Bumping into Zen, while waiting for God

May 2, 2015

I felt like I have been having contact with Zen (or at least Buddhist) sources most of my life. Finally it has taken hold and feels very natural.

"What is the role of belief in faith? Do you believe in God?" I point out that that's a very Christian question, a very Western, modern question. It's not actually the proper question, but nevertheless it's what people want to know. For them, that is the question."

"People have such clear ideas of what God is — you know: creator, father, personality watching over me. It's not what I believe in, even though I like to use the word sometimes." Karen Armstrong, Turn, Turn, Turn (PowellsBooks.Blog) from this post.

Last month I wrote briefly about "God has a plan for her child to die." That is an extreme example but I find most "God Talk" hard to listen to; folks talking about what God wants or what God does. I think more and more I consider God to be the ineffable and the more we talk about God, the less we are actually saying anything with meaning. I like that Buddhism looks directly at the human condition without trying to bring God into it. Awareness is up to you so go ahead and believe in God if you like.

I am not feeling that eloquent right now but getting back to the first line, I remember reading Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse in high school. During college, I attended a lecture by Alan Watts. In 1984, the Dalai Lama visited UCSB and I went to an evening lecture. We sat in bleachers in the practice gym without any of the pomp and circumstance you see today, nor was it crowded.

All three of these planted seeds and made me more open to Christian writers and speakers such as Matthew Fox. I attended a retreat he sponsored in the '80s with my wife and took a meditation class from a Catholic priest. It was the first time I felt I started to have any understanding of a Buddhist way of thinking. I lost the cassette tape I made and kept trying to remember what he said that resonated with me so strongly. I think I fell asleep for many years as I worked at my profession and raised a daughter. Then I started this journal and was able to record my reaction to a talk by Bishop Shelby Spong.
 
I will end with the quote I found while looking for the year of the Matthew Fox retreat:

"God is vast, abundant, unknowable and always inviting us in relationship. The question becomes, “How we can lie in eternal embrace?”

P.S. I found this paragraph in "Following in the Footsteps of the Buddha" by Dr Barry Kerzin from One Dharma – Many Buddhist Traditions. I will  looking forward to attending a day-long workshop with him.

"The Buddhist wisdom of selflessness is the unique character of Buddhism. This subtle understanding of our ego (egolessness), and the nature of reality in general, attract many educated people throughout the world. This subtle philosophy of life embedded in an ethic of happiness draws more and more non-Buddhists to the Buddhist way of life. Most non-Buddhists continue to follow their own religion inherited from their families. Yet many adopt a variety of Buddhist approaches to solving some of life’s more difficult challenges. The lay psychology literature, for example, is filed with Buddhist concepts and methods for training the mind and handling difficult emotions. If you look at the cover and table of contents of Psychology Today, one of the premier lay psychology journals in the United States, you will find many articles containing Buddhist principles used for psychotherapy."

This could describe me as I will continue to attend and teach at a Methodist church since I know that is important to my wife to follow the religion inherited from our families. When I teach, I feel a bit like a Dharma group as I encourage them to share and they are appreciative when I also provide some insight on the biblical text we are studying. They don't ask difficult questions and since they say the standard pronouncements about the Christian faith, I don't have to expound on concepts that are not meaningful to me anymore. Being outside the Christian mainstream, always seems odd when I try to describe teaching in a Christian church but it works for me.

I also like to attitude in Buddhism that "Everybody has the Potential to Wake Up. "I described my exposure above; it seems my journey took my whole life. I have been very patient with myself though. I have a clear memory of of question I had after completing Lutheran Confirmation (see this post). The one I remember if Jesus is necessary for salvation, what about people who lived before Jesus. I remember meeting Christians who take this to the logical, ridiculous conclusion that God is depending on us to make sure every single person has the chance and we have to hurry to every remote village. One ends up with a angry mean God. I just let questions like that sit and see if anyone had any good answers. I didn't hear any until I heard Bishop Spong speak.

I want to continue to study Buddhism but I don't feel the same kind of questions lurking; that I have to wait to understand how it all works. I feel like my practice and understanding will deepen but there are not things that don't make any sense now that I have to wait for. And I don't have to worry about the past because this moment is the only one I will ever have. What good does it do to wonder why I didn't get here sooner?

To see things as they really are means to see them consistently in the light of the three characteristics. 

• impermanence or change (anicca); 
• suffering or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha); 
• non-self or insubstantiality (anatta).

From "Seeing Things as They Are" by Nyanaponika Thera

P.P.S. Just found this quote that directly explains "God Talk" as they are taking refuge in an "outside omniscient creator."

"Similarly, going for refuge is something all religious traditions have in common, despite their focusing on different objects. In most religions this refuge is taken in an outside omniscient creator. In Buddhism, refuge is taken in the omniscient qualities of a Buddha. Each of us has within us these very same potentials. There is a huge gulf between the objects of refuge in non-Buddhist religions and Buddhism. It is between a creator god and no creator god. It is between a soul and no soul, or selflessness. The object of refuge defies the practice. This unites all Buddhists as sharing something unique and precious."

"Following in the Footsteps of the Buddha" by Dr Barry Kerzin from

 One Dharma – Many Buddhist Traditions.