- Ensure it takes up long-term residence in its host.
- Bring about the conditions for its spread.
To establish itself in the mind of its host it will use some or all of the following
mechanisms:
[1] Promise heaven for belief.
[2] Threaten eternal punishment in hell for disbelief.
[3] Boost the believers' egos by telling them they are 'chosen' or superior to believers in false memes.
[4] Disable the faculties of disbelief ('immune response') by claiming that faith is superior to reason.
[5] Establish itself as the One True Meme, usually by some sort of holy
book containing a circular self-referential argument such as:
X is the one true meme. We know X is the one true meme because The Source of
Universal Truth has approved X. We know The Source of Universal Truth has approved
X, because X contains statements which say so. We know what X says is true because
X is the one true meme.
Once it has parasitised the mind of its host, a meme needs to propagate itself. A successful meme will contain instructions for some or all of the following:
[6] Holy war - convert or kill all unbelievers.
[7] Intimidation and terrorism - threaten and discriminate against unbelievers.
[8] Enforced social isolation or even death to apostates. (An apostate is a host which has cured itself of a meme-infection. It is especially dangerous to the meme because it might pass on meme-resistance to others).
[9] Fecundism - encourage true believers to breed faster than believers in false memes.
[10] Censorship - prevent rival memes from reaching potential hosts (a theological doctrine known as 'Error has no rights').
[11] Disinformation - spread lies about rival memes. Demonise them - the bigger the lies the more likely they are to be believed. The disinformation may even include instructions for a meme to lie about itself!
So is Buddhism just another meme?
The meme critique may or may not apply to other belief systems, but does it
apply to Buddhism? Taking the above points in turn:
[1 and 2] There are no threats of hell or promises of heaven attached to being a Buddhist as opposed to being a non-Buddhist. The term 'Buddhist' is a mere label and has no inherent existence. The condition of future lives is determined by actions of body, speech and mind and not by religious affiliation. If our religion encourages universal compassion and positive actions and states of mind then it is doing its job. If it causes hatred, fear, division and pride then it isn't working and maybe we should try something else. Buddhism does not make use of the psychological blackmail techniques which are said to be characteristic of memes.
[3] Just sticking the Buddhist label on yourself doesn't automatically make you superior to non-Buddhists. In fact, in most forms of Buddhism the belief that one is superior to others, for whatever reason, is seen as a dangerous delusion.
[4] Buddhism does not attempt to suppress reason by dogma. Unlike most other religions, Buddhism isn't so much about things to believe, as things to do. It is a technology of mind improvement. This is why Buddhists often refer to themselves as practictioners rather than believers. The Buddha told his students to trust their own experience of the effectiveness of the teachings, and not believe things just because he said so.
[5] Buddhism does NOT claim to be the one and only valid spiritual path (a teaching known as 'exclusivism' in other belief-systems). It is NOT based on claims of divine authority. Buddha never claimed to be divine or sent from God. His teachings are to be judged by their effectiveness in promoting peace and spiritual realisations, rather than unverifiable claims to their origin.
[[[Exclusivism
Most religions teach that they are the one true path to salvation and all unbelievers
are cast into hell. This is a doctrine known as exclusivism. Buddhism is not
exclusivist. Any person guided in their activities by compassion is regarded
as following a beneficial spiritual path.
Unfortunately, in Christianity exclusivism went to extreme lengths with many denominations (at one time) claiming that they were the one true faith and the other denominations of Christianity were corrupt (or even in league with anti-Christ). This situation has improved during the past 50 years, but 'Extra ecclesiam nulla salus ' ( No salvation outside (our) Church) is still the official policy of the Vatican..
However his does raise an interesting scenario. Presumably a Salvation Army
officer who devoted her life to rescuing drug addicts and alcoholics would be
regarded as damned for all eternity by traditional Catholic theologians. A Buddhist,
on the other hand, would regard such a person as an advanced spiritual practitioner
- a Bodhisattva or possibly even a manifestation of Buddha Tara . (One of the
more surprising teachings of Mahayana Buddhism is that Buddhas can appear in
whatever form is beneficial to sentient beings, and Buddhas needn't necessarily
be Buddhist!) . So, taken to its logical conclustion, Christian exclusivism
would require one Christian to regard a fellow Christian as damned, while a
Buddhist would recognise her as a saint.
As a further antidote to exclusivism, Buddhists are required to rejoice in the
virtues of all beings - Buddhist and otherwise.]]]
[6,7 and 8] Buddhism does not believe in using hatred, war or terrorism to further its cause and does not persecute former Buddhists who have changed their religion.
[9] Neither does it encourage ecologically disastrous population policies (or lack of policies).
[10 and 11] Buddhists have no need to suppress, censor or misrepresent the
teachings of other religions, as Buddhist philosophy is totally rational and
quite capable of withstanding criticism from other belief systems. In fact,
Buddhism appears to be the only spiritual system which can provide counterarguments
to modern materialism. Neither is Buddhism even slightly corroded by what Dennett
(1995) claims to be the universal spiritual acid of Darwinism.
Fanaticism and fundamentalism
Buddhism recognises that one of the most destructive delusions is excessive
attachment to any view, which will thus appear virtuous and right for all people.
The harm that can be done by excessive attachment to ideologies and abstractions
is far greater than that caused by attachment to wealth or material objects.
As a consequence, Buddhism is one of the few religions which has never attempted
to propagate itself and exterminate its enemies by war and tyranny. A fanatical
Buddhist is, by definition, a deluded Buddhist.
A testable psychological technology.
Buddhism is not dependent for its existence on self-referential statements.
Buddhism is sometimes described as a religion and sometimes as a philosophy.
Both these terms are a partial description, but what is often overlooked is
that as well as being a set of beliefs, Buddhism is also a technology. Buddhism
is a set of tried and tested methods which are used to develop the mind by producing
altered states of awareness. In effect it is a psycho-spiritual applied science.
A Buddhist teacher will teach her students meditational and other techniques
which will generate definite mental states (known as realisations). The methods
of mental development are designed to free the mind from the accumulated delusions
of millennia, and lead to a state of peace and tranquillity. Buddha Shakyamuni
intended his teachings to be personal advice for his students, which is why
Buddhists tend to refer to themselves as practitioners rather than believers
- emphasising the practical intention of putting Buddha's teachings to work,
instead of passively accepting them as revealed truth. Buddha always encouraged
his students to gain understanding of his teachings by putting them to the test
of personal experience, and not just relying on his authority. In fact the Buddhist
idea of authority has much more in common with the idea of scientific authority
than it does with ecclesiastical authority. Buddhist authority carries with
it the idea of the possession of knowledge which can conveyed to others and
confirmed by of reproducible experiences. In Buddhism there is none of the attitude
'Here are umpteen unsupported statements which you must believe unquestioningly'
Meme-busters
Susan Blackmore (who has written extensively on memetics) has remarked that
if a meditational system such as Buddhism is a meme, then it is actually a very
peculiar one - a meme-clearing meme.
A novel view of meditation might be that it is like running a virus check on
your mind. Lurking memes, such as rubbish left over from childhood indoctrination,
can be brought to the surface and examined. Residues of self-referential belief
systems - those driven by fear, guilt, hate, wanting to conform, wanting other
people to conform, or alternately pride in being better than non-believers -
can be recognised for what they are and cleared out.
- Sean Robsville