Article #92
Subject: 33 ways for the Buddha and Jesus to return home together
Author: Andrew W. Harrell
Posted: 11/8/2011 10:41:00 PM

33 Ways the Buddha and Jesus can return Home together as brothers
And live a happy life together in Heaven on earth.

Review of the Book “Going Home: Jesus and the Buddha as Brothers”
By Thich Nhat Hanh


Jesus is not only a living brother to the Buddha, He is also his teacher.
Most of these thoughts come from the Bible, but they do not depend on the
Bible or the Church for their authority, for they should be “self-evident”
to the Buddha.

“Let the People say Amen!”

Pages

2-3 “There are two levels (dimensions), relationships of theology,
horizontal and vertical”

In the vertical (timeless) dimension there are two great concepts: sameness
and difference. In the horizontal/vertical there is cause and effect (time).
The great idea of Truth (which requires, first, the great ideas of sameness
and difference to exist) comes forth both in the timeless (absolute, eternal)
and
time realm. In the time dimension it partcipates also the great idea of cause
and effect.

4 “In Buddhism we learn that “this is” because “that is”.
In Christianity we learn that “this is” because “I AM this (and/or that)”
and “I AM that I AM” and also “I AM Who I AM”.

5 “One thing (is relative and contingent) containing everything”
One thing is also, by itself, what Leibnitz called a monad: existing
differently and individually, outside of and inside of everything.

6 “God is not a being in the phenomenal world”

This statement is contradicted by the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.
Paul Tillich’s theology of “God is dead” is pretty outdated now.

9 “We know that the wave is water, and we know that the water is the
ground of the wave”
Christians believe that humans need God to exist, like the wave needs water
to exist. As, the wave and the water exist only by touching each other. As
Bishop Berkeley said we need someone to observe the tree fall in the forest
in order for it to actually fall. So, a finite human soul, needs a higher
eternal being, with a power above all human power and supernatural to it, and
with a limitless eternal mind and spirit to observe and judge our acts and
deeds in order for them to be preserved toward purposefulness in this eternal
and timeless heavenly realm which exists now and also in the future and the
past. So, also, say we who believe, through faith, that it is possible to
dwell with God and participate in heaven as a part of earth.

10 “Why spend your time discussing whether God is a person or not?”
Knowing that God is a person like us can heal us and help him save our souls.

14 “Buddhism teaches that there is non-self, anatta.”
It seems to me that here Rev. Nhat Hanh is speaking of non-self as “future or
past self”.
A little confusing, isn’t it.

16 “We don’t want to say that Buddhism is a kind of Christianity and/or
Christianity is a kind of Buddhism.”
We agree with this. Christianity is not a form of Buddhism or Judaism or
Hinduism, but unique in itself.( this is why we say, as Christians, that
Jesus is the only (unique) Son of God when he dwells in one of us as an
individual.

18 “The word mindfulness is not used in Christian and Jewish circles
because mindfulness is a Buddhist word.”
Not, true. The YHWH School of Chrisitianity uses the term mindfulness…read
other discussions/postings at this website, you will find it used often there.

19 “There is no permanent entity that you can call yourself”
God is omnipresent, not because his presence is in us all, now, but because,
He/She has this as a possibility in Himself or Herself.

20 “Is there anything that has a separate self?, No.”
The Bible tells us that God’s self can be separate from us when we disobey
Him/Her (also I have found this to be true in observing my own shortcomings
over time for a long period now).

23 “ If you practice looking deeply, you will see that the notion of birth
and death can be transcended.”
If we are never born, then we can never die…that is certainly true. But, God
as Jesus Christ was born and did die, and did rise again. And, He will
continue to do this, as a part of us as long as we allow Him or Her inside of
us and have faith believing this to be true.

27 “In both the East and the West, we have the notion of ”the All”, the
ultimate reality, the ground of our being.”
The ground of our being, which is called “Sat” or “Brahmin” or “reality” in
the East is something very important for us to understand for our
Christian “enlightenment”. But, it is not the “Truth in general ”…or the
Truth known as “Satyam” (absolute Truth) or “Ritam” (relative Truth). In the
Bible, in the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ has said that He is the Truth
(both what is called in the East either Satyam and Ritam). In the East there
is a person called the “Lord Narayana” (the Truth of God according to the
Tantra or continuation of sound meaning, and dwelling in man or woman) who is
both the general Truth who appears and manifests Himself at the beginning and
end of time. There is also the person called Krishna who is a manifestation
of our cosmic consciousness but is detached from the world and dwells in our
human hearts. But, according to Buddhism, the Buddha is “just a man”. My
question to the Buddha is, “If you are just a man, who do you say Jesus and I
(Andrew W. Harrell) AM?”

34 “Buddhism teaches that understanding is the ground of Love”

Yes, this is True for sure (self-evidently). We cannot love others as
ourselves, as Jesus has instructed us to do, if we don’t practice mindful
attention and deep thoughtful mediation about what is happening to us in and
who is it that is really dwelling around us, as a part us, and why they are
there…right now.

65 THE SANGHA IS THE DOORWAY
A door (one of many) can be a mediator between God and each of us. But, as
Saint Paul has said, “Through One man we are save” In this sense Jesus Christ
saves us by being the one and only way (among many) to mediate harsh, but
just, judgements of God’s Truth in us.

73 “Enlightenment, freedom, and transformation happen through direct
experience.”
Ie, not inference. But, faith needs absolute Truth which often requires cause
and effect plus an intermediate inference.

75 “Our notion of happiness may be the obstacle to our happiness.”
But, there is direct joy and indirect joy. In my opinion, lasting happiness
has to exist in the future as well as the past to be certain for us. And, it
requires the experience of both types of joy in order to grow inside of us
and in the environment we carry around us.
Happiness, to exist needs to have the potential to be “self-evident’ and
lasting ie personal and individual.

79 “Faith is a living thing, and a living thing has to change.”
Yes, but it has to be fixable inside us too. This is self-evident. Given this
additional requirement for it, I agree with what this sentence is saying.

90 “To be baptized is to have the opportunity to recognize that this Spirit
and that energy are already in you. To be baptized is to recognize the Holy
Spirit and to touch it within you.”

Yes, we have to cultivate mindfulness if we are to become enlightened and
hence understand the Holy Spirit (God dwelling in us) better.

92 “Redemption and resurrection are neither words nor objects of belief.”

This may be true for Buddhists, but for Christians they are words and objects
of faith that have meaning and truth inside of them. For it is through faith
in the redemption and resurrection powers of God’s Son that we are saved
(rescued from death). It is through the practice of mindfulness that we
repent further and are sanctified further as we grow in Christ (after being
saved).

97 MAKING THE CHILD STRONG

Friendliness toward God in ourselves and God in others helps us grow in
strength in Christ.

99 “Whether you call it nirvana or Father it’s not important”
Nirvana is asampragnata Samadhi (healing through dissolution in the formless
realms). But, God our Father, our Creator is also sampragnata Samadhi
(creation in the realms of form). So it is important. What I think Rev. Nhat
Hanh means here when he speaks of nirvana is the third person of the trinity,
the Holy Spirit (God living in us and sanctifying and healing us).

100 -101 “Does God need to be famous?”

God needs to be famous in order to be more accessible and to help us more.
How can He do His job as a mediator if the way to understand him is “hidden
under a bushel of teachings”?

107 “I want you to eat real bread, that you may come alive.”

The real bread that is Jesus exists in more than just the present moment. If
Jesus exists in just the present moment in us, then who is He or She? By the
time our experiential data of him in the present moment reaches us, that data
of experience, as it happened, doesn’t exist in any reality anymore. But, He
or She is not just a notion, but a real persosn, having real enduring and pre-
venient substance.

126 THE CONRETE PATH OF TRAINING
These five mindfulness affirmations and vows are similar to the last five of
the Ten Commandments in the Bible. However, it is interesting to study the
differences and additions also. In Christianity and Judaism we have the 1st
five commandments which become trainings when we vow or affirm them for
ourselves. 1) God is God in us, a God most High 2) Do not make any graven
images of God(Since the Buddha only claims to be a man we can consider this
as also obeyed in Buddhism), 3) Do not take God’s name in vain (Buddhism
also teaches us to be humble and respect divinity as we find it around and in
us), 4) Honor our fathers and mothers (this is also taught in Buddhism), 5)
Refrain from work on the Sabbath and mindfully observe it as a day of rest
(Buddhism also teaches mindful relaxation and thoughtful study of the God in
its own way of approaching Him). So, the main difference, I think, is only in
the first out of the ten commandments/trainings from the Bible. But,
personally, I believe, too, that the first commandment is the most important
of all the ten. This is because all the rest follow from this primary one.

150-151 “This person is an extraordinary person; He is a teacher and He
carries within Himself the Way.”
Note in the book He is not capitalized but Way is. I have capitalized both
words here.
How is the Buddha, who is also the Way, also the Truth? The Buddha is a door,
so he is a mediator like Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is more than
just a way, he is the Truth. And, it is a living Truth that is an end
(fulfilled purpose) in a beginning… and a beginning in an end (fulfilled
purpose).”


152-153 “In the Buddhist tradition we speak of the bodies of the Buddha, It
may be helpful in understanding the Trinity

In Christianity we both teach that the Trinity can be understood, and can not
be understood. As Saint Augustine has said, “the Father is God, the Son is
God, the Holy Spirit (God dwelling in us) is God, the Father is not the Son,
the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father.” They
are three persons in One substance. We know that God can be both like and
unlike us (see Dr. Adler’s excellent book on “How to Think About God” for
more on this. But, is it true, since “he is only a man” , that the Buddha can
only be like us? I wonder if Jesus asked the Buddha this question what would
be his answer? I will not get into discussions what substance means.
Philosophers have arguing about this for 2 a,nd ½ millennium. I


158 “If you throw away the historical dimension, there is no ultimate
dimension for you to touch.”
Christians do not agree that there are no intermediate dimensions besides the
vertical and horizontal to touch. We know, for instance, that in the
horizontal dimension of the present moment that there are four dimensions
(x,y,z,t) of reality.

159 “How do you touch nirvana?”
How do you touch our creator? How do you touch an angel? Why through a
mediator, like His incarnated Son, of course. Jesus has taught us in the
Bible that He is present and incarnated in the poor, in the sick, in the
needy who live among us.

162 “If you do not know what hunger is, you would never have the pleasant
feeling of having something to eat.”
This assertion is true in our everyday experience, but when we apply it to
the different realm of theology,.
It is not true. It is not true that if you never have known what Salvation
is, that you would never be saved.
Since salvation occurs through the power of supernatural grace (the giving
part of God’s love), you don’t necessarily have to know ahead of time who you
are in order for God’s grace to enter into you. (Methodists however believe
there is such a thing called grace which can give us some through our worlds
of experience some foreknowledge of it).
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He did not necessarily know that He
would rise again. He did have some foreknowledge of it when He said, “Destroy
this temple, and I will rebuild it in three days.” However, when He said on
the cross, “Lord why have you abandoned me” He was genuinely in pain and
wonderment about what was going to happen and how it could happen. He had
faith that it would. But, faith often doesn’t know (from past experience)
exactly how things are going to work out right. It just knows that somehow
they will.

167 “If the water is one with the wave, why complain that the water is
abandoning the wave?”
As we said above, the Son knows that “I and the Father are One.” But He
doesn’t know always exactly how this is going to happen. We are both from God
and of God. If we (or Jesus) we not we could not be one with others and God
would only be God and not incarnated in us living as both separate from us
and a part of us.

172 “SENDING YOUR HEART ALONG WITH THE SONG” being a boddhisattwa
Christian do not have to know they are saved to be saved. But, some do. In
Christianity, the term for boddhisattwa is apostle or disciple.of Christ.
Because when you truly know you are saved, then you want to pass it on…by
going out into the world and teach and help others. This is what we call
Evangelical Christianity.

176 “Suddenly I heard the Church bells. This time it went very deeply
into me.”
I agree that the sound of Church bells is a wondelful mediator to bring to
our consciousness the need to live more in the present moment (but also more
in the future and the past).
Lord Jesus Christ have mercy
(salvation,redemption,justification,sanctification) on me a sinner.
I prayed this prayer for 20 years before I realized the true meaning of it
relative to what the word me in me means. That word refers not only to my own
individual ego, but also to others around me that depend on me and have been
influenced by me. And who might expect that I am the one who needs to help
them.
Jesus knew this Himself, when He prayed to His Father and Himself in the last
chapter of the Gospel of John. He prayed for God His Father to help not only
His soul, but also that of his disciples and apostles and all those who
believed in Him.