Buddhism and Christianity

As I've already blathered on about a bit, Buddhism is about becoming aware of the true nature of your existence, the "Buddha nature". All things are contained within this fundamental nature, which is much larger than the usual small, difficult selves with which we habitually live out our lives. When seen in the context of this larger nature, all things are "okay", i.e., one can be compassionate towards all aspects of self and others. Even the small self, which gives us so much trouble in our daily lives, is part of this purity of awareness.

In Christianity, one acknowledges that one is fundamentally flawed and seeks forgiveness and help from a power greater than oneself. By striving to correct correct one's flaws (live morally) and by acknowledging that one is incapable without divine assistance (accepting a divine savior), one can be forgiven for one's sins and be loved. The holy spirit enters those of true faith and gives them guidance.

There is an obvious analogy between the two: there's something wrong if we think the small beings we appear to be are all alone. By acknowledging this "something" larger than ourselves and tapping into it, we can overcome our (at least apparent) limitations. We even find, to our surprise, that we are part of this "something larger".

But if we're all talking about the same thing, why don't more people realize it and stop fussing about who's right? An obvious problem, from my point of view, is that the Christian tradition insists that it is the only way to tap into this "something larger", denying that non-Christians have access to it at all. In contrast, Buddhism claims that the Buddha nature is "no distance" from everyone's daily existence, but that we usually distract ourselves from noticing it. The less obvious problem is that cultivating our awareness something "no distance" from ourselves can become very tricky, and we can easily lead ourselves along a non-productive or even self-destructive path. It's tricky enough that, when you're trying to build a coherent organization, you can easily just skip over the whole thing. (see book summaries)

Comments from those familiar with other religious traditions?

Why Bad Things are Bad

In a previous post, I described how all the various aspects of our "normal" life, when investigated, are found to be united in a very deep way in which everything is really all right (in an affective sense, not in a moral sense). This sounds desirable because, if we could realize how all the things which distress us in our lives were really okay, we would be greatly relieved ("suffering and release from suffering"). It's hard, though, because our instinctive reaction to distressing things is not to investigate the distress, but to avoid it, to close off that part of ourselves because we believe it to be unbearable.

Until recently, this "knowledge" that everything's really okay had led me to a sort of "stiff upper lip" approach. Part of my reaction to my and others' distress has been to dismiss it because it's "not real", since it just needs to be seen in the right way to "make it go away". Of course, one needs to be at least partly or outwardly patient with it, since fighting it just makes it "more real" and stronger, but also present was this feeling that such patience was at best a stopgap measure, or in other words, impatience.

The problem is that, although distress itself may not be "real", its effects are as real as we believe it to be. Our reflexive reaction of closing down our awareness so we don't have to "deal with it" forecloses our ability to open to its true nature, in the context of which the apparent distress is not distressing. Thus, we have sympathy for someone in distress neither because we get caught up feeling the same things along with them, nor because it's a posture adopted for its efficacy, but because we see directly the violence it does to their connection to their true nature.

My Orchid is a Freak!

My Masdevallia wasn't blooming when I bought it. My thinking was that it was such a nice healthy plant and that the lack of flowers to advertise it made it cheaper. The tag in the pot, Masd. elephanticeps x Masd. coccinea made it sound quite promising. Indeed, the buds it sprouted kept getting bigger and had this gorgeous deep scarlet / maroon color. The tips of the petals are bright yellow. However, the flowers did not open all the way. The petals, which had promised to be long and tapering, stayed partly curled up, sometimes into a kinda cute curly-q, but sometimes really awkwardly folded back behind the flower. Now, they're still pretty and actually have a faint peachy mango scent, but this is not quite what I had expected. My father, an orchid grower of many years, says that, at least with Cymbidiums and Cattleyas, this kind of a thing is a major issue in breeding: whether the flower opens well and completely. So I imagine what I got was a cross which someone grew that didn't quite go as desired, and which they decided to sell off. I'm glad to have it and happy it's doing well and all, but hmmm..... always the fly in the ointment, I guess.

Wherefore art thou, UC Theater?

The UC Theater, on University Avenue in downtown Berkeley, was a repertory theater which played fabulous movies for runs of, at most, a week, and, more often, only one day. In its cavernous, dingy interior, I was introduced to many movies I still adore, and more movies which I'm sure I'd adore if I still remembered. Driving past the old marquee yesterday, I was reminded of the many years in which I lived only a few blocks away and in which I went to the movies there only relatively rarely. After it was gone, of course, I regretted not going to see movies there more often. I still haven't seen Wages of Fear, Irma Vep, Gummo, Yi Yi, and many more that I wanted to see at the time. I'd think that, now that I'm in the city, there should be a similar great movie-going experience within easy reach, but there is no theater, much less something like UC Theater, in North Beach. I guess there's the Roxie in the Mission, but, so far, all the theaters here feel less accessible or less interesting. Yes, in Oakland, I lived right by the Parkway, but the movies there were, for the most part, pretty dull to my taste. So... suggestions for what's here in San Francisco?

Update

The apartment move-out went less smoothly than I expected because I forgot (?) about having to leave the apartment clean, something which I had done only sporadically while I lived there. The gf and I spent some late hours getting things as clean as we could in the time allotted. Granted, we did technically have more time, but we also really wanted to go on a camping trip in the Pinnacles organized by a friend. I haven't heard anything about how much of my rather large cleaning deposit I'm getting back.

The Pinnacles trip was fantastic. The peaks and gullies and caverns are awe-inspiring, and the late spring rains produced a profusion of wildflowers. At night, we had yummy meals with good wine around the campfire. The showers at the campground were great. What more could one ask?

All my crap, now jammed everywhere into the place in North Beach, is slowly being put into some semblance of order, although this will take a weekend or two of collaborative effort by the two of us. For myself, plenty of work and some play needs to be done before I head to Eritrea in six weeks.