I am a Christian theologian who loves Buddhism.
Unlike some who turn to Buddhism because of trauma from a toxic or inadequate version of Christianity, my love for Buddhism is not a product of alienation. My religious family of origin is not ideal -- no family is -- but my first Christian home, the Mar Thoma Church, and now the Episcopal Church, have done right by me. They both convey to me a progressive, justice-seeking, and reflective Christianity, one that never demands that I sacrifice intellect in order to embrace faith.
So why the fascination with Buddhism?
I am drawn to Buddhist traditions not to correct felt deficits in my own tradition, but to deepen my experience of the world by entering into another way of understanding and living. I seek a new kind of wisdom that our age requires.
In an older era, a person was accounted wise if he or she attained to a practical mastery of one tradition. Think St. Francis of Assisi. But our age requires also (not instead of) a new kind of wisdom: the capacity to see the world through more than one set of religious lenses and to integrate into one life, insofar as possible, what is disclosed through those lenses. Think Mahatma Gandhi. His theory and practice of nonviolent resistance integrated ideas and practices drawn from Jainism, Christianity (Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in particular), and, of course, Hinduism.
For lack of a better phrase, I call this binocular wisdom, an extension from binocular vision, vision generated by both eyes, the only kind that yields depth perspective.
We need the depth perspective of binocular wisdom for many reasons. First, increasingly many among us incorporate into our lives religious practices drawn from more than one tradition. Christians who do vipassana meditation or yoga are increasingly the norm. What is less common is reflection about the meaning of multiple religious participation. Few ask how, for example, the Buddhist wisdom that drives vipassana and Christian wisdom enacted in the Eucharist might be held together.
We also need this kind of wisdom because interfaith marriages are becoming routine. A great temptation here is to downplay religious matters for fear of conflict. Or, the most insistent parent is permitted to win: all right, the kids can go to church and not synagogue. But might this kind of double life be a source of promise and not a divisive problem? We need binocular wisdom to pull this off.
And, of course, we also need binocular wisdom to address the vast global crises of our time such as the growing gap worldwide between the rich and the poor and ecological problems that no tradition can navigate alone. Christian teaching about the natural world as God's good creation when taken together with the Buddhist quest to end self-seeking desire promises more than either tradition can offer alone.
How might such wisdom and integration work?
Let's begin with a small example: "Life hurts." That is my working, albeit non-standard, translation of the Pali phrase sabbham dukkham, the First of the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, which is customarily translated, "All is suffering." The latter is the more accurate translation, literally speaking, although it suggests that neither pleasure, satisfaction, nor contentment is possible in life. That is a manifestly mistaken reading of Buddhist wisdom. One need only spend a few minutes around Tibetan Buddhist monks or enter a vast lecture hall in which the Dalai Lama is speaking to feel in one's bones the profound joy that marks the lives of advanced practitioners.
So, what does the First Noble Truth show me as it is lived out in practice?
To say that life hurts is to name a truth that most of us spend every waking moment avoiding. Through mindfulness practice which, counter-intuitively, is the practice of leaning into life's hurts rather than running away from them, I am coming to see daily just how much time I spend in futile attempts to evade regular visitations of pain. The memory of a lost love, the sudden intrusion into mind of some personal failing, the nagging anxiety of the undone task -- mindfulness practice helps me to recognize and abandon my unrealistic quest either to avoid or to anesthetize myself from these jabs of hurt that visit me, often many times a minute.
By holding my aversion to pain in gentle, compassionate, and attentive regard -- another way to understand mindfulness -- I gain a measure of liberation (the standard translation of "nirvana") from the conditioned, even addictive patterns that drive my behavior. Still more, the practice of compassionate regard is happily addictive, and it bleeds over into my disposition toward others. I am reminded that others too are making their way through twinges, jabs, and outright blows of suffering. The irritations, failings, and even the flat out nastiness of others are not about me but the disturbing fruit of unaddressed hurt.
What does this practice mean for my Christian life? As my own vipassana teacher, Gordon Peerman, an Episcopal priest who is also an advanced Buddhist practitioner, loves to say, "Buddhist practice enables me to operationalize the Christian calling to love my neighbor." That sounds exactly right to me because it is confirmed in my experience.
I am no saint. But I am now somewhat less prone to irritation when my tween daughter insists on winning an argument. That is no advanced accomplishment on the road to mystic vision, but it is a lovely gift on the way toward a gentler life, a life that is all the more Christian for being Buddhist.
This blog post was first published on the blog site of the Episcopal Divinity School, 99 Brattlehttp://99brattle.blogspot.com/2011/02/binocular-religious-wisdom-learning.html.
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Eboo Patel: The President's Campus Interfaith Initiative
Buddhism and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There's probably been times when I haven't done just that cause it'd represent acting out of being all jaded or something, maybe to check back into the Dance later, but, you know. Enlightenment is pretty inevitable, really, but at the same time a Buddhist view is very very good if one tends to get a bit indignant about suffering. :)
Most religions have the same basic guidelines:
Don't be a jerk (includes, Don't be: greedy, lustful, vengeful, immoderate, etc)
Try to better yourself
Take care of yourself & others
Take joy in simple pleasures/ be happy with what you have
Attempt to see the connectedness of all things & appreciate it
Take responsibility for your actions & know that they all have a consequence; positive or negative
The only truly noticeable difference between the major religions, as far as I can tell, is the manner in which they observe the previously mentioned guidelines; and of course the mythology & celebrations surrounding them.
Philosophies attempt to expand a persons perception of self, reality, & the nature of everything; Religion attempts to control behavior by controlling beliefs. That being said, a static religion is only truly useful for someone who lacks the willpower/ ability to control themselves & needs someone to police them.
So, if you think you can contain yourself: have fun, remember the guidelines, & mix away!!!
To have learned my Zodiac (Scorpio) i have found that my planet is Pluto. God of the underworld. For the devil and God are one. They aren't different deitys.
With this understand i have evolved from a Scorpion into a Eagle. Thus learned that ignorant remarks out of my mouth on my part, have a bigger effect on the world then previously realized. In the Zodiac's the Phenoix is the representation of reaching the God Consciousness. On Dec 21, 2012 will be the day to see if the Phenoix has arrived.
This website is about Love and how we need to change our world for the better. Learned alot about 2012 from this site. wasn't bias just watch the videos. 1-4
(www.awakeningasone.com) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjIOjY3s-jc]
Want to learn somthing that God taught me. Its called Psychokinesis and how we can effect the clouds above our head just with our faith and belief.
Cloud Busting and the Effect of Intention of our mind.
(if your really intrested) Youtube it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFyDdUx9IdM
We are going to awaken as one.
That night I had a nightmare. Things were far worse than Eisenhower hijacking our national motto and changing it to "In God We Trust", or hijacking the Pledge of Allegiance by adding "under God". I guess the originals weren't good enough for good ole Ike after he had been baptized.
Christian activists had completely taken over America. Children had to begin each school day with a reading from the Bible. The Supreme Court was disbanded and the country was in transition to a legal system based upon Canon Law. Although the practice of other religions wasn't illegal, it was frowned upon. Buddhists, Hindi, Agnostics, etc. had difficulty finding jobs and participating in societal benefits because the govenrnment's position is they were going to Hell anyway.
Atheism was considered a mental illness and those who believed in it were institutionalized. Muslim mosques had to be built in designated areas. They couldn't be built within a five mile radius of any school, church, hospital or historic point of interest.
After round three (or is it fourth, or fifth?) of the new Great Awakening, most Americans pretended to be Christians, just so they could get along in American society. Our great experiment was over.
Then I woke up and realized it was only a nightmare. But I wasn't comforted much because everything I found out the day before remains to be true. Unfortunately, I found no God in this story.
www.ffrf.org – freedom from religion foundation
www.au.org – americans united for separation of church and state
Buddhism's one of those. :)
Without His intervention, it is likely that we would have annihilated ourselves long ago.
There is no one greater or more powerful than the Maker of the universe made of so many of the same basic working parts that allow us to function.
This Maker of Adam and Eve told them that He would send us a Savior born of a woman (only God Himself could ever be our Savior because no one else can be.
That is the only truth there is in the entire universe.
And you, Daleri Rileda, in the entire history of mankind, are the one who has figured this out.
You are truly special.
Where have you been?
I bow to the Buddha in you. May all beings be happy; may all beings have cause to be happy.
:):) LOL. Though I think it would be more appropriate to say religious people are giving God a heart attack.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_Prayer
I was thinking of a similar event, but with more involvement by the non-Christian groups. Right now, it's pretty obvious that Christianity (especially the Pope) dominates the event.