When Buddha Met Christ
A sermon drawing on the book Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Pathways Church, A Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Southlake, Texas
The Rev. Kathryn A Schmitz
April 13, 2008
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth,
dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.
Thich Nhat Hanh quotes (Vietnamese Monk, Activist, and Writer. b.1926)
Meditation: Based on The Metta Sutta and The Gospel of Matthew (The Beatitudes)
Story before the Sermon: People Have Different Ideas About God
From Hide-and-Seek with God, by Mary Ann Moore
Imagine that you, your family, and your neighbors practice a religion that has been practiced in your family and your country for many years. Imagine that your religion provides a sense of stability and roots for your community and for you personally.
Now imagine that people from another land arrive and tell you that you cannot practice your religion any more. Imagine that they pass laws to prohibit the celebration of your accustomed holidays.
Suppose for example, laws were passed that we couldn’t light our chalice, or sing the songs we choose, or maybe even come to Pathways Church.
Suppose the people from the other land told us they had a better religion – a true religion – the right religion. Suppose they told us that the new laws were for our own good.
What would you think about these new laws?
How would you feel about these new people?
What might you have to say about their new religion?
Now I love to hear about new religions and new ideas. But I do not like the idea of anyone telling me what I can and can’t do about my own religions ideas.
While I might like new people and I might like their new religion, I am very sure I would not like their new laws. And I think that I might dislike the new laws so much that it might be very hard for me to like the new people and the new religion.
This is exactly the challenge that was presented to Thich Nhat Hanh when Christians in Vietnam were able to ban the celebration of an important Buddhist holiday 45 years ago (Wesak, 1963).
Many people might have had a hard time looking past the political misuse of religion so that they could learn more about the people and the religion itself. But Thich Nhat Hanh is not many people.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Buddhist monk, a poet, a scholar, and a peace activist.
He is called Thay, or teacher, by many. I will use that term as well.
Thay is also a person who believes deeply that we must have true dialogue between religious traditions if we are to live in peace.
In his own life, he has engaged this dialogue by allowing himself to know and be touched by Christians for whom he has great respect. In the 1960’s his work for peace brought him in contact with The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Father Thomas Merton, and Father Daniel Berrigan. And he has said that he found these some of the easiest Americans to communicate with.
Dr. King would nominate him for a Noble Peace Prize and Thich Nhat Hanh wrote of Dr. King:
The moment I met Martin Luther King, Jr. I knew I was in the presence of a holy person. Not just his good work but his very being was a source of great inspiration for me. (pg. 5-6)
And so, on Thay’s altar in his hermitage in France are images of both Buddha and Jesus. He writes:
I do not think there is that much difference between Christians and Buddhists. Most of the boundaries we have created between our two traditions are artificial. Truth has no boundaries. (pg. 154)
He continues:
You are familiar with your culture and appreciate the good things in it. You may not be aware that in other cultures and civilizations there are values that people are attached to. If you are open enough, you will understand that your tradition does not contain all truths and values. (pg. 135)
Understanding other people and cultures is not the only reason Thay believes in dialogue between religions. He also believes that when we learn about other traditions we are able to see and appreciate our own tradition more fully.
One of Thay’s contributions to interfaith dialogue is his 1995 book Living Buddha, Living Christ.
Some people will take exception to the parallels that Thich Nhat Hanh makes between Buddhism and Christianity. Others will rejoice in them. How each individual feels about it, I believe, depends on what they see as the important aspects of Buddhism, or Christianity, or perhaps religion in general. I will admit up front that while not all of it worked for me, I found it an intriguing way to look at the comparison.
For Thay, the point where the two traditions can best touch is with the Buddhist concept of mindfulness and the Christian concept of Holy Spirit.
Since I do not come from a tradition in which the Holy Spirit plays a dominate role, when I first, encountered this opinion, 7 years ago, I simply accepted it. More recently, I have come to recognize that the Christian understanding of the Holy Spirit can vary greatly from tradition to tradition. This is in part because it was the last aspect of the trinity to be fully developed by the theologians. Because of this diversity, depending on your own background, you may or may not find this an easy connection to make. Perhaps you will listen to the way that Thay is using the term Holy Spirit. Perhaps you will learn something about both Buddhism and other forms of Christianity at the same time.
When a Catholic priest told him that he wanted to learn more about Buddhism, Thay asked him to share his understanding of the Holy Spirit. The priest replied, “The Holy Spirit is the energy sent by God.” (pg.14) For Thay the center of Buddhist practice is mindfulness – that is, being fully aware of what is going on within us and around us. He writes:
To me, mindfulness is very much like the Holy Spirit. Both are agents of healing. When you have mindfulness, you have love and understanding, you see more deeply, and you can heal the wounds in your own mind. The Buddha was called the Kind of Healers. In the Bible, when one touches Christ, he or she is healed. It is not just touching a cloth that brings about a miracle. When you touch understanding and love, you are healed. (pg. 14-15)
Whenever we see someone who is loving, compassionate, mindful, caring, and understanding, we know that the Holy Spirit is there. (pg. 151)
Now, Thay is a poet and his depth of metaphor may be a challenge for the more literal among us. He makes a clear distinction between the historical Buddha and the Buddha that he believes lives in each of us. Likewise he makes a distinction between the historical Jesus and the Christ that he believes lives in each of us.
In each of us are seeds, seeds of all the possibilities within us. Some of these, if allowed to grow, will bring more peace and happiness to ourselves and the world. Others will bring more suffering. Our job is to water and care for the seeds that will bring more peace and happiness. He writes:
It is by watering the seeds of awakened qualities that are already in us, by practicing mindfulness, that we touch the living Buddha and the living Christ. ( pg. 126)
The way to water the seeds within us is practice. Although it is a good step to want peace and happiness, wanting is not enough. We must practice. He writes:
Our faith must be alive. It cannot be just a set of rigid beliefs and notions. Our faith must evolve every day and bring us joy, peace, freedom, and love. Faith implies practice, living our daily life in mindfulness. Some people think that prayer or meditation involves only our minds or our hearts. But we also have to pray with our bodies, with our actions in the world. And our action must be modeled after those of the living Buddha or the living Christ. If we live as they did, we will have deep understanding and pure actions, and we will do our share to help create a more peaceful world …” (pg. 136)
Although Thay seeks to engage dialogue, he does not avoid the difficult subjects and he is willing to be clear about his disagreements. He quotes Pope John Paul II (Crossing the Threshold of Hope) as writing:
Christ is absolutely original and absolutely unique. If He were only a wise man like Socrates, if he were a ‘prophet’ like Muhammed, if He were ‘enlightened’ like Buddha, without any doubt He would not be what He is. He is the one mediator between God and humanity. (pg. 193)
But Thay feels:
This statement does not seem to reflect the deep mystery of the oneness of the Trinity. …Of course Christ is unique. But who is not unique? Socrates, Muhammed, the Buddha, you, and I are all unique. (pg. 193)
Thay feels that the Pope’s attitude:
Excludes dialogue and fosters religious intolerance and discrimination. (pg. 193)
In summary he writes:
It does not help. (pg. 193)
I must agree.
In another area of comparison, Thich Nhat Hanh looks at the attitudes of monks in both traditions. The religious in both traditions live simply but Thay believes that it is not necessary to live uncomfortably to live a good life. In fact, the Buddha is said to have taught the middle way. Neither too much nor too little. Thomas Merton wrote,” We must frankly admit that self-denial and sacrifice are absolutely essential to the life of prayer.”
But Thay believes there is another way to look at it. He does not think it is necessary to “describe a simple life, a life free of craving, as self-denial or sacrifice. A life of prayer and contemplation can be filled with joy and happiness.”
And many in both traditions have felt the religions folks have to separate themselves from the world. Thay says this is not necessary and often not wise. A form of Buddhism known as “Engaged Buddhism” developed during the Vietnam War. It is not mindful to pretend that what is going on is not what is going on. Thay writes:
If what is happening in the present moment is the destruction of human lives, the monk should engage himself in the work of helping and caring. (pg. 175)
He likens this to the work of Mother Teresa who wrote/said:
Our sisters must walk the streets, take the streetcar as other people do, and enter the houses of the poor. We cannot enclose ourselves behind walls and wait for the poor to knock at our door. (pg. 175)
I must agree here, too. I believe that our own tradition, Unitarian Universalism, is at its best when we stop talking and put our money, our time, and our talent to action in the world.
And Thay reminds us that both the Buddha and Christ lived simply, and humbly, and associated with real people, often the outcast, the oppressed, and the disenfranchised. He challenges us, asking, “are the church and the Sangha today in real touch with people? Are (they) touching the poor and the oppressed, or do they prefer to touch only the wealthy and powerful?”
Another area where I think that Thich Nhat Hanh can resonate with many UUs in is the ideas of the present moment. Learning to live in the present moment seems to me to be a life time task and one that many of us, used to planning and schedules and goals, find challenging. I believe I would need a whole service to do justice to that topic. However, I think that many UUs agree that we are interested in this world – and what is happening here – more than we are interested in what may or may not happen after we die.
Thay likens this to the Christian idea that the Kingdom of God is already among us.
He writes:
You do not have to abandon this world. You do not have to go to Heaven or wait for the future to have refuge. You can take refuge here and now. You only need to dwell in the present moment. (pg. 117)
The purpose of our practice is not some future personal salvation. The purpose of our practice is to alleviate suffering. We seem to need to be reminded again and again that this is the teaching of all the great sages and saints.
And so we come together in community to remind each other. In Unitarian Universalism we gather as congregation. The word used in the Buddhist tradition for a group of practitioners is a Sangha.
Thay writes that the presence of the Sangha is a protection and an empowerment and this presence sustains us during the rest of the week as well.
Our gatherings support us. They protect us. They help us find our way to wholeness.
Our gatherings inspire us. They empower us. They help us to give our gifts to the world.
Thich Nhat Hanh, in shining a light on both Buddhism and Christianity, shows us that it is possible to celebrate many religious traditions and the various ways they support those within them.
He challenges us to see both the good and the bad in our own traditions as well as others.
Thich Nhat Hanh looks for the common threads that unite human kind. And he invites us to do the same.