The inverted interpretation of Buddhism
The psychophysical body is for the Buddha an illusion including the world perceived through its sense organs. It is an illusion in the sense of being empty of self and any vestige of true reality. Accordingly, the Buddha asks his followers not to cling to this illusory body because it is not who they are. Strong identification with the illusory psychophysical body and the world seen through it only causes suffering.
Does this sound simple and straightforward? Well, of course it does! This is real Buddhism.
If there is any tension or incorrectness in Buddhism today it is from those individuals who suffer from an inverted view. Roughly, they believe that this world is the true world (or at least more real than the spiritual world/lokottara). Next, they believe the psychophysical body is not illusory. And finally, there is no true self or abiding nature. This is pretty dumb as dumb goes. Despite this, the inverted view of Buddhism is more or less at the back of modern Buddhism, or at least a degree of it.
The inverted modern manand I include the bulk of modern Buddhistsis unfortunately overly hooked on materialism in the worst way. This anti-spiritual inversion doesnt help make Buddhism any easier to understand for the average person or the more serious truth seeker. It is like a huge smoke bomb that acts to obscure the cognitive terrain, leading to all kinds of wrongheaded interpretations of Buddhism. No sooner do the winds of Dharma blow the smoke away than another inverted Buddhist nut case is setting off another smoke bomb.
My intention for writing this blog was to sum up for the average person what the Buddha was really trying to teach; hopefully, disclosing its radical nature. Let me repeat myself: Buddhism teaches that our psychophysical body is an illusionwe shouldnt cling to it so much. It is not what we really are. With that said, understandably, the Buddhas teaching goes against the ways of the world which insists that its fictions are real, ! and true reality is illusory. In light of this, it takes a radical leap of faith to accept the real teachings of the Buddha. It is much easier to follow the inverted teaching which is being marketed to the public everyday which amounts to one big delusion that continually leads to a misinterpretation of Buddhism, throwing the follower back to the mundane path of samsara which is a vicious circle.
