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Last week's entries were about Christianity and Buddhism. I found it interesting enough to share here. There are several regular posters who enjoy learning about commonalities and differences between world religions.
This week’s meditations explore what Christians can learn about inner transformation from Buddhism. As Father Richard often says, “If it’s true, it is true all the time and everywhere, and sincere lovers of truth will take it from wherever it comes.” [1] In his book The Universal Christ, he writes:
I am convinced that in many ways Buddhism and Christianity shadow each other. They reveal each other’s blind spots. In general, Western Christians have not done contemplation very well, and Buddhism has not done action very well. [2] There is a reason that art usually shows Jesus with his eyes open and Buddha with his eyes closed. At the risk of overgeneralization: in the West, we have largely been an extroverted religion, with all the superficiality that represents; and the East has largely produced introverted forms of religion, with little social engagement up to now.
At its best, Western Christianity is dynamic and outflowing. But the downside is that this entrepreneurial instinct may have caused it to be subsumed by culture instead of transforming culture at any deep level. In our arrogance and ignorance, we also totally trampled on the cultures we entered. We became a formal and efficient religion that felt that its job was to tell people what to see instead of how to see.
Last week's entries were about Christianity and Buddhism. I found it interesting enough to share here. There are several regular posters who enjoy learning about commonalities and differences between world religions.
I think they are compatible and can compliment each other. Really, there are a number of systems and philosophies which could be added together and drawn upon; the useful and beneficial aspects (incl. Taoism, Sufism). I'm more about addition than subtraction.
Last week's entries were about Christianity and Buddhism. I found it interesting enough to share here. There are several regular posters who enjoy learning about commonalities and differences between world religions.
I am convinced that in many ways Buddhism and Christianity shadow each other. They reveal each other’s blind spots. In general, Western Christians have not done contemplation very well, and Buddhism has not done action very well. [2] There is a reason that art usually shows Jesus with his eyes open and Buddha with his eyes closed. At the risk of overgeneralization: in the West, we have largely been an extroverted religion, with all the superficiality that represents; and the East has largely produced introverted forms of religion, with little social engagement up to now.
Sorry the quote function was not working properly. I am afraid Father Richard is being reductive. Meditation, contemplation, I be.ieve, is part of both Christianity and Buddhism. Eastern religion is not introverted as much as seeking god within rather than only outside of the self. That is not that foreign to Christianity either as in Jesus’s own words about the kingdom of heaven. Eastern religion is not concerned with spreading the gospel, because it believes karma leads you to where you need to go, what path you take. This actually makes for a secular view and the embrace of all paths as leading to same source.
May be what Christianity could do is listening to Jesus more closely! I believe he too was seeking his God within himself.
I like it. As a practicing Roman Catholic, I don't feel threatened by Buddhism. I feel we can all learn something from various religions. Truth is truth, as Father Richard says - I don't care where it comes from actually. I believe that 1) God knows my heart and whether or not I am sincere, and 2) He doesn't expect me to understand Him perfectly - not by a long shot, thank goodness.
This guy is just a few miles from me. A Catholic, and a Jesuit one I believe, who also took up Buddhism and was confirmed as enlightened by his teacher.
I think they are compatible and can compliment each other. Really, there are a number of systems and philosophies which could be added together and drawn upon; the useful and beneficial aspects (incl. Taoism, Sufism). I'm more about addition than subtraction.
I tried for almost 30 years to 'meld' the two, I didn't find it possible, although I think that certain aspects may, as you point out, compliment each other.
I always figured that was because Buddhism seems to have a heavy emphasis on introspection.
There's some good logic there. Somewhere along the line I saw it said that one has to close his or her eyes to the physical world and the culture around us, and develop a sense of what is inside you. And when I think about it, when I would join the Thai Buddhist monks occasionally for their evening prayers and meditations, they always had their eyes closed.
I am convinced that in many ways Buddhism and Christianity shadow each other. They reveal each other’s blind spots. In general, Western Christians have not done contemplation very well, and Buddhism has not done action very well. [2] There is a reason that art usually shows Jesus with his eyes open and Buddha with his eyes closed. At the risk of overgeneralization: in the West, we have largely been an extroverted religion, with all the superficiality that represents; and the East has largely produced introverted forms of religion, with little social engagement up to now.
Sorry the quote function was not working properly. I am afraid Father Richard is being reductive. Meditation, contemplation, I be.ieve, is part of both Christianity and Buddhism. Eastern religion is not introverted as much as seeking god within rather than only outside of the self. That is not that foreign to Christianity either as in Jesus’s own words about the kingdom of heaven. Eastern religion is not concerned with spreading the gospel, because it believes karma leads you to where you need to go, what path you take. This actually makes for a secular view and the embrace of all paths as leading to the same source.
May be what Christianity could do is listen to Jesus more closely! I believe he too was seeking his God within himself.
I am convinced Jesus, Paul, and John were very advanced Jewish Mystics and you are correct, Christian Mysticism has a long and storied history. Unfortunately, contemplatives did not play prominent roles in the ruling hierarchy of the Church.
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