Christianity

November 30th, 2020

I wrote some notes the other day while listening to the ordinary mind of Sydney zen talk. I really enjoy it and find it valuable teaching and like that they're limited because I often don't have an entire hour to listen to a dharma talk. What interested me besides the comments on spiritual practice was that we are not chasing some special or blissful experience and it gave an example of the Pentecostal service. 

I just heard how compassion in another talk is at the center of Buddhism. While I consider myself a Christian, I think the focus on Jesus is misplaced. In some of my reading Jesus is described as an itinerant, miracle worker and teacher. Upon his death, the community wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Eventually those who saw his death as a moment of salvation one out but that wasn't the only understanding of the meaning of the life of Jesus. To me, this focus on salvation created some of the problems in Christianity and its insensitivity sometimes to the suffering and persecution of people. Salvation of people becomes an obsession and the passion and teachings of Jesus are can be lost.

It is interesting how for both Buddha and Jesus there are no original writings. The tradition was passed down. In Buddhism it was possibly several centuries. In Christianity it was several decades the first writings are Paul's letters which strongly influence the Christian scriptures and then we have four gospels that all hint at a view of Jesus but in slightly different ways. We also have the Gnostic Gospels such as Peter and Thomas which were actively suppressed.

While Christianity looks for transcendence I several ways,  my understanding of Buddhism is staying here and being grounded as exemplified by Buddha touching the earth. We come down into the body rather than hoping to go somewhere else. I can understand why the Black slaves in the south sang, This world is not my home I'm just a passing through, but it is not good theology.

Incomplete notes

There is no such thing as spiritual practice. spirituality. Ex

It is not chasing some special experience or blissful experience. Doing nothing, watching the mind. 

Example: pentecostal services fill the tank with hope, filled with longing but didn't know what to do with it. Many can't stand the silence of the mind. Belonging to life. Need full commitment. No desire to be outside this experience. Craving to be elsewhere drops away. Anything that happens is OK. Fulfilling life.