Between Two Worlds

I think a lot about how I would explain where I am in my faith journey to someone else, especially a Christian. There is a sense that I am trying to figure out a summary for myself. I have never felt more confident (I am trying to think of the right word since maybe I mean assured). I just have this feeling that I have been always just kind of cruising along for most of my life. Bits and pieces interested me but I could not see how it all fits together. Now I am more eager than ever to learn and practice with a confidence that I am on the right path.

It may be that I never quite understood there could be so many faith traditions. How could one know if they had the right one? So I have hung in with the Protestant Christianity that I have been a part of since I was a young lad. In this blog I have listed writers who have been influential on me. An interesting example today was a quote by Henri Nouwen I noticed today.

Towards a Nonjudgmental life

One of the hardest spiritual tasks is to live without prejudices. Sometimes we aren't even aware how deeply rooted our prejudices are. We may think that we relate to people who are different from us in color, religion, sexual orientation, or lifestyle as equals, but in concrete circumstances our spontaneous thoughts, uncensored words, and knee-jerk reactions often reveal that our prejudices are still there. Strangers, people different than we are, stir up fear, discomfort, suspicion, and hostility. They make us lose our sense of security just by being "other." Only when we fully claim that God loves us in an unconditional way and look at "those other persons" as equally loved can we begin to discover that the great variety in being human is an expression of the immense richness of God's heart. Then the need to prejudge people can gradually disappear.

-- Fr. Henri Nouwen

I have always found Henri Nouwen's books to be great at digging a bit deeper in Christianity to get to important spiritual truths. The quote opens with a clear statement that he is describing a spiritual task. One of the ways I have tried to live out my Christian faith is through the practice of spiritual disciplines.  I was never very successful in my practice which could leave me with a feeling of guilt.

I wanted a link to this quote but did not find a nice link on many sites that quote Henri so I did a google search: Try it - Towards a Nonjudgmental life. I noticed that the statement links to various spiritual traditions and even advice columns. So there is no doubt that this is good advice and I find it interesting how the various sources explains the how and why of working to live without prejudices.

I am not trying to criticize those who find Christ helpful in this. I am glad it works for them. As I have said before quoting Marcus Borg, "I simply could no longer believe the orthodox version of the story." But I can't help noticing that the quote by Henri does not mention Jesus. He uses the love we feel from God as a bridge to discover that the great variety in being human is an expression of the immense richness of God's heart. This has been a pattern in Christian advice that I have learned over the years: If we experience God a certain way, that is a gateway to how we act towards other people.

I find as I listen to online dharma talks and read that the Buddhist way seems more direct for me. I just did a google search on buddhism love for all kinds of people and found an excellent example at BuddhaNet » Basic Buddhism Guide » Loving-kindness Meditation by Vent Pannyavaro .

Loving-kindness is the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness practice matures it naturally overflows into compassion, as one empathises with other people's difficulties...

So this skips the God-talk and maybe that is what I like. I do not directly experience or hear God but I know there is a presence in the universe that unites all life.