Across families
Existentialism and Secular Buddhism
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.12 (0 would be identical).
No given essence, no external warrant, and therefore total responsibility for what you make of yourself. The highest value in the matrix on individual conscience, and it treats that as a burden rather than as a liberation.
The practice and the psychology kept, the cosmology set aside: no literal rebirth, no supernatural claims, no authority beyond what you can test in your own experience. A naturalist reading of the canon rather than a rejection of it.
Where they agree
A2 Personhood
Both sit at impersonal principle or order — a gap of 0.00.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.00.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at strictly one — a gap of 0.02.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at beginningless or natural — a gap of 0.03.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.03.
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at nothing beyond the natural — a gap of 0.04.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at an individual choice — a gap of 0.05.
C1 Survival of the self
Both sit at ends at death — a gap of 0.05.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Both sit at metaphorical, or no text at all — a gap of 0.07.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at leaning many valid paths and many valid paths respectively — a gap of 0.10.
Where they part company
A4 Locus
Existentialism: leaning wholly beyond the world. Secular Buddhism: leaning fully present within it. A gap of 0.50 on an axis running from “wholly beyond the world” to “fully present within it”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Existentialism | Secular Buddhism | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | nothing beyond the natural | nothing beyond the natural | 0.04 |
| A2 Personhood | impersonal principle or order | impersonal principle or order | 0.00 |
| A3 Plurality | strictly one | strictly one | 0.02 |
| A4 Locus | leaning wholly beyond the world | leaning fully present within it | 0.50 |
| B1 Source of truth | reason and direct experience | reason and direct experience | 0.00 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | metaphorical, or no text at all | metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.07 |
| B3 Institutional authority | individual conscience decides | individual conscience decides | 0.13 |
| C1 Survival of the self | ends at death | ends at death | 0.05 |
| C2 Shape of time | one life, then judgment | leaning one life, then judgment | 0.17 |
| C3 The human condition | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.13 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | achieved by effort or insight | achieved by effort or insight | 0.03 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | optional or absent | leaning optional or absent | 0.22 |
| D3 The body | leaning to be celebrated | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | 0.30 |
| E1 Exclusivity | leaning many valid paths | many valid paths | 0.10 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | beginningless or natural | beginningless or natural | 0.03 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | an individual choice | an individual choice | 0.05 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | 0.20 |
Positions for Existentialism rest principally on Sartre, Existentialism is a Humanism; de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity; for Secular Buddhism, on Batchelor, Buddhism Without Beliefs (1997) and After Buddhism (2015). Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.