As a practicing Buddhist, I think you misunderstand it, or perhaps you studied a more esoteric Zen branch that is outside the mainstream as defined by the Pali Cannon. I do agree with you that no Buddhist ideas are recently coming in, but it is obvious to me that the historical Jesus was aware of and influenced by Indian Buddhism. Now, I do not mean the skull cup, practicing magic stuff rock stars get into with Tibetan lamas in India's pan handle, but the original Buddhism as explained by the Buddha Gautama Siddhartha.
Now there are similarities in so much, but more at an abstract level. Furthermore, the lurch towards ascetism happened after the fall of Rome, not recently. Both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox had a strong monastic tradition with all of the associated obsessions of men with too few responsibilities and too much self-importance. Over the last thousand years or so that has mostly fallen away. That said, there are some Protestants who do seem to want to have some kind of Protestant Jesuits, but that is not anything new. If anything, so long as you focus on mainstream Protestants, everything is fine. The nuts who think that the King James bible somehow is the only thing that matters, like a Christian Koran, they are insane, but they always have been. Let them dance with snakes and do their own thing. They are harmless.
On the Orthodox side, monastics strive toward dispassion, some of which involves detachment, but also seems to include an impartiality to worldly squabbles and the like. However, in regarding creation as good, there should always remain a type of wonder there.
"To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven..." A few weeks ago, a young woman who is a recent convert to Orthodoxy invited me to share my comments about an article she wrote discussing how something... it might have been anger... is always a sin. My comment to that was that we have to be extremely careful about anger, but there certainly are times when one almost needs that anger to spur one into action, especially in righting wrongs. That, I think, tends to be a more masculine thing.
As for masculinity in Christianity, with the two videos recently of people attacking or attempting to attack church leaders during service, it is remarkable how both were lucky to have men in the congregation who, despite the danger, ran up to disable the threat.
I was hoping you would comment, Katja, since you know Orthodoxy far better than I. What do you think of Aaron's "emptying yourself" idea being Buddhist by nature? Do Orthodox view their meditation that way? For that matter, do non-monks meditate in Orthodoxy? (I do, and I use a prayer rope to do it, but I'm a weird Protestant.)
I'm not an expert on monasticism, to be sure, but I think the idea of "emptying one's self" in order to prepare to seek the things of God is hardly exclusive to Buddhists. I think that even in the Gospel, this is strongly implied when Jesus talks about a man who has had unclean spirits depart from him (emptying) and rather than filling one's self with God, left it empty, and then had more unclean spirits come in.
There is some Orthodox meditation practiced by non-monastics, primarily the Jesus prayer. It's a tricky thing, though. I think we generally talk about working on our prayer life rather than meditation per se because of the connotations that the word meditation sometimes carries. To those who are going so deep that it becomes actual meditation, I think the advice is not to attempt that without the guidance of a spiritual father because some of that can be fairly dangerous if attempted by someone who isn't ready for it.
I am glad you addressed this. The proper role of masculinity in current Christianity remains an issue. I don't know if it Buddhism or feminism or something else that has corrupted the church. It just may be the general weakness of society that has crept into the church.
Christ is our example. He was not always nice. Instead he called out the corrupt elements in Jewish society. He was bold, not timid. He acted with anger, as needed.
Although I am not a Christian, I do think the centrality of Jesus sometimes does get lost with consequences. It seems like so many problems in Christianity come from an obsession with old Hebrew books or modern fashions, instead of following the messiah. I actually think I understand Christianity better now that I no longer am a Christian. I am more impressed with the faith as an outsider. I suspect that the West will need to either return to Christianity or find a replacement. An absence of faith is not sustainable.
Interestingly, I agree with you on this almost completely, Garry. In evangelical churches, the phrase "the word of God" is used to refer to the Bible. The "word of God" isn't a book; it's a person! The Bible itself testifies to this: "In the beginning was the logos [word or thought], and the logos was with God and the logos was God. He was with God in the beginning." (John 1). Christ's behavior testifies to it in that he didn't leave a holy text but a group of disciples (a church). The Bible points to the Word, but following the Bible won't get you to Heaven; following the Word (Jesus Christ) will.
As a practicing Buddhist, I think you misunderstand it, or perhaps you studied a more esoteric Zen branch that is outside the mainstream as defined by the Pali Cannon. I do agree with you that no Buddhist ideas are recently coming in, but it is obvious to me that the historical Jesus was aware of and influenced by Indian Buddhism. Now, I do not mean the skull cup, practicing magic stuff rock stars get into with Tibetan lamas in India's pan handle, but the original Buddhism as explained by the Buddha Gautama Siddhartha.
Now there are similarities in so much, but more at an abstract level. Furthermore, the lurch towards ascetism happened after the fall of Rome, not recently. Both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox had a strong monastic tradition with all of the associated obsessions of men with too few responsibilities and too much self-importance. Over the last thousand years or so that has mostly fallen away. That said, there are some Protestants who do seem to want to have some kind of Protestant Jesuits, but that is not anything new. If anything, so long as you focus on mainstream Protestants, everything is fine. The nuts who think that the King James bible somehow is the only thing that matters, like a Christian Koran, they are insane, but they always have been. Let them dance with snakes and do their own thing. They are harmless.
On the Orthodox side, monastics strive toward dispassion, some of which involves detachment, but also seems to include an impartiality to worldly squabbles and the like. However, in regarding creation as good, there should always remain a type of wonder there.
"To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven..." A few weeks ago, a young woman who is a recent convert to Orthodoxy invited me to share my comments about an article she wrote discussing how something... it might have been anger... is always a sin. My comment to that was that we have to be extremely careful about anger, but there certainly are times when one almost needs that anger to spur one into action, especially in righting wrongs. That, I think, tends to be a more masculine thing.
As for masculinity in Christianity, with the two videos recently of people attacking or attempting to attack church leaders during service, it is remarkable how both were lucky to have men in the congregation who, despite the danger, ran up to disable the threat.
I was hoping you would comment, Katja, since you know Orthodoxy far better than I. What do you think of Aaron's "emptying yourself" idea being Buddhist by nature? Do Orthodox view their meditation that way? For that matter, do non-monks meditate in Orthodoxy? (I do, and I use a prayer rope to do it, but I'm a weird Protestant.)
I'm not an expert on monasticism, to be sure, but I think the idea of "emptying one's self" in order to prepare to seek the things of God is hardly exclusive to Buddhists. I think that even in the Gospel, this is strongly implied when Jesus talks about a man who has had unclean spirits depart from him (emptying) and rather than filling one's self with God, left it empty, and then had more unclean spirits come in.
There is some Orthodox meditation practiced by non-monastics, primarily the Jesus prayer. It's a tricky thing, though. I think we generally talk about working on our prayer life rather than meditation per se because of the connotations that the word meditation sometimes carries. To those who are going so deep that it becomes actual meditation, I think the advice is not to attempt that without the guidance of a spiritual father because some of that can be fairly dangerous if attempted by someone who isn't ready for it.
I am glad you addressed this. The proper role of masculinity in current Christianity remains an issue. I don't know if it Buddhism or feminism or something else that has corrupted the church. It just may be the general weakness of society that has crept into the church.
Christ is our example. He was not always nice. Instead he called out the corrupt elements in Jewish society. He was bold, not timid. He acted with anger, as needed.
Although I am not a Christian, I do think the centrality of Jesus sometimes does get lost with consequences. It seems like so many problems in Christianity come from an obsession with old Hebrew books or modern fashions, instead of following the messiah. I actually think I understand Christianity better now that I no longer am a Christian. I am more impressed with the faith as an outsider. I suspect that the West will need to either return to Christianity or find a replacement. An absence of faith is not sustainable.
Interestingly, I agree with you on this almost completely, Garry. In evangelical churches, the phrase "the word of God" is used to refer to the Bible. The "word of God" isn't a book; it's a person! The Bible itself testifies to this: "In the beginning was the logos [word or thought], and the logos was with God and the logos was God. He was with God in the beginning." (John 1). Christ's behavior testifies to it in that he didn't leave a holy text but a group of disciples (a church). The Bible points to the Word, but following the Bible won't get you to Heaven; following the Word (Jesus Christ) will.
There's a great book called When The Church Was Very Young (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128773634) that I found very useful.