Today, I was visiting my Mentor in Life, Mavis. You may all remember her as the 83-year old woman (or maybe she's 84, now) who is my favorite person in the world to talk to. I sometimes describe our friendship as being "like Don Juan and Carlos Castandeda without the drugs."
Anyway, I brought her up her usual Saturday morning treat of huevos rancheros with a side of guacamole, and as we sat outside Mavis' trailer, munching away and enjoying the bright rays of sunshine, a neighbor walked by and gave Mavis a tulip plant.
The neighbor was a youngish woman, in her 30's, and she told us of her impending adventure. She was moving from Los Angeles to her dream home-base in (of all places) Tulsa, Oklahoma! She had wanted to move to Tulsa for many years, so that she could attend Oral Roberts University and become a hospital chaplain. She likes Tulsa a lot, and feels that the people there are wonderful - she's excited about the move, and excited about undertaking her studies.
Both Mavis and I nodded at her. Mavis gave her a couple of books -- Mavis picks up books all the time. Sometimes she just gets a "feeling" that she'll run into someone who's right for the book, and that's what happened here. Mavis had picked up some free books from the trailer park laundry room (where residents dump things off for other residents to pick up, if they like). One of these books was on the theme of miracles by televangelist Pat Robertson, and another was a series of Christian meditations. The neighbor graciously accepted the books, went to her car to drop off a load of luggage, and then came back to where Mavis and I were sitting. Came back to witness to us about the miracle of Easter.
"Tomorrow is resurrection Sunday," the young woman said to us. "It's the day when we can thank God for the wonderful thing that Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. Tomorrow morning, you can wake up and greet the day and see the beautiful sunshine and say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for what you did on the cross for me."
Mavis and I sort of nodded. Mavis thanked her again, most profusely, for the lovely pink tulip, and the young woman went away.
It had been a long time since anybody talked to me like that, and I was filled with a strange sense of envy. Envy. An odd emotion in the circumstance, and I took a moment to sort it through before discussing it with Mavis. What was I envious of? This young woman's simple faith. There was nothing complex, nothing multi-layered. She actually believed that the greatest power in the universe, God, required a blood sacrifice, and that Jesus had performed this as an act of love on her behalf. It was all very clear to her.
Now, for me, the questions pop up so demandingly and so incessantly that there's no way I could ever go into her world of faith with her.
Question: Did Jesus know what he was doing? In other words, did he himself believe that he was accessing a divine paradise for others by his suffering? If so, then there's nothing so fabulous about the suffering. Hell, I might undertake some torture too, if I actually, honestly, believed in my heart of hearts that all of humanity would be "saved" as a result. Isn't that the old Bodhissatva spirit, after all?
And to top it off, there are whole schools of Tibetan Buddhism that actually train their believers to meditate on assuming others' karmic burdens. I don't know how many students at Oral roberts University have heard of this practice, and sometimes I wonder what they would have to say about it.
Or did God's plan for redemption require that Jesus suffer in ignorance? The answer to that question tells us a lot about the nature of the "love" which is offered by this young woman's God.
Question: Why does God require a blood sacrifice at all? This is the area where I think that Islam has the goods on Christianity. Their whole take on this issue is to say "God is God. He can forgive anybody he wants any time he wants." No special relationship necessary. No intermediary necessary, no believing in a particular set of miracles, nothing like that. What a relief.
For me, as a Buddhist, I can never go back to a belief system where somebody else (Adam) incurs the debt, and somebody else (Jesus) pays the bill. But it looks so temptingly easy in comparison, doesn't it?
Growing up in the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, Easter Sunday was always about new shoes and a new hat and a pretty Easter lily to give to my mother. Now, it's a strange encounter with an enviable and irrational certainty.
"I envy her" I said to Mavis. "I envy that she is so certain and secure in her stories. She's so certain, and I just can't go there with her."
Mavis nodded and said, "I can." She then offered her opinion that the young woman in question would probably make an excellent chaplain, either in a hospital setting, or in the military. "She'll be able to do a lot of good, wherever she goes."
And then, Mavis shared with me her theory that what matters is the heart, and that for those people who are motivated by a selfless desire to serve and do good, a sure path would open up in front of them, regardless of what "religion" they belonged to. That the "Big Whatever" (as I like to call it) blesses and shines down on everybody like the sun, and we all turn our faces to it in our own way, as we each walk our own path.
That put me in mind of the "Medicinal Herbs" Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, and the image of a sweet rain falling on all plants, and helping all to grow according to their nature. I also thought about how Nichiren named himself "Sun Lotus" because the warm rays of the Daimoku illuminate everything. So, I don't really have to envy anybody after all.
Have a Happy Easter, all.
Byrd in LA
Posted by wahzoh at March 22, 2008 04:43 PMHere is some neat stuff to think about:
In the Flower Garland Sutra and in passages from some other sutra cited in Shantideva's Shiksasamucaya there are vows by the bodhisattvas to the effect that they wish to take on all suffering and go into all the lower realms for the sake of all suffering beings. That sure sounds like vicarious atonement to me! The problem of course is that by the stricter standards of Buddhist teachings of cause and effect one cannot take on the karma of others like that. But one can create merit through solidarity with others and then transfer that merit. And in the deeper understanding of Mahayana it is pointed out that since there is no self or other ultimately how can we talk about individualized karma? As you say in your other post, "It is a puzzlement."
Another thing is that in various sutras and in Shantideva's Bodhicaryavatara the bodhisattvas vow to be food and drink for others - and to someone with a Catholic heritage like myself that sounds an awful lot like Eucharist. Even more interestingly, I recently discovered that the word "sambhog" in "Sambhogakaya" (the Enjoyment or Bliss Body of the Buddha) can also means "to consume." It is in fact taught that advanced bodhisattvas do have a sambhogakaya just like the Buddhas. If you read the accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels and the way Paul talks about encountering Christ on the road to Damascus, it is readily apparent that what is being presented is by no means a simple resuscitation. In fact, in some of the encounters the disciples and Mary Magdalene don't even recognize Jesus at first! Huh!?
It seems to me that if a Buddhist with no knowledge of Christianity were to read these encounters for him or herself without anyone else providing any commentary or background they would assume that what happened was that an advanced bodhisattva (say Samantabhadra) decided to appear in the Mediterranean Basin in the first century to try to communicate as much as could be communicated of the five precepts, the law of cause and effect, the Dharmakaya (personified as "abba" or "daddy"), the Pure Land in this world (the Kingdom of Heaven) and bodhicitta. Then he ran afoul of the authorities, got himself killed, and then by an "act of truth" (satygraha) typical in Jataka tales restored himself but in a Mahayana twist did so in the sambhogakaya form to his closest followers. His teachings and Way was then distorted into a Greek mystery religion and Greek philosophy was used to try to make sense of it all and in the process deified him as the One and Only Son of God whose sacrifice one must have faith in for salvation, thus turning a skillful means into a barrier against the True Dharma. (Oh, and since Jesus did not explicitly teach the four noble truths or any particulars of Buddha Dharma he does not qualify as the Nirmanakaya of a Buddha).
However, there are many Christians I have met who seem to have leaped past divisive and metaphysically speculative dogmas to the message that was being communicated. These people sound a lot like Mahayana Buddhists at times. Sometimes they even explicitly make that connection.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Two things. If "That the "Big Whatever" (as I like to call it) blesses and shines down on everybody like the sun, and we all turn our faces to it in our own way, as we each walk our own path." then religion serves no positive purpose as everything is just fine however it is.
And if it is true that,"She actually believed that the greatest power in the universe, God, required a blood sacrifice, and that Jesus had performed this as an act of love..." Then I have to say I'm glad to not be admitted to that God's heaven.
ch
"If "That the "Big Whatever" (as I like to call it) blesses and shines down on everybody like the sun, and we all turn our faces to it in our own way, as we each walk our own path." then religion serves no positive purpose as everything is just fine however it is."
This is from the parable of the Herbs in chapter 5 of the Lotus Sutra. The Dharma rains down on one and all - bushes, trees, big trees and so on. In terms of human life what does this look like? I think it looks like people doing their everyday stuff - including awakening to the Big Whatever, celebrating it, pointing it out to others, and even occasionally misunderstanding it and fighting over it. There is a different religious expression for every single one of the ten worlds. And no religion has a monopoly on any of those expressions, nor can any religious tradition that is large enough avoid any of the ten.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Sure and Bruce Maltz is right in his interpretation that religion is unnecessary. Religion is completely useless. Since it shines down on everybody like the sun, and we all turn our faces to it in our own way, as we each walk our own path. There is nothing that needs to be done. That being the case the blood sacrifice is even more abhorant than most forms of religion although all are equally useless.
ch
My take on that chapter is different though. I wouldn't stress the equalness in that the sun is shining equaly, I would stress the different capacaties of the plants to soak up the sun. The sun shine is the same, but the plants are not all equal.
ch