Reconciling Buddhism with Christianity

Most people misunderstand Buddhism, thinking of it as a religion or even of Buddha as some sort of God or Prophet, when it is neither of these things. In simple terms Buddhism is about Filial Piety and the Law of Karma or Cause and Effect. In the Sutra on Filial Piety it is said that Buddha and his disciples came across a human skeleton, and Buddha paid homage to the bones and started to cry. When he finished crying he gave his discourse on filial piety. In summary he said all ancestors are our parents. That is equivalent to the Christian version of Adam and Eve. It also suggests that our ancestors are in us. And modern technology has since proven this, in terms of genetic DNA and stem cells. It also suggests that in our essence of being and of life we are all connected like one in all and all in one in and with everything in this world, of past or present existence; in the wind, water, trees, flowers and the birds and the bees. And again in modern quantum physics, we know in our essence, beyond atoms and electrons, beyond quarks and strings, all worldly phenomenon share the same building blocks. Just that the blocks are structured differently. DNA-wise we are only a short distance from monkeys. That is why in Buddhist terms we speak of sentient beings and not human beings. So when in Christian terms we say that God created man from soil, the correct reference is to these same building blocks in the soil; that when God breathed life into man, the correct reference is to the squiggles of strings of pulses in the soil, and therefore in the trees, animals and man. When in Christianity we say that God gave man dominion over the plants and animals, the correct reference is that man was given free-will to maintain or destroy rather than willpower to dominate. Understanding this free-will is critical to cultivating filial piety and determining ones karmic residual or consequences. Karma means action. The Law of Karma simply expressed means action equals reaction. It is law of physics expressed in spiritual form as cause and effect. In Christian terms we say that you reap what you sow as in the Parable of the Seed. We will come back to the Law of Karma later. Let us return to filial piety. Since only humans have this free-will only humans can influence their karma. Filial Piety is akin to the Christian Honour Thy Parents, which I think is the 5th Commandment. Buddha said in his discourse that you can never repay your debt to your parents even in 84 thousand life times. He meant it metaphorically or figuratively. Simply put, we owe an eternal debt to our parents. In worldly terms we can easily enumerate the different debts we owe our parents, like food, shelter, schooling etc. Some would say they owe no such debts because they had bad parents. Whether you have good parents or even born with a disability, these are matters within the Law of karma that I will touch on later. Whether good or bad parents, your being born [because of your parents] puts you in a situation where you have this free-will that animals and

plants do not have, and might I add that spirits and demons do not have. These beings, animals, plants, spirits and demons are fated to live out their karmic lot or destiny. But as a human being with free-will you can determine your karmic destiny. You can reduce or annihilate your adverse residual karmic pool or consequences. To be able to do this you have to be enlightened in the sense of attaining Nivarna. Nivarna sound complex or complicated but it simply means removal of ignorance. In Christian terms we say that you now have the light when previously you were walking in darkness. You have to exercise your free-will to remove ignorance. Only humans, like Buddha, can achieve Nivarna- get rid of ignorance. What is this ignorance? It covers many things, too many to relate in a short missive. The main thing we are ignorant about is the existence of a false ego of self. We are deluded with our self. Practising filial piety is a practical expedient shortcut way to mechanically remove this illusory sense of a false ego of self. When you are filial, you put your parents 1st before you. When you are filial, you love your parents and you are devoted to your parents. You cannot be loving and compassionate and caring unless you love your parents. In Buddhist terms we call it metta which means loving kindness of a wise mother. This is more definitive than the Western nebulous concept of love. The loving kindness of a wise mother can be tough as well as soft. A mother is hurt when her baby is hurt but a wise mother knows also to when to wean, when to toughen up her child to live in a tough world. When Buddhists talk of love they mean metta as the universal love. Wisdom is very important in Buddhist cultivation, just as wisdom is in Christianity. In fact Jesus spoke in parables because he saw this as the only way that people can become spiritually wise, in amongst other things, to understand what love and compassion for God and ones neighbours is about. Metta is in that sense spiritual wisdom. Unlike Christianity, Buddhism is cultivation or practice rather than a faith or religion. It is about the cultivation of the garden in your mind to remove the weeds that are categorised as ignorance. Above all Buddhist cultivation is of the mind; that is why the three foundation stones in Buddhism are Morality, Meditation and Wisdom. Let us continue with filial piety. Respect and reverence and honouring your parents teach you to attribute your success and achievements to them, whether this is in fact so or not. In everything you put them 1st and you a poor 2nd! That is cultivation of humility. Humility is the starting point to the getting rid of an ego. An ego is selfish. All bad karma comes down to being egoistic; to put self before others. Having metta is being selfless. A mothers love for her child is selfless. The universal love of metta is selfless. Similarly Christian love and compassion is selfless. Jesus died on the Cross for our salvation because he was selfless! He died for not being a Jew when he was a Jew! The monkey in your mind, the ego in your mind will not want you to lose the false ego of self. You have to train your free-will through practising metta, filial piety, to get rid of the ego. Not surprisingly, in Christianity the greatest sin is pride as in ego. That is the Original Sin and the greatest sin; to have an idol of self before God. That is why the 1st Commandment is to Love God with all your mind, body and

soul. You can only do that when you submit totally to God and not have an ego! All in this world is ego. God has and is no ego. God is simply no ego dealing with ego God as God cannot command someone to have no ego when he himself has an ego! It is this spiritual understanding that amounts to spiritual wisdom. If a Christian does not understand this basic tenet he or she will never get to understand Jesus parables! The Father to be the same as the Prodigal son making his journey home must have the same make-up! It is simply the son the scion with the false ego returning to the father with no ego. That is why God is simply logos! When God made Adam in his image it meant with no-ego. With spiritual wisdom all these spiritual truths abound. Now, for the Law of Karma. Broadly speaking, Westerners are taught to do and be good, to aspire for excellence, to achieve success in life etc. And in Christian terms obey the Ten Commandments. Similarly, the Buddhists have their 5 precepts [note not commandments] or if you are practising to be a Bodhisattva, 108 precepts. Both Christianity and Buddhism are about being good. But it is very hard telling people to be good; or egoists to be good. The Law of Karma strikes fear in the hearts and minds of Buddhists by telling them what will happen if they do bad karma. Ego makes bad karma! There is no forgiveness of sins in Buddhism like there is in the Christian sense. It is strictly you reap what you sow but without any avenue for redemption or forgiveness. That is why even the last Buddha had to live more than 500 lives before reaching Nivarna. There is in Buddhism however a set-off procedure akin to accounting where your debits are set-off against your credits. So, there is a sort of indirect forgiveness. Strangely, Westerners who do not understand Christian salvation want their bodily self to live on in eternity. But I will not comment further on that. In Buddhism, people do not want to come back, full stop. Buddhists do not want to be reborn to live and die, live and die, live and die. Buddhists want to be somewhere, where there is no birth and also no death, no good or bad, no free-will and no will, no duality, no relativity, no change; where there is no self or no no-self, no catching up with the Jones, no thought of anything and no body to think about, no mine or you no mind as in never mind; where there is no karma! Metta or God Bless! cheok hong chuan 22/2/12