Good article on how Buddhism is not Nihilism

[punkdbass]

So I found this interesting article on reddit that talks about how Buddhism is different than Nihilism, despite many people often misunderstanding Buddhism to be "nihilistic." You can check out the article here. Here are a few points I'd like to highlight:

Nihilists believe that in the larger scheme of things, that in the end, nothing really matters. Or perhaps a Nihilists would believe you are "justified in doing whatever you can rationalize is OK."

If you read any Buddhist scriptures, it becomes blatantly obvious that the Buddha discriminated between certain things as being "wise" and others as being "unwise," - almost every page is filled with these kinds of teachings. The Buddha never taught that: "nothing matters, do whatever the heck you want." Consider the following quote:

"I tell you, venerable sirs, that the Blessed One righteously declares that 'This is skillful.' He declares that 'This is unskillful.' Declaring that 'This is skillful' and 'This is unskillful,' he is one who has declared [a teaching]. He is not a nihilist, one who doesn't declare anything."

By declaring there are skillful ways to do things and unskillful ways to do things, the Buddha is quite clearly stating that yes, things do matter.

The Nihilist says nothing matters, but Buddha says the reason you are in the condition you are right now is heavily influenced by your previous thoughts and actions - likewise, your current thoughts and actions will heavily influence your future states of being.. and thus your current thoughts and actions most definitely matter. It's very simple. If you want to feel good tomorrow, you should probably watch your current thoughts and actions with caution - for they will greatly influence how you feel tomorrow.

If I had to guess, I can only assume the main reason people often confuse Buddhism with nihilism, is that the idea that they need to let go of the things they so dearly cling to, often evokes negative reactions. For example, if I vehemently cling to some notion/idea I have of a "God," and Buddhism says that ultimately I must let go of my attachment to this idea, I may react negatively towards Buddhism, and perhaps associate it with something as negative as "Nihilism."

 

[dyanaprajna2011]

Good job. Too many people take the Buddhist ideas of dukha and anatta/sunyata and equate them to nihilism. If this was all the Buddha taught, they might have a point. The fact that he teaches us how to deal with dukha shows that what he taught was not nihilism. And quantum physics comes pretty close to being similar to sunyata/anatta.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

This would be an interesting thing to debate, I definitely see some points that could be made against that and could be respectively debated.

 

[LuisDantas]

As I understand it right now, our culture usually thinks of "taking care of ourselves first and foremost" as a positive thing, and nihilism is basically giving up on expecting good things to come at all.

Buddhism, by contrast with both, is about recognizing the shared responsibilities due to interdependent origination and accepting them.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

As I understand it right now, our culture usually thinks of "taking care of ourselves first and foremost" as a positive thing, and nihilism is basically giving up on expecting good things to come at all.

Buddhism, by contrast with both, is about recognizing the shared responsibilities due to interdependent origination and accepting them.

You probably have a better understanding of Buddhism than I do, so I will not disagree with that part, but I think nihilism isn't just that. While I agree with you on that it does do that, I think that it's more than that. It logically would lead to passivity and the plucking of values.

But they do have their similarities; isn't giving up on expecting good things to come the same as not expecting things and thus never be disappointed (which I always thought was a part of Buddhist philosophy)

 

[LuisDantas]

I don't claim to have a good understanding of nihilism. Maybe you could clarify it a bit?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I'm pretty much saying that a buddhist monk might appear to act nihilistic, whether or not the actual outlook is the same.

 

[Sees]

Maybe we take it as an either/or extreme instead of degrees of nihilism. To some even characteristics of impartiality is seen as a bit nihilistic.

 

[LuisDantas]

I'm pretty much saying that a buddhist monk might appear to act nihilistic, whether or not the actual outlook is the same.

Then it must follow that he is not doing a very good job at explaining his reasons, don't you think?

 

[LuisDantas]

Maybe we take it as an either/or extreme instead of degrees of nihilism. To some even characteristics of impartiality is seen as a bit nihilistic.

I suppose. People have weird expectations. Under the right circunstances, realism might look like nihilism.

 

[Ablaze]

So I found this interesting article on reddit that talks about how Buddhism is different than Nihilism, despite many people often misunderstanding Buddhism to be "nihilistic." You can check out the article here.

Good find! Thanks for sharing.

:namaste

 

[technomage]

Nihilists believe that in the larger scheme of things, that in the end, nothing really matters. Or perhaps a Nihilists would believe you are "justified in doing whatever you can rationalize is OK."

If you read any Buddhist scriptures, it becomes blatantly obvious that the Buddha discriminated between certain things as being "wise" and others as being "unwise," - almost every page is filled with these kinds of teachings. The Buddha never taught that: "nothing matters, do whatever the heck you want."

If I may--and I do not mean this as a debate--when you speak of nihilism, you seem to have a very different understanding of the term than I do.

Yes, informal nihilists often argue "Nothing matters, I can do what I want." But to the best of my understanding, this is a very shallow nihilism: it actually seems to be more of a fancy label for selfishness and a lack of empathy.

Formal nihilists, on the other hand, simply deny the meaningfulness of one or more aspects of life that some consider meaningful.
* Existential nihilism indicates that life is without purpose, objective meaning, or intrinsic value. This is very close to my understanding of Buddhism, but I must state that I am aware that my understanding is extremely limited and may be grossly inaccurate.
* Moral nihilism simply denies the existence of objective morality. I, myself, am (sort of) a moral nihilist: I do not believe that objective morality exists. But I vehemently argue for the utilitarian value of subjective morality (mostly, but not entirely, based on humanist principles), and reject the concept of anarchy or selfishness.

I would hazard the following as a guess, which I submit as a question: would not this "formal nihilism" be compatible with Buddhism? It seems to me that even though the two concepts are not identical, there is no contradiction that I can see.

 

[Rick O'Shez]

The Buddha never taught that: "nothing matters, do whatever the heck you want."

Quite right, in fact he taught the exact opposite, ie kamma / karma.