Turtles sunning themselves on a log inside a San Francisco garden. Does having a buddha nature make the turtles Buddhist?I attended my brother's wedding this weekend in a small chapel just outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. The ceremony was nice, small and non-denominational; and as I stood there looking around at the trappings of Christendom I examined my own thoughts and feelings. My initial impression was, "I'm Buddhist and not Christian, so I'll just sort of suffer through all of the Bible stuff." I immediately recognized this as 1) not being very Buddhist, and 2) teetering on the edge of religious snobbery at best, and intolerance at worst.
My thoughts and feelings as I stood there embarrassed me, and I believe this stemmed from my attachment to being Buddhist, or moreover, non-Christian. If I had a truly open and receiving mind I would have found the grace in my surroundings and not all of these mixed up feelings of conflict and intolerance. Nice lesson learned. I need to explore it more deeply.
Turtles sunning themselves on a log inside a San Francisco garden. Does having a buddha nature make the turtles Buddhist?
2 comments:
LOVE this lesson.
We talk about this in my study group for A Course in Miracles. All religions or spiritual paths believe their truth to be the only truth. We ALL do it. So we are ALL the same, aren't we?
"Zen" is one, not two.
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