Buddhist Blends 2 | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

[The Miami Herald (USA), July 3, 2004]

“...spiritual fusion isn't as easy as whipping up Cuban Chinese or Jamaican Indian.

DIFFERENT WORLDS

On almost every level, the two doctrines clash. Christianity holds that a divine creator fashioned the Earth in seven days; Buddhists believe the universe -- thought to be one of many -- has no beginning. Christian doctrine maintains the dead will be resurrected on judgement day, while Buddhism, like Hinduism, posits that individuals will be reborn until they achieve spiritual liberation. And while some say Buddha and Jesus offer similar messages of peace and compassion, one is an enlightened sage who offers a contemplative path to liberation, the other, the sole savior.

But the glaring theological contradictions don't impede Ruben Habito, a Zen Buddhist teacher and a practicing Jesuit, from finding common ground between Buddhist and Christian mystical experiences.

''There is a way one can, in a single life, be faithful to two faiths,'' said Habito, a professor of world religions at the Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, who recently led a week-long meditation retreat with 35 people, and offered the Catholic Eucharist after the evening meditation.”

[TBC: Humanity’s reconciliations have often run contrary to the teaching of Christ: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John:14:6). In summary, by seeking to reconcile the teaching of Christ with the world, we cease to be His disciples.]