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'Winter White ... Aroostook County, Maine'
Walking the Way, being faithful to your way, the heart opens to the Truth. The heart seeks the universal, not content with anything less. Yet, we humans begin with devotion to the particular. If we do not begin somewhere, how can we get anywhere? Then, like a bud opening into a blossom, our way can flower. We discover inside our way was hidden the Way; we see how truths led us to the Truth. But to see the Way, we had to see our way. We could not see our way without ardent devotion to it. Then, we are like someone at a buffet - no matter what dish we try, it tastes like itself and, yet, has a subtle, singular flavor common to all the dishes. I can enjoy a salad, but I will taste more than a salad while eating only the salad. Then, my salad tastes better than it would have when tasting only the salad. So, the salad becomes very, very tasty, much tastier than I thought a salad could be.
* * *
After being raised in a culture of religious exclusion, I have felt drawn to different spiritual paths over the last 25 years. One indicator of how strict the previous religious exclusion... I was taught to have a Buddha image in a house provided an opening for demons to possess it. This is the irrational teaching - politically, racially, religiously, and culturally - that hinders us truly seeing another way other than our chosen one for what it is - in fact, in not truly seeing the other, we do not truly see our own. We, then, cannot appreciate and live the heart of our tradition, for we are clinging to the non-essentials of our tradition as though that is what is most important. So, we confuse traits with essence, the limited with the universal, and beliefs and practices with the spirit.
I have enjoyed studying them and engaging in their practices. I used to go through periods of immersing myself in a particular spirituality, then another, and so on. When exploring a path, I felt like it was my path. I felt intimate with the spirit of that tradition, not merely curious or gathering information. I became one with the subject matter. I felt Tibetan Buddhist, felt Zen Buddhist, felt Hindu, felt Eastern Orthodox, ...
Now, I no longer have those shifts in feeling. I feel intimate with the Truth in a way, which is to say the Way in a way. I sense more now the Truth free of the particular path. Yet, suppose I had not been receptive to the particularity of different paths. In that case, I could not have grown to appreciate the one flavor in various ways. Now, I sense no need to be a something, only to remain in love with the Truth and, thereby, grow more to embody boundless, pure Spirit.
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One evening in the 1960s, in a study group in San Francisco, the topic was a book about the meeting of East and West. Suzuki Roshi sat with his hands behind his head. As usual, he listened, not saying anything. Persons were engaged in a discussion comparing East and West, and the West was losing.
One said, "The East is nondualistic and aims to be in harmony with nature, while the West is dualistic and materialistic and aims to conquer and use nature."
"Yes," replied another. "The East is intuitive and integrative, while the West is rational and separative."
As the discussion proceeded, Suzuki Roshi spoke up, clearly upset. He said, "If you want to be a good Buddhist, first you're going to have to learn how to be a good Christian." Then he got up and walked out.
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Many persons in the West have idealized the Eastern wisdom paths. This is naive. This is like the aphorism, "The grass is always greener on the other side." Therefore, it is easy to renounce all Western religions as inferior to the East's traditions. Instead, one is wise to see each way as a very-human attempt to connect us with the Way including all ways. This is like saying, "Each person has a unique appearance, while each person shares a single personhood."
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The Buddhist Thich Nhat Nhan had interesting advice for Christians from the West who went to Plum Villiage, in France, for a retreat. Rather than encourage them to become Buddhists, he would advise them to return home and devote themselves to the Christian faith. He said what is in Zen Buddhism is there, too.
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Suzuki Roshi's words to the group can be seen in one of two ways. The first way is those present needed to become good Christians so they could be good Buddhists. The second reading is faithful to Suzuki Roshi's way and teaching: "To be a good Buddhist, you must be a good Christian; to be one is to be the other." The "other," not in an official sense, but in essence, or spirit.
So, essence, or spirit, is the center. When a little boy, I often did what we called shucking corn. We grew all our corn on the farm. When taking the corncob off the stalk, the core - the cob, around which the kernels are attached -, would be overlaid with the layers of silk tassels. To get to the center, we removed those layers, each leading closer to the nucleus. Any wisdom path is overlaid with layers - culture, time, geography, political milieu, language, ... Yet, to be a good Buddhist and good Christian means, whichever path you take, go to the essence. It means any way you take, go to the center. Then, being Buddhist, you are Christian, and being Christian, you are Buddhist.
Indeed, one can be Buddhist and Christian without membership in either. One can be Buddhist and not be one, as one can be Christian and not be one. In being less a Christian, one might be more Christian, while being less a Buddhist might mean being more Buddhist. Being a Buddhist does not mean being Buddhist, and being a Christian is not the same as being Christian. A Christian in worship at a church on a Sunday morning may be more Buddhist than many Buddhists who are, at the same time, in a Buddhist sangha meditation sit. A Buddhist at the sangha may be more Christian than the priest officiating at the Mass or a preacher preaching from the Bible. Remove the a, and you are speaking of the embodiment of the spirit, or essence, of the path, so the Way.
Hence, I prefer, to capture in English better Suzuki Roshi's saying, "If you want to be Buddhist, you must first become Christian." For to be Christian is to be a good Christian, and to be Buddhist is to be a good Buddhist.
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When you adopt a spiritual path, you commit yourself to it, for it is the path for you. You have no interest in it being better than another path. That is not your interest. Your interest is fidelity to the course you have chosen. Your part is to live it to the core and, so, live from where we are more than an a something. We have become that we devoted ourselves to. Our particular way has shaped us into the likeness of the Way - not any one way, the Way. The heart is universal. The heart resonates with that in its likeness. The heart remains vital by our imbibing of the Truth without boundaries.
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*Story of Suzuki Roshi, in David Chadwick. Crooked Cucumber.
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2021
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse. The book is a collection of poems based on mystical traditions, especially Christian and Sufi, with extensive notes on the teachings and imagery in the poetry.
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