"Did you ever find yourself inside a church, and there's a person behind the pulpit telling you on a Sunday morning you have to change?" the Buddhist priest asks. "And this person behind the pulpit doesn't even know you! How can someone who doesn't know you tell you to change?"Brian, the Buddhist priest, continues: "My advice is that you don't change. That you look inside yourself and find your true nature. Be that person, and you won't find any need to change."
This was just one of many thoughts Brian shared last week when we were filming some video for his blog, Buddhism Today-Brian Vaugh. He says these things, I take them in and think about them, I find myself challenged, and I discover new ways to look at some old things.
Brian wasn't preaching the Gospel of Moral Relativism but saying that the source of morality is the enlightened self. To be enlightened is to see the suffering in the world for what it is and to respond to it with compassion, to wish to see the end of all suffering. Brian was therefore preaching the same Gospel as Jesus Christ but in a compassionate way.
The Gospels are full of words attributed to Jesus telling us to be nice to even the lepers of the world, to embrace children, to feed the hungry, to share what we have, to love one another. This is not wisdom that is put on like Sunday clothes but discovered through living.
Taking Brian's words to heart means changing, of course. It means foregoing the authority of strangers--the church--to tell me what's good and bad, right and wrong, and to be that authority. Let the truth be, and it will speak for itself.
Brian's lessons are my blessing.
11 Comments
I find myself drawn a lot of the teachings of Buddhism. They have given me much thought and peace over the years.
ReplyDeleteHappy BYB Sunday.
Buddhism is more a philosophy than a religion, per c'est... and one can be a "Christian-Buddhist" or "Jewish-Buddhist"... or whatever.
ReplyDeleteI'd be an absolute Buddhist save the dogmatic bits when it comes to certain aspects of the practise...
Interesting link and a goodly blessing of a sort!
I left the church long ago. I could not stand the hypocrisy and the "if you are not a member of this church, then you are damned" sermons.
ReplyDeleteJesus is salvation and his church is a come-as-you-are, wherever-you-are place.
Sandy, Thanks for being so faithful each Sunday and commenting even when I didn't get a BYBS posted. I truly am thankful for your steadfastness.
ReplyDeleteHappy BYBS!
Nice post, and one that makes a person think.
ReplyDeleteI haven't gone into any religion deeply, not even my Hinduism - which is mine, but I feel that all religions are the same at the core and have a common aim. It is when they are interpreted, by some people, in a parochial way that they lose some of their meaning.
Happy BYB Sunday and hope you have a great week ahead.
Nice blog. Tanks
ReplyDeletePaulo
PORTUGAL
Great post Sandy! Happy BYB Sunday. and thanks so much for stopping by!
ReplyDeleteI like Brian's advice. I try and be introspective but its not always easy.
ReplyDeletePS. I love this blog
Thanks, all, for visiting today. I value your comment and appreciate the time you take to stop here.
ReplyDeleteOnce you burn away the trappings Man has added to "the church", we are left not with seeking the moral authority of strangers, but to the ultimate authority of the Holy Spirit.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that is what Brian was pushing toward. Would that all factions of the church would join him....
"Let the truth be, and it will speak for itself."
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
One of the most intriguing questions i have come across is 'What is truth?' And i guess we keep asking this question and find different facets of the answer as we walk along...
Thanks for being here.