Religions are concept-ularies, vocabularies, tools to speak about spiritual subjects. In this sense, almost all religions are good and say many of the same things.

I read a passage in Epictetus’ Discourses that closely touches Buddhist thinking (as a lot of Stoicism does). He said that friendships based on ‘appearances’ (Buddhist form) are always liable to disintegration. But friendships based on a will that is good and strong can be fully relied on. ‘Appearances’ in Epictetus means external markers like status, money, looks, tribal or familial relations, etc.

The Buddha said that it takes ‘long association’ with someone to fully know them. I am not aware of a Buddhist emphasis on ‘the will’ in the way Epictetus emphasizes that word, but Buddhism does encourage Right Views, Thoughts, Speech, and Action. And it does have a concept that all sentient beings are capable of responding to the Tathagata, being attracted to the Tathagata, the enlightened logos.

I like the word logos because it bridges many apparent gaps between religions. Buddhism is 2,500 years old. The Buddha never asked to be worshipped and asked that no images be made of him. He also asked that his words never be written down and especially not in Sanskrit.

He did not want the deep power of his enlightenment to become a narrow doctrine, a sacred text that would be treated as infallible even when no one remembered any longer what he had actually meant. Buddhism is self-defined as a mind-to-mind teaching, meaning a teacher or ‘good friend’ who explains the Dharma must be sure the explanation has fully penetrated the mind of the person being taught.

This is one reason it is impossible to really get Buddhism from reading alone, though reading is good. I had two very close ‘good friends‘ who basically taught me everything I know about the part of the Dharma that is conveyed through words and concepts.

I encourage anyone who has a Buddhist friend to talk with them as often as you can about the Dharma. So why did I put an image of the Buddha at the top of this post when I know I am not supposed to? Isn’t that a charming side of this beautiful ancient tradition? For many centuries, Buddhists have been unable to resist the urge to portray and honor our original teacher. ABN