Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism
Rev. Meek changed the format at the New Song Saturday service for this week. There was more music than usual, and instead of a sermon, he held an open forum with the congregation in which we could make comments or ask questions. The theme of the forum very soon became centered around a couple of New Testament verses, Ephesians 4:29 and 4:31: "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers….Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." The Holy Bible, The New King James Version, Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1982.
The very same discussion ensued which could have easily taken place in the Soto Zen meditation group I used to attend. Verses from James and Corinthians were quoted to buttress the verses from Ephesians. All these verses, and the discussions they provoked, were very similar to Buddhist precepts and discussions of the precepts. S. N. Goenka in his article "Moral Conduct, Concentration, and Wisdom" explains the Buddhist Precept "to abstain from false speech" as follows: "Speech must be pure and wholesome. Purity is achieved by removing impurity, and so we must understand what constitutes impure speech. Such acts include telling lies, that is, speaking more or less than the truth; carrying tales that set friends at odds; backbiting and slander; speaking harsh words that disturb others and have no beneficial effect; and idle gossip, meaningless chatter that wastes one’s own time and the time of others. Abstaining from such impure speech leaves nothing but right speech." Entering the Stream, An Introduction to The Buddha and His Teachings, Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn, Shambala, Boston, 1993, pp. 99-100. Just as Buddhists emphasize that abstaining from improper speech does much to enhance purity and prevent the creation of bad karma, Rev. Meek explained to us how avoiding uttering "corrupt words" from our mouths is very important in not damaging our relationships with others, especially those we love. This similarity reminded me that it is possible Jesus and perhaps some of his disciples did in fact travel to India and study Buddhism, as many people hypothesize.
Rev. Meek spent a lot of time on anger. Here, you could see the difference between the Christian and Buddhist views on this subject. I think Buddhists look at anger as something that is unreal. It is only your thoughts. By silently meditating, watching it, and allowing it to run its course, it will dissipate, and you will be in your natural peaceful state. The Western view sees anger as a more real thing, something that must be discussed and diffused, or it will burst out in an undesirable manner. In that spirit, Rev. Meek designed an exercise where each of us was to turn to another person in the congregation, tell him or her about a time we were angry, and how we felt. I’ve made friends with another woman who comes to the service alone. She has a husband and grown children, but she usually comes to the service by herself. I was all too eager to spill my guts about my recent anger toward Rev. Meek for the right-wing literature he passes out at the service. I told her I was very liberal politically, and that I’d considered walking out of Round Hill Church. The way I had handled it was to post my feelings on the internet. Very liberal Presbyterians came to my rescue, and I had to resolve this by going to a different church on Sunday, the Sixth Presbyterian Church, which was a very liberal church. Just after I spilled this all to my new friend, I learned from her that she is none other than the Chief of Police! It was a rather humorous incident to lighten up this serious evening of soul searching!
On Sunday, the service at Sixth Presbyterian seemed to fit right in with my experience of the similarities and differences between Buddhism and Christianity. The guest speaker was an Orthodox Jewish woman by the name of Amy Jill Levine. Her talk was about differences and similarities between Judaism and Christianity and centered around Mark 2:23-28: "Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ But he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him? And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." The New King James Version. Levine stressed the similarities between the New Testament and the Old Testament, where it was also stated that the Sabbath was created for people, and not the other way around. She gave many examples from Jesus’ life with parallels to the Old Testament. She also tried to explain Jesus to us through Jewish eyes, because Jesus was very Jewish. She gave examples from Jesus’ life and explained to us how one Jew (or a gentile) could see this as evidence of a messiah, while another Jew would see no sign of a messiah but would just view Jesus as another prophet. In the end, Jews disagreed about Jesus, she said, and Jews have always disagreed about something!
In the end, we all have so much in common—Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, Jews, Christians and other faiths. We all view the same important things, but sometimes we view them with small differences. It is so important to respect each other, discuss these things, keep talking, and above all, do it in peace.
The very same discussion ensued which could have easily taken place in the Soto Zen meditation group I used to attend. Verses from James and Corinthians were quoted to buttress the verses from Ephesians. All these verses, and the discussions they provoked, were very similar to Buddhist precepts and discussions of the precepts. S. N. Goenka in his article "Moral Conduct, Concentration, and Wisdom" explains the Buddhist Precept "to abstain from false speech" as follows: "Speech must be pure and wholesome. Purity is achieved by removing impurity, and so we must understand what constitutes impure speech. Such acts include telling lies, that is, speaking more or less than the truth; carrying tales that set friends at odds; backbiting and slander; speaking harsh words that disturb others and have no beneficial effect; and idle gossip, meaningless chatter that wastes one’s own time and the time of others. Abstaining from such impure speech leaves nothing but right speech." Entering the Stream, An Introduction to The Buddha and His Teachings, Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn, Shambala, Boston, 1993, pp. 99-100. Just as Buddhists emphasize that abstaining from improper speech does much to enhance purity and prevent the creation of bad karma, Rev. Meek explained to us how avoiding uttering "corrupt words" from our mouths is very important in not damaging our relationships with others, especially those we love. This similarity reminded me that it is possible Jesus and perhaps some of his disciples did in fact travel to India and study Buddhism, as many people hypothesize.
Rev. Meek spent a lot of time on anger. Here, you could see the difference between the Christian and Buddhist views on this subject. I think Buddhists look at anger as something that is unreal. It is only your thoughts. By silently meditating, watching it, and allowing it to run its course, it will dissipate, and you will be in your natural peaceful state. The Western view sees anger as a more real thing, something that must be discussed and diffused, or it will burst out in an undesirable manner. In that spirit, Rev. Meek designed an exercise where each of us was to turn to another person in the congregation, tell him or her about a time we were angry, and how we felt. I’ve made friends with another woman who comes to the service alone. She has a husband and grown children, but she usually comes to the service by herself. I was all too eager to spill my guts about my recent anger toward Rev. Meek for the right-wing literature he passes out at the service. I told her I was very liberal politically, and that I’d considered walking out of Round Hill Church. The way I had handled it was to post my feelings on the internet. Very liberal Presbyterians came to my rescue, and I had to resolve this by going to a different church on Sunday, the Sixth Presbyterian Church, which was a very liberal church. Just after I spilled this all to my new friend, I learned from her that she is none other than the Chief of Police! It was a rather humorous incident to lighten up this serious evening of soul searching!
On Sunday, the service at Sixth Presbyterian seemed to fit right in with my experience of the similarities and differences between Buddhism and Christianity. The guest speaker was an Orthodox Jewish woman by the name of Amy Jill Levine. Her talk was about differences and similarities between Judaism and Christianity and centered around Mark 2:23-28: "Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ But he said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him, how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him? And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." The New King James Version. Levine stressed the similarities between the New Testament and the Old Testament, where it was also stated that the Sabbath was created for people, and not the other way around. She gave many examples from Jesus’ life with parallels to the Old Testament. She also tried to explain Jesus to us through Jewish eyes, because Jesus was very Jewish. She gave examples from Jesus’ life and explained to us how one Jew (or a gentile) could see this as evidence of a messiah, while another Jew would see no sign of a messiah but would just view Jesus as another prophet. In the end, Jews disagreed about Jesus, she said, and Jews have always disagreed about something!
In the end, we all have so much in common—Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, Jews, Christians and other faiths. We all view the same important things, but sometimes we view them with small differences. It is so important to respect each other, discuss these things, keep talking, and above all, do it in peace.
posted by Theodosia @ 5:52 PM
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