Acknowledgement
Thanks to the inspirational dreams that prompted me to write this work. My gratitude to the guidance and blessing that I have received through dreams during the writing of this work.
Thanks to Ann Klein for improving the English of this work.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. How Should One Understand Religions
2. How to Conduct a Dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity
3. A Layman's Introduction to Buddhism
4. The Basic Features of Christianity
5. A Comparison of Buddhism and Christianity
6. From a Buddhist Practitioner's Point of View
7. Clarification of Misunderstandings about Buddhism
8. Shedding New Light on Christian Teachings
9. Crossing the Threshold of Liberation
In March of 1995 some Polish Buddhists wrote me a letter asking questions about some remarks on Buddhism found in Pope John Paul II's book Crossing the Threshold of Hope. It is not difficult to show that those remarks are, unfortunately, based on misunderstanding of the Buddhist teachings. However, any clarification when presented to non-Buddhists who are not open to Buddhist teachings may result in more controversies. To avoid such undesirable consequences, I did not offer a reply to that letter but sent them my works instead.
The Catholic Hope is based on faith; it may not spread to people of other faiths. The Buddhist teaching is about Liberation which is a state that can be realized by anyone through practice. As a full-time practitioner, I have had some thoughts that are important regarding the actual quest for Liberation; hence, I thought, if I were to write a book, I would entitle it Crossing the Threshold of Liberation. However, I was too busy with my Dharma activities to undertake such a project.
Then I had several dreams which inspired me to work on this project. In one of these dreams I opened curtains to enable more people to attend a wedding banquet which was adorned with two large tree-shape artifacts on the wall--one covered with a white spherical area and the other had a statue of Jesus on the Cross. To me the white spherical area represents the Buddhist teaching of Buddha Nature.
The Buddha taught us how to become free from the sorrows of greed, hatred and ignorance. Based on experiences of such freedom, a sense of happiness and hope naturally arises. The essential principles of Buddhist teachings are No Attachment and Opening Up. Consequently, Buddhists are tolerant of other faiths and often assimilate indigenous beliefs. There has never been a Holy War or Inquisition in the history of Buddhism.
In 1991 I gave a public lecture on Impermanence at the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. After explaining the reasons for adopting a chanting practice I encouraged the audience, most of whom were from a Western cultural background, to build the habit of chanting the Prayer of Jesus. This illustrates the openness of Buddhist teachings. Furthermore, from a Buddhist point of view, the Prayer of Jesus is also part of the Dharmakaya, therefore it may also lead to the experience of the totality of the Dharmakaya. In other words, the chanting of the Prayer of Jesus may also lead to Enlightenment.
I studied the Pope's Crossing the Threshold of Hope carefully, taking notes and recording my remarks along the way. In this work I will comment on the Pope's remarks on Buddhism as found in that book. The scope of this work encompasses far more than these few comments; a comparison of Buddhism and Christianity has been made, along with some suggestions offered to Christianity. My thoughts on the actual quest for Liberation are presented in the last chapter bearing the same title as this work.
In August 1991 Pope John Paul II favored me a letter acknowledging the receipt of my publications. This letter is included at the beginning of this book. Through reading the Pope's book I have learned that he has great faith in Mary. On my altar I also have a statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus, a present from my youngest sister who is a Catholic and once served as the secretary to the Archbishop in Taiwan. The Pope's favorite message is "Be not afraid!" With the blessing of the Buddhist protector Bodhisattva Wei-Tuo, I have distributed photos of the Giving of Fearlessness. This photo and two Chinese seals, carved by Upasaka Tan Seong Yeow and means respectively the Seal of Protector Bodhisattva Wei-Tuo and No Fear, are also included at the beginning of this book. It is interesting for me to notice these mysterious karmic connections and similarities to the Pope's message.
To people with modern academic training my presentation may appear to be subjective here and there. However, I chose to proceed in the direct way from the stand point of a practitioner. Religious insight can be gained only through devoted practice. By adhering to a critical attitude one is already taking the proud position of demanding proof. To realize spiritual truth, humility and openness of mind is a necessary prerequisite, therefore anyone interested in speaking about religions should first gain some insight through practice, otherwise much unnecessary research will be conducted in ignorance of spiritual experiences.
During the period of writing this book I have received inspirational dreams that signify how improvements to my work can be made, and I have followed the guidance accordingly. I am grateful to my Guru and Buddha for such guidance and other signs of blessing.
I hope that this work of mine will improve the understanding of non-Buddhists, especially the Christians, about Buddhist teachings. I also hope that my suggestions to Christianity will be appreciated by Christians whose emphasis is on the teachings of universal love and salvation. Through realization of what we all have in common--a quest for spiritual growth to attain Truth, and understanding of each other's teachings, may we live in harmony and peace, and learn from the virtues of each other's ways.
Yutang Lin Mid-Autumn Festival, 1995 El Cerrito, California
Under the name religion there are many kinds of human activities. I am concerned here only with religions that are well beyond primitive worship of the supernatural and are advocating universal salvation beyond the scope of locality, time and other discriminating factors. A religion should be based on spiritual experiences that transcend the ordinary sphere of human sensory, emotional and conceptual experiences. A religion is a way to reach reality beyond the confines of human sense organs without resorting to artificial means. It is a way of life whereby one may grow spiritually and live in peace and harmony.
Religions as teachings attempt to reveal extraordinary experiences and insight of reality to people. In such attempts, ordinary means of communication is often used, however, due to the limits of such means of communication barriers are sometimes encountered or created. It is unwise to lose sight of the spiritual quest because of inevitable entanglement caused by the limiting nature of concepts and theories, hence, instead of debating over theology and philosophy, it is better to try to gain insight through devoted practice. Unless one is practicing under the guidance of an experienced teacher, one needs the guidance of principles and theories to conduct practice and live a religiously correct way of life. Thus, to study and gain a proper understanding of the theoretical teachings of a religion is also indispensable in most cases.
In general, the theoretical teachings of a religion should be adopted and followed in its entirety. When a religion is looked upon as revelation this complete acceptance is reasonable. If we insist on requiring the teachings to meet certain standards of normal human understanding, then we will never be able to go beyond the limits of our senses. The various parts of a system of religious teaching may not withstand close scrutiny and philosophical analysis; nevertheless, in the absence of a new system of teaching based on revelational experiences, it is still better to simply follow the established route because the essence of religion can be attained in this seemingly inadequate way.
To a devoted practitioner the essential teachings of a religion will gradually become apparent over the years, and hence the theoretical difficulties may be overlooked. To an outsider or newcomer who lacks enough spiritual experiences to be totally convinced, the theoretical difficulties or parts of the teachings that stand in conflict with scientific knowledge may become an insurmountable barrier. It is important to understand that religious teachings were revealed to people of a certain spacial and temporal sphere, consequently, its presentation is couched in the knowledge and beliefs of that particular time and culture. The essence of religious teachings is for all eternity, therefore we should be concerned only with the essential part which was applicable to those people then and still applies to us now.
Religions are well aware of the limitations of their verbal or literal teachings, therefore they have to wisely pay particular attention to such difficulties lest they be bolted down by theories. The Catholic Church is fully aware of the theological difficulty in the teaching about evil and hell as eternal punishment which are hard to understanding in the scheme of a loving and almighty God. Consequently, the Catholic Church chooses to remain silent on the question of who will go to hell. We should respect their honesty in showing the limitation of their knowledge. In Buddhism, it is often emphasized that Buddha did not utter a word for people to hold onto, even though he preached for forty-nine years and the collection of Buddhist teachings is voluminous. No one should charge Buddhism with being paradoxical on this account. The key to understanding lies in reminding oneself of the inherent limitations of language and formality, and of the need of adopting practices to attain spiritual truth which lies beyond the confines of concepts and ordinary experiences.
Some preachers will occasionally convey to their followers a subjective interpretation of religions other than their own as being either inferior to or a branch of their own religion. Nevertheless, the only justification for their interpretive claims is their conjecture based on their faith in their own religion. It would be wise to refrain from such self-centered labeling. However, if such claims are based on spiritual experiences, even though it may not be accepted by many as trustworthy, it may still inspire serious practitioners to further their spiritual quest, and hence it is worth putting forward.
Religions claim to teach the truth. Judging from the teaching of one religion, other religions are either incomplete, incomprehensible or false. People's faith in a religion is often beyond rational explanation, consequently dialogues between religions are very difficult to conduct, and have often resulted in accusations and denouncements. Thus, the presumption of one religion over the other usually hinders a fair understanding of both, and renders communication impossible. How can we overcome such difficulties?
It seems to me that a meta-religion study can pave way for helpful dialogue between religions. Three steps are involved in this approach:
1. Recognize the general features and functions of religions considered as systems of salvation.
2. Describe the particular features of each religion under study according to the general framework established above.
3. Compare the religions and try to recognize their similarities and their differences, especially distinguish between fundamental differences and differences resulting from the fundamental differences.
In this way an unbiased comparison may be achieved, and consequently a dialogue aiming at learning from each other's skillful means and working toward harmony will be possible.
According to the considerations mentioned above, I venture to formulate the following criteria as the first step of my meta-religion study.
A religion as a system of salvation consists of the following main features:
1. It provides a view of life and of the world, pointing out the futility of worldly ways. 2. It provides an explanation for the causes of worldly sorrows. 3. It reveals the existence of eternal transcendental states that are reachable. 4. It provides guidance on how to attain eternal transcendence.
A religion as a system of salvation may have the following main functions:
1. It serves as a spiritual refuge for its followers. 2. It is a source of strength and comfort for its followers. 3. It guides its followers through life. 4. It cultivates its followers spiritually.
In the following chapters I will try to describe Buddhism and Christianity regarding these main features. Then, it will be easier to make an unbiased comparison as to their main features and how they differ in fulfilling the main functions. Before proceeding further on this project we also need to remind ourselves of the following.
Both Buddhism and Christianity are religions based on spiritual experiences. They have withstood the trial of time and spread to many parts of the world; this is mainly due to the fact that their respective spiritual lineages have remained connected with their respective spiritual sources. Therefore, neither should be considered as merely a system or theory of spiritual quest. Both religions believe in the redemptive power of their spiritual heritage, and are helping people to look beyond worldly knowledge and considerations. Both religions teach about the sorrows and evils of the worldly ways, about the impermanence of human existence, and about eternal liberation from mortal existence with its many pitfalls. The similarities between Buddhism and Christianity constitute grounds for improving mutual understanding.
It is well known that there are fundamental differences between Buddhism and Christianity. Of course, it is worthwhile to study the differences in order to attain the truth, nevertheless, in so doing one should avoid harsh criticisms which would lead to purposeless controversies and confrontations. An ideal approach is to explain the differences in neutral terms, and leave the judgment and choice to the readers. Recognizing that harmony is sought after by both religions, I believe that this is a sensible approach to the hot potato of comparing the differences.
Through comparative study of these two religions, and for that matter, of any religions, one hopes to offer constructive advice and thereby promote harmony and spiritual growth. Ideally, it may even shed some new light on the direction toward attainment of truth.
Keeping in mind the general characterization presented above of the main features of a religion, a brief introduction to Buddhism is presented below in layman's terms.
Buddha taught about Suffering and Impermanence, not as a pessimistic view, but as an objective observation of life and the world. In life, impermanence is the rule and suffering is inevitable--sooner or later we all face sickness, senility, lost of loved ones and death. The world we live in is subject to natural or man-caused calamities, and human relations are often far from perfect. In fact, all sentient beings suffer in the impermanence of life.
Sentient beings may be classified into six realms: heavenly beings, asuras, human beings, animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings. The Law of Cause and Effect applies to all; the conditions of a sentient being is determined, to a various extent, by his past activities and the activities of others. Acting under the dominance of self-centeredness, sentient beings are caught in the web of their mutual interactions, and they continuously become entangled from life to life, creating transmigration into the six realms.
Buddha wanted to achieve Liberation from the suffering of life-and-death in transmigration, so he left his family and his country for an ascetic way of life. Through devoted practice he realized that the root of suffering is our sense of a self and its consequent limitations imposed by our self-centeredness. He also realized that the path to achieve Liberation is not the extreme ascetic practices, but a middle path balanced by wisdom and compassion. In terms of practical application, the Buddhist wisdom is No Attachment, while the Buddhist compassion is Empathic Service leading toward Liberation.
Through his wise and diligent practice Buddha attained the Liberation from suffering by completely uprooting its source--a usually unrecognizable sense of a self, and thereby became eternally free from greed, hatred and ignorance. Such an attainment is usually called the Full Enlightenment. From the clarity of such an originally pure state, Buddha conceived of interpretations of reality which serve not only to explain our experiences but also to guide us toward restoring our original purity.
The world we experience is conditional, dependent on everything interacting upon everything else. When this truth is understood there is no one cause that can be considered as the determinant factor of the universe. Holding on to an image of a self is due to ignorance of the transient nature of phenomena. Liberation is possible precisely because suffering is also conditional and changeable. Seeing the conditional nature of things and thereupon willingly letting go of attachments, we may remove the stains of worldly considerations and entanglements, and attain freedom by returning to our original purity. In this purity all are felt to be one, and hence, compassionate service to all sentient beings becomes a mandatory way of life. Our original purity is called Buddha Nature or Blank Essence in Buddhist theories. Its realization is a limitless state encompassing all phenomena and is called the Dharmakaya.
The conditional nature of things also implies that Liberation may be attained through changes made with determined efforts. It is easily understood that changing a life-long habit of self-centeredness may take years of conscious endeavor. The usual procedure prescribed for Buddhist practitioners involves observance of rules of conduct, cultivation of meditation practices and gaining of insights. Rules of conduct are needed to help practitioners go straight toward purification and selfless service. Meditation practices help calm the mind from wandering, keep the mind from dozing off, and maintain attentive awareness and concentration. Meditation is also employed to strengthen the insight as taught by Buddhist teachings. Furthermore, it is only during profound meditation that delusions and attachments buried in subconscious may surface and be recognized as insubstantial. As one's original purity is gradually restored through following the Buddhist way of life and continuing on the path of devoted practice, wisdom and compassion will naturally awaken, rise up, and imbue one's daily activities. One's view of life and of the world will broaden as one's self-centered interests and considerations decline. One's care and kindness will not be confined to personal relationships or profit motive, but will naturally pour out to all sentient beings. Consequently, one lives in peaceful serenity with a deep sense of happiness and freedom.
Based on the introduction presented above, the main features of Buddhism may be summarized as follows:
1. Life is impermanent and suffering is inevitable; sentient beings are transmigrating in suffering. 2. The root of suffering in transmigration is our sense of a self. 3. Enlightenment as complete freedom from self and transmigration is attainable. 4. Buddhist practice and compassionate service are to be adopted as a way of life in order to attain Enlightenment.
The fundamental Christian teachings are succinctly presented below in my own words. This presentation is stated as my understanding of the Christian teachings; hence, it differs from the Christian churches' formulations in that it is not stated as articles of faith, but as seen from an outsider's point of view. Nevertheless, this is not a non-believer's critical account, but an empathic and objective restatement. I have seen Jesus in my dreams several times, and following the teaching of my late Guru, Yogi C. M. Chen, we have offered fire sacrifices to the saints of Christianity on every Christmas and Easter for the past twenty-three years. Thus, it is clear that we do respect the Christian saints. I will give further explanation later in this work.
The ultimate reality is perfect and limitless, beyond human understanding. Based on revelations, theology is formulated to guide people toward harmony with the ultimate reality which is called God, and according to human reasoning, God is considered to be the First Cause, the Creator of all there is. The purpose of all lives is to realize union with God, the ultimate reality.
Human lives are full of sorrows, and these miseries are results of our pursuing self-centered interests instead of the glory of God which is essentially universal compassionate love. The root of all unsatisfactory conditions of our worldly existence is the fundamental ignorance imposed by the limitation of human knowledge and its consequent inability to appreciate the satisfying way of living in accordance with God's love. Evil is the rejection of God's love; and participation in evil through activities constitute committing of sin to various degrees. The fundamental ignorance of relying on human knowledge and judgment, instead of following God's commandments, is theorized as the original sin, an unfortunate spiritual inheritance due to the cultural upbringing of all human beings.
To redeem all human beings of their sins so that they may earn eternal life in the union with God in Heaven, God has incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth and, through his complete sacrifice in crucifixion, made possible the redemption of all human beings. Jesus resurrected three days after his death on the cross. Human beings may receive this Grace of redemption only through an act of faith in Jesus. Without Jesus' grace, one will fall into hell and suffer in eternal condemnation.
To ensure living in selfless obedience to the will of God, a Christian should love God above all else, love others as oneself, follow the commandments, pray regularly to the Lord and attend church meetings. In case of violation of commandments, a Christian should repent and seek forgiveness from God, usually through confession made to a priest. In this way a Christian secures his admission to Heaven upon death.
Based on the introduction presented above, the main features of Christianity may be summarized as follows:
1. Human existence is finite and full of miseries, even more so due to the presence of sins and evils.2. Human miseries are rooted in the original sin of following self-centered interests and disobeying God's commandments. 3. Union with God in Heaven is the supreme purpose of all lives and will be a happy and eternal life. 4. Jesus, through his sacrifice by crucifixion, has made redemption possible for all who have faith in him as the incarnation of God. A Christian may secure his place in Heaven by living a life of universal love in accordance with God's commandments.
5.1 The Common Theme of Buddhism and Christianity
The ultimate reality is limitless, undefinable and beyond normal human experiences and understanding. Everything is within this ultimate reality. Human beings are suffering because they have lost unity with the ultimate reality due to obstacles created by themselves. Following the guidance of revelations these obstacles may be removed through spiritual practice, and a happy reunion with the ultimate reality will be achieved. The above generalization seems to characterize the basic theme of both Buddhism and Christianity.
5.2 The Fundamental Difference between Buddhism and Christianity
In order to bridge the barriers between the finite human conditions and the limitless ultimate reality, various approaches have been offered by teachers based on revelational experiences. These teachings may be classified into two main types: mystical experiences and conceptual formulations. In Buddhism, mystical experiences are emphasized in Chan (Zen) and Tantra; while in Christianity there is an abundance of such accounts in the life stories of Jesus and saints. Mystical experiences are beyond normal comparison; hence, I do not look for differences in this sphere.
In the realm of conceptual formulations, Buddhist theories are usually based on one universal concept, be it Blank Essence (Sunyata) or Buddha Nature, which underlies all there is. The introduction of such a concept serves to render ineffective the boundaries among all concepts. ...
Sharmik