues is the spiritual aspect which isn’t for me but i dont want to be rude or disrespectful. ive read alot online i cant just take a buffet style buddhism or whatever and i am stuck in this middle where i can’t help what I believe but i also want to share the peace the parts of buddhism have helped me.

idk if this is nonsense but i thought itd be nice to have a sounding board while I ponder this

  • SunnyDaze [they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Oh, totally. I'm no teacher or anything, but the TL;DR is that it's fundamentalist - in the sense that it's "Just Sitting" zen. That's what keeps me coming back. No scripture / additional beliefs required. The attitude to the scriptures is largely that they're "often helpful additions".

    It's probably best if you find a teacher to talk it out with. FWIW, I'd recommend finding groups associated with the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), rather than the Soto Shu.

    Soto Shu is a recent organization that's trying to become like the Vatican for Soto Zen - not a great look.