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It’s not that I think he’s a disgraceful Buddhist or that he shouldn’t pursue the path, it just makes me cringe that for many people this Tiger Woods scandal is their first introduction to Buddhism. Thanks a lot, Hume! In Tiger’s apology speech today, he cited that his lack of practice in recent years is what led him to committing sexual misconduct (as defined within Buddhist ethics) many times over:

Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a creation of things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught. — CBS News

Yeah, okay. Thankfully that was only a tiny part of his speech, but something about it felt contrived. I’m not saying he’s insincere about wanting to take his practice serious once again, but it’s almost as if he threw Buddhism in there as a way to acknowledge or perhaps even absorb Brit Hume’s proselytizing back in January. Also, in this portion of the statement he basically just retrofitted the word “Buddhism” into Bill Clinton’s apology from 1998:

While his pledge is to return to Buddhist ways, his point-by-point apology was classically biblical — it’s the same “turning” process that Bill Clinton cited, reading from a Jewish prayer, when he apologized for his Lewinsky affair in 1998: Admit your wrongs, take responsibility for them, express your regrets to all who were harmed, and spell out your path to return to integrity and righteousness. — Faith & Reason / USA Today

Like many Buddhist bloggers have stated during the height of Humegate, it’s great that there’s some public discourse on Buddhism, as it provides an opportunity to debunk many of the profoundly ignorant and uninformed ideas about the practice. Not a day goes by that I don’t have to explain to someone that the founder of Buddhism is not a jolly fat Chinese deity. Or that Buddhism isn’t just something that rich celebrities practice because it’s fashionable. Or that not all Buddhists wear robes and shave their heads and sit in corners chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.

I have no doubt that, as a novice, I am far less versed in the practice than Tiger is, but having this discussion under these circumstances is like running in place. No one’s interested in learning anything, they’d just rather have these matters defined by celebrity soundbites.

Somewhat related: Nick Cannon, as usual, needs to STFU.

Tags: brit hume, buddha, buddhism, buddhist, dharma, tiger woods