A schism of the worst kind
Buddhism is certainly applicable to our modern life, but Buddhism's applicability, it needs to be underscored, has nothing whatsoever to do with Gautama's Buddhism. Applicability only pertains to certain features of Buddhism that seem to fitor are made to fitwith modernity making up modern Buddhism. What's more, these features are capable of being greatly modified until they are made to fit seamlessly with the demands of modernity.
What I want to get across is that applicability shouldn't be confused with Buddhism of the canon or, especially, with Buddhism as teaching a transcendent path to nirvana. For someone who wishes to learn Gautama's Buddhism one must adapt to it, completelyit cannot adapt to them. Adapting oneself to Buddhism must be sufficient to enable the adept to enter the stream to nirvana or in the case of Mahayana Buddhism, initiate Bodhicitta in which one sees the world, for the first time, the way a Buddha does.
Keeping the aforementioned in mind, modern Buddhism is one of applicability. It's aim is not to understand and thereby adapt to Gautama's Buddhismit's aim is: make Buddhism relevant to the aims of modern life. Those who follow this form of Buddhism are deluding themselves if they believe that anything they might have learned from meditation to doctrine is Gautama's Buddhism. This should be obvious when so-called secular Buddhists, who are working night and day to make Buddhism relevant to modern culture, rely mainly on one Sutta which is the Kalama Sutta of the Pali canon! (The only one they can actually understand.) In a few words, this Sutta tells them it is okay to dump anything that they might find in the canon which doesn't jibe with modern secular beliefs.
I should mention that Gautama's Buddhism is not that difficult to adapt to. It only requires of us that we sit at the feet of the Buddhas discourses for a long time until it begins to dawn on us that what animates this corporeal bo! dy of ou rs together with its mental system is the Buddha's Dharma which is transcendent, deathless, an island, a refuge, tathat, and many other names. Those, of course, who havent turned to this animative light are the puthujjana, those who are worldlings, or the same, worldlings who live in darkness (andha-puthujjana).
Regrettably, a battle line is being drawn between the forces of applicability and those who sit at the feet of Gautama who are his true heirs. This might well be a schism of the worst kind.
