zen buddism, christianity, tigers
i had an interesting day yesterday.
i went to a korean zen buddism temple for a service, just before going to the tigers game, to watch them get slaughtered by the white sox.
it was an interesting service. if you were to look at what the service entails, it is completely different than a christian church, catholic or not. but when you begin to think about what is happening and why, there are lots of similarities, especially with catholicism.
it is interesting, ive never studied much zen, but i have found several MAJOR similarities between the two faiths, both in practice, and in written text.
BIG ONES:
1) karma and golden rule, practically the same thing
2) self-discipline is major component to salvation, but is simply a method, it will not grant you salvation alone
3) nirvana = heaven, both are escapes or vehicles to save one from death
4) both have trinities which they believe hold the key to both maintaining self discipline and passing through death
5) jesus and budda are practically the same person with the same teachings, both born from virgins, both lived completely sinless lives, both hand picked followers which grew the tradition, both questioned the faith of the majority and the spiritual leaders in the place they lived, both believed they were somewhat god, but that every man on earth could achieve what they achieved, could do what they did, and was worth the effort to try to teach this to.
6) both services consist of a lot of ritual movements, phrases, prayers, and songs.
7) the service i went to is a lot like many catholic and jewish service where the people repeat chants/prayers in a foreign language, and they are essentially told that the words are not important, the repitition is.
8) a lot of time is devoted to ritualizing words and acts. this is an extension of the self-discipline i was talking about earlier, and for catholics it takes the form of hail-mary, and for buddists is takes the form of, of course i cannot remember the name now, and i dont want to look it up, but i did about 37 of them last night, where you say a word, bow with your hands folded, get on your knees, touch the ground in a specific way (right hand first, as always within that tradition)place your forhead on the ground, go back to your knees, then stand up and start over.
9) both respect their monks/priests/other various religios heads tremendously, but foster the notion that while religion is for the masses, faith is personal, and an act of faith is a personal commitment, which does not require any specific churchy actions
10) both have a major focus on the here and now. what you do right now is vitally important. now, obviously, this is for different ends, with a somewhat common middle place. both reach an end goal of nirvana or heaven, both reach enlightenment as well. all this is attained (if you can say attained in the buddist tradtion, which you cannot really) through action on earth. in buddism, your true self is always within you, you need to practice to always be in that state, and you will never always be in that state, but you can be in that state more often than other people. being in that state is the goal, the disconnection of yourself from your emotional and intellectual self (or bringing together of the three... however you want to view it) can happen everyday, and they created little, games, to play to help. kinda like scales help you understand notes in relation to a key, meditation and discipline helps you understand your body in relation to your self. in christianity, what you do in life is written down in heaven, and you will be judged for those things. but work that isnt generally considered good deed or bad deed is simply work, and a good christian works hard, thats why jesus was a carpenter. in both traditions, earthly possessions are not necessarily frowned upon, but not uplifted. but it is understood that earthly goods can be a great vehicle for good work. christians often give tons of money to charities, in fact, christian churches are by far the number one contributor to charities in the entire world. in buddism, earhtly goods can help you understand your true self, and the metaphysical "now".
obviously this is where the diverge. christians do good deeds, not to get in to heaven, but because a good christians desires to help fellow man. in fact, laboring simply just as an insurance policy for heaven is frowned upon. thats not how it works, at all. but christians work earthly means for heavenly ambitions. human work has a temporal goal.
buddists too cannot do good deeds to simply attain good things, thats not how karma works either. you cannot do good things to people just as an insurance policy that something good will happen to you in return. in fact, this is frowned upon, thats not how it works, at all. buddists work earthly means for earthly ambitions. its not really ambitions at all though, its just realization really, realizing everything that IS right now. nothing about the future, nothing about death, nothing about the past. all of those lead to suffering, and enlightenment is the detachment from suffering.
so there are different ends, but extremely similar methods. and also, almost exact same ultimate ends. buddism = work to understand now, live in now for now. now will eventually be nirvana, there is no suffering. christianity = work to understand the past, the present, the future, but mostly, eternity, eternity is heaven/god, there is no suffering in heaven or with god.
both speak a lot of truth. and i rather enjoy both. i identify more with the methods of buddism. but both are fucked up in their own right. and ultimately, both believe in a spirituality to things, something beyond the physical, which i simply cannot agree with, not right now at least.
both favor common moralities for most people, both foster the idea of good things from solid work, both strive for a better world, for a free and peaceful world, but want the faithful to find out for themselves.
i think those are all good things, and who doesnt really?
i do find it foolish, given the massive amounts of similarities, how many people find one to be downright appalling and the other flawless. i mean, practice whatever you enjoy, and whatever, but either dont bad mouth the other, or be prepared to bad mouth your own.
so then after that i went to the tigers game, where they got crushed 13-2, for their 6th straight loss. ive been down to the park 3 times this season, twice this weekend. and even though i have not seen a win, i still have a ton of fun.
oh, and my legs are killing me from all the going on my knees and standing like 3000975 times during a single prayer.
i went to a korean zen buddism temple for a service, just before going to the tigers game, to watch them get slaughtered by the white sox.
it was an interesting service. if you were to look at what the service entails, it is completely different than a christian church, catholic or not. but when you begin to think about what is happening and why, there are lots of similarities, especially with catholicism.
it is interesting, ive never studied much zen, but i have found several MAJOR similarities between the two faiths, both in practice, and in written text.
BIG ONES:
1) karma and golden rule, practically the same thing
2) self-discipline is major component to salvation, but is simply a method, it will not grant you salvation alone
3) nirvana = heaven, both are escapes or vehicles to save one from death
4) both have trinities which they believe hold the key to both maintaining self discipline and passing through death
5) jesus and budda are practically the same person with the same teachings, both born from virgins, both lived completely sinless lives, both hand picked followers which grew the tradition, both questioned the faith of the majority and the spiritual leaders in the place they lived, both believed they were somewhat god, but that every man on earth could achieve what they achieved, could do what they did, and was worth the effort to try to teach this to.
6) both services consist of a lot of ritual movements, phrases, prayers, and songs.
7) the service i went to is a lot like many catholic and jewish service where the people repeat chants/prayers in a foreign language, and they are essentially told that the words are not important, the repitition is.
8) a lot of time is devoted to ritualizing words and acts. this is an extension of the self-discipline i was talking about earlier, and for catholics it takes the form of hail-mary, and for buddists is takes the form of, of course i cannot remember the name now, and i dont want to look it up, but i did about 37 of them last night, where you say a word, bow with your hands folded, get on your knees, touch the ground in a specific way (right hand first, as always within that tradition)place your forhead on the ground, go back to your knees, then stand up and start over.
9) both respect their monks/priests/other various religios heads tremendously, but foster the notion that while religion is for the masses, faith is personal, and an act of faith is a personal commitment, which does not require any specific churchy actions
10) both have a major focus on the here and now. what you do right now is vitally important. now, obviously, this is for different ends, with a somewhat common middle place. both reach an end goal of nirvana or heaven, both reach enlightenment as well. all this is attained (if you can say attained in the buddist tradtion, which you cannot really) through action on earth. in buddism, your true self is always within you, you need to practice to always be in that state, and you will never always be in that state, but you can be in that state more often than other people. being in that state is the goal, the disconnection of yourself from your emotional and intellectual self (or bringing together of the three... however you want to view it) can happen everyday, and they created little, games, to play to help. kinda like scales help you understand notes in relation to a key, meditation and discipline helps you understand your body in relation to your self. in christianity, what you do in life is written down in heaven, and you will be judged for those things. but work that isnt generally considered good deed or bad deed is simply work, and a good christian works hard, thats why jesus was a carpenter. in both traditions, earthly possessions are not necessarily frowned upon, but not uplifted. but it is understood that earthly goods can be a great vehicle for good work. christians often give tons of money to charities, in fact, christian churches are by far the number one contributor to charities in the entire world. in buddism, earhtly goods can help you understand your true self, and the metaphysical "now".
obviously this is where the diverge. christians do good deeds, not to get in to heaven, but because a good christians desires to help fellow man. in fact, laboring simply just as an insurance policy for heaven is frowned upon. thats not how it works, at all. but christians work earthly means for heavenly ambitions. human work has a temporal goal.
buddists too cannot do good deeds to simply attain good things, thats not how karma works either. you cannot do good things to people just as an insurance policy that something good will happen to you in return. in fact, this is frowned upon, thats not how it works, at all. buddists work earthly means for earthly ambitions. its not really ambitions at all though, its just realization really, realizing everything that IS right now. nothing about the future, nothing about death, nothing about the past. all of those lead to suffering, and enlightenment is the detachment from suffering.
so there are different ends, but extremely similar methods. and also, almost exact same ultimate ends. buddism = work to understand now, live in now for now. now will eventually be nirvana, there is no suffering. christianity = work to understand the past, the present, the future, but mostly, eternity, eternity is heaven/god, there is no suffering in heaven or with god.
both speak a lot of truth. and i rather enjoy both. i identify more with the methods of buddism. but both are fucked up in their own right. and ultimately, both believe in a spirituality to things, something beyond the physical, which i simply cannot agree with, not right now at least.
both favor common moralities for most people, both foster the idea of good things from solid work, both strive for a better world, for a free and peaceful world, but want the faithful to find out for themselves.
i think those are all good things, and who doesnt really?
i do find it foolish, given the massive amounts of similarities, how many people find one to be downright appalling and the other flawless. i mean, practice whatever you enjoy, and whatever, but either dont bad mouth the other, or be prepared to bad mouth your own.
so then after that i went to the tigers game, where they got crushed 13-2, for their 6th straight loss. ive been down to the park 3 times this season, twice this weekend. and even though i have not seen a win, i still have a ton of fun.
oh, and my legs are killing me from all the going on my knees and standing like 3000975 times during a single prayer.