Opening the Hand of Thought - Chapter 7 Part 1

[Myosha]

Thank you for the link.


Gassho
Myosha
sat today

[AlanLa]

A number of years ago I got as a present a book comparing the sayings of the Buddha and Jesus on various topics. It's an interesting read. The similarities are striking. (But Rich is right, Jesus did not give instructions for meditation ) That being said, in comparing the two religions, I fall back on the "not one," not two approach because there are clear similarities and differences between the two. As humans we spend too much time finding differences and too little time on finding common ground, a practice that serves us much better in the long and short run, so I applaud Uchiayama for trying to do both in this chapter. I agree with Kyotai above, though, that it was a bit of a stretch to show just how much they could be similar. I think he was stretching Buddhism, though, not Christianity. But Buddhists would likely be less likely to complain than their Christian counterparts, so I guess that made sense. I just kept getting the feeling he was trying to justify Buddhism as a religion when I don't think it needs that, or any, justification beyond its own trueness. Buddhism can stand on its own just fine, or it can stand with Christianity, or other religions, also just fine.