Meta Buddhism

nonchalance, ecology and common sense in the 21st Century
meta-buddhism
Nikolaos-Laonikos Psimikakis-Chalkokondylis
Disclaimer London / October 4, 2010 Due to UK health and safety regulations, we regret to inform you that this article is written purely with philosophical, liturgical and nonsensical intentions and should not be taken as a basis for living. The author does not condone any sort of conflict and warfare between potential Christian Meta-Muslims and Muslim Meta-Christians, or any other similar potentially violent engagements between meta-religious groups which may arise after reading this article.
The author claims no responsibility for any changes in your life or personality because of this article, and in fact he would personally recommend you do not read this at all and just go on living your life as if it never existed. You act as the sole responsible individual for what you read.
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introduction
Meta-Buddhism refers to a very particular practice of Buddhism. It originates in London and is based in the desire to follow Buddhist practices and beliefs while still leading a modern life. One could say that if Buddhism is Hinduism stripped for export, Meta-Buddhism is Buddhism stripped for the contemporary urban social human. The practice of Meta-Buddhism differs a lot from that of Buddhism, although some underlying principles remain the same. The idea behind it is very similar to that of a meta-joke (a joke which is a joke about a joke) or meta-humour (humour about humour): Meta-Buddhism can thus be described as Buddhist principles applied to the practice of Buddhism itself.
a definition of meta-buddhism
Meta-Buddhism is based on the fundamental principle of Buddhism that of the Middle Way. The Middle Way (or Middle Path) is a term used by Buddha to describe the character of the path to liberation:
Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practised by one who has gone forth from the household life. (What are the two?) There is addiction to indulgence of sensepleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable. Avoiding both these extremes, the Tathagata (the Perfect One) has realized the Middle Path; it gives vision, gives knowledge, and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment and to Nibbana. 1
In other words, in Buddhism one should never do or have (or do) too much or too little of anything, because this hinders one's ability to achieve liberation. Balance is of the essence. In order to be a Buddhist you must embrace this principle and live your life according to the Middle Path. Meta-Buddhist beliefs are based on applying this concept of the Middle Path in the practice of living a balanced life itself. If there are two ways of living, balanced (following the Middle Path) and imbalanced (not following the Middle Path), then to live a life which is completely balanced would be an imbalance in itself. It is it is critical to balance out a perfectly balanced life with some imbalance (and vice versa). In essence, they agree with and want to follow Buddhist principles and beliefs to center the moral, ethical, mythological and psychological aspects of their lives, but at the same time do not want to compromise their current urban lifestyles. A useful analogy to help understand this is the following: Imagine having a car and wanting to keep the petrol tank precisely half-full. This is only possible if you stop using the car. But if you want to keep using the car, the petrol level will go below the middle and above the middle, but you can keep it fairly close to the middle if you drive carefully and are aware of how much on either side you are (and you're never on either end for too long).
1 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11)
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meta-religions
To provide a better understanding of the concept of "meta-" in Meta-Buddhism, it is necessary to look into the concept of Meta-religions and how it deals with the various religions around the world. An X Meta-Y religious person is one who takes principles of religion Y and applies them to the beliefs and practices of religion X. This, of course, creates the potential for all sorts of interesting combinations, such as Muslim Meta-Christians (believing that in order to go to Heaven they should kill all infidels at the cost of their lives, but who will go to Hell if they actually kill other people - they end up spending much time designing very intricate plans for failed suicide bombings ), Hindu MetaChristians (accepting as their unique and sole saviours all three million one hundred thousand five hundred and forty-seven gods in Hindi mythology, and must retain a meaningful spiritual relationship with all of them in order to be reincarnated in Heaven as humans), Humanist Meta-Satanists (a bizarre ideology which espouses reason, ethics, and justice, whilst specifically accepting supernatural, religious dogma in believing in Satan himself as a basis of morality and decision-making ), Amish MetaScientologists (people who believe their Thetans are indeed contaminated 2 but insist on attempting to cleanse themselves without the use of technology of manufactured supplements )3. In some rare cases there might arise extreme religions such as the Fundamentalist Confucianist Meta-Muslims (people who believe they should kill all infidels at the cost of their lives, but who end up committing suicide bombings amongst themselves, following the doctrine of " do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you"). Taking this one step further, it could also be applied within strands of one religion (a kind of selfreferential meta-religious babushka doll). Therefore you could have Protestant Meta-Catholics Christians (Christians who believe all Christians have equal duty in worshipping and spreading God's Word - apart from the Pope who is obviously much cooler) or Lutheran Meta-Mormons (people who believe that the Book of Mormons is the only source of faith by grace alone and it was actually written by Martin Luther) When the "Meta-" is not used in conjunction with an adjective before it, then it is simply self-referential meta-belief. Hence the term Christian Meta-Christians is the same as simply Meta-Christians. MetaBuddhism is therefore simply Buddhist Meta-Buddhism, but for the sake of simplicity the adjective form of the religion in question is omitted when referring to self-referential meta-religions.
2 The only way Scientologists cleanse their Thetans and be healthy is by using state-of-the-art equipment and supplements provided by the Church of Scientology at very high prices. 3 A large percentage of the Amish Meta-Scientologist population is currently located in mental institutes with severe cases of schizophrenia.
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nonchalance, ecology and common sense in the 21st Century

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