Ex-blogger Emily Stimpson has an excellent article reprinted from Our Sunday Visitor called Despite pop works’ claims, Buddhist, Catholic beliefs collide, don’t blend.
Hat tip to the reader who sent it in.
Cardinal Zen is cool but not other combinations
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That was a good article. I hope we see more like that. (Re Pope John Paul II’s views, he stated, perhaps in that same book, that Buddhism is a form of atheism and for that reason as deserving of respect as Buddhists are, we can’t JOIN in their spiritual practices. That was upsetting news to me when I first heard it, because I knew that the Buddhists were insulted—and I knew some wonderful Buddhists!)
One of the problems in digesting the material as written, though it is true and needs to be stated, is that there is no denying that a devout Buddhist does GOOD, and too many Catholics don’t. It’s easier to say that there is something wrong with Catholicism than to admit that we are not following our faith faithfully!! Or so it seems.
-Rather like Protestantism, there are many different types of Buddhism, with many different sets of beliefs.-
And your typical American “Buddhist” (read ‘white, college-educated liberal) doesn’t have the slightest idea what any type of Buddhism really says, he just thinks it means being ‘easy-going’. While I am not a Buddhist, I would have a lot more respect for a dyed-in-the-wool Buddhist than some kid who plays at being vegetarian. So-called Buddhists over here would be shocked to find that, morally, buddhists have a lot more in common with the Catholic Church (re: sexuality, fasting, almsgiving, etc) than they do.
Problem with buddhism is it is essentially negative, whereas Catholics see the world as essentially good, though it has yet to be perfected by God.
�Buddhism allows you to be anything you want to be with all sorts of East Asian trappings,� he said.
No offense but it seems like some converts to Buddhism look upon it as a free-for-all religion. ‘I can pick whatever I want, avoid suffering (not that we go looking for it but when it comes we should have the grace to accept it),etc.’ Very interesting, thanks for posting.
Check out these documents issued by the Vatican related to this:
Some Aspects of Christian Meditation
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (October 15, 1989)
Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life
Pontifical Council For Inter-Religious Dialogue (February 3, 2003)
nice article.
Extra fun that she cooks dinner for me and my group of friends of Wednesday. A wonderful and bright woman. 🙂
On a lighter note:
How many Zen Buddhists does it take to change a light bulb?
Two. One to change the light bulb…and one not to change the light bulb.
That element of relativism, Clark believes, at least in part accounts for so many Westerners� attraction to Buddhism. �Buddhism allows you to be anything you want to be with all sorts of East Asian trappings,� he said.
Yep. That is why all Western departures into exotic religions (pagan, wiccan, buddhist, Hindu/Yoga, etc.) are all the same. The REAL religion is modernist relativism/hedonism and everything else is window dressing.
Another difference that was not articulated is the Christian view of redemptive suffering. John Paul wrote a beautiful meditation on this perennial theme after his shooting in the early 80’s. I find that many Christians eschew the Church’s teaching on suffering and view it as entirely negative rather than constituting and giving meaning to life in solidarity with Our Lord.
Although one similarity between Buddhism and Christianity is that Buddhism is a missionary religion. In fact Buddhism in its various forms takes up elements of surrounding indigenous practices. So in Chinese Buddhism prayers for ancestors as well as burning paper houses and money in effigy for that person. However such practices point toward to some sort of after-life which Buddhism does not believe in save for successive incarnations ending in enlightenment and nirvana.
I find it laughable that the Western peoples who fancy themselves Buddhist object to the constricting morals, rules, obligations, and religious duties of Christianity. Buddhism in the East insists on far greater asceticism than Christianity and Catholicism (for example, Roman Catholicism promotes feasting on Sundays even during Lent).
I knew a couple from Sri Lanka which has Buddhists and Christians there. Buddhists look down on Christianity because it’s practices and doctrines are too lax (You don’t pay for your sins after all – Jesus does). They even have a saying for people trying to be too lazy: “you can’t have Christmas every day”.
That being said, I do believe that Buddhism, like Virgil the righteous pagan from Dante’s Inferno, can warn us of the dangers of hell and the dangers of this world – but when confronted with the task of seeking heaven, another must take over.
“like Virgil the righteous pagan from Dante’s Inferno”
I think that’s the experience I’ve been trying to convey. Our reactions to that experience can be tricky, though, if even for a minute we forget what we have been given as Catholics. The truth and right actions of the devout Buddhists should challenge us to adhere so closely to the Truth that we act from it, openly. What is happening all around us though, is that Catholics see good Buddhists, etc, and find fault with our Faith, rather than finding fault with ourselves and recognizing our failure to practice our faith fully.
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