Buddhism began as a mixed bag. There were bad and false elements, and there were good and true elements. Buddha broke way from the religious paganism and oppressive system of the Hinduism of his childhood to focus instead on inner enlightenment and achieving a perpetual state of peace, separate from any orientation (or lack therefore) to deities or religious devotion to spirits. For him this meant eventually escaping cycles of rebirth and achieving an eternal state of complete happiness. Personally, he being brought up Hindu, and never officially rejecting any form of theism, I suspect he implicitly believed in God on some level, and also did not explicitly embrace total and absolute nihilism of the conscious self or individual person. The old Catholic encyclopedia has an excellent article on him and Buddhism, which discusses the positive and the negative
Buddhism evolved beyond the original teachings of Buddha, especially in northern India, and then across China, Japan, and most of Asia as a very elaborate religious system of pagan, polytheism, to the point of extremely bizzare, esoteric practices, even from an Asian point of view. And that false religion has now been co-opted by the profiteering industry of the New Age movement here in the modern West, such that what is often called Buddhist thought and meditation has little to do with the historical person or original monastic philosophy of life of Buddha. They co-opted not only the very externally attractive, pagan, overtly religious version of Buddhism seen in counties like Tibet, but the lower level, more philosophical and psychological system created by Buddha himself represented in southern India and certain southeast Asian countries like Berma.
A Catholic of course cannot positively engage with the rituals, religious practices, or opposing religious doctrines of either form of traditional Buddhism, the more religious one vs the more philosophical one, especially in the name of ecumenism, which would be a false ecumenism. The true meaning of ecumenical is actually referring to theological relations between the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic Churches both in full communion with the Pope, not the relationship of the Church with heretics, schismatics, or oriental pagans.
On the other hand, since grace builds upon nature, and our understanding of Divine Revelation is assisted by understanding all General Revelation to mankind, especially in the form of Philosophy (this is not only a teaching of the Universal Doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, but of the Papal Magisterium), then we certainly can learn from the Philosophy of Buddha and Buddhism, in particular the more purely, non pagan, non religious system seen originally in southern India.
If Socrates believed in many gods, Plato believed in reincarnation, and Aristotle’s concept of God tended towards a mechanistic, Deistic version of God, yet the Church has learned much from them, then certainly we can learn from the wise and benign philosopher Buddha and some of his intellectual followers.
We moderns today need to see things again through the lens of Nature and Human Nature, to be brought back through them, if we are to delve maturely into the Mysteries of the Faith, and likewise make use of what Nature and Human Nature provides us (that is what the Creator provides us by means of Creation) to help cultivate our interior and spiritual life.
For example, some Catholics, in particular Catholic men, rightly make use of some of the practical wisdom of Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism in how to develop one’s psychological and moral state in daily life.
In the case of Buddha and philosophical Buddhism, however, we do not have anything equivalent like the medieval Catholic version of Scholasticism that synthesizes the best of western pagan philosophers (like Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle) with the sphere of Faith. The bridge between the Christian West and Buddha is either the polytheistic, magical world of Buddhist monasteries, or the New Age movement.
The reason I think looking to Buddha and the philosophical and practical psychological side of Buddhism can be very useful, for some, that is if we do not engage the religious or adapted New Age aspects of it, is that the modern West is extremely broken not only spiritually and morally, but psychologically. And for many re-establishing mental health is integral to maintaining their Faith.
Buddha was a hermit, and then after founding a new monastic philosophical discipline of life, became a monk. He greatly represents the contemplative life, which St. Thomas taught all activities should be oriented to, that the contemplative side of life is primary for every person, including married people with busy modern lives.
But the modern mind is not oriented to contemplation. It is nearly always in a state of obsession, over analysis, excessive focus on the self, and heavy, complicated thought processes. Our emphasis is on conceptual, logical thinking that revolves to the extreme around our own ego, and pathologically worries about the distant past and future, more than intuitive, creative thinking about Life, God, and what St. Augustine called the Eternal Now. New Age thinkers like Eckardt Tolle, influenced in part by Buddhism, are then partly right, that much of our psychological problems will be resolved by rising above the ego and perpetual state of analytical thinking (more left brained thinking), and focus more on contemplative and philosophical modes of thinking (more right brained thinking). But where the likes of Tolle are wrong, and in part Buddha, is that ultimate happiness for you them comes from an eternal extinguishing of the conscious self and cognitive thinking.
The Catholic Church however teaches, on the contrary, that the perfect man is one who fully knows and loves God through their conscious mind and will in this life and in the next. That in heaven our ultimate perfected state keeps the self and consciousness intact. We will not dissolve into a monist (the philosophy that there is only the whole without distinct parts) or pantheistic (the philosophy that God and creature are literally one divine being and essence) reality.
At the same time, what we learn from Buddha, is the primacy of contemplation and the transcendent. We learn what our mental state is supposed to look like. If we were to look into the mind of the average modern man, brought up according to all the philosophical errors of the Enlightenment philosophers, we would see a state of confusion, extreme complexity, obsession, excessive perpetual analysis, and anxiety. In that kind of state, a parent cannot reason well how to discipline their child, or a doctor how to prescribe a proper, holistic treatment plan for their patient. In that frame of mind, most all of us are fraught on some level by obsession, anxiety, depression, and cognitive distortions of all kind.
What the Buddhist practice would have you achieve, besides “Nirvana,” which truth be told is at best a partially true ideal yet still vague and nebulous, is a proper state of mind from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed. A state of mental peace, calm, contemplative thinking, love of wisdom, creativity, wonder, and openness to reality. The difference is that we Christians have the gift of Faith to know that reality is the Holy Trinity, and divine incarnation of Jesus Christ. Yet, if we strip away the esoteric and Hindu residual elements and keep instead the philosophical form of Buddhism, we have much to learn how to calm the mind and achieve a proper state of mind. That would mean leaving aside any nihilism or pantheism, and developing the art of psychological meditation, and meditative practices. I would argue that with the exponential rise of mental illness in the West, which is largely the result of mental trauma due to the social and moral collapse of society, working on mental health, to treat and more importantly, prevent mental illness (not the same as spiritual illness or lack of faith or prayer) is integral to preserving your sanity and therefore spiritual life as a Catholic.
And when I look across history and the globe, the best practical example I see of this, despite certain errors (remember Plato, for example, believed in reincarnation), is that of Buddha and his original followers seeking peace through silence and practices designed to calm the mind.
As much as some readers might strongly object to this, this is the reality. Addressing mental illness and mental health involves both the religious and spiritual practice of the Faith (examples: daily rosary, Divine Office, and spiritual meditation), but also cultivating mental health and tranquility.
We all do this when we take meditative walks thinking about Nature to unravel our obsessive thoughts, creating music or art, or journaling Sitting quietly and in a still posture, resting the mind, unclogging the mind, re-orienting it to metaphysical reality, simply by focusing on nothing but your breath, is no different. Except that an entire eastern culture has been cultivating this psychological practice as part of daily life for 2,400 years.
The crux of the matter, however, is how to properly integrate Buddhist-inspired psychological mediation into your daily life without blurring it irreverently with the Faith and spiritual meditation. If you are too lax in your approach, you could jeopardize your Faith; if scrupulous about it, you may miss out on a critically useful activity in your daily life, that will not only help you through severe hardships like severe illness (physical and/or mental in nature), but keep you afloat from falling into despair or your typical sins.
So having no personal knowledge of a traditional Catholic expose of Buddhist-style psychological meditation and practical philosophy of life, or a foolish inclination to delve into the occult, I can only glean on my own what to keep and use. And it is something like this:
If you are going through a dark period of hardship, or even more to strengthen your mind to better deal with such a crisis if/when it should emerge, in addition to the prayers mentioned above, and also the sacraments, every day engage in:
1. At least 15 minutes of Buddhist-style meditation, even better for 30 minutes, and for twice a day.
2. This is not the same thing as your fifteen minutes of “mental prayer” that is spiritual meditation directly praying to God, said at another time each day. It is a mental health exercise to re-set the central nervous system into the right state and rhythm, while letting your mind open itself to all reality, both divine and created.
3. Ideally sitting in a quiet place, very still, eyes closed, hands held still in your lap, focusing on your breathing. Alternatively, laying down or taking a slow walk focusing on your breathing and stilling the mind.
4. Whenever the long train of obsessive thoughts starts emerging into your conscious mind, be aware of them, accept the reality they are tempting you to think on them, but instead immediately re-focus on your breath and therefore let those thoughts drift away.
5. Possibly include a mantra-like phrase, not a Buddhist or pagan prayer, but instead a Christian phrase or just something positive like “I am a child of God,” or “Life is beautiful.” Per the moral teachings of Buddha (and Christ) keep your focus on charity, love, kindness, peace, forgiveness, and compassion.
It is not easy to integrate this into your daily schedule, or retrain your mind to do this, but over time your parasympathetic nervous system will re-structure to dominate instead of your sympathetic nervous system. Just imagine how this would help bedbound paralytics cope with lifelong severe pain and immobility, severe mental illnesses like narcissism, schizophrenia, or bipolar, or to use another example to help Christians wrongfully imprisoned in the Siberian gulag do the time without losing their minds…or souls.
We all could benefit from this, to rise above our state of obsession and internal conflictedness, to achieve not only a state of virtue, but of inner balance and harmony.