Book Review: Living Buddha, Living Christ Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh is a book that converges the ideas of Christianity and Buddhism. I chose to analyze this book because I am Christian, and in class I have observed similarities and differences between the two religions. Growing up Catholic I did not always agree with what I was taught or how I was supposed to look at Jesus and God. I always had a guilty conscience, because I am a sinner and Jesus died for me, and all other sinners. There is pressure put on Catholics to live this high standard that God has set for them to be allowed into Heaven. Catholicism is a very strict and rigid religion.
Everything is carved in stone, cut and dry, black and white, and no questions are to be asked. If one lives life as a sinner and does not seek forgiveness he or she will be rejected at the gates of Heaven and sent directly to Hell. If one commits a sin he or she is to fear God s punishment, and when something goes wrong God is punishing. The perspective I have taken on life in the Catholic view is that life is one s way of repaying Christ/God for their sacrifice and gift of an undeserved life. Live life purely for Him and not yourself. I have stepped away from the Catholic church to attend a Non-denominational Christian church.
Here, I have been able to grow spiritually more than I did growing up Catholic. Within this church I feel more accepted because it is more open to the perspectives of God and life. In church it is recognized that some people do struggle and question God, His actions, and His existence. Going to Catholic church there was never any room for questions or thought.
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Everything was laid down and if a person did not believe or understand the Catholic way then he or she was wrong in everything they did and was an insult to God. From going to Christian church I have realized that life is a gift from God and that He wants everyone to live in comfort and contentment. His teachings simply show His followers the way to enter His Kingdom through life. I have found in Buddhism that through practicing mindfulness throughout daily life one can enter the state of Nirvana. I do not believe that the Kingdom of God and Nirvana are the same, but I do believe that through Nirvana one can touch and gain a better appreciation for God s Kingdom. Living Buddha, Living Christ is an attempt to reinvent Christian ideas in a Buddhist perspective.
This book brings together the ideas and teachings of two of the most influential figures of history, Christ and Buddha. They have both influenced the way billions of people around the world live their lives. Throughout the book Hahn reawakens the reader s understanding of Christianity and Buddhism in order to show a connection between them. He emphasizes that people need to be open to other religions, see their commonalities, and not be close minded. People kill and are killed because they cling too tightly to their own beliefs and ideologies. When we believe that ours is the only faith that contains the truth, violence and suffering will surely be the result (2).
This explains the persecution of the Jews and the holy wars that are going on right now. These people fight almost out of pure pride of belonging to their own religion. They forget the teachings of peace and compassion that are present in all religions. Thich Nhat Hanh writes this book on the belief that Jesus and Buddha s teachings agree. He says, when you are a truly happy Christian, you are also a Buddhist. And vice versa (197).
I do not agree with the extremity of Hahn s idea of Christianity and Buddhism being so closely the same. I believe the two religions do have similarities and have some common ground, but I do not believe that one is a precise reinterpretation of the other. First, Thich Nhat Hahn associates Mindfulness and the Holy Spirit. The Buddhist definition of Mindfulness is being awake to the mind; not just thinking but being conscious of thinking; not just having thoughts but being aware of the thoughts. Buddhists believe that the mind is reality.
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Religion is a hard basis for some people to talk about. For me, quite simple, I just tell people about my Lord God. Some people argue that is an outrageous idea but no more outrageous than any other religion. In C christianity, you have to communicate and glorify the Lord whereas in other religions, you just simply refer to the "teachings." Many that do not believe in Christianity use pride, moral ...
Mindfulness is the awareness of the impermanent and conditioned nature of reality. The Holy Spirit is the energy of God that is present in everyday life. The Holy Trinity is simply a metaphor for God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are ways to explain God perceptually. The Father is the perpetual God which no one can see. The Son, is Christ, who lived life on earth as God.
The Son is God on earth. The Holy Spirit is the energy that resonates from Christ and God that is within everyone and everything in the world. Thich Nhat Hahn discusses that the similarity between Mindfulness and the Holy Spirit is that both are healing powers. When you have mindfulness, you have love and understanding, you see more deeply, and you can heal the wounds in your own mind (14).
In the Bible when someone physically touches Christ he or she is healed of whatever ailments.
Christ as a healer is an example of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit with in Him. I do not agree with the similarities of the healing powers of Mindfulness and the Holy Spirit. Mindfulness is the ability of one to clear their mind of whatever havoc is causing them pain. Mindfulness leads to possible Nirvana, taking one away from the perceptual world. The Holy Spirit is not an ability to heal; the Holy Spirit is the energy of God which resides in everything. Jesus is God, who is the Holy Spirit.
If Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are one how can a person be the Holy Spirit People can be Mindful, but they can not be the Holy Spirit. Mindfulness does not set people apart from a higher being. Christians recognize God and Christ as the Lord. The energy of the Holy Spirit is with in everyone to help them find a means of healing or salvation on their own.
The Holy Spirit does not directly heal so therefore, the Holy Spirit is not simply a healing agent. I do feel though that Mindfulness can be used to understand and seek the Holy Spirit as long as it is not used to leave the perceptual world to hide in Nirvana. Mindfulness is a way to become aware that selfhood is an illusion. According to Nhat Hahn, mindfulness reveals the conditioned nature of people s lives, thoughts, perceptions and actions. Then by recognizing the conditioned world, one is able to leave it in order to walk peacefully with in it.
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I see it plain and simply as losing your head. The mind becomes empty and far away. The world is what it is, chaos, life itself is filled with stress, turbulence, illness and, unhappiness. Mindfulness does not get rid of or change the perceptual world, it simply allows one to get away for awhile. In comparison to Mindfulness, the Holy Spirit gives people a crutch to lean on and the energy to transform when they need help. The Holy Spirit does not offer a place to hide, but rather a way of facing the world and dealing with it.
Next, Thich Nhat Hanh associates Nirvana with the Kingdom of God. Buddhists and Christians know that Nirvana or the Kingdom of God is within our hearts. Buddhist sutras speak of Buddha nature as the seed of enlightenment that is already in everyone s consciousness. The Gospels speak of the Kingdom of God as a mustard seed planted in the soil of consciousness (167).
The Gospels are an emphasis of the growth of God s kingdom from such a minute origin.
How can Nirvana be compared to the Kingdom of God, when Nirvana is simply a state of consciousness Nirvana is an enlightened state of consciousness where one feels no struggles. The Kingdom of God is everything physical, psychological, tangible, and intangible, the perceptual world we live in today, and the Heaven or Hell we will live in tomorrow. God is the Creator of all, Heaven and Earth. He and His creations are not a mere state of mind. Also, Hanh tends to place people on the same level as Jesus. We are of the same reality as Jesus.
This may sound heretical to many Christians, but I believe that theologians who say we are not have to reconsider this. Jesus is not only our Lord, but he is also our Father, our Teacher, our Brother, and our Self (44).
If Jesus is our self, then he can not be our Lord because we would be one in the same. In order to have a Lord or God there has to be a follower or a believer. Christ or the Holy Spirit resides within everyone and everything, but everyone and everything is not God. God is the Creator and therefore, He is only a part of everything.
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For God So Loved the World Even though I was only a small child, I remember the cold, fall day that I accompanied my father to a nearby cemetery. As we stood above three tiny graves, I recall the tears streaming down my fathers face and the anguish in his eyes. My father was reluctant to explain why we were there for fear that I was just too young and innocent to understand the horrid ...
Many Buddhists are atheists and do not believe in an everlasting God. This is why Hanh does not recognize that people are not Jesus and can not become Jesus. Hanh has overly merged the concept of mindfulness and becoming mindful with recognizing the Holy Spirit/Jesus / the Father as simply God. Overall, in Living Buddha, Living Christ, Thich Nhat Hanh attempts to connect the religions of Buddhism and Christianity. I find Buddhism to be extremely contradictory in its concepts and teachings and an easy way out of life / reality . I agree with Hahn that people should not be close minded about other religions, because I believe that aspects of one religion can supplement another religion.
For example, the concept of Mindfulness in the Buddhist tradition can be applied to Christianity in a way of just touching and appreciating life and the world. What I disagree with is that Mindfulness and the Holy Spirit are the same. The Holy Spirit is God s energy within everyone and everything that perpetuates people s lives and the world around them. Next, Hanh tries to associate Nirvana with the Kingdom of God.
The two are incomparable simply because Nirvana is more of a state of mind, while the Kingdom of God encompasses the world and everything in it, whether it be physical or psychological. Nirvana is a way of almost attempting to escape God s Kingdom. Finally, Thich Nhat Hanh writes that Jesus is within ourselves and that many are just too blind and ignorant to recognize Him. I believe that everyone is God s child, and that people are a part of Him, because He is the Creator. It is not possible that people can become Jesus or exactly like Jesus because then, there would be no Lord or God.
Living Buddha, Living Christ is an attempt to converge the ideas of Christianity and Buddhism. The two may supplement each other s concepts, but their concepts are clearly not the same. As a Christian, this book has opened my eyes to the likenesses and differences of Buddhism to Christianity. By learning about Buddhism in perspective to Christianity I have been able to reaffirm my beliefs in the Christian Faith.
