Q:Can one be a Mormon and a Buddhist?
• If one needs to be perfect or believe 100% to be a Mormon, no. As the church itself considers a person a member until their name is removed from the records, yes I am a Mormon. I go to church 3 hours a week, and I help best I can without crossing my ethical barriers of personal belief. I enjoy mixing with the members of my ward and when I don’t (usually when the more fundamental side of the membership manifests itself or my OCD kicks into high gear) I bow out for a bit. I love sitting with my family every week and keeping my arm around my wife and children, that’s something I can’t get from meditating in a Zendo. Currently I don’t believe in the supernatural so that makes me Agnostic by most definitions. Whether I am also Buddhist is covered in the following item.
• If one needs to be perfect or believe 100% to be a Mormon, no. As the church itself considers a person a member until their name is removed from the records, yes I am a Mormon. I go to church 3 hours a week, and I help best I can without crossing my ethical barriers of personal belief. I enjoy mixing with the members of my ward and when I don’t (usually when the more fundamental side of the membership manifests itself or my OCD kicks into high gear) I bow out for a bit. I love sitting with my family every week and keeping my arm around my wife and children, that’s something I can’t get from meditating in a Zendo. Currently I don’t believe in the supernatural so that makes me Agnostic by most definitions. Whether I am also Buddhist is covered in the following item.
Q:You are not a true Buddhist and are ignorant of what it means to be such!• First, that was technically a statement and not a question but I’ll answer it anyway. The answer is you are right. If you define being a “Buddhist” as someone who lives up to everything the Buddha supposedly said in all the canons, sutras, and sutta’s. Personally I don’t think this is possible and so my definition boils down to the 4 noble truths, the 8 fold path, and the 4 seals. This would be more than 50% of the basics and so would qualify one as having “Buddhist” tendencies or someone who practiced things the Buddha taught. Most folks call this a Buddhist. Just like someone who agrees with most of the “conservative” or “liberal” agenda is a conservative or liberal even if they disagree with some things. So yeah, I’m a Mormon Buddhist/Buddhist Mormon in the same way a person could be a conservative Mormon or counted among the somewhat smaller number of Liberal Mormons, wacky huh?
Q:If you don’t believe why do you still attend? (Often it is hard to see reasons for this by non-member and member alike)
• The Mormon church is focused on families to the point that if a member no longer believes it is true, some profess they would rather a family member die than lose faith. Not everyone takes it that far I should note, but it is still a very catastrophic thing to the point it often results in divorce. Many don’t want to create this pain for loved ones and keep the peace by continued activity in the name of charity and love.
• Many have been in the culture their whole lives and consider the church home even if they no longer believe it is true. There is a tendency of members to have the majority of their friends as members, often due to the percentage of their life that is spent in church activities. Sometimes members are just the people a member feels comfortable around. A person stands to lose nearly their entire social network in leaving.
• Some value the time shared with believing family members as they participate in a weekly tradition together.
• Some still wish to support family members in something the family member believes is very important to them and to do that most effectively is by attending with them and playing the part.
• Lastly, there are a lot of good people in the church. There are good teachings even if a non-believer separates some of the stuff he doesn’t think is, out.
Q: Why Secular Buddhism?
• I’ve always been an introspective philosophical person and Buddhism’s 4 Noble Truth’s, 8 Fold Path and 4 Seals make a lot of sense to me and have stood up to my scrutiny thus far (8 fold path has many similarities to many Mormon values).
• Secular because once I was thrust into disbelief I wondered how I was able to believe I “knew” something for so many years without ever questioning it. The same critical thinking skills that bring answers to this, tend to work against other belief systems associated with supernatural phenomena too.
• Originally I associated mentally with Zen Buddhism but the chants, prostrations, and robes are not my style so Secular Buddhism it is. Since my disbelief, I will not delegate my moral compass to any mortal person nor worship or praise them. I am grateful for the things “Buddha” discovered (assuming the oral traditions up until canonization are correct that only one man presented all those teachings) but will not heighten that thanks to undue reverence much as I would not reverence or worship Jonas Salk for saving lives from developing the polio vaccine. So I am “Buddhist” in that I incorporate the Philosophy/Path that Buddha established as the core ideals. As an aside I still believe Christ taught a lot of things very good and similar to the 8 fold path and consider the two complementary in many ways. My perspectives on Buddhism will always be shaped partially by my also being a big fan of most of the things Jesus taught divine or no.
Jesus gives us a great model for Charity and Love and in fact, ultimately letting go.
• Speaking of letting go, I have trouble letting go of things and Buddhism is extremely effective at helping me do that.
Q:Is this blog Anti-Mormon?
• Gosh I hope not. That being said, Anti-Mormon is defined two different ways between members and non-members. Some members believe anything not praising Mormonism is Anti-Mormon. Anything historically not flattering or not in materials from the correlation department is also often times categorized this way even though it might be true (even so I will try not to share any of this type of thing, it’s easy enough to find yourself). By some measures anything that an ex-believer says that indicates they are not miserable without the church can be taken as such. I do not encourage anyone to leave the church. I don’t encourage anyone to join it. Everyone must make their own decisions. I believe that is not anti-Mormon sentiment and hope that is what is conveyed in this blog. Observations and contemplation of a thing should not be categorized as anti-anything but merely a personal grasp at the truth whether it be Mormon, Catholic, Hindu,
Buddhist, Islamic or even Atheist. Non-Members typically have a tighter standard of what qualifies as anti-Mormon. This often includes the spreading of untruths and deception or physically harming those in the church, or actively proselyting members of the church to leave. I am not doing this and don’t condone it. Stay if you want, leave if you want, it does not matter to anyone but you and you should decide upon reviewing all sides of the issue for yourself. There are valid reasons to stay, there are also valid reasons to leave.
Q:If you don’t believe why do you still attend? (Often it is hard to see reasons for this by non-member and member alike)
• The Mormon church is focused on families to the point that if a member no longer believes it is true, some profess they would rather a family member die than lose faith. Not everyone takes it that far I should note, but it is still a very catastrophic thing to the point it often results in divorce. Many don’t want to create this pain for loved ones and keep the peace by continued activity in the name of charity and love.
• Many have been in the culture their whole lives and consider the church home even if they no longer believe it is true. There is a tendency of members to have the majority of their friends as members, often due to the percentage of their life that is spent in church activities. Sometimes members are just the people a member feels comfortable around. A person stands to lose nearly their entire social network in leaving.
• Some value the time shared with believing family members as they participate in a weekly tradition together.
• Some still wish to support family members in something the family member believes is very important to them and to do that most effectively is by attending with them and playing the part.
• Lastly, there are a lot of good people in the church. There are good teachings even if a non-believer separates some of the stuff he doesn’t think is, out.
Q: Why Secular Buddhism?
• I’ve always been an introspective philosophical person and Buddhism’s 4 Noble Truth’s, 8 Fold Path and 4 Seals make a lot of sense to me and have stood up to my scrutiny thus far (8 fold path has many similarities to many Mormon values).
• Secular because once I was thrust into disbelief I wondered how I was able to believe I “knew” something for so many years without ever questioning it. The same critical thinking skills that bring answers to this, tend to work against other belief systems associated with supernatural phenomena too.
• Originally I associated mentally with Zen Buddhism but the chants, prostrations, and robes are not my style so Secular Buddhism it is. Since my disbelief, I will not delegate my moral compass to any mortal person nor worship or praise them. I am grateful for the things “Buddha” discovered (assuming the oral traditions up until canonization are correct that only one man presented all those teachings) but will not heighten that thanks to undue reverence much as I would not reverence or worship Jonas Salk for saving lives from developing the polio vaccine. So I am “Buddhist” in that I incorporate the Philosophy/Path that Buddha established as the core ideals. As an aside I still believe Christ taught a lot of things very good and similar to the 8 fold path and consider the two complementary in many ways. My perspectives on Buddhism will always be shaped partially by my also being a big fan of most of the things Jesus taught divine or no.
Jesus gives us a great model for Charity and Love and in fact, ultimately letting go.
• Speaking of letting go, I have trouble letting go of things and Buddhism is extremely effective at helping me do that.
Q:Is this blog Anti-Mormon?
• Gosh I hope not. That being said, Anti-Mormon is defined two different ways between members and non-members. Some members believe anything not praising Mormonism is Anti-Mormon. Anything historically not flattering or not in materials from the correlation department is also often times categorized this way even though it might be true (even so I will try not to share any of this type of thing, it’s easy enough to find yourself). By some measures anything that an ex-believer says that indicates they are not miserable without the church can be taken as such. I do not encourage anyone to leave the church. I don’t encourage anyone to join it. Everyone must make their own decisions. I believe that is not anti-Mormon sentiment and hope that is what is conveyed in this blog. Observations and contemplation of a thing should not be categorized as anti-anything but merely a personal grasp at the truth whether it be Mormon, Catholic, Hindu,
Buddhist, Islamic or even Atheist. Non-Members typically have a tighter standard of what qualifies as anti-Mormon. This often includes the spreading of untruths and deception or physically harming those in the church, or actively proselyting members of the church to leave. I am not doing this and don’t condone it. Stay if you want, leave if you want, it does not matter to anyone but you and you should decide upon reviewing all sides of the issue for yourself. There are valid reasons to stay, there are also valid reasons to leave.
Would love to interview you for a piece I'm writing on Mormon-Buddhists: kyleander8@gmail.com
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