POST-LOGOCENTRISM: BUDDHIST-CHRISTIAN DIALOG

How to begin Buddhist-Christian dialog? Get the Buddhists to begin a lecture series on Mindfulness. Then offer fellowship workshops (with coffee and desserts, of course) in which Christians write short tracts about the Mindfulness displayed by Jesus; and of course, compose some catchy hymns in which everyone sits in meditation-pose singing with arms waving overhead.

Seriously, a theological middle ground (sounds like Buddha's "middle way"!) can be sought with Christian theologian Paul Tillich's God as the "ground of being," which is the very description sometimes given of Buddha; and the writings of Christian monk-scholar Thomas Merton ( lived at Gethsemane monastery in Kentucky), who was influenced by Zen.

Rather chilly Buddhism needs more of the personalization of the deity through the life of Jesus offered by Christian thought; and Christian thought needs to move beyond the anthropomorphic notion that God is like a rather removed, unknown, egotistical father residing somewhere else playing chess with the world, and whose moves can be influenced by prayer. There are lots of examples of Christian mysticism through more than a millennium that can be used as textual examples of that which the sacred writings point.

In contrast, every time I go to a Christian service (last attendance was Easter Sunday) I find it terribly distracting with words, words, words. So, Christians could learn that the logocentricism of Christian praxis (scripture, sermons, hymns, Christian witness, etc.) does not get anywhere near the great Reality we all live within. Church services are more entertainment and stimulus (for the mind and emotions) than "worship" service. That takes stopping the words. It takes Mindfulness. Perhaps the Mindfulness of Jesus.

GOD'S GET-REAL COMMISSION FOR OPENED EYES

Preacher (James) Robison:

With all due respect, I believe you have some explaining to do at Judgment. You being "Commissioned" and all, to "proclaim Truth and Liberty" "from the rooftops," etc. And as you "see through the eyes of God" it must be so very easy to know the right course on public policy. It's not POLITICS, mind you, it's just knowing, as you do, God's will, right? And, since God speaks through you--you who were "called"--we can just read your words for God's message.


In your other message you thankfully give us specifics: God is against government auto makers, government climate regulations, government energy policy, government handouts...government...government...government! Whew! God HATES government!

Thanks to God's message channeled through you I now realize how incensed I am that there are sidewalks being built at this very moment in a part of my town in which many people are probably on government handouts! How fair is that? I demand my tax money be withdrawn from such a bad policy. I'll probably never use those sidewalks!


I'm glad you mentioned "sustainability," because that's a hint you will get around to preaching about the consumerism that is the dominant dynamic of our era, leading to destruction of God's Earth, and engendering the delusional self-contained individualism that is at the core of each of us. And when you mentioned "sound principles," that leads me to think you will preach in a later message (after you finish with government) about the overriding influence--yes, control--of gigantic corporations on our very lives and souls.


Get it? Consumerism (as much more than just lifestyle), self-contained individualism (as our delusional personal construct), corporatism (as the most powerful spiritual force in the world), and destruction of God's Earth (as suicidal project)--they all go together.

God is speaking to you at this very moment about these issues. Pray about it. There might even be some public policy involved. But, first, rant, as you did, against government favoritism to unions!


As I said, you will have some explaining to do. This question will be asked, Who convinced you of your Great Commission and what does it really say? You might start your explanation with how you needed (since you were "commissioned") to institute God's anti-government program before you could turn attention to the really big issues.
At that time, don't bother to open your eyes--because you don't have them open now.


--Peace

EMBEDDED IN THE GREAT GESTALT

Spirituality is the process of learning who we are, even when we never reach, at least in this lifetime, total direct conscious contact with the Design Integrity Gestalt of the Ground of Ultimate Being (otherwise titled "God"). My conceptual label blends R. Buckminster Fuller's "design integrity of the Universe," and Paul Tillich's "Ground of Being," with "gestalt" to indicate the functional whole without properties derivable by summation of its parts.

That's alright; we are all embraced by that Mysterious Boundless Being--as it is also embodied within us--whether we realize it or not. At some point, though, it should be obvious that words do not get us there; there must be some direct experience (although each quotidian moment already IS direct experience). All religions, and even, I would say, some nonreligious systems of thought, attempt to engender some of that direct experience of the Ultimate Reality.

The spiritual principle, then, is to comprehend that we are centered (there is no other place) in that Transcendent Luminosity and simply live (even unconsciously) as embedded, nonseparated energies in the Design Integrity Gestalt of the Ground of Ultimate Being. The key is the comprehension, the realization, that we are always embraced by and embedded in the Great Gestalt.

The classical crossover piano music and the rain pattering my window and the clunking bamboo chimes are more than nice on this luminous day.

LICENSING GOD

You might have read recently the New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/us/06license.html) about the South Carolina legislature voting unanimously to allow its residents the choice of purchasing an auto license plate exhibiting a cross over a stained-glass window with the words "I believe." This is a Constitutional issue into which many people also inject their ideas of who were the Founders of America.

Make no mistake, nearly none of the Founders (and later Lincoln and by far most all presidents) were what today would be labeled "Christian," even though some of them included references to God (most were Deists) in speeches and letters (particularly Washington, but surely not Franklin).

John Adams (born Congregationalist; converted to Unitarian, which rejects divinity of Jesus) thought that religion was actually good for the masses (his term) to help keep them in line, but not suitable for educated, Enlightenment, rationalist thinkers like himself (and Jefferson, with whom he corresponded in many letters). Ironically, Adams today might think license plates with crosses would be good for the uneducated rabble to help keep them in line!

Seems to me, though, that a cross on a license plate, since it is a free choice not required by government (although it is a governmental activity--here is the controversy); and that the practice does not establish a religion, since all religions are free to design their own symbols for which they can petition the State--then the cross-on-license-plate practice would be protected exercise, according to the First Amendment.

I give thanks to Washington, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison who were "guided" (Adams disputes this; he said they used only their rational faculties) in setting up government for maximum freedom.

For my personal plate, I would like to design a symbol for a religiously syncretistic Pagan-Buddhist-Baptist, which I am (with atheist-rationalist proclivities)! Perhaps the Buddha sitting on a river bank reading the Sermon on the Mount (certainly the most radical of biblical scripture) by the light of the full moon on the summer solstice and surrounded by a swaying circle of bodhi trees.

What symbol would Adams design? Probably a facsimile of the U.S. Constitution--with a ratiocinating human brain perched on top.

PROJECTION OF ANGER

The idea re anger towards God seems to me worth exploring. I have made the statement that anger towards God is misdirected. But, on further reflection, it strikes me how "natural" it is. Think how often children get mad at parents with little justification; or as adults we strike out at convenient targets. Or, we blame our spouses for things they have no control over. People in charge, even in our everyday lives, are subject to complaint and even rage.

God is certainly a "convenient" target, readily at hand, or at least just a curse away. How easy to blame God for something or everything. So, in one sense, it indicates a familial closeness to shift fault to a higher level. It's even a form of communication, although negative, but communication still.

Much of it might be a rage against the powerlessness, helplessness, and uncertainty of the human condition.

Further, it might be even more complex than that, because on a subtle, perhaps unconscious psychological level, anger towards God could be both an outward projection of blame from ourselves and at the same time an internalized anger at ourselves. Blaming something fulfills a need. God is a rather convenient target for that.

DELAYED FOR BEING HUMAN

From the tradition of which I am an active practitioner (Sant Mat), anger is shifted towards its being one of the five dacoits, or thieves. The dacoits steal our spirituality. The Creator of the Universe can certainly handle human anger. And anger, even anger (mis)directed towards God, might be where we are at any given moment, particularly after some human tragedy that seems to us unjustified, but it is an entirely human sentiment that is also (temporarily) damaging. Most of us--no, all of us--will recover in time. Anger is just a delay on the Road.