The Way of the Christ and the Way of the Buddha

Deep within your mysterious and bottomless heartmind, there dwells a being of immense love, enormous peace, and limitless joy. this has obtained many names throughout history: the higher Self, Holy Spirit, the soul in grace, the redeemed or regenerated soul, the Love-spirit, the Christ-spirit, the higher nature, the "kingdom within." In Buddhism, this concept is called the "Buddha nature." In spiritual psychology, this perfect core of existence is called the "superconscious," and is a part of the unconscious mind. It is the deepest level of the unconscious, or "God within." In the ancient Christian texts it was called "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Thus, the "superconscious" is also the "Christ-nature."

universal unconditional love

Its nucleus is universal unconditional love. Thus, Buddhism shares with Christianity the mystical teaching of a higher nature, or "spirit" that exists within the mind. Both also agree that its major constituent is love - agape in the Christian Greek texts, or "love," and karuna in the ancient Buddhist Sanskrit texts, or "compassion."

In many ancient cultures, the word "spirit" actually meant life itself, or the vital principle of life. This was usually seen as nurturing, and hence, appeared in a feminine form. Thus, many "goddess" traditions are the richest in love-based forms of spirituality. "Spirit" was both the giver and the sustainer of life. It was presented in two forms: an invisible force or energy, and what we today would call a "state" of Mind.

Unfortunately, many lost sight of these important ideas, and began to collect mere concepts, which they defined as "truth." In some ancient cultures, however, the word "truth' was more realistically defined simply as "reality". It was only after the evolution of complex religious, metaphysical, and intellectual systems that "truth" came to be defined as a set of concepts. Paradoxically, by embracing this diluted and deluded definition of "truth", the great truths of existence were often lost in the fray and confusion. Each sect, denomination or religion claimed an absolute and exclusive monopoly on "truth.". This not only prevented dialog, but precipitated the most horrible cruelties, evil, torture, and murder. For what one believed was the only important factor; how one behaved was irrelevant to "truth."

This was the opposite of Jesus' actual teaching, which elevated Love to a supreme place. Early Christians recognized that Jesus was, to use the words of Peter in the Christian Greek Scriptures, "a model, for you to follow his footsteps closely." Jesus was a highly developed, deeply spiritual, and enlightened man, who served as a prototype for others to imitate. He did not say, "Worship me," but, "Follow me." He was sincerely to be emulated by all who would follow his Way. Only those who sought to live as he lived could truly be known as his "followers." He identified the mark of his true disciples when he said, "This is the way that people will know that you are truly following me: You will have love among yourselves."

mirror of Love

The difference between Jesus and others was not a difference in kind, but only in degree. He was not a "freak," a "one-of-a-kind" being; while he was a son of God, he said that all who followed him would also become sons and daughters of God. So, he was not a different order of being than are other people; he simply knew God to a greater and more personal degree than did others. He became a perfect mirror of Love, an incarnation of the Love-principle, of God.

The Buddha suffered the same fate; after his death, he was deified, and people forgot that he was a true man. Later church councils declared that Jesus was "true God and true man," in the great ineffable "mystery" of the Trinity. But the Trinity is actually no mystery if we understand that God and Jesus are not two separate persons. (The Latin persona means "mask.") Jesus became God after a mystical illumination in which he awakened to the fact that he was an incarnation of perfect Love. The Buddha, and many others in history, have had similar enlightenments.

About three centuries after Jesus' death, the church evolved into a political and economic empire. Its leaders then pronounced the teaching that Jesus was a model to be "heretical." Why? Because they wanted to cultivate an unhealthy dependence on the church's leaders, and so it became "evil" and "dangerous"for anyone to strive to know God personally--outside of the church.

By fostering the lie that "truth" consisted of church-approved dogmas, the leaders compelled people to support a church that had grown spiritually bankrupt. But unlike this later conformist religion, the early church of Christians resonated with a varied diversity of spiritual ideas, and was anything but homogeneous.

In time, however, only ideas approved by a group of often corrupt and ignorant men called the "church fathers," or "patriarchs," became acceptable. These deluded men went so far as to select some books for inclusion in the official Bible, and to reject others. One of the rejected works was the very ancient and profound Gospel of Thomas. Why? "Thomas" means "twin," and the book implied that it was the assignment of every Christian to work to become the "twin" or duplicate of Jesus Christ. This was considered by later church-approved men to be damnable falsehood.

Imitate Christ

One of the best ways to imitate Jesus is to remain as widely open-minded as possible. Thus, the wisest people on earth are not bound by something simply because it is written in some ancient book. Instead, they have made the Spirit of love in their hearts their one master, and one cannot serve two masters. Thus, the wise draw good ideas from every positive spiritual faith, including all the world's great major religions. What is not reasonable or in harmony with the highest love, they simply discard. But all that is both reasonable and resonates with love, they accept, whether it is labelled "Buddhist," "Christian," or something else. For they have given up all bigotry.

Someday, most of the planetary population will view things in this tolerant, open-hearted, loving, compassionate pattern. For if ever we are to enjoy a unified global community, it must begin with a common global spirituality; and no spiritual principle is more universal than that of love. And until our world finds the common sense to create peace among the great religiospiritual traditions, it will never know peace at all. For this to occur, all ideas that any particular religion has a "monopoly" on the truth must pass away. Historically, this narrow-minded view has bound people in relentless and merciless slavery to cruelty, violence, and stupidity.

interior prayer of silence

The deep truths of existence are not found simply by accumulating mass quantities of data from old books. Instead, they are discovered in the heart by cultivating an interior stillness from which vantage one can examine the mind and the world-- deep meditation. This is what Western mystics call the "interior prayer of silence." It can lead to true spiritual metamorphosis, but this practice comes only when one realizes that inner silence is absolutely necessary.

Interior awakening aids one to see that everyone is a victim-- even those who appear to be perpetuating evil. This is, in fact, the strongest basis for "Christian "forgiveness. Since this fine quality, an aspect of love, has been so lacking in history, it can be seen that "Christianity", as a political and economic institution, has had nothing to do with spirituality. It has almost never reflected the teaching of the simple love-based Jesus. For the official "Christian" church has never been the collective body of Jesus' followers, for only those who have loved consistently can be said to have been the followers of Christ. Even those who call themselves "Buddhists," "Hindus," or even "atheists, but who demonstrate love, are closer to Christ than many self-styled "Christians."" For whenever love is expressed,the spirit of Christ lives and God comes into our world.

Interfaith dialogue

To love, we must be ready and eager to communicate with those of other faiths. Dialog is not a matter of giving up one's beliefs, but of learning to respect those of others. It is not accession or assimilation, but communication, based on self-love and other-centeredness. Only the secure can dialog effectively.

In Buddhism, there are two interwoven concepts that make dialoging with wisdom possible. One is stillness, the other mindfulness. Stillness is quietness or silence in the inner mind, often an act of great humility that does not seek to display itself, defend itself, or prove itself "right." Mindfulness is being fully aware of one's words, thoughts, and activities, lost neither in the past nor in the future, but fully present in every moment. This kind of centering, involving stillness and mindfulness, can be very healing.

In the ultimate analysis, nothing is more healing (wholing) than touching the interior fountain of love. Deep understanding arises from a direct knowing of love.

In loving, people must also love now. That is, we must stop planning and postponing, and begin to live right now; the old saying has it that life is what happens when we are making plans!

gratitude

Mindfulness involves planning, but does not take the plans as set in concrete; instead, it is more realistic and elastic, and includes evaluation examination, and monitoring the self, without judgment. It also implies an attitude of gratitude; the word "grateful" shares a root with "graceful," and hence means "filled with grace." Grace is a state of stainless forgiveness that originates from the deepest inner Mind or spirit.

It also involves the embracing of all living beings into one's own personal field of forgiveness. While Buddhism does not emphasize gratitude to some "big daddy in the sky," it does fully recommend a full cultivation of gratitude towards all living and sentient beings. Again, serving others is the only viable way to serve God. For the entire world is seen as a reflection of the deep interior Mind of God. Jesus pointed out that God, acting through nature, provides both sun and rain for both the good and evil; we must also cultivate such non-judgmental compassion towards all.

mystical nature of Christianity

And everyone, without exception, requires much tolerance and forgiveness. This applies even to teachers of spirituality. For example, a Buddhist teacher named Tic Nat Han repeats the erroneous assumption that "Christianity is a kind of continuation of Judaism." While this assumption is all but universal, it reflects a deep misunderstanding of the mystical nature of Christianity, especially as contrasted with the legalism of early Judaism.

While both religious faiths are fine, and not to be compared as to eternal value, it is a historical and true fact that Christianity does not represent any evolutionary development from Judaism. Christianity appears on the scene of the world as an entirely new phenomenon, the result of one man's direct mystical communion with the Mind of love.

So, while geographically and culturally, Christianity grew up in a Jewish environment, spiritually it was a brand-new perspective-- so radical, in fact, that it terribly upset the followers and advocates of early legalism among the Jewish scholars and elders. Thus, if you had told a first-century Jew or Christian that Christianity was a natural out-growth of Judaism, she would have very strongly disagreed.

This is, in fact, the common and popular teaching that has hopelessly confused so many lives, and ruined or wasted many others. For its natural implication is that the war-god of the ancient Hebrew culture, Jehovah, was the same God of peace, love, and forgiveness taught by Jesus. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Further, the God of love is internal, while Jehovah was always completely external and transcendental. This is beautifully expressed in the Eucharist or Communion; for when one eats of the bread and drinks of the wine, these foods become inextricably, irreversibly fused with one's very biology.

In the same way, the Christ-spirit of love does not simply interact with the transformed being; the Christ actually becomes that person, even as bread and wine become the body. In its highest fulfillment, the mystical words of the Greek Scriptures say it well: "It is no longer I, but Christ in me, who lives." Christ, the interior Love-nature, is "absorbed" or assimilated into one's most intimate mind-structure, fused with the very being of the individual. Thus, Communion is truly a mystical celebration of oneness.

LIVING "IN CHRIST," WITH "CHRIST WITHIN ME."

To understand this Christian concept, it is necessary to distinguish between the person of the historical man Jesus and the infinite, everlasting spirit, Christ, of which he became the fullest manifestation and incarnation. There was an ancient Christian group called the Nestorians, who were careful to distinguish between Jesus the man and Christ the inner spirit of love, but they were later declared to be heretical by a corrupt church.

The distinction, however, is not only still valuable, but is crucial. The study of the historicity of Jesus might constitute an artscience called "Jesusology," but spirituality is clearly much more than that. "Christology," at its highest, is a study of the deep unconscious Love-spirit that lives within the soul of every person. An analog to "Jesusology" in Buddhism is "Buddhaology, "the study of the historical life of Gautama Siddhartha, known as "the Buddha." But he is never recognized as the only "Buddha" in the cosmos.

For Buddhism teaches that there are many "Buddhas." Everyone who is enlightened and tries to follow the interior light of compassion can be a "Buddha." For the most real Buddhist teaching is the knowing of the Buddha within--not the worship of an external Buddha. This explains the famous Zen saying, "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him." For the true "Buddha" can never exist outside yourself, or "on the road." Similarly, the deepest and wisest Christian comes to know the "Christ within," not just the historical Jesus, the perfect mirror of Christ.

For "Christ" was not the last name of Jesus, and "Buddha" was not the surname of Gautama. Instead, both words are titles that refer to an extremely high level of spiritual development. Both terms refer to the indwelling Holy Spirit or Love-nature. Still, Jesus did not teach that he was the only "son of God," but in fact, that everyone who followed him was a son or daughter of God.

Buddhists admit openly that they all seek to become Buddhas; why then, do Christians think it such an awful blasphemy to say that they too want to become Christs? If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of praise, what is wrong with making Jesus a role-model instead of distancing him as a god?

Here, both the Buddha and the Christ have suffered similar fates: Both titles historically became associated with particular persons; those persons were then deified, so that others worshiped them. It is fine to worship the everlasting spirit that indwelled Jesus or the Buddha, that is, the Love-spirit of universal Mind. But worshiping the human forms is only idolatry, missing the entire point.

Love-nature

If one does project the divine nature onto another, then one does not have to take the responsibility, or go to all the trouble and hard work, of manifesting the Love-nature in one's own life. Then both great faiths tragically become reduced to legalisms, monopolies, cruel and vicious exclusivities.

But if these faiths are worth anything, it must be realized that both represent exciting, living, practical faiths that actually call for changes in behaviors and attitudes, for aligning oneself with the very highest principles of integrity, honesty, compassion, and love. They both call for goodness, kindness, courtesy, and friendliness; and those who do not meet these elevated standards have not fully lived out the best in faith. The very best in both great faiths is manifested not by beliefs, but by behaviors.

Seen this way, the Buddha and the Christ are both models or teachers, not merely gods. They are brothers both to each other and to all people. Jesus was both man, or fully human, and God, or fully divine. This does not represent an "ineffable mystery of the Trinity," for, if God is not seen as a separate person, the mystery disappears. For Jesus was the truest incarnation of Love, which was God.

Buddhism, although non-theological, recognizes the same great truths. It speaks of the great value, for example, of understanding (Sanskrit, prajna) and love (maitri). As we use these two qualities every day, we come to realize that we are all of the same essence and potential as Jesus or the Buddha; only they were light-years ahead of the average. This implies the great truth that neither was a "freak" or a one-of-a-kind manifestation of God or Love. Thus, to follow either is to find meaningful, practical ways to attempt to lessen the suffering in the world, to give aid and comfort to living creatures. this is to live in wellness. Ideally, one can maximize one's spirituality by an honest attempt to follow both great teachers.

compassion is the Way

In a telling and symbolic parable, a man went eagerly to visit the Buddha, but was in such a hurry and rush that he neglected a woman in direst need; when he arrived, the Buddha was invisible to his sight. If we are unkind, we are also unable to "see" God or Love in our lives. So, when we neglect or abuse our sisters and brothers, we are clearly not "seeing" or understanding the indwelling spirit of compassion; and that is the very worst of all ways to be blind.

It is precisely because this kind of compassion is the Way itself that to be "hung up" on, or to cling to, any belief to the exclusion or harm of others is to miss the joyful presence of either the Christ or the Buddha.

When Jesus uttered the words, "I am the Way, and no one comes to the father except through Me, "he was in no way contradicting the principle that Love is the Way. For these words can be seen as the Christ-spirit, which is everlasting and dwells in the heart of every person, speaking through the man Jesus. And if that same "Christ-spirit" is called in other cultures the "Buddha-nature, "that is just a matter of words-- no cause for divisions between reasonable, spiritual grown-ups.

Thus, the main agenda and objective of life is love, symbolized and personified in Buddhism by Maitreya Buddha. It expresses practically not only in the way we feel about each other, but even more in service.

COMMUNITY of love

COMMUNITY arises from the same root as "communion," and implies that any honorable work can serve the community as a whole and thus act as a kind of holy activity, or karma yoga. Thus, mystics are fully engaged in every form and level of good work within productive society, from teaching to medical practice. Some are house-keepers, others factory-workers. "The illuminated being wears rough and ordinary clothing," said Lao Tzu, "but within, she carries the great jewel." Deep meditative states, realizations, and profound spirituality express themselves most often through "ordinary" work. The true sage is marked by the quality of "extraordinary ordinariness," to borrow from Alan Watts.

All people have come to earth to find and to express God or perfect love. To do this, one must somehow set aside the time to become a "lay monk," or "lay nun," which means simply taking time out for meditation and good, selfless works. It is high time that we transform every home, and every community, into a holy temple of Love. In fact, anyone who lives for joy, wisdom, insight, healing, and positive transformation lives for the entire planet, and helps everyone. Thus, there is real "salvation" and "enlightenment" well outside the bounds of organized, orthodox, or traditional religion. The ultimate "Christian community, "the true "body of Christ," involves all beings committed to love everywhere, in every culture and every faith. On the other hand, the most religious person without union with the inner Love-nature, accomplishes nothing. Thus, the enlightened and compassionate being recognizes all sentient beings as his or her brothers and sisters.

The illuminated being loves not only people of other faiths, but all sentient (self-aware) creatures, and shows respect for all life. Thus, the Way is to do everything permitted by your gifts and talents, according to your personal capacities, to aid and assist other beings. To borrow from Paul, just as an eye cannot do the job of an ear, so in the "body of Christ," each acts according to her talents, gifts, and capacities-- not the same for everyone. Still, they all work together to serve the same "body" of humanity.

People who operate spiritually outside of organized or traditional religion are by no means "lost," if they are living by the Way of love; on the other hand, if a formal church lacks love, there is no true faith there, no holy spirit.

Some teachers do not recognize this crucial independence as the individual moves toward God. Again, the Buddhist teacher Tic Nat Han repeats this common error when he writes," Without a sangha (community), you will be lost." One is never lost when God has found one, when the heart is filled with love.

Thus, life's ultimate solution is not, as this might suggest, the establishment of another organized community, church, or cult; the solution is living individually in harmony with the highest love-pattern that we can come to know. Again, the same teacher writes, "The father, son, and holy spirit need the church in order to be manifested." From the liberationist perspective of free and personal mysticism, nothing could be further from the truth. God does not need the church, but needs only committed, honorable persons interested in serving and helping others. Just as individual birds and flowers manifest the beauty of God, so can individual people, without need for organization, administration, politics, economics,and the burden of a thousand other complexities.

Surprisingly, this same writer asserts," The church is the mystical body of Christ." As already noted, however, the "body" of unification with the Christ-nature is by no means limited to the Christian church, or to any other "church" as that term is commonly defined. The "body" is the totality of beings who have willingly turned over their lives to the service of Love-- whether they belong to any "church" or not.

communion of love

Those who truly belong to this body of love, this communion of love, are only too happy to dialog with others; they are also the ones actively, consistently engaged in helping and serving the poor and disadvantaged of society. They insist that the suffering, depressed, and ill have equal rights, and that women's rights are equal with those of men. While they might not live in actual poverty, they do live lives of simplicity or non-greed.

They also take an unbending stand for the preservation of the ecological resources of the earth, and against any form of offensive violence. (Many accept defensive violence, but only when there is no alternative.) Being at peace with their own heartminds, they work effectively for peace among others. They often meditate, but do not abuse meditation as a kind of "drug" to make them oblivious, but as a motivator for the expression of social compassion.

They have seen the secret that, before nations can change, hearts must change; and before conflict between people can end, inner conflict must end. To love your enemies, you must first have compassion for them; so, you must try to understand them, to "walk a mile in their moccasins." Seeing them as suffering beings allows compassion to blossom in the heart. Loving your "enemy" neutralizes, cancels, and evaporates the entire concept of "enemy." While another might insist on being your enemy, you will no longer be his or hers. That is a hurtful "game" that you no longer "play."

the poor and oppressed

So, mystics try to make peace everywhere. But does this mean that a mystic must always be totally neutral, that he or she never has any opinions? Of course not; mystics have very often sided historically with the poor and oppressed, crying out for justice, although Tic Nat Han, in his book, makes it clear that, for his own reasons, he will not do so. But the mystic never lives her life so as to avoid offending powerful people; instead, she lives honestly by the direction of conscience and justice, even when that disturbs the rich and powerful. She does not make excuses for them, or justify greed.

When conscience guides one towards non-violence, then, it must be realized that this is different from inactivity, passivity, indifference, or non-action.

The very deepest challenge of the mystic is one of action-- forgiving others, and creating a life of peace. But what if you simply cannot forgive? No one can forgive by an act of will; instead, try truly to understand the one who has harmed you, and that understanding can make your heart ready for the blossoming of forgiveness. See the "bad" person as suffering, and wanting only happiness. That will help to clear your heartmind.

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For more information, see Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Tic Nat Han (Riverhead Books; Anniversary edition March 6, 2007)