Monday, May 11, 2009
Focusing on now
While Mike and and Eric and I were grabbing lunch/dinner at new seasons today. While we were walking into the store mike and I were talking buddhism and christianity and the relative merits for each (mostly praising buddhism and dogging christianity). Shortly after we get in the store, Eric passes us and says "While you two 'philosophers' were debating you passed free strawberry shortcake samples." Which made us stop and laugh and blush a little bit, because we had before discussed how much we liked Buddhism's teachings on being fully in the present and aware of the present moment. While returning for said strawberry shortcake samples, it occurred to me it was a very buddhist lesson.
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Historically Christianity has gotten a bad rap. It is easy to pick on it, if you put the whole faith in a historical context: following the ascent of Jesus, many "founders" of the Christian faith loved nothing more than to preach God's gospel...and start wars with people who didn't want to hear it. I've been re-playing Assassin's Creed recently, and (oddly enough) it has reminded me once again how good people are at twisting the words of God around into something that fits their goals. Example: Islam verses Christianity during the Crusades. Both sides claimed Allah/God had told them to wipe out their enemies and both sides fought for what they thought was right. Buddhism, at least, does not have this kind of a violent history. Although I am not a Buddhist, I do greatly appreciate the fact that (at least right now) there are no Buddhist extremists threatening holy wars against the west/east/whoever doesn't agree with their teachings.
ReplyDeleteLeave it to humans to maim the teachings of a higher power, eh?
I was not dogging on the fact that Christianity has done bad things in the past, I was dogging on its methods of teaching compassion. I understand this is probably not representative of the full depth of Christian thought, but the general teaching I received on this subject was: 1) Submit to God as the source of all compassion (and beg forgiveness for being so naughty as to not be compassionate, i.e. be sure to feel bad about it first.) 2) Let go of your attempt to be compassionate and let God do it through you. 3) Hope this nebulous instruction translates to meaningful action the next time you need to put it to the test.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about buddhism is the emphasis on practical suggestions to cultivate compassion. I like how it encourages you to view your foibles with a sense of humor and compassion for yourself, and gives you meditative techniques to achieve that (ways to breathe, how to deal with your discontent with your lack of compassion when it arises) and then teaches you how to cultivate that feeling, and also how to apply it in the real world. In other words, you get step by step practical advice on how to cultivate compassion within yourself.
Christianity ALMOST gets it right. The part about letting go and letting God do it is almost buddhist. The part I don't like about modern Christianity is the concern is mostly with the submission to authority part. LIke I was telling my mother how much I like buddhisms practical techniques to be more compassionate and her first and only question was "but you still believe compassion can only come from God?", as if it matters less that I am compassionate, more that I constantly reassure God that he created everything.
I think the insistence that we constantly submit to God's authority has far less to do with what God's actually about, than what the church is typically about, which is making sure the congregation is submitting to the church's authority. I think the patriarchal church structure is inherently unstable and relies on constant reaffirmation that the lower ranks are indeed submitting to the appropriately designated authority figures. Children must submit to their elders, wives must submit to their husbands, husbands must submit to the pastor and other males higher in the pecking order than they are, and so then, of course, it is only natural to assume that God requires everyone including the pastor to submit to Him lest he feel all smitey and vindictive, in the same way that men feel all abusey and vindictive if they don't get their "due" respect. I've just painted a caricature of course, and I know the modern church isn't 100% like this, but this is the framework modern christians are trying to twist into something more egalitarian and I think it's an exercise in futility. The framework is ABOUT not being egalitarian (as evidenced by the church's continued insistence that women can't be ordained as pastors. Submit directly to God without submitting to a man first? Unheard of!)
I . . . just think God knows what he did and probably has a strong enough self esteem that does okay without us reassuring him all the time. Nor do I think he really wants to do all the heavy lifting in terms of teaching us to be compassionate. If there are easy and fun ways to train yourself to be more centered and more compassionate, why not do it ourselves rather than turn it over to God and say, "here, you do it, I'm going to get a soda and play video games for a while"
So the letting go part that Christianity teaches is good. What it's missing is the mindful letting go. The part where you watch how your emotions move and change, and practice acknowledging your negative emotions and where they come from with compassion for yourself and then letting them be what they are, which is basically the same thing as letting them go. In short, buddhism encourages self-reflection and wrestling with your problems, rather than happily putting them out of mind, and I find this strikes me as the only way I'm every going to really change.