The Episcopal Diocesan office in Topeka, Kansas, has apparently been struggling a bit in the news since last May, when they decided to tear down some trees in a historic district to put up a parking lot "so the elderly can go to church." Their diocesan spokesperson is unfortunately quoted as saying, "We're here to save souls, not trees" -- as if a parking lot, or access to a church, could save a soul. Whatever saving souls means.
In response to this unfortunate remark, which to me typifies the worst of righteous Christianity, I would like to offer a quotation sent by a dear friend and fellow former Episcopal communications exec:
The late poet/philosopher John O'Donohue had this to say about his beloved trees:
"In our age of rapid, shallow, horizontal travel, trees can teach us how to journey another, slower, deeper way. Frequently, our own journeys have no depth--because we have left our deeper selves behind... and lack rootage. But the wisdom of the tree balances the path inwards with the path outwards."
This seems to me to be a rather zen statement, to which I am drawn because that seems to be my task at this point in life: to work on building the connection between root and sky; between the God of my childhood and the awareness of Godness within me. And thinking about that, I realize that a lot of what happens in this blog is fueled by my parallel readings in Buddhism and Christianity.
What's challenging about that is that I always feel like I'm walking on tiptoe in this blog. I loved my former mother-in-law (now deceased) but I am nonetheless aware that, as a born-again Christian, she was always horrified by my "flirtation" with Buddhism. And I know that back when I was on the preaching rotation at the Shaw Island Community Church, there were folks who chose not to come on the Sundays I preached because I would occasionally reference the teachings of the Dalai Lama.
I also know that there are Christians who definitely view the Gospel of Thomas (which I read every morning) as heretical.
And I know I have friends who read this blog who are very comfortable with my spiritual side but have a lot of negative associations with Christianity, and so are put off by the words "Gospel" and "Jesus," which appear with some frequency.
So I find myself editing my thoughts, toning things down a bit; a natural outgrowth of my upbringing. I am the only child of a rather stoic Swedish engineer father and an extremely emotional artist mother, so peacemaking and appeasement became a strongly ingrained survival technique for me. Time after time I end up standing on the bridge between warring factions, trying to help each side understand the other -- which, I suspect, is why communications became my profession.
Perhaps, then, it might be time to take off the ballet shoes and stop tiptoeing around Buddhism and Christianity; time to be blunt about the pull of each, and to explore exactly what works for me and what doesn't in each. Because I do have lots of thoughts on that. But I'll save those for another post.
3 comments:
I wonder, if you could put Jesus and the Buddha and some of the other great light-bearers in a room together, what they would say about all of the conflicts that have occurred between their "followers."
My opinion is that this is YOUR blog, and you may say what you please. Perhaps you would be more comfortable writing in your personal journal first, and letting it rest there until you are sure you want to publish your thoughts, but no one has to read a blog; they choose to do so.
I can relate to the ingrained urge to make peace. Good insight about your career choice, too.
What if the different "paths" are simply God's way of speaking to us (in our various times and cultures) in ways that we can hear and understand? I wonder if God's love is so urgent, passionate and adaptable that it reaches out to everyone, in every era and place? I would love to think that this is so.
Bless you.
Ohmygosh! I can post comments in your blog now! Hurrayyy =P
It's really funny though- last night we stayed up till god knows when, talking about Buddhism and Christianity, and their similarities and the differences between "religion" as the West defines it and what people do on the ground in the East... But, when we were talking about the economic needs of both religions, Martin brought up the story of a shrine in Japan, a Shinto shrine, which was originally made for the worship/care the particular grove of trees in which it was in. Families take care of these shrines for generations, passing down the skills much like a farmer to his sons, or a carpenter to his sons or apprentices (skills usually remain in families in Japan). But, nowadays, Buddhism and Shintoism are inseparable, and Buddhism the stronger because it holds belief, while Shintoism is mostly about practice and the funny feeling you get about a certain rock or grove of trees, like something's there; so, one of the recent inheritors of this shrine, thinking about Bodhisattvas and not the trees of the shrine, thought the shrine didn't have enough money for its upkeep, so he cut the trees down to sell their lumber so he could keep the shrine going.
So for some reason when you wrote that quote about saving souls not trees, I laughed a bit. Anyway.
Like Karen said, I really must say you should not edit the blog for us; this is YOU, mama, your journal. I periodically edit my posts a little, either for worksafeness or for things I shouldn't put on the internet (mostly for my extended family like Rob, etc. to see- Livejournal is fortunate in that it has privacy levels =P) but you shouldn't sit between all of us and say, oh, okay, I won't say what I think because I care about you guys. Obviously, whoever is reading this blog on a regular basis cares about you mom; they (probably XD) want to hear what you have to think and say, not some watered-down version that keeps everyone unoffended. It's that sort of activity that makes you forget what your real opinion is on important matters, how you really feel- and this even includes important matters concerning yourself! Also, I must say, I really want to hear as much about you and what's going on in your head as I can, so =P But still. Go mama! Say what you wan-na!
=P
I love you, you know. (And I'm so, so, so glad I can finally post on your blog XD)
If that is your daughter in the last comment, you are a very blessed mom. And either way, I agree with her and I really enjoy reading your blog, please keep it up!
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