The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti Page A

1940], whose apologetics are applauded by Christians for giving them ammo against logicians who cannot square an all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful God with the demonic sadism of His world. Theodicy notwithstanding, what more could a believer ask for than a chance to clean up in the afterlife by wagering their pains in this one?) These Two Noble Truths lead off a philosophy of hopelessness that might have amounted to something if prescriptions for salvation had not followed, as they did with the Third Noble Truth: that there is a way out of suffering. Now everything was up for grabs. How tragic that Buddha, or the committee that wrote under his pseudonym, did not stop with the first two of the Four Noble Truths but wandered into preaching a way that individuals—and ultimately all of humanity—may be released from the shackles of suffering. That way is through the Noble Eightfold Path that leads to enlightenment and Nirvana. (Please note that the foregoing sentence does not apply to all sects of Buddhism.
    As with other belief systems, Buddhism is a compilation of do-it-yourself projects, and some of them are unlike the faith herein encapsulated. This principle has its parallel in every philosophy, ideology, and bag of myths that has ever been presented to the world: because no two heads are contoured the same, no one system or collocation of systems will ever be an immaculate fit. If truth about yourself is what you seek, then the examined life will only take you on a long ride to the limits of solitude. The Buddhists have made a stand on this point by attacking the thought process itself. But this kind of headwork is grueling and about as viable as Wilhelm Reich’s orgone accumulators, leaving followers of Buddhism with the same basket of empty promises as its cohorts in salvation.) With its dual objectives of enlightenment and cutting oneself loose from rebirth, Buddhism early on joined all other religions in pitching a brighter future for believers and their deliverance from the woes of this world. These wares may be had during an individual’s lifetime or could be delayed for a reincarnated shot at the bull’s-eye of karma, a hit-or-miss doctrine that Buddhists bummed from Hinduism. Leaving aside reincarnation and the mental gymnastics this hypothesis foists upon the believer—ask Stephen Batchelor, author of Buddhism Without Beliefs (1998)—the state or non-state of Nirvana, which dangles in the future like a numinous carrot in the darkness of life’s suffering, has nothing on Christianity’s heaven or the Vikings’ Valhalla. It seems to be a superior conception—or non-conception, if you prefer—to the ethereal theme parks of other religions on this basis: one is not asked to believe that something is true because a dogmatic authority says it is true; instead, one is invited to see the truth for oneself once maximum enlightenment kicks in, an invitation we are forewarned is extended only to those who do not doubt the truth in advance of lolling restfully in it. G. K. Chesterton would have condoned Buddhism on this point.

    In the marketplace of salvation, enlightenment is categorically the best buy ever offered (so say its ad-men). Rather than floundering in a world that seems to be nothing but smoke and mirrors, you may sign up to attain a conclusive vision of what’s what and what’s not. Roughly speaking, enlightenment is the correction of our consciousness and the establishment of a state of being in which muddy illusion is washed away and a diamond of understanding shines through. This is the supreme payoff . . . if it may be had, if it has any reality outside the pat or cryptic locutions that allude to it. Millions of people have spent their lives, and some have even lost their minds, trying to win it without ever comprehending, as they sucked their last breath, what it was they had gambled to get. Had they indeed attained enlightenment without being aware of having done so? Were there stages