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Buddhist and Christian Perspectives

Posted April 7th, 2009 by Greg Mayers in Zen Trans-Traditions Realities

Unmon, giving instruction, said, "I don't ask you about before the fifteenth day; bring me a phrase about after the fifteenth day." Unmon himself answered in the monks' stead, "Every day is a good day." Hegekanroku, Case 6.

Koan studies is a unique pedagogic technique specific to a branch of Zen Buddhism. The Zen student must meditate on the koan until he can present a non-analytical comprehension that demonstrates to the roshi that he grasps in an enlightened manner the essence of Zen, referred to as “Buddha nature,” in a particular story or verse from a sutra. Buddha nature is also referred to as “emptiness” in the Mahayana Buddhist’s tradition, from which Zen arose in China. If the roshi accepts the student’s presentation, then he will ask some “checking” questions to test the depth and authenticity of the student’s grasp of the essential matter. Koan studies in the hands of a good teacher frustrates the analytical intellect to the point of breakthrough. As a Zen student of mine stuck on a particular koan said, working on this empties me out.

In the famous koan that introduces this post, the great Zen master, Unmon is not asking about the weather or the lunar cycles. In the Chinese calendar of his day, the “fifteenth day” of the month was the day of the full moon, and the full moon is a famous Zen Buddhist’s symbol for full enlightenment. So Unmon is asking the monks of his monastery, “I don’t care a hoot about before your enlightenment, tell me something about after your enlightenment!” He is in effect throwing down a gauntlet before the monks. “You think you are enlightened, then show me: say something that authenticates to me your enlightenment!” Before the monks could say anything, Unmon said: “Every day is a good day.”

When working with this koan with Ryoun Yamada Roshi, I said vigorously rubbing my hands together: “What a fine day this is,” which seemed a perfect understanding of the koan to me since it happened to be a sunny, pleasant spring day. He responded: “Any ordinary Joe could say that!” rejecting my presentation outright. Then he added: “You have just received news that your daughter has been serious injured in an accident and is dying. Show me that ‘every day is a good day.’” In response, I mimed the deep grief a father would feel faced with the suffering of his child. The roshi again rejected my presentation, saying that any unenlightened person would respond that way. I would spend years meditating with this koan in the back of my mind, carrying it around with me wherever I was and whatever I was doing.

What Ryoun Roshi was looking for, was something far more in line with a Buddhist response to suffering. Although I eventually “got it” to his satisfaction, a sacred trust and confidentially prevents me for presenting here the exact “answer” to this or any koan. I can give you the analytical response, that will have to stand in for the real one.

Even when my wife or son is dying, even when I am on my own deathbed, there is an equanimity in my heart of hearts that says, “Every day is a good day.” The Diamond Sutra says, “Past mind cannot be grasped; present mind cannot be grasped; future mind cannot be grasped.” None of these states of time really exists. The substantial mind, or Buddha nature, does not come and go; it is always at rest.

It now appears to me, after many years of continuing to contemplate this koan, that my original response to Ryoun Roshi was as valid as his. We were both coming out of a different base, he a devote Buddhist, I a Catholic Christian. He escaped the world of suffering by overcoming the causes of suffering; greed, hatred and ignorance. In Mahayana Buddhism this escape means the world of Emptiness where all is perfect equanimity.

I experienced the opposite. From Christian revelation, Christ the manifestation of the inaccessible God descended into this chaotic human world of suffering to transform it. Instead of seeking an escape, the Christian becomes fully the suffering of the world knowing all along that this is exactly what the Divine did in the person of Jesus. The Buddhist claws his way out of suffering by leaving behind all his attachments even his attachment to non-attachment, a grueling task indeed, and ultimately a humanly transforming one. The Christian embraces suffering in faith as the way of salvation as revealed in Jesus (and as horrified by the agony as Jesus was), fully immersed in the incomprehensible suffering of the world and in the redemption of God.

So while I would scream in agony at the lost of my daughter, my Japanese Zen teacher would sit in serene contemplation at the lost of his. My own version of the non-dual reality goes like this: if it excludes anything, it isn’t real. Which one of these responses do you think is real? Although words break down into gibberish at this point, I somehow cannot escape the notion that the scream is “more” real than the serene.

Greg Mayers

Zen taught me everything I can do

Christianity taught me everything I can't do

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Perspectives

Posted April 7th, 2009 by Linda Hollier

Thanks Greg, for incorporating these two perspectives in one post.

You ask the question, “Which one of these responses do you think is real?”

I am of the opinion that both are real. The responses were made by two people coming from different perspectives. The makeup, circumstances, culture and society of each was unique. One response is that of a Zen Buddhist, the other that of a Christian.

Although words break down into gibberish at this point, I somehow cannot escape the notion that the scream is “more” real than the serene.”

This is something I often battle with. Despite my initial comment I am nevertheless confronted with my own experience. I attempted to allude to it in my post, “It’s a lovely day”.

Somehow, coming from even a Christian perspective, I often have a sense of the Zen Buddhist perspective. It is as if the scream is eventually overtaken by the serene.

I hope this makes some sense and would appreciate your comments.

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The Scream and the Serene

Posted April 8th, 2009 by Greg Mayers in response to Perspectives

Dear Linda:

Thank you for your response to my post. I will try to address it as best I can. It is going to take a bit of explaining, so I hope you will be patient with me.

It is both dangerous and necessary to draw sharp distinctions between religious traditions. Dangerous because it is so easy to break down into an adolescent competition about whose daddy is stronger. Necessary because if you don’t, you end up with an incomprehensible blob of nonsense. As Cameron Freeman so aptly pointed out in his post, Christian/Buddhist Dialogue, Buddhism and Christianity are superficially similar and fundamentally different.

Having studied and practiced out of both perspectives for over 30 years, I attest to the validity of Cameron’s statement. In my mind, the best of Buddhism is the highest achievement of a human being. The Buddha represents what it means to be human, supremely self-less and indiscriminately compassionate. All of this without the intervention of a divine principle threatening reward or punishment for one’s actions. Buddhism is truly an outstanding human achievement. Of course many Buddhists fall far short of this ideal and must undergo rebirth thousands of times before achieving Nirvana or Parinirvana.

Christianity, on the other hand, is not fundamentally a religion of self achievement or self realization. It is a religion of Divine revelation, which by definition tells us something we cannot know on our own. The inaccessible and unknowable God has reconciled all human being in Jesus who reveals to us the unrelenting, unconditional love of God, the Holy Spirit. As Olivier Clement puts it, “God overcomes our otherness without dissolving it, just as he overcomes the Otherness in himself (i.e. the Trinity) without dissolving it.” The mystery, not paradox – mystery, is that I am both one with the most intimate inmost reality of the Divine and simultaneously my unique unrepeatable self.

Of course, this is a reality one sees in the gift of faith. Why should I receive that gift and the next person not, I don’t know. I certainly did nothing to be so rewarded. This gift gives me a confidence that is deeper and stronger than the equanimity I achieved in my Zen Buddhist practice. No-self is essential in Zen Buddhism. My unique personhood is essential in Christianity. When I truly start to get it, I am deeply humbled by this boundless love of God, and then from this rich soil (humus) can grow and blossom the same divine love for others as I enjoy for myself, none of it my doing. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or who you are: gay or straight, dumb or bright, privileged or poor, grief stricken or serene, terrorized or peaceful, criminal or upright, insane or well adjusted, pro choice or pro life. All are blessed by and in the unrelenting, unconditional love of God, who does not play favorites. It is a shocking revelation that under cuts our narcissism in a way that nothing else can.

Of course Christians fall far short of this ideal. One of my pet peeves is hearing Christians using this liberating revelation as a club to beat up “non believers.” This is just the opposite from announcing the good news, gospel, of Jesus Christ. Burning you at the stake to save your soul has nothing to do with Christianity, even should the pope himself endorse it, which some popes have. I personally cheer on Hitchens, Darkin, Harris, et al whom I consider modern day prophets calling Christians to account.

Nonetheless, I think the Christian revelation is privileged precisely because it is something we can’t get to on our own. It gives up a peep into reality that is beyond our comprehension yet more real than anything we can achieve by ourselves. So yes, in the final analysis I consider the scream is more real than the serene. I consider the scream non-dualistic, and the serene dualistic, leaving something out. Yet, drawing that distinction so tightly leaves me a bit uneasy, since I don’t believe that God restricts his activity to the narrow boundaries of any tradition. A fuller glass of water is not necessarily a better glass of water, it is just fuller. And certainly, Christians are not per se better than anyone else.

One last plea to everyone. When comparing religious traditions, please draw the comparisons at the same altitude. There is an incredibly rich mystical strain in Christianity that runs all the way back to the beginning of Christianity. As one author pointed out, Christianity was already a mystical interpretation of the Hebraic scriptures. Its very roots are mystical and it has never lost its mysticism. If you want to learn about this you can start with a search in Wikipedia.

Greg Mayers

Zen taught me everything I can do; Christianity taught me everything I can't do.

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More on the Scream

Posted April 9th, 2009 by Greg Mayers in response to Perspectives

Cameron

Thanks you so much for your kind and encouraging words. I too hope we meet face to face, and soon. Your instinct is correct, I do make these statements with some trepidation and uncertainty. One reason is that words are so final and therefore suspicious for a subject that is as elusive as deep, mystical reality. Phrasing it properly is like trying to nail mercury, one is left with nails but what have they really pinned down? As the Sutra on Zen says: “The Buddha has playfully let words escape his golden mouth. Heaven and earth are ever since filled with entangling briars.”

Like Linda I am tempted to board the balanced life boat you offer, the balance between the paradox of pain and love. Yet, you got me with your Good Friday Reflections in the words of Jesus on the Cross in St Mark: My God, why have your forsaken me? and the story from Elei Weisel’s Night. I have tried to entered into the Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani the way I enter into koans. It is bringing me to the raw, ugly void of human existence, where there is no savior, no hope, no escape; just the agony of a body dying racked in excruciating pain and a soul racked by the blackest of despair, fighting off all alone the demons of disbelief. “Let us see if Elijah will come and save him,” but of course, he won’t. No one will. It seems strangely important to me to enter into the unfathomable Passion without the warm comfort of love. It peels back something I can’t uncover for myself when bathed in the love of God. St Paul has this odd phrase: …filling up for what is lacking in the suffering of Christ. I don't know what that means, but it seems really important.

The other problem when using words to draw distinctions is that they can be mistaken for criticism. Different simply means different. Of course, zazen and Emptiness can be used as an escape mechanism from life. In fact, I would say it is an unavoidable phase of spiritual growth, like adolescence, but much more fun. My German Zen teacher Willigis Jaeger insistently demanded over a period of years that I come down off the mountain of Emptiness. I thought he was nuts. This was the best thing since sliced bread and canned beer. When I asked him for his reasons, he would never give me an answer. He simply insisted I come down off the mountain. In the end, I saw he was right. Christians have their own escape mechanism, postponing life because it is really the next life that counts, not this one. But the finest points of both traditions point us right into life, not away from it. It is not who says it best, or who is more refined. In the final analysis, Jesus nailed it: by their fruits shall you know them. No Buddhist I know would argue with that.

I still think the scream is uncompromisingly non-dual, real, over against the serene. It perfectly expresses my essential nature, my Buddha nature, my Christian faith, my true self when I am entangled in the horrors of agony. There is only that agony, and Elijah won’t come to my rescue.

But then, I am open to be corrected…

Greg Mayers

Zen taught me everything I can do; Christianity taught me everything I can't do.

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uncompromising passion

Posted April 9th, 2009 by camfree in response to More on the Scream

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Hi Greg,

There’s a beautiful and raw honesty in how you write about these issues and I admire your courage in being so forthcoming... I too am one ‘coming down the mountain’ so can really relate to your experience, and yes it's good to be uncompromising about this...

Personally, this perspective (the scream is more real than the serene) could also be really effective in other (i.e. traditional Christian) contexts - to help people acknowledge that God (i.e mythic-rational level) is not coming to rescue you... The message for today’s Church is that crucifixion is also about the death of the interventionist God 'out there' that guarantee's an orderly universe for us... Those with faith in Christ are not immune from unmitigated disaster – in fact, this is often how Grace enters our lives!

And in light of the crucified Jesus it’s good to be reminded that at any time in following Christ our hopes and dreams can (and will) be exposed as illusions - as we move deeper into to the unforeseeable and unpredictable event of our personal and spiritual transformation. Happy Easter,

Cam

"Become passers-by" (Jesus of Nazareth)

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a recap.

Posted April 9th, 2009 by Kerry Dugan in response to More on the Scream

Greg,

In a post to this thread last night, which was lost on clicking the 'submit' button, I'd mentioned that one of Dorothy Day's frequent prayers was that she "...take up in [her] own body that which is lacking in the sufferings of Christ". Thanks for linking it back to Paul for me.

Another piece of that lost post was a memory of a public teaching exchange, a dharma combat, between Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Glassman. It was a Mother's Day. Bernie had just lost his mom. Maezumi asked, "What is the meaning of 'mother'? . At which point Bernie gave some reference to incense smoke rising (maybe recalling Dogen, at age thirteen, at his mother's funeral, seeing the smoke rise, then vowing to realize this life). Maezumi lowered his head and began to cry. Bernie, then crying...

I'd heard that in the late '80s, around the time I took one of Ruben Habito's workshops (I think it was called, Laughing Buddha/Sorrowing Christ). He got us to look at Mother Mary and Kannon Bodhisattva, and at the feminine (fierce&nourishing), and at how these were alive for us, or not.

Having Daido Roshi as my teacher, someone who openly cries and shares the most tender emotions with sangha, someone with whom we were equally welcomed to scream (if that's what our state in the moment required) I got a sense of Zen making space for the spectrum of our responsiveness to what goes on for us. In the monastic setting there was a sort of braketing, (in the spirit of 'time-place-position-degree'), and considerations of common needs too, but an agreement toward honest acknowledgement and expression was generally in place. I found that the natural tensions between scheduled communal activities and the raw, wild, inevitable surrendering to our own process(es) seemed to yield a greater appreciation of both aspects, structure/community, and individual process.

'all for now,

Kerry

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Thank You Kerry

Posted April 11th, 2009 by Greg Mayers in response to a recap.

Dear Kerry:

Thank you so much for your very fine post. I was hoping that someone with Zen Buddhist experience like yourself would jump into this conversation. And you did so with such grace and compassion. I deeply appreciated your story of Glassman Roshi and Maezumi Roshi and the story about your own teacher Daido Roshi’s oh so human emotional expressions. I fear that my post gave the wrong impression that Zen Buddhism restrains some critical component of our human nature when nothing could be farther from the truth.

I was completely honest about the koan story with my Japanese teacher Ryoun Yamada Roshi, but a bit unfair to him, who is a lay Buddhist, married with a family. There are three valid ways to present one’s understanding of most koans than just the two represented in my original post. One can present the Absolute side (Essential or Buddha nature, Emptiness), the Relative side (form) and the personalized side. In fairness to Ryoun Roshi he was testing my depth of understanding of the Absolute and pushing me very hard on it, I might add. That too was an act of compassion for this inexperienced Zen practitioner.

I have said to friends that the first “Christian” I ever met was a Zen Buddhist Roshi. I told myself at that time: I don’t know what that man has, but I want it. That launched me on a 30 year journey with no end in sight, while carrying within me the tension between Buddhism and Christianity which seem to be able to meet in incomprehensible harmony in zazen. When I think about it, there are irreconcilable differences between the two traditions that cannot and should not be glossed over. When I sit with it, there is just that and nothing more.

Thank you again, Kerry, for your graciousness and kindness.

Greg Mayers

Zen taught me everything I can do; Christianity taught me everything I can't do.

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The scream and the serene...

Posted April 8th, 2009 by camfree

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Great post Greg. This tension between the scream and the serene cuts to the heart of the very real differences between Zen Buddhism and Christianity... It’s a rare treat to read the insights of one who has grappled so honestly with both of these traditions, and yes, you put it well: they are superficially similar but fundamentally different.

Your main point: “The scream is more real than the serene”. I would have to agree with you, even as I sense that you make this distinction with some trepidation or uncertainty...

It’s the interpretation that is so tricky. I mean, there is something disturbingly inhuman about not grieving the loss of ones daughter in a tragic accident. This is far more likely to be a pathological denial of death (and a correlative fear of life, as Dora says) than a saintly serenity that transcends suffering in Nirvava.

Jesus wept. It’s about the Heart and the Mind, the more we open the one, the more we are open to the other.

I mean, is it not true that a person who has some relatively stable access to unqualifiable Emptiness (serenity, grace, unobstructed awareness) would also have a more intimate openness to suffering and irreparable loss when it arises – because it doesn’t ultimately threaten our existence, and so we don’t have to contact or recoil in the face of it? As kw says, it “hurts more but bother us less”.

So in this context, I would say that the response of yr Zen master is terribly partial and lop-sided, the fully realized practitioner is the one who can go directly into his/her suffering without fear – and precisely BECAUSE they are grounded in something eternally firm...

As always, the Mystery is deeply paradoxical: “serenity without the scream” is a deficient gloss that pastes over the painful cracks in our psyche... But at the same time, the "scream without the serenity" can also be a defiant refusal to accept reality as it is. But the scream (pain) that is grounded in the serenity (love) is the Great Perfection...

So it depends on context: both the scream and the serenity without their opposites tend to be un-balanced and lacking is something integral to the real experience of being free to be fully human... and the more access we have to one, the more light we can shine on the other

This is really good, thought provoking stuff Greg. I sure hope we can meet up in person one day. Easter blessings,

Cam

"Become passers-by" (Jesus of Nazareth)

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Wonderful Contemplation!

Posted April 10th, 2009 by Mary Linda Landauer

What a great question Greg. I've taken some time to contemplate this question; is it the scream or the serene?

I have a beautiful daughter and two granddaughters. I let my mind think about losing them. So much pain came through that it was difficult to stay in the thoughts. Then I thought about real life instances where people have lost loved ones, and the pain and scream lead them to a place of serenity. It is as though this process of evolving through stages, Elizabeth Kubler Ross talks about these stages, that often we can reach the Zen understanding, that ultimately there is never the loss of the soul self or infinite source.

The other thought that comes to me is that the Zen master has taken a different perspective about living life, and teaches from that perspective. The master does not live in the world as we live in the world. And, I agree with you Greg that Jesus came to teach in a different way, from a slightly different perspective. He embodied the human existence, living in the world as we do, and through his own pain and suffering, he evolved into a higher soul consciousness. His teachings continue to show us how we can, through higher acts of love and forgiveness, and continuous acts of surrender of our lower ego energies, evolve into Christ Consciousness, and be even greater in our own evolution beyond ego. Yet, looking at both teachers, the reaching of this stage is similiar. Both the Buddhist and the Christian Perspectives lead us to doing the work of surrendering the ego consciousness, at each level of attachment, in order to transcend into the higher levels of Soul/Christ/Buddha.

Just love this beautiful post Greg.

Mary Linda

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Thank You Mary Linda