New Age or the Old Way
January 23, 2009 Question: What is your view of the popular New Age view that we create our own reality? At the moment I feel somewhat torn in my focus between the traditional wisdom teachings such as Buddhism and New Age, contemporary philosophy. The former is about waking up from the dream while the latter seems to often be about making the dream, i.e. our lives in this world, more pleasant, abundant and satisfying.
I understand that Buddhism teaches that we create our own reality depending on the thoughts we have and the way we view people and situations. However the New Age focus is very much on changing the actual circumstances according our will and desire through techniques of "manifestation", like visualizations, affirmations etc. I have found that the general belief is that we can manifest happiness, abundance, good relationships, anything at all, if we genuinely believe we deserve them and focus properly on getting them. Whether we have the karma to have these things doesn't seem to be an issue, and I've even heard statements to the effect that "Karma is real only if you believe in it". Personally, I don't buy that one!
The way of traditional wisdom, such as the Buddhist, appears to be vastly superior in that it offers a way to get off the wheel of rebirth altogether, as well as a greater focus on helping others to become happy. However, I often find myself drawn to the New Age philosophy as it seems to offer a way to at least be more comfortable and satisfied with my life as it is right now. I wonder if there would be less struggle in my life if mastered some of the techniques of manifestation. I wonder if I would have more to give to others if I had more resources myself instead of perpetually struggling to get by in life. I even feel that if I had more money, I would have more time to myself to practice spiritually, go to retreats etc. and that perhaps these techniques could help me get it. Having said that, I'm also aware that there is such limited time in life, I had better get my priorities straight as to the best way to employ it and not dribble it away on temporary fixes.
I do know people who are successful, prosperous and quite happy in life who claim that these New Age philosophies and techniques of "magic and manifestation" have helped them to become that way. It's tempting to want to find out what it is they know, but I feel concerned that this may pull me away from a more authentic spirituality of the kind that Buddhism embodies.
Can you offer any insights?
Response: First, this is an excellent question and one which doesn’t bear cutting down. So I’ve posted the entire email. And thank you for giving me permission in advance to use it here.
“Karma is real only if you believe in it.”
This is like saying gravity is real only if you believe in it. Rather risky. ;-)
Also, karma—cause and effect—can be as simple as doing something to help another person and feeling happy or making someone cry and feeling badly. And for those recommending visualization to make something happen, that’s cause and effect! I do and something happens. I speak and something happens. And in visualization, I think and something happens. So to me it seems a tad confusing to apply principles of cause and effect on the one hand while denying them on the other.
“We create our own reality.”
Well we do, but not exactly in the way referred to above. Feeling I “deserve” to have a life that is more pleasant, abundant, and satisfying doesn’t mean it will happen. For example, I may feel that I deserve to have a beautiful garden, but that won’t create it. To simply visualize or wish for something and then receive it requires an incredible amount of good fortune and merits and virtues from our practice. And frankly, awakened beings who had all these would not be thinking they deserved something, they’d be trying to help others get what they needed.
So the vast majority of us, after the thought “I’d like a garden,” need to prepare the ground, plant the seeds, care for and protect the seedlings, and water them carefully. In other words, I need to plant the causes and provide the right conditions to have the result I wish for.
I daresay there are some people who have both used the above techniques and gained success and prosperity. But such people had already planted the seeds for what they came to enjoy. And they would have received success and prosperity anyway. And I’m also sure there are many people have tried the techniques to no avail. Either they had not planted the seeds for what they visualized, etc., or they did not have the right conditions.
“At the moment I feel somewhat torn in my focus between the traditional wisdom teachings such as Buddhism and New Age, contemporary philosophy...”
The Buddha cautioned that as time went on, there would be increasing numbers of deluded teachers. And so with increasing numbers of deluded students as well, people would have much difficulty discerning the truth from someone’s perception of the truth.
Perhaps you might try looking at intention. The Buddha taught whoever asked him a question. He walked (choosing to neither ride in a carriage nor go on horseback) to where he was invited and lectured. He did not charge or ask for anything in return. Those who could afford to made offerings. Those who had little offered a few cents. Those who had nothing might have only offered a flower or a thank you, but regardless they too received a perfect teaching from the Buddha.
The Buddha taught to not be selfish but to broaden the mind to reach the awareness that we are all one. Rather than wishing for personal prosperity and success, perhaps it would better if we visualized a world where all beings had what they needed to be safe and content, not just oneself. A world where future generations would also have what they needed.
All this wishing for abundance combined with a surge in the population combined with the technology that has enabled us to the deplete natural resources that took millions of years to create in what will be about two centuries, has lead to the thinking that we each can have it all. Perhaps we should be visualizing a world where people are humble and disciplined, and care not about their own prosperity but others’ survival.
We are living in an infinitesimally small blip in time. A time in which we can live like kings! Actually we are living better than kings when we consider how kings used to live. All this royal living is terribly dangerous because we have become ensnared by our craving and greed. Living at the time of the Buddha or in the centuries that followed, how much could people hope to have? We however dream of having everything and think it is normal.
Rather than normal it is a tragic waste: a waste of our world, a waste of our lives. In the past half century when much of the world has enjoyed a rare period of stability—no world wars or great depressions—we have focused not on spiritual growth but on self-indulgence.
History, economics, the principle of finite resources in a closed-world system, and most importantly, the Buddha’s warning not to waste our unbelievably rare opportunities to practice all point to not wasting time in indulging ourselves. Instead of seeking to enjoy ourselves more for a few decades, we need to strive to end the suffering of all beings for uncountable lifetimes.
As Pure Land practitioners, you and I do this by living morally and chanting “Amituofo” so we can be reborn in the Western Pure Land. From there we can come back to help all those we have vowed to help.
To me it’s a simple choice: indulge myself or help others.
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