Sceptical spirituality

Walpola Rahula: What the Buddha Taught

Classics of spiritual misdirection #5

(Front cover of an early English edition)

Introductory remarks:

If any of the books in this series are essential to your life, and if you love them and depend on them, then please don’t read what follows. It’s not for you. Honestly — stay away ! My intention is not to hurt the feelings of devotees and believers. These articles are directed solely at those who, having read the texts in question, suspect that the author may be propagating an illusion.

Important disclaimer:

The angle from which we are approaching examples in this series is very unusual in the sense that we have not the slightest interest in scandal, hypocrisy, criminality, alcoholism, sexual misconduct or any of the rest of the supposed ‘sins’ to which religious teachers regularly succumb (just read the news, or follow some of the more investigative posters to Medium, like Matthew Remski). We are interested solely in the validity or otherwise of the spiritual teachings proposed; all the rest is irrelevant. In other words, we don’t care if the spiritual ‘teacher’ in question is the worst human being on earth, a predatory paedophile, a BTK serial killer and a member of Daesh, provided their teaching does what it claims to do, that is, illumine your…