tempaway646464

As I understand it, a common interpretation of The Buddha's teachings is that he wanted people to find their own path and he specifically dissuaded people against dogma and organised religion.

Some of these points are quite good. I've followed Buddhism quite a lot, taking the view that if you ignore the reincarnation bit (which was probably inherited from other religions in the area buddhism sprang from) then buddhism isn't really a religion at all, its more like a philosophy.

I've seen people at buddhist retreats suggest some wilds benefits to meditation (magic powers etc). Thats clearly nonsense. But one thing I've noticed about meditation (and yes, it is just sitting still) is that it makes it harder to lie to yourself. And thats really important because Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self

I think the author here is right to point out the problems of enlightenment (its a sortof fictional ideal that no-one ever achieves but we might as well critique it). The Buddhist point of view is that wanting leads to suffering and so the ideal is not to 'want' anything. But really, if you truly achieved 'not wanting anything, that wouldn't be much different from being dead. We need wants. Its more about getting wants in balance.