Why I Don't Dig Buddhism

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Does "Why I Don't Dig Buddhism" mean "Why I Don't Understand Buddhism" or " Why I Reject Buddhism"?

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Context:
Why I Don't Dig Buddhism
I've been brooding over Buddhism lately, for several reasons. First, I read that Steve Jobs was a long-time dabbler in Buddhism and was even married in a Buddhist ceremony. Second, a new documentary, Crazy Wisdom, celebrates the life of Chogyam Trungpa, who helped popularize Tibetan Buddhism here in the U.S. in the 1970s. Third, Slate magazine, for some reason, just re-published a critique of Buddhism that I wrote eight years ago, and once again Buddhists are berating me for my ignorance about their religion.

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 1,946 • Replies: 40

View best answer, chosen by oristarA

The verb "dig" is beatnik slang that can mean "agree with", "understand", "like", enthusiastically support", etc, sometimes more than one of these simultaneously. Your reading of the article should tell you which of these are meant.

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@oristarA,

It can mean "I don't understand" or "I reject." But, "Why I Don't Dig Buddhism," can mean all the adjectives and adverbs used to renounce the religion, but it's still doesn't explain fully why.
It would be simpler to say, "I don't dig buddhism because _______________.

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I read it to mean, "why I don't like Buddhism."

He's not saying that he doesn't understand it.

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@InfraBlue,

I understand the tenet of Buddhism, and why they would not like Buddhism without any explanation is a problem.
I'm not a Buddhist, but my wife is.

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

Somebody has a problem with other points of view, but too chicken to spell it out. A child at play.

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

This is an EFL/EAL question.

The poster needs help understanding the "dig it" idiom.

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@cicerone imposter,

not me, meantime I listen to infrablue.

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The author said "I'm a sucker for punishment, so I thought I'd try to explain, once again, my misgivings about Buddhism, in this heavily revised and updated version of my Slate essay (which was put through an especially tortuous editing process). Here it is..."

Does "I'm a sucker for punishment" mean "I am vulnerable to punishment"?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

A sucker for punishment is a person who consistently does things that have bad endings. The endings may involve pain, financial loss, emotional pain, etc.

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@roger,

Cool. Sounds like a beatnik slang, too.

1 Reply

@oristarA,

No, it is in much more general use.

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The author says "Buddhists often respond to my carping by saying, "You didn't give Buddhism enough time! If you truly understood it, you wouldn't say such stupid things!" And so on. String theorists and Freudian psychoanalysts employ this same tactic against their critics. I can't fault these supposed solutions to existence until I have devoted as much time to them as true believers. Sorry, life's too short."

Does " I can't fault these supposed solutions to existence" mean "there is no way that I can find that these supposed solutions do not exist"?

2 Replies

@oristarA,

"there is no way that I can find that these supposed solutions do not exist"? Not quite. There is no way to fault them without investing as much time as the true believers, and the speaker is unwilling to devote that much time to debunking something he doesn't believe in, anyway.

1 Reply

@roger,

Does "fault" here mean "debunk" or "to find a reason to criticize someone or something"?

The real problem for me is that I don't understand "to existence" in "these supposed solutions to existence".

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@roger,

Quote:

roger
2REPLYREPORT Wed 21 Sep, 2016 01:32 am
@oristarA,
A sucker for punishment is a person who consistently does things that have bad endings. The endings may involve pain, financial loss, emotional pain, etc.

There's a name for that. It's called a masochist.

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

The author says "Buddhists often respond to my carping by saying, "You didn't give Buddhism enough time! If you truly understood it, you wouldn't say such stupid things!" And so on. String theorists and Freudian psychoanalysts employ this same tactic against their critics. I can't fault these supposed solutions to existence until I have devoted as much time to them as true believers. Sorry, life's too short."

Does " I can't fault these supposed solutions to existence" mean "there is no way that I can find that these supposed solutions do not exist"?

The entire phrase is "solutions to existence." In other words, "ideas, thoughts, concepts, ideologies, theologies, etc. about existence, life, etc."

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The author says:

Quote:

Superficially, Buddhism seemed more compatible than any other religion with my skeptical, science-oriented outlook. The Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman once told me that Buddhism is less a religion than a method for fulfilling human potential, a method as empirical in its way as science. Don't take my word for anything, Buddha supposedly said, just follow this path and discover the truth for yourself.

Failed to get the logical relationship between "Don't take my word for anything" and the rest of the sentence.

Does "Don't take my word for anything" mean "What I say here is not important, just pay attention to (what Buddha supposedly said - "follow this/Buddha's path)"?

1 Reply

@oristarA,

Move the words "Buddha supposedly said" to the start of the sentence.

1 Reply

@contrex,

contrex wrote:

Move the words "Buddha supposedly said" to the start of the sentence.

Got it!
So "Don't take my word for anything" mean "Don't compare my word to anything"?

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