Suffering. Angst. Dukkha. To be human is to face a nonstop onslaught of these things. A couple thousand years ago a prince punk by the name of Siddhatta Gotama discovered the cause of this unfortunate state bullshit. HINT: It wasn’t telemarketers, unfiltered spam, collection agencies, or the little bits of un-popped popcorn in the bottom of the bucket.
Siddhatta (a.k.a Siddhartha; a.k.a Buddhizzle-in-the-Hizzle) rejected the social and religious establishment of his time and came up with a method to overcome the suffering that permeates the human condition. These Buddhist teachings came to mainstream white upper-middle-class America in the mid-to-late 20th century, and were usually steeped in the cultural context of whichever teacher happened to be speaking. You needed a PhD in cultural studies to understand the message. Otherwise you were probably missing the forest for the trees faking it.
But disregard fuck that. This religion PHILOSOPHY was meant to be simple and accessible to everyone, regardless of socio-economic status, gender, race, or any other division line you can come up with.
This blog is a small contribution to defining a new western Buddhism for the 21st century, not through heavy-handed dogmatism, but by discussion, experimentation, and unceasing questioning of authority (as the Buddha intended). You don’t have to be a Buddhist to participate or contribute. Fun, accessibility, and irreverence are the key words. Nothing is sacred here or above questioning. If that’s not punk as heck fuck then we don’t know what is.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” -Buddha
AnattaPunk 