The Gospel According to Sugarland

I'm back to posting about the book called "When Things Fall Apart" by Pema Chodron, attempting to reflect as a "Buddhist Christian."

The last chapter was on the universality of impermanence, suffering and egolessness. She argues that they are a gift if we accept them as part of life. When I encounter the idea that we nothing is permanent (impermanent), that life hurts (suffering) or that I am not in control (egolessness), I often feel as if the world is so vast. I wonder what my place is in such a great, big, out of control, moving, ever-changing place.

So much of the Christian tradition is about surrender. Call it letting go or call it trusting. If there be a God, and if that God as the Christian tradition suggests pursues us for relationship, then the world is a. changes, b. doesn't go my way, and c. is not in my control.

So as I meditated this morning, two songs came to mind from the country duo Sugarland that seem to speak to this: Keep You and It Happens. Enjoy.

Summer with the Boss

I took a few days off from my computer to attend the Big Tent Event (an event of the PCUSA) where I found my summer reading project: The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen. As a way of decompressing from my workshop I finished one of those facebook exercises. This one instructed me to answer the questions using song titles from one artist. I chose... the Boss. So I will begin my summer with the Boss with these two things: the book and the list. Here's the list if you're interested:


Are you male or female: Jersey Girl

Describe yourself: Livin' in the future

How do you feel about yourself: The Rising

Describe where you currently live: Secret Garden

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Tunnel of Love

Your best friend is: outlaw pete

Your favorite color is: pink cadillac

You know that: I'm on fire

What's the weather like: better days

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called? hungry heart

What is life to you: dancing in the dark

What is the best advice you have to give: No surrender

If you could change your name, what would it be: Frankie

Your favorite food is:. magic

Lovingkindness

The Jewish tradition has a word that is rich in meaning - Hesed. My translation goes something like this: Love, devotion, truth and faithfulness laid out on a table of lovingkindness.

Jews and Christians believe that God models this Hesed for us. We are to mimic God.

Buddhists have a word, "Maitri" that translates to "lovingkindness" or "unconditional friendship."

One of the critiques of Buddhism is that it appears to be self-serving meaning that the practice focuses a lot on self and not the other. Those with this critique would say that Christianity is meant to be other-centered.

I would remind us all that Jesus consolidates the entire law into two: love God and love your neighbor - as yourself. We forget that last distinction. We love as we love ourselves.

As I was reading today, Chodron's concern is that we would embrace ourselves, our thinking and our being with this unconditional friendship. I wonder how our loving of God (however we understand God) and our love of the other would change if we extended lovingkindness to ourselves more readily.

Reflections on being a Buddhist Christian

I began reading When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron. Publishers weekly calls it the "Tibetan Buddhist equivalent to Harold Kushner's When Bad Things Happen to Good People."

I began reading it to expand my thinking on suffering. As a Christian theologican, I have lots of Christian doctrine and biblical understanding to offer suffering. But in my own life, I'm finding the need for different words to understand the concept of "dying to self." For the next month, I'll offer quotes and thoughts that stick out from this book.

To begin, I was struck, stopped in my tracks when we used the phrase "nailed to the present moment." My favorite theology of the cross (and there are many, although most Christians only learn one called "substitutionary atonement") is "kenosis," or the act of emptying oneself in death. This doctrine comes from Philippians 2 in the Christian scriptures. "Jesus did not grasp equality with God but instead submitted himself to death."

On page 12-13 she says, "Each day, we're given many opportunities to poen up or shut down. The most precious opportunities presents itself when we come to the place where we think we can't handle whatever is happening. It's too much. It's gone too far. We feel bad about ourselves. There's no way we can manipulate the situation to make ourselves come out looking good. No matter how hard we try, it just won't work. Basically, life has just nailed us."

Buddhism teaches us that each moment holds for us an invitation to let go of self, ego, expectations, desire, even hope. Christianity teaches us that Jesus accepted this invitation on the cross and we are told to live as Jesus did.