Traditional Buddhism as practiced throughout Asia teaches that suffering exists, that this suffering arises from desiring things and that suffering ceases when the desire ceases.
Freedom from suffering becomes the proximate goal. Practicing the Eightfold Path, which directs right thinking and action, is the first step along that path.
Good works and meditation can build individual karma throughout successive reincarnations toward the eventual goal of self-extinction, or nirvana.
Unlike most Western religions, in Buddhism there is no God, no heaven and no hell. Buddha is not viewed as a god, but a man who had ‘awakened,’ that is, one who obtained a state of mental potential through meditation.
And although there are supernatural beings who are symbolized by idols, they do not judge humans, but are sometimes portrayed as functioning more like ancient Roman gods as reflections of various human traits and appetites whereas other Buddhists take them as pointers or ideals.
It’s a lot to wrap your mind around.
But the small group of women gathered in Bonnie Carter’s house just off state Highway 96 in League City on Tuesday night is from a different branch of this massive religion.
“Our goal is the same, but our path is different,” Carter explained. “The people who come here are more fun-loving, outgoing, exuberant and compassionate.”
She sums up uniqueness of the Diamond Way versus Zen and other schools of Buddhism by telling a story. In her tale, a tiger stands in for the entire range of human emotions.
“If a dangerous tiger threatens a village, some would kill the tiger and some would cage it,” she said, meaning that eliminating emotion or stoically restricting it are the paths chosen by most Buddhists. But in the Diamond Way, “We ride the tiger.”
Ideally, this means using their emotional responses to facilitate the path to enlightenment.
The night’s meeting begins simply with beading. The two formerly Catholic women who were there were learning to make Buddhist prayer bead necklaces according to an ancient pattern.
“I had looked into many religions, but I was always turned off when I asked about reincarnation,” explained Margie Perkins. “This is the closest to what I grew up knowing.”
She has remembered a past life since she was a 3-year-old child in Columbia.
“I’d been looking for a different way of doing things spiritually. I was brought up in a Catholic church and school, but I felt that there could not be a God who would punish you for things that you do,” said Patricia Holdaway.
After searching the Internet, she found the meetings at Carter’s house. She is on a six-month trial experience with the movement.
The Diamond Way path also does not hold to an end in the self-extinction of universal union called nirvana.
“There is no judging or punishing God,” Carter said. “We believe that there is no external cause: We create our own future.”
Traditional Buddhist responses to suffering and disaster differ from those of Western religions.
Carter observed: “The Buddhists in Asia see the Christian missionaries coming over with books and medicine and they are very impressed with that. It is said that for every person in the West who coverts to Buddhism, there are probably five people in Asia who covert to Christianity.”
