Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian

“God” must be an experience before “God” can be a word.

God is the activity of giving and receiving, of knowing and loving, of losing and finding, of dying and living that embraces and infuses all of us, all of creation. Though every image or symbol limps, Christians can and must say what Buddhists might agree with – that if we’re going to talk about God, God is neither a noun nor an adjective. God is a

Loving others, therefore, is not a question so much of “doing God’s will” but, rather, of “living God’s life.” That’s why Rahner used to tell us that there are a lot of people who live God’s life in their actions even though they may deny God’s existence in their words. (And vice versa, a lot of people who say they believe in God but who cancel out

In picturing or approaching the Divine as a “you,” I somehow feel I’m being inappropriate, or disrespectful, or offensive – something like talking loudly in the midst of the hushed beauty of a New Zealand forest.

interpersonal relations are the most precious and necessary part of being human.

one also sees and feels others differently, and begins to act toward them differently. This different way of acting is described as compassion, or karuna. As all Buddhists recognize, and especially the reforming Mahayanists emphasize, it is impossible to have wisdom without compassion. They are the two faces of Enlightenment. To see one is also to

when God becomes part of an “I–Thou relationship,” this God-as-Thou takes on a degree of otherness that just doesn’t fit the intimacy that I feel, or hope to feel, with the Divine. I guess I’m saying that God-as-Thou so easily slips back into the dualism of God-as-Other.

If the Divine is truly a Mystery that is beyond all human comprehension, beyond all human ideas and words, then any spiritual practice must make room – lots of room – for “the practice of silence.”

Really, what Buddha was urging, on the basis of his own experience and with his own personal and practical insights and emphases, is his own version of the Hindu tradition of Yoga – time-tested methods of working with your body in order to work with your mind in order to deepen your awareness of yourself and your world.

In any case, when we pray for each other in this way, it is not a form of requesting divine interventions. It is a way of enabling the connecting Spirit to emerge rather than invade; it’s activating the Spirit that is already there, rather than asking it to intervene from out there. Petitionary prayers, we might say, make us aware of – and therefor