STEPHEN SACCO
Special to The Leader
Dr. Dale Tuggy, known for his work and research in philosophy of religion, hosted a lecture called, “Why I am not a Buddhist,” which was sponsored by the philosophy department and society.
Tuggy said, “[Buddhism] is the fourth biggest religion in the world . . . you can’t get to be the fourth biggest religion in the world unless it works pretty well for people. It has to fit with human nature well enough to become that popular.”
In order to not make the mistake of misinterpreting Buddhism, Tuggy took the audience through a “Diagnosis and Cure,” which is a methodology that can be applied when analyzing all religions in order to come to a concrete consensus.
“Without understanding this, you really don’t get the tradition. In other words, a diagnosis of what the fundamental problem is that faces human beings. What is it at bottom that is really messed up about us?” said Tuggy. “And there’s different diagnoses that different religions give. And then there’s a cure, and a cure is supposed to be a way to positively and permanently resolve whatever that problem was.”
When going through this process, Tuggy found a problem with the way the Buddhist religion interprets reality in relation to the “Self.” Specifically, in the Buddhist religion, it is known as the “no-self doctrine.” Tuggy made an analogy to how Buddhism interprets reality.
“When you think properly about what human beings are, this analysis just dissolves them away. It turns out that there aren’t selves . . . if you don’t believe in yourself, then you won’t be concerned with what happens to yourself,” said Tuggy.
To explain this further, Tuggy gave an example.
He said, “When you’re a kid, you imagine a cloud in the sky like this kind of cotton puff that you can maybe get up there and bounce around on . . . and then your plane flies through one and there is no cloud, it’s just a collection of water vapor. It doesn’t last one minute to the next, so when you’re seeing a cloud float across the sky, you’re just projecting that there is a real entity floating across the sky. There really isn’t … what are mistaken for beings, are actually a collection of mental and physical events.”
Tuggy basically said that Buddhism supports the notion that not only reality, but the whole idea of self-persona, is an illusion.
He said, “But there is no soul, according to the no-self doctrine. There [isn’t] a substantial lasting person. So this doesn’t seem to make sense.”
Another important subject that Tuggy focused on is the Buddhist notion that human desire is a distraction and holds us back from reaching “nirvana.”
“Think about strong desire as the hindrance to getting the cure. Isn’t some strong desire appropriate and important? Isn’t it important to be attached to and have strong desires for your children, your spouse or friends?” he asked. I mean, why not just go all-in that way, why try to hold back? At least of what’s in the bounds of right and wrong. If you’re on the right side of that line, what’s wrong with strong desire?”