Good evening Sangha,
Warning: If you feel that talking of God makes seems inappropriate in the group, you might want to avoid this blog.
As of late, …actually, as of Bobby’s Shukke Tokudo, I’ve been feeling a call from God. Weird, I know, but it’s true. Bobby’s devotion and desire to wait to become a priest was very touching. I never knew until Roshi told us. When I became a priest, I jumped right in, mostly because of a desire to learn more and to teach and be testimony. It wasn’t wrong, it was just a different path than what Bobby took.
As Roshi was talking during the ceremony, I felt a need to be closer with the Lord, that I’ve not necessarily been repressing, but have been putting aside. Well, not exactly. I’ve been weaving this Buddhist/Christian way of living for quite some time. It’s not a chore, don’t get me wrong, I love my path. I love that it intrigues people enough to sit through a conversation about it. I feel it kind of opens others eyes and makes me more comfortable talking about it. What I’m trying to say is, I will not being sitting on Sunday mornings anymore. Christian churches meet on Sunday mornings, and I feel that God wants me back in church. What church? I don’t know. I grew up Catholic and converted to Baptist in high school. When I got to college, I got a gig singing at a Methodist church and began attending those services, even when I wasn’t singing. Point is, I need to do some “Church Shopping” to find where I need to be, where I can be closer to God. So, if you are in Cruces and would like to recommend a church, hollahhhh. Please take into consideration that I do no thoroughly enjoy “Assembly of God”-type churches. I like that style of worship,but I don’t like it all the time.
This reminds me of what my dad used to tell me (PS I miss you dad). When discussing religion, he would say “you don’t need to go to any specific church to worship God. You can have church at home, in your living room, in your heart.” While I do agree with him, I also feel that I need a closer fellowship with Christians. …just like I feel I need a closer fellowship with Buddhists, specifically people in my age group (No offense older Sangha; I love and cherish the relationship I have with you).
So, enough with the rambling. I still feel the need to start my own Zenster type of group. I will need to find another location which will allow us to meet another day/evening of the week. And yes, I will continue my buddhist practice.
Gassho,
Kajo
Pahpoo Said:
on April 11, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Sean and I go to First. We go to the ‘contemporary service’ at 1045. Sunday School is at 9. =d
Sunday nights I usually go with my roomie to Sagebrush. Its very college-age and just starting out in LC. Its a satelite campus of the main church up in ABQ. They meet at …5pm at Conlee Elementary in the cafeteria.
Rev. Komyo Said:
on April 15, 2010 at 8:19 AM
Rev. Kajo,
You may have heard me say “we may take different paths to the top of the mountain, but when we get there we shall enjoy the same view. ”
My background was:
A commissioned lay minister for a Catholic Church. In that function I visited people who were at home or in the hospital, and brought them Hole Communion, or sat with them and read scripture, or in some cases held there hand as they passed on. I did that every day for 2 years, until a senior Catholic priest told me that I was “too ecumenical” because I also sat with non Catholics and read the bible to them, or assisted them in their last times. I left to study under several Protestant (Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Evangelical) teachers until I was ordained as a minister.
As you know, my path has led my to Zen. Acrtually I was sitting meditation since 1975 at a Martial Arts dojo. People now ask me how I can be a Zen disciple with a Christian background.
I tell them the same as master Seung Sahn says; “Don’t know ” What I can tell them, and you, is that it works.
Saddatha Gautama, The Historical Buddha, encouraged his disciples to thoroughly investigate what they were learning and what other people learn. While on a travel, he talked to the intelligent Kalama people.
They asked him:
“Venerable Sir, many religious teachers come to our place from time to time and expound their respective doctrines in detail. All of them say that what they preach is the only truth and the others are wrong. Thus while glorifying themselves, and their doctrines they find fault and despise others. Now Sir, we are at a loss. How are we to know which of these teachers speaks the truth, and which speaks falsely?”
“Yes Kalamas,” said the Buddha, “it is quite natural to doubt where doubting is proper. Now come, do not accept a thing merely because it has been handed down by tradition or from generation to generation, or from heresay. Do not accept a thing because of mere scriptural sanction, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by superficial knowledge, nor yet because of your fondness for some theory, nor because it seems to be suitable, not again just out of respect for a certain religious teacher. But, Kalamas, when you know for youself that certain things are unprofitable, blameworthy, censured by the wise, and when performed or undertaken conduce to loss and suffering, then you should reject them.
“Now, what do you think, Kalamas, when greed arises within a person, does it arise to his profit or to his loss?”
“To his loss, Sir.”
“Well, by becoming greedy or being overcome be greed and thereby losing balance of one’s mind, does he not indulge in killing, commit theft, go after another’s wife, tell lies, and not only that, mislead others into evil and immoral acts which lead to his own loss and misery for a long time?”
“Yes, he does, Sir.”
“Likewise, when hatred or malice, delusion or ignorance or such other evil states arise do they not make people lose control of their minds and thereby lead them to perform all knids of evil and immoral acts which end in loss and suffering?”
And when the Kalamas answered in the affirmative as above, the Buddha continued, “It is precisely for this reason, Kalamas, that I told you n ot to accept a thing merely because it happens to be traditional, and so on, and that you should reject a thing when you know for yourself that a thing is harmful and will bring misery to yourself and others. On the other hand, when a person is not greedy, not malicious, nor deluded, -that is to say leberal, kindly, and wise – what do you think: will not those qualities be to his nown profit and happiness?”
“They will sir.”
And by being liberal, kindly, and wise will they not brcome self-controlled and refrain from the immoral acts of killing and so-forth? And will that not be for their own and also for others’ profit
and happiness?”
“Yes, that is so, Sir.”
Indeed it was with such penetrating realism and rationality that the Buddha drove home the truth to the hearts of his hearers. The teachihg of the Buddha was far from being just a religion of dogmas and faiths thriving primarily on rites and rituals. He cretainly did not come to add one more theory on top of the already prevailing mass of views in his time. Nor did he subscribe to sectarioan rivalry such as seems to have been so common in those days. His approach was primarily rational, as can be seen from tnhe discussion with the Kalamas; he cut a clear middle course between existing wild practices as going naked in order to attain mental purity on the one hand and, on the other hand, the gross sensualism and ritualism developed through the religious hierarchy based on caste by birth. Amidst such religious chaos, his Doctrine of the Middle Way, which is a progressive course of moral, mental, and spiritual development, was indeed a great contrast.
So what is all this saying? The Buddha told his disciple to doubt everything, including what he told them. Doubt and investigate. Put all your preconceived notions, all your past teaching, and all your assumptions aside. Use the good sense that you had “before your parents’ faces were known”, and seek the truth.
One more thing – Buddhism is not a theistic belief. Buddha didn’t claim to be a God, nor did he base this belief upon the existense of a God. Because of this, some say that Buddhists are atheists. Not true. Buddhism is a non-theistic belief. It takes away the crediting to God, or some other Supreme Being, the good and the bad that we incur in our lives. Instead, Buddhism uses a system of cause and effect. At the same time, it allows those who wish to believe in a Supreme Being, the right to do so.
Look for the answers. If they come to you in a Catholic Church, or Baptist Church, or an Evangelical church, or a Jewish Temple, or even a combination of all, Then you are better than you were before you bagan looking.
With a bow,
_/\_
Rev. KoMyo
awakenedbeing Said:
on April 15, 2010 at 11:34 PM
Thank you KoMyo-san