The meeting of religions

[tariki]

I feel a waffle coming on, so be warned. Those with the attention span of goldfish can safely move on to greener pastures......or is it wetter waters?

Anyway, the meeting of religions.

As I see it, the Religions meet when people of different Faiths meet. What can unite them then is not doctrine, nor belief as such, but that which I often call the Living Word, the spirit that blows where it will.

One such meeting was between the Catholic Trappist monk Thomas Merton and the "zen man" (Buddhist) D.T.Suzuki. Here is Merton's testimony:-

I saw Dr. Suzuki only in two brief visits and I did not feel I ought to waste time exploring abstract, doctrinal explanations of his tradition. But I did feel that I was speaking to someone who, in a tradition completely different from my own, had matured, had become complete and found his way. One cannot understand Buddhism until one meets it in this existential manner, in a person in whom it is alive. Then there is no longer a problem of understanding doctrines which cannot help being a bit exotic for a Westerner, but only a question of appreciating a value which is self-evident.

Yes, self-evident, if we look for the fruits of the spirit and not simply look for a mirror image of ourselves or only recognise the words of our own belief system. As Merton said elsewhere, "The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

Sadly, some have not even touched the beginning of Love.

Thomas Merton and Suzuki only met on two occasions. Once was in New York when Merton had managed to escape from his monastery  and was able to enjoy a bit of NY Jazz. When they parted Merton read to Suzuki the words of a South American theologian:-

Praise be to God that I am not good!

Suzuki, apparently deeply touched, said:- "That is so important"

When some look at two religions they hear only themselves, their own creeds, beliefs, and thus decry those of another. Here, in the meeting of Merton and Suzuki we hear the spirit blowing. Suzuki, an "atheist", Merton a "theist" yet both able to dispense with labels and words. Suzuki could relate to the South American theologian's words from the heart of his own faith.

Another example was when Merton quoted to Suzuki the words of the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart:-

“In giving us His love God has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can love Him with the love wherewith He loves Himself.”

Merton adds:- The Son Who, in us, loves the Father, in the Spirit, is translated thus by Suzuki into Zen terms: “one mirror reflecting another with no shadow between them.” (Suzuki, Mysticism: East and West, p. 41)

Elsewhere, Eckharts words (which Merton says are perfectly orthodox and traditionally Christian) are continued:-

We love God with His own love; awareness of it deifies us.

Suzuki hears with approval, comparing it with the Prajna wisdom of Zen.

As I see it, if we truly begin to touch the heart of our Faith we do not withdraw into a tight circle, seeking to protect its various creeds, but we begin to reach out, as spoken of here by another Buddhist:-

The dharma, can be discovered through the Buddhist tradition, but Buddhism is by no means the only source of dharma. I would define dharma as anything that awakens the enlightened mind and brings on the direct experience of selflessness. The teachings of Christ are prefumed with dharma. There is dharma in jazz, in beautiful gardens, in literature, in Sufi dance, in Quaker silence, in shaman healing, in projects to care for the homeless and clean up the inner cities, in Catholic ritual, in meaningful and competent work. There is dharma in anything that causes us to respect the innate softness and intelligence of ourselves and others. When the Buddhist system is applied properly, it does not turn us inward toward our own organizations, practices, and ideas. The system has succeeded when the Buddhist can recognize the true dharma at the core of all other religions and disciplines that are based on respect for the human image, and has no need to reject them.


And so, as I see it, there are Words and there are Living Words. If we are truly children of grace we look not for others to echo our own words, but are open instead to the fruits of the spirit. In any meeting of people there will always be truth and error on both sides - that is our finitude. What unites is not Creed, what unites is Love - a love which Reality shares freely, in which we "live and move and have our being".

It is truly desperately sad that some will simply say that there can be no meeting between truth (theirs) and error (anything contrary) They will trust in being "of the truth", awaiting the "reward" of their God in the next life. If their trust was truly in God, in Love, in Grace, then they would have no such attitude.

That's it. I doubt many - if any - will have got this far. But I find expressing myself therapeutic.

 

 

[tariki]

Just to say, I invited a Christian (Protestant Reform Fundamentalist) to comment on the above post - which I posted on another Forum - and his response was:-

"Why would I as a Christian be inspired by the theology of a Buddhist Monk?

That Catholic monk ought to be kicked out of his monastery."

😀

 

[PaulS]

13 hours ago, tariki said:

It is truly desperately sad that some will simply say that there can be no meeting between truth (theirs) and error (anything contrary) They will trust in being "of the truth", awaiting the "reward" of their God in the next life. If their trust was truly in God, in Love, in Grace, then they would have no such attitude.

That was a good read, Tariki!

I do wonder if we sometimes we 'fight' for our beliefs because we don't want to be wrong!  And there's something genuinely threatening to some that somehow they have 'wasted' their time if somebody's else's different beliefs should somehow seem beneficial.  It's crazy really - all of us should be accepting of anything that brings us all closer together. It would seem that Merton and Suzuki were so at peace with their beliefs, that neither felt anything threatening about the other's.

[romansh]

The etymology of the word religion comes from the Latin for re-connect.

Only if we realized that all was not separate in the first place.