Buddhism could be described as “the culture of awakening.”

An agnostic Buddhist eschews atheism as much as theism, and is as reluctant to regard the universe as devoid of meaning as endowed with meaning.

An agnostic Buddhist would not regard the dharma as a source of “answers” to questions of where we came from, where we are going, what happens after death. He would seek such knowledge in the appropriate domains: astrophysics, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, etc. An agnostic Buddhist is not a “believer” with claims to revealed information about

BUDDHISM HAS tended to lose its agnostic dimension through becoming institutionalized as a religion

The dharma is not something to believe in but something to do.

life that steered a middle course between indulgence and mortification.

WHEN ASKED WHAT he was doing, the Buddha replied that he taught “anguish and the ending of anguish.”

Awakening is indeed close by—and supreme effort is required to realize it. Awakening is indeed far away—and readily accessible.

Awakening is no longer seen as something to attain in the distant future, for it is not a thing but a process—and this process is the path itself.