Below is today's post from Tricycle's Daily Dharma. The Daily Dharma quotes Thich Nhat Hanh who is basically saying what the Dalai Lama says (included in my May 24 posting). The Buddhists seem so accepting of our Christian tradition and encourage us to stay with it, incorporating aspects of Buddhism that work for us. That's what I'm trying to achieve with this blog--staying true to Christianity while enriching our tradition with Buddhist wisdom.
June 7, 2009Tricycle's Daily Dharma
Bring Your Spiritual Traditions Together
Many Westerners attracted to Buddhist practice have abandoned their own spiritual traditions. They reject the churches and clergy of their own traditions because they feel constricted and uncomfortable with the attitudes and practices they have encountered there. They have suffered within their own tradition and so have sought another. They approach Buddhist practice with the hope of replacing their own tradition and may wish to break away from their own tradition forever.
According to Buddhist wisdom, such wishing is in vain. A person severed from her own culture and traditions is like a tree pulled out by the roots. Such a person will find it hard to be happy. Buddhist practice can offer effective means to heal, reconcile, and reunite with one’s blood and spiritual families, in order to discover the precious gems in one’s own traditions. Thanks to the practice, people will see that Buddhism and their own spiritual tradition have many things in common, and therefore it is not necessary to reject their own spiritual tradition. They will see that there are things that need to be transformed in Buddhism as well as in their own tradition.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Teachings on Love (Parallax Press)
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