Collège universitaire dominicain Dominican <br> University College

It seems a lot of people at CD have little or no knowledge of Buddhism.

As I see it, its not a religion ,but a philosophy---unlike Christianity.

A member of my Sangha made a few comments that may clarify the relevance of Buddhist thought to philosophic theories:

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"....Buddhism is phenomenological in this sense: It doesn't concern itself with anything that cannot be experienced, with what cannot be seen. In this, it is like empiricism, except that it doesn't assume that what is perceived is a mirror image of some objective reality. What is perceived is "phenomena," which has been put through the filter of the perceiving mind. (This use of the term "phenomena" goes back in Western philosophy to Kant, who distinguished between things as perceived – phenomena — and the underlying but knowable "noumena," or "things in themselves, and was taken over by more recent existentialists, who, like Gautama I think, wanted to start with experience rather than metaphysics). The rest of this is my very imperfect effort to link this to some important characteristics of Buddhism.

(1) Rejection of metaphysics, theism etc. — All you can know is what you experience and reflect upon, that is, the ever-changing phenomenal world. But experience is not only all you can know, but all you need to know to attain enlightenment (aka existential peace?). You don't need belief in things unseen like God.

(2) In phenomenology there is no place for things like "matter" and "mind" as abstract concepts (rather than as convenient categories for naming things). We naively tend to think of an object as certain observable qualities attached to some sort of substrate, which is "really" matter. The object may change: Its qualities alter, but the matter itself is undifferentiated, unchanging. Phenomenology says that there is no reason to posit the underlying "matter stuff:" Subtract the observables, colour, weight, etc., and there is actually nothing left, or at least nothing that isn't a metaphysical abstraction. Same goes for "mind stuff" or of course, for the "soul stuff" or Self.

(3) Doctrine of no-self. You, your Self, is a phenomenon. There is no underlying soul or essence that doesn't change. Your self-identity is a product of experience and reflection on experience that changes with experience. You are in fact a product of experience, which is really what the Buddhist notion of karma is about.

(4) The importance of attitude — The way you perceive the world is coloured by your attitudes. (This is the practical way in which Buddhism is more phenomenology than empiricism) — Change your attitudes, change your world. There is in fact a sort of dialectic going on – your attitudes are produced by experience, but the way you experience the world is shaped by your attitudes....."