February 15, 2016 Monday Morning, Brazil
A “Cold Eggs for Breakfast”, Talk 2: The Buddha and The Christ
Thusly named as they came from discussions over breakfast at the Casa while the eggs got cold! Please keep in mind that these are not polished talks, just excerpts of shared Dialogue and replies to questions with the portion transcribed here from Barbara.
Barbara: As humans, we share an almost universal desire to be part of something larger than ourselves, be it a family or other group. We can benefit, or be harmed, by these beliefs and affiliations. “My belief is better than your belief. Therefore my religion is better than your religion.” These are the grounds for so many wars. Not just wars between countries but arguments between people. If we think life is a certain way we may start to put a structure around it – and see the structures that others put around their thoughts as wrong.
It’s why we’ve insisted from the beginning that there be no membership at Deep Spring Center. Because if we have members, it becomes us and the not-us. So people can come and sit with us, practice and attend classes, enjoy the community, but you’re not a member because there are no members. If you need to be a member of something go work that out for yourself.
While we may not have a membership structure, we do have a practice that many people find helpful on their path, no matter which religious tradition they follow. This raises the question, “How does the Buddhist path differ from other paths?” We don’t have the time or space here to create this comparison, but I’m sure you’ll find many books on the subject. So rather than repeat what you can find elsewhere, I’ll simply touch on some of the commonalities I’ve found along my way.
Jesus or Jeshua and the Christ Consciousness have been the center of my spirituality, more than the Buddha. However, I don’t want to say that I’m Christian rather than Buddhist. Is there really any difference between Buddha Nature and Christ Consciousness? If my deepest meditation experiences lead me to what is sometimes termed “emptiness, is that a “Buddhist” experience? If I find God, is that a “Christian” experience? To label them such is just concept. Actually I was raised in a Jewish home and my Guru is a Hindu saint. Why should we call ourselves anything?
My life experience has given me a deep love and respect for Buddhism. Its teachings are priceless and really do bring freedom, complete freedom! I want to pass on what the Buddha taught to people because it’s so beautiful and rich. It complements Jeshua’s message, provides a way to live it, and to a genuine path to liberation. I simply personally resonate deeply to the energy, to the pure being, of the one who came as Jeshua. This is just me and my own personal karma.
One of the most powerful retreats I ever led was a ten-day retreat at a Catholic center in Minnesota. Nearly every one of the attendees was a priest or nun. While they had no experience with vipassana meditation, they just picked it up like the proverbial ducks in water. They loved the practice. They all found themselves going deeply into it because they already had a strong spiritual practices. At the end of the retreat they all said it’s really no different, it’s just a different articulation of what they already knew. We talked about what they saw – not the differences, but the sameness. They told me they found many things that deeply supported their Catholic practice and that they could pass on to others.
This is what I love about Buddhism. While Jesus tells us to love one another. The Buddha tells us how to deal with the mind that is not yet capable of fully loving; how to deal with the mind that is full of these “impure” thoughts. Buddhism invites us to observe our minds. Then go beyond the mind. It’s a practice that leads to the opening of our hearts, a broadening of our wisdom, to full liberation.
When we get to the point in our Buddhist practice where we really understand that thoughts are simply expressions of the mental body, arisen from conditions, we may begin to examine the conditions that trigger particular belief systems or structures. The beliefs crumble as doctrine. This is a shaky stage for many, because when their belief structures crumble they become fragile for a while. As teachers we have to guide them into “what do you know from your heart – not the beliefs you’ve been taught, but what does your heart tell you.”
And then, rather than beliefs, a deeper knowing starts to emerge. For me, within that knowing is the very deep knowing of the unity of the Buddha and Christ: That Essence which is the core of me and of everything; it is awake. We can call it Christ consciousness. We can call it Buddha Nature. It’s awakened essence – and it’s always been there. Gradually our practice leads us to know this Essence and to know the non-duality of all paths that lead us there. We are That. We have always been That! There is no path, no attainment, nothing but pure being!
If you’d like to know more, I recommend two of the best books I’ve found on how these two complement each other. One is: Living Buddha Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk. The introduction is by Christian scholar Elaine Pagels.
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-20th-Anniversary-Edition/dp/159448239X
Another excellent book is:
The Ground We Share: Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian – Paperback – June 18, 1996 by Brother David Steindl-Rast and Robert Aitken Roshi