How To Be An Agnostic
beyond the individual. It’s self-aware but seeks to talk with
others by asking awkward, life-deepening questions.
I thought some more, and reminded myself that self- obsession
is a danger inherent in any community devoted to a particular
task. I’d seen it in Christian religious communities too. Though,
perhaps there’s a greater risk in communities that lack a refer-
ence point beyond the individuals involved, as is the case at the
meditation centre. Religious houses in a theistic tradition would
be different, in theory at least. They have their problems and
idiosyncrasies. But, ultimately, they don’t exist for the wellbe-
ing of the occupants, but for the service of God. That nurtures
a way of life that approaches your own wellbeing indirectly, by
focusing on something greater, something other than just the
problems of your own existence. The ‘more’ here is referred to
as God, of course, which for the spiritual but not religious, may
feel like more of a hindrance than a help. It’s why non-theistic
Buddhism appeals. But even as an agnostic, I was surprised by
my longer meditative retreat: it lead me to wonder whether a
God-centred spiritual practice might offer a better way.
Mindful of problems
There are other worries to think through too. One issue revolves
around the pic’n’mix that comes with focusing on mindfulness
and mindfulness alone. I’m instinctively wary of the pic’n’mix
approach to belief and spirituality, mostly because I’m quite
a pic’n’mixer myself. At one level, it’s unavoidable in a plural
age, but the fear is of never engaging the wider aspects of the
tradition that your personal selections exclude. This problem
is implicit in the Buddha’s original teaching, for it turns out
that mindfulness is just one of eight components of the path
he reportedly discovered. Buddhism is often represented as a
wheel, and there’s no wheel that has only one spoke.
The complete path also involves ‘right way’, seeking to under-
stand life, nature and the world as they really are, as a whole;
‘right intention’, about the aspirations you have, not least