When: Thursday 4 May, 7.30pm
Where: Online via Zoom: link here
Buddhism is a religion with 2, 500 years of history. Starting in Northern India and shaped by the social, philosophical and cultural context of its times, it has always grown and changed as it moved into other countries and cultures. Perhaps most well known is the development of Zen as it moved into China and Japan.
In the last hundred years, as it has become more known in the West, it has continued to shift and change here into a more secular version, which throws out the metaphysical aspects of the religion and tries to recast it in a rational light. There are now many people attempting to understand and shape Buddhism for the modern world.
So what does that mean? Some people think the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater and the result is no more than a ‘mindfulness’ movement – useful but limited. Some people think there is still much for us to learn from Buddhist concepts and philosophy, without needing belief in karma or reincarnation. What would the Buddha have thought? And what can we as Humanists take away from this belief system? Should we reject it like other religions or is it in a slightly different category and worthy of further consideration?
Join us online for this meeting when Sam Becker (member of the SELHuG committee) will attempt to give an overview of the religion, explain these more modern developments in that context and provide lots of links to resources for those that want to explore more. There will be plenty of time allocated to have a discussion around many of the concepts and issues.
