The problem with secular Buddhism
The word "secular" as it is used in the term secular Buddhism has a number of different definitions when we look at the Oxford English Dictionary. The definition that appears to chime with secular, as in secular Buddhism, goes as follows: "Of or belonging to the present or visible world as distinguished from the eternal or spiritual world; temporal, worldly." In some respects secular Buddhism is not far from secular humanism which the Oxford English Dictionary defines this way: a form of humanist theory and practice that rejects religious belief as a basis for moral judgment and action.
I think it is fair to say that secular Buddhism rejects religious belief, in general, since belief lacks for it an empirical basis, or the same, it lacks knowledge founded on sensory experience. But then, to be honest, a lot of science is speculative which lacks an empirical basis as well. This is so when we get into cosmology such as string theory. I could go on and on with other instances. For example, in jurisprudence familiar terms such as "power" or "individual rights" lack an empirical basis.
I find it ironic that secular Buddhism has no problem with dismissing religiousness because, supposedly, it lacks an empirical basis but then finds it difficult to reject the bulk of science which can't seem to distinguish between its man made fictions and reality. How much of the big bang theory is just a fictional construct? I would argue that every bit of it is a fictional construct as is Einsteins SRT and GRT. It's all a convenient way to describe or symbolize what we really don't know and may never know as long as we refuse to comprehend, directly, the eternal substance (tathat) from which our temporal thoughts are composed.
Buddhism doesn't need secular Buddhism to help it insofar as the latters prejudices obscure much of the profound depth of the Buddha's teaching which is only revealed to ! the few who have tirelessly maintained an open mind. Secular Buddhists seem to forget that the Buddha was no champion of the secular world or its values. Perhaps one of the most profound Sutras in the Buddhist canon is the Lankavatara Sutra. It is basically saying that our secular world doesnt exist; there is only Mind, nothing more.
"there are no external objects, there is nothing to get attached to; when one abides in Mind-only, beyond which there is no external world, dualism ceases; as there is no realm of form based on discrimination, one comes to recognise that there is nothing but what is seen of the Mind itself; and for these reasons the discrimination of what is seen of the Mind itself does not take place. Owing to the cessation of discrimination, one enters into the triple emancipation where is the state of no-form, emptiness, and effortlessness. Hence it is called deliverance" (Suzukis trans.).
