Sermon: Orange and Mango
A few people have said to me, “Through Buddhism, I restored my faith and came back to the church.” One of my friends who teaches Christian studies told me, “I love lotus flowers (water lilies) and the spiritual writings about them in Buddhism and Taoism. It’s part of what brought me back to the Bible.” Beautiful confessions.
In the past week, I have been reading Living Buddha and Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh (I put an excerpt of his biography in the bulletin.). I highly recommend everyone (especially Christians) to read it and to say, “Let’s learn from this book." It is very easy to read, yet very profound. If you are interested in forming a spiritual practice in your daily life and in your justice activism as a Christian, in a very Christian way, this book is for us, for you.
I have seen United Church people ask, “Is it Christian or not? Is it United Church practice or not?” or “Is it ours or not?” especially when we are introduced to a new approach to ministry and theology. I often find that those are not really identity questions. Rather, we are implicitly suggesting the superiority claim of our practice in the question, saying "Don’t mix." I wonder how Thich Nhat Hanh would respond to those questions.
In the book’s first chapter, “Be Still and Know”, Thich Nhat Hanh says:
“TWENTY YEARS AGO at a conference I attended of theologians and professors of religion, an Indian Christian friend told the assembly, “We are going to hear about the beauties of several traditions, but that does not mean that we are going to make a fruit salad.” When it came my turn to speak, I said, “Fruit salad can be delicious! I have shared the Eucharist with Father Daniel Berrigan, and our worship became possible because of the sufferings we Vietnamese and Americans shared over many years.” Some of the Buddhists present were shocked to hear I had participated in the Eucharist, and many Christians seemed truly horrified. To me, religious life is life. I do not see any reason to spend one’s whole life tasting just one kind of fruit. We human beings can be nourished by the best values of many traditions. Professor Hans Küng has said, “Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.” People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result. The second precept of the Order of Interbeing, founded within the Zen Buddhist tradition during the war in Vietnam, is about letting go of views: “Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints.” To me, this is the most essential practice of peace.”
What do you think? I acknowledge that I was a little shocked, and the feeling lasted for more than a minute, when I first read “the fruit salad can be delicious!”. Wow! Yet, thinking deeply, it wasn’t difficult to appreciate: “Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-Christian elements, including Buddhist ones.”
What I would like to highlight from the book, Living Buddha and Living Christ, as the interfaith dialogue told by a Buddhist monk, is the positive parallel of Practice (Buddhists) and the Holy Spirit (Christians.) How do we look deeply and touch the living Buddha and the living Christ in ourselves and in each person we meet?
Thich Nhat Hanh says, “In Buddhism, our effort is to practice mindfulness in each moment—to know what is going on within and all around us. When the Buddha was asked, “Sir, what do you and your monks practice?” he replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.” The questioner continued, “But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats,” and the Buddha told him, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.” Most of the time, we are lost in the past or carried away by future projects and concerns.
When we are mindful, we are able to touch the present moment deeply. It is so true that the most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When our mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. If we love someone but rarely make ourselves available to him or her, that is not true love. Mindfulness relieves suffering because it is filled with understanding and compassion. When we are really there, showing our loving-kindness and understanding, the energy of the Holy Spirit is in us. Thich Nhat Hanh repeatedly affirms: “Mindfulness is very much like the Holy Spirit. Both of them help us touch the ultimate dimension of reality. Mindfulness helps us touch nirvana, and the Holy Spirit offers us a door to the Trinity."
Somewhere in the book, Thich Nhat Hanh also says this, which I find very interesting: “Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice.” This phrase has never left me since. It is a matter of practice… It is a matter of practice.
“For Christians, the way to make the Holy Spirit truly present in the church is to practice thoroughly what Jesus lived and taught.” If we read the Bible but don’t practice what we find there, it will not help us, or anyone, very much. Thich Nhat Hanh says, in Buddhism, practicing the teaching of the Buddha is the highest form of prayer. The Buddha said, “If someone is standing on one shore and wants to go to the other shore, he has to either use a boat or swim across. He cannot just pray, ‘Oh, other shore, please come over here for me to step across!’”
At this point, it is important to note: The Theravada school of Buddhism emphasizes the actual teaching of the historical Buddha, the Buddha who lived and died. Later, the idea of the living Buddha was developed in the Buddhism of the Northern schools, the Mahayana. Of course they are not the same, based on the different teaching and theology (non-duality in Buddhism; Incarnation in Christianity), but we do have the teachings of the son of man (the historical Jesus) and the son of God (the Christ). Listen! Buddha says,
“My physical body will no longer be here, but my teaching body, Dharmakaya, will always be with you. Take refuge in the Dharma, the teaching, to make an island for yourselves.”
According to Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha is still alive, continuing to give Dharma talks. If you are attentive enough, you will be able to hear his teachings from the voice of a pebble, a leaf, or a cloud in the sky.
In today’s scripture reading, Jesus says, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jewish people so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Quote: "The Buddha said that his Dharma body (for Christians, Christ/Wisdom/Sophia) is more important than his physical body. He meant that we have to practice the Dharma in order to make nirvana (for Christians, Kingdom of God) available here and now. The living Dharma is not a library of scriptures or tapes of inspiring lectures. The living Dharma is mindfulness, manifested in the Buddha’s daily life and in your daily life, also. When I see you walking mindfully, I touch the peace, joy, and deep presence of your being. When you take good care of your brothers and sisters, I recognize the living Dharma in you. If you are mindful, the Dharmakaya is easy to touch. The Buddha described the seed of mindfulness that is in each of us as the “womb of the Buddha” (tathagatagarbha). We are all mothers of the Buddha because we are all pregnant with the potential for awakening."
This Buddhist monk, the founder of Engaged Buddhism, the life-long practitioner of Mindfulness, urges us that if we want to renew our church, we need to bring the energy of the Holy Spirit into it. When people appreciate each other as brothers and sisters and kin and smile, the Holy Spirit is there. When mindfulness is present, understanding (prajña) and love (maitri and karuna) are there, also. The church is the vehicle that allows us to realize those teachings. The church is the hope of Jesus, just as the Sangha is the hope of the Buddha. It is through the practice of the church and the Sangha that the teachings come alive.
Again, our religious partner, Buddhism, asks us the question to which we were introduced by Hinduism three Sundays ago.
What is our practice?
How do we touch the living Christ?
How should we grow the Holy Spirit at Immanuel and in our activism in the world?
Again, you can taste Orange and Mango separately, these two “authentic" fruits, but you can also appreciate their nutrients, (sweetness and acid, too) in a delicious fruit salad.
A few people have said to me, “Through Buddhism, I restored my faith and came back to the church.” One of my friends who teaches Christian studies told me, “I love lotus flowers (water lilies) and the spiritual writings about them in Buddhism and Taoism. It’s part of what brought me back to the Bible.” Beautiful confessions.
In the past week, I have been reading Living Buddha and Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh (I put an excerpt of his biography in the bulletin.). I highly recommend everyone (especially Christians) to read it and to say, “Let’s learn from this book." It is very easy to read, yet very profound. If you are interested in forming a spiritual practice in your daily life and in your justice activism as a Christian, in a very Christian way, this book is for us, for you.
I have seen United Church people ask, “Is it Christian or not? Is it United Church practice or not?” or “Is it ours or not?” especially when we are introduced to a new approach to ministry and theology. I often find that those are not really identity questions. Rather, we are implicitly suggesting the superiority claim of our practice in the question, saying "Don’t mix." I wonder how Thich Nhat Hanh would respond to those questions.
In the book’s first chapter, “Be Still and Know”, Thich Nhat Hanh says:
“TWENTY YEARS AGO at a conference I attended of theologians and professors of religion, an Indian Christian friend told the assembly, “We are going to hear about the beauties of several traditions, but that does not mean that we are going to make a fruit salad.” When it came my turn to speak, I said, “Fruit salad can be delicious! I have shared the Eucharist with Father Daniel Berrigan, and our worship became possible because of the sufferings we Vietnamese and Americans shared over many years.” Some of the Buddhists present were shocked to hear I had participated in the Eucharist, and many Christians seemed truly horrified. To me, religious life is life. I do not see any reason to spend one’s whole life tasting just one kind of fruit. We human beings can be nourished by the best values of many traditions. Professor Hans Küng has said, “Until there is peace between religions, there can be no peace in the world.” People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result. The second precept of the Order of Interbeing, founded within the Zen Buddhist tradition during the war in Vietnam, is about letting go of views: “Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others’ viewpoints.” To me, this is the most essential practice of peace.”
What do you think? I acknowledge that I was a little shocked, and the feeling lasted for more than a minute, when I first read “the fruit salad can be delicious!”. Wow! Yet, thinking deeply, it wasn’t difficult to appreciate: “Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-Christian elements, including Buddhist ones.”
What I would like to highlight from the book, Living Buddha and Living Christ, as the interfaith dialogue told by a Buddhist monk, is the positive parallel of Practice (Buddhists) and the Holy Spirit (Christians.) How do we look deeply and touch the living Buddha and the living Christ in ourselves and in each person we meet?
Thich Nhat Hanh says, “In Buddhism, our effort is to practice mindfulness in each moment—to know what is going on within and all around us. When the Buddha was asked, “Sir, what do you and your monks practice?” he replied, “We sit, we walk, and we eat.” The questioner continued, “But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats,” and the Buddha told him, “When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking. When we eat, we know we are eating.” Most of the time, we are lost in the past or carried away by future projects and concerns.
When we are mindful, we are able to touch the present moment deeply. It is so true that the most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When our mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers. If we love someone but rarely make ourselves available to him or her, that is not true love. Mindfulness relieves suffering because it is filled with understanding and compassion. When we are really there, showing our loving-kindness and understanding, the energy of the Holy Spirit is in us. Thich Nhat Hanh repeatedly affirms: “Mindfulness is very much like the Holy Spirit. Both of them help us touch the ultimate dimension of reality. Mindfulness helps us touch nirvana, and the Holy Spirit offers us a door to the Trinity."
Somewhere in the book, Thich Nhat Hanh also says this, which I find very interesting: “Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed. It is not a matter of faith; it is a matter of practice.” This phrase has never left me since. It is a matter of practice… It is a matter of practice.
“For Christians, the way to make the Holy Spirit truly present in the church is to practice thoroughly what Jesus lived and taught.” If we read the Bible but don’t practice what we find there, it will not help us, or anyone, very much. Thich Nhat Hanh says, in Buddhism, practicing the teaching of the Buddha is the highest form of prayer. The Buddha said, “If someone is standing on one shore and wants to go to the other shore, he has to either use a boat or swim across. He cannot just pray, ‘Oh, other shore, please come over here for me to step across!’”
At this point, it is important to note: The Theravada school of Buddhism emphasizes the actual teaching of the historical Buddha, the Buddha who lived and died. Later, the idea of the living Buddha was developed in the Buddhism of the Northern schools, the Mahayana. Of course they are not the same, based on the different teaching and theology (non-duality in Buddhism; Incarnation in Christianity), but we do have the teachings of the son of man (the historical Jesus) and the son of God (the Christ). Listen! Buddha says,
“My physical body will no longer be here, but my teaching body, Dharmakaya, will always be with you. Take refuge in the Dharma, the teaching, to make an island for yourselves.”
According to Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha is still alive, continuing to give Dharma talks. If you are attentive enough, you will be able to hear his teachings from the voice of a pebble, a leaf, or a cloud in the sky.
In today’s scripture reading, Jesus says, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jewish people so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Quote: "The Buddha said that his Dharma body (for Christians, Christ/Wisdom/Sophia) is more important than his physical body. He meant that we have to practice the Dharma in order to make nirvana (for Christians, Kingdom of God) available here and now. The living Dharma is not a library of scriptures or tapes of inspiring lectures. The living Dharma is mindfulness, manifested in the Buddha’s daily life and in your daily life, also. When I see you walking mindfully, I touch the peace, joy, and deep presence of your being. When you take good care of your brothers and sisters, I recognize the living Dharma in you. If you are mindful, the Dharmakaya is easy to touch. The Buddha described the seed of mindfulness that is in each of us as the “womb of the Buddha” (tathagatagarbha). We are all mothers of the Buddha because we are all pregnant with the potential for awakening."
This Buddhist monk, the founder of Engaged Buddhism, the life-long practitioner of Mindfulness, urges us that if we want to renew our church, we need to bring the energy of the Holy Spirit into it. When people appreciate each other as brothers and sisters and kin and smile, the Holy Spirit is there. When mindfulness is present, understanding (prajña) and love (maitri and karuna) are there, also. The church is the vehicle that allows us to realize those teachings. The church is the hope of Jesus, just as the Sangha is the hope of the Buddha. It is through the practice of the church and the Sangha that the teachings come alive.
Again, our religious partner, Buddhism, asks us the question to which we were introduced by Hinduism three Sundays ago.
What is our practice?
How do we touch the living Christ?
How should we grow the Holy Spirit at Immanuel and in our activism in the world?
Again, you can taste Orange and Mango separately, these two “authentic" fruits, but you can also appreciate their nutrients, (sweetness and acid, too) in a delicious fruit salad.
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