I am not religious, nor a Buddhist. I have just read many different sources on spirituality and have concluded that everyone is saying the same things – be self-compassionate, compassionate to others, and live in the moment now. Everything else is extra topping (ie. how we go about that and whether or not there is a Higher Power are personal decisions).

It’s cool that you have found such similarity in your spiritual reading, but I worry that you may be glossing over some very real differences in what different spiritual teachers are saying. I don’t think the question of whether there’s a Higher Power is ‘extra topping’. I think it makes a big difference whether you believe moral behaviour to revolve around how you treat other people (compassionately) or how well you live up to the wishes and guidance provided by God (a compassionate higher being). The effect may be the same, but the motivation is very different. Likewise, “living in the moment” is a popular teaching now, but generations of people considered the spiritual life to be all about living for heaven’s sake, in order to secure a good afterlife. I feel like you’re doing yourself and these people a disservice by waving your hand and saying “oh, well, it all comes down to the same thing.”

Par example, you also say —

… the Self that I am referring to is that part of us that seems to guide us. It is the best of who we are. It has many names – our intuition, inner child, Higher self or maybe even soul. I usually call it my intuitive spirit because it is the spirit of who we are.

You are right. I have no idea what the Buddha called that part of us. I follow dharma (the teachings of buddha) which I understand to be the natural way of things – that we are all connected and not separate – rather than the unnatural way of materialism ‘things’ and the ego and I.

I have no idea what the Buddha called that part of us. Uh, well, as it happens, the question of whether there is a Self or not was a hot topic in the Buddha’s time. What the Buddha had to say in response is complicated, but you may have a read of this and gain a sense of it: (the start of Talk 2 has the passage where Buddha is asked the question) http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/selvesnotself.html

I’ll leave you to explore if you feel like it but I do feel called to point out that the Buddha’s answer was not: “Why yes, there is a higher Self, and all you need to do is look for it within you and follow its guiding light!” I wonder if that surprises you.

Your site is called ‘How to be a Buddha’ and you say you intend to follow the Buddha’s teachings to see what happens. If you then backpedal and say “Well, actually I’m following general spiritual teachings”, I feel a bit cheated as a reader. I think your project might meet with more success if you’re clearer about what you’re doing, and whose teachings you are following.

I hope your break does you good, and wish you all the best with your blog/project.

Respectfully,

Will