8/8/2019 Editorial Comparing Buddhism and Christianity

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Why is it that Buddhism inspires such fascination?By Todd R. SvanoeWh a t , expla ins the rush last,iionlh of more than 12,000 uni-/ersity staff an d students wh oswooped down on tickets to Wednesday'spublic l ecture by the Dulai Lama beforethey could even be offered to the generalpublic?O ne wonders ho w many thousand sealsmore would have been snatched up byeager participants and whether recentnational movies on Tibetan Buddhismalone could enamor so many to this par-t icular public figure.Are we seeing , as Time religion writerDavid Van Biema puts it, "the vagueundifferentiated good will of a cynical andover-caffeinated world still auditioningsources of truth, calm and peace"? Is theinterest, merely political: a natural sympa-thy for the leader of the gentle-heartedTibetan people , underdogs in the battlefor autonomy against communist China?Or are increasing numbers of people inthe West seriously seeking an Eastern reli-gious alternative to a dominant Judeo-Christian paradigm?

Wonder ing wha t trips people's spiritualtriggers has been a lifelong hobby for me.So l ike a good, slightly audaciousAmerican journalist determined to get ahandle on Buddhism in a matter of days I marched off to Dee r Park Monasteryoutside of Oregon recently for a few ta lkswith the local masters.

TOOD SVANOEGeshe Thabkay, a Buddhist fromIndia, makes an offering before analtar at Deer Park Monastery outsideOregon.

While there I discovered ma ny surprisingsimilarities between Western Christianityand this Eastern form of Buddhism, aswell as some insurmountable differences.Removing my shoes, I was greeted with akindly smile by the abbot of themonastery, Geshe Lhundup Sopa, robedin t rademark saffron and maroon."The m ain target of Buddhism is an ego-tistic and self- centered view," started

Sopa, 75, a retired professor of SouthAsian studies from the UW-Madison. Thisview expresses itself in anger, hatred, jeal-ousy, etc.M ost of the practices of Buddhismconcern developing good mentalhabits in the pursui t of six per-fections: c harity, morality, meditation,patience, diligence an d wisdom, he said.Most people have de veloped only a minus-cule portion of their minds.I grew up with a grandmother who tookaway my t ransistor radio because it was atool of Satan. I remem ber sitting at thekitchen table with her, looking up "jazz"in the dictionary, hoping an objective defi-nition would persuade her.Suffice it to say, I know well the anti-intellectualism found in some parts of theChristian church. So any religious manwith an emphasis on the mind is a friendof mine.He told of one of the thousands of medi-tation techniques available to the seriousseeker.Monks here have been offering at analtar seven dishes of water each day as ameans of developing the habit of generosi-ty. "It's not because the Buddha needs it ,"he explained. "You learn to give withoutexpecting anything in return."A different practice, but the words soundso familiar.Another practitioner tells me that theDalai Lama has written several b ooks onhow to love one's enemy. Jesus, too, made

such love the hal lmark of genuine faith,So, are the two religions th e same?Hardly, said Sopa, wh o believes it is thedifferences of Tibetan Buddhism that holdso much appeal to those w ho have givenup on Christianity."Christianity is much more grounded infaith and doing whatever God or the cre-ator says. There is no creator out thereseparate from yourself. Buddha says, 'Useyour own wisdom. Don't follow mebecause. I say so. You have to exam inewhat I say.' "H ere, too, I partially identified withthe teacher. To o often Christians Imeet know what they believe, butnot why.Bu t I 've come to see that Buddhists dif-fer from Christians very fundamentally intheir view of suffering.Both religions would agree with the firsttwo of Buddhism's four Noble T ruths:People exist in a state of suffering, andthat suffering has a cause.For Christianity its cause is in a fissurebetween God and humanity. To Buddhists,there is a chasm between people and theirlimited conceptualization of reality.Bu t Buddhists' solution to that problemis vastly different. The doctrine continues:There is a cessation of suffering, which isnirvana; and there is an eight-fold path tothis liberation. "You develop a realizationof emptiness," ex plained one practitioner.By contrast, the C hristian Scripture saysChrist "was m ade perfect through his suf-

ferings." Th e apostle Paul, in fact, soughtto "share in Christ 's sufferings," notescape them.Reflecting on all of this, I couldn't helpbu t think of a sermon I had hoard atBethel Lutheran C hurch over the holidayson the incarnation of Christ."We don't try to enter God's world, asthe great saints of Eastern religions say,by ceasing to be human," said Rev. BillWhite. "Rather, w e meet the God whobecame flesh by being more deeplyhuman."White gave the exam ple of MotherTeresa, w ho suffered with the dying, hav-ing no method of deliverance to offerthem, just blankets an d bowls of soup todignify their deaths. To some, this is not avery satisfying picture of religious faith.I n four short encounters with theMadison Buddhist comm unity and lotsof reading, I, too, have become fondof Tibetan culture.But if the displacement of Christianityhelps explain Wednesday's packed houseat the Kohl Center, perhaps this is a par-tial explanation: In the words of G.K.Chesterton, "The Christian ideal has notbeen tried and found wanting; it has beenfound difficult and left untried."

Todd R. Svanoe, a correspondent for TheCapital Times, writes regularly about reli-gious issues. He will be covering the DalaiLama's visit to Madison this week.