Zen Christianity

[Anonymous]

I recently articles about Zen Christians and Buddhist Christians. The articles were more about incorporating the practice of meditation to experience a deeper, spiritual God-relationship. I'm interested in groups, lectures, etc, to explore this type of meditation further. If anybody out there is aware of any affiliations, please post.

Also, I'd appreciate responses staying on topic.,

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous]I recently articles about Zen Christians and Buddhist Christians. The articles were more about incorporating the practice of meditation to experience a deeper, spiritual God-relationship. I'm interested in groups, lectures, etc, to explore this type of meditation further. If anybody out there is aware of any affiliations, please post.

Also, I'd appreciate responses staying on topic.,

[/quote]

Buddhism is founded by unholy sources. There is no need to look to other texts other than the Bible for truth. Yoga and mediation, according to other religions, is dangerous. They’ll tell you that you are connecting to God, when in reality you are opening yourself to demonic influences. I’m totally serious about this. Btw there’s nothing wrong with meditation, but don’t practice it according to Buddhism.

[Anonymous]

So much for answering the question with an unsolicited response.

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I'll try to respond to this in a more balanced manner.

What you'll struggle with, I think, are the direct contradictions between the foundational doctrines of Christianity and those of Buddhism and Hinduism.

For one, Buddhism & Hinduism do not involve a belief in a single God who is omniscient, omnipotent and who created the world. There is no concept of a human being the savior of humanity. There is no concept of a priesthood that is considered closer to God than people.

My question to you is how you would reconcile that. Certainly you can practice mindfulness via meditation and yoga without adhering to Buddhist or Hindu beliefs around the permanence of the soul, reincarnation, Nirvana, etc., but I struggle to figure out how you can be a Buddhist Christian without having internal conflict.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so I'll try to respond to this in a more balanced manner.

What you'll struggle with, I think, are the direct contradictions between the foundational doctrines of Christianity and those of Buddhism and Hinduism.

For one, Buddhism & Hinduism do not involve a belief in a single God who is omniscient, omnipotent and who created the world. There is no concept of a human being the savior of humanity. There is no concept of a priesthood that is considered closer to God than people.

My question to you is how you would reconcile that. Certainly you can practice mindfulness via meditation and yoga without adhering to Buddhist or Hindu beliefs around the permanence of the soul, reincarnation, Nirvana, etc., but I struggle to figure out how you can be a Buddhist Christian without having internal conflict.

I can’t speak for Buddhism, but you don’t have your facts straight with regards to Hinduism.

For us there is one “creator” that is omniscient and omnipotent. But it’s not some man in the sky. It’s the creative principle of the universe from which all manifests and to which all dissolves. We call this Brahman.

Brahman is sat-chit-ananda, truth-consciousness-bliss. It is the only permanent, unchanging reality and is in everything and in everyone one.

I do agree that the doctrines of Christianity and foundations Hinduism/Buddhism and any other non-Abrahamic religion for that matter cannot be reconciled for Christians. It goes in direct contradiction that they are the ‘one true religion.’

For us, it’s no big deal. We know there are many paths to God and that this universe is vast so it would make zero sense to plop one religion down in the desert of the Middle East hundreds of thousands of years after creation and believe it is better than the beliefs of anyone else.

To the OP- honestly these types of things simply seek to dilute the other religions in order to make it palatable to the Christian mindset and clear their conscious. If they can still call themselves Christian than they feel good about it.

I personally ( and I mean no offense ) don’t think Jesus would have wanted such exclusivity to what he taught and would have liked a more universal belief such as in Hinduism. The formal religion of Christianity began after him. The Bible was written hundreds of years after him through the minds and hearts of common men and their recollections and interpretations in an area where there were wars and power struggles that benefited from exclusivity.

One can have faith and love for Jesus and not be Christian. But a Christian cannot follow the universality of other religions and still be Christian at the core. Is contradictory to your doctrine.

[Anonymous]

Wow, I went on for too long! Sorry!

[Anonymous]

OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

New poster here. OP, I couldn't agree with you more. And for the record, all you have to do is go through this forum and you'll even see Christians telling other Christians how they should worship and even pray!

That said and if you're still around, here are a few sites you might be interested in, and I'm sure there are many more. I applaud that you search for things that will bring you even deeper into your relationship with God. I hope you find what you're looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbVJY-31C20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7iTubbDa8

https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/2010/03/lessons-christians-can-learn-from-zen.aspx

https://www.newseedspriory.org/christian-and-zen-you-ask.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok, so I'll try to respond to this in a more balanced manner.

What you'll struggle with, I think, are the direct contradictions between the foundational doctrines of Christianity and those of Buddhism and Hinduism.

For one, Buddhism & Hinduism do not involve a belief in a single God who is omniscient, omnipotent and who created the world. There is no concept of a human being the savior of humanity. There is no concept of a priesthood that is considered closer to God than people.

My question to you is how you would reconcile that. Certainly you can practice mindfulness via meditation and yoga without adhering to Buddhist or Hindu beliefs around the permanence of the soul, reincarnation, Nirvana, etc., but I struggle to figure out how you can be a Buddhist Christian without having internal conflict.

I can’t speak for Buddhism, but you don’t have your facts straight with regards to Hinduism.

For us there is one “creator” that is omniscient and omnipotent. But it’s not some man in the sky. It’s the creative principle of the universe from which all manifests and to which all dissolves. We call this Brahman.

Brahman is sat-chit-ananda, truth-consciousness-bliss. It is the only permanent, unchanging reality and is in everything and in everyone one.

I do agree that the doctrines of Christianity and foundations Hinduism/Buddhism and any other non-Abrahamic religion for that matter cannot be reconciled for Christians. It goes in direct contradiction that they are the ‘one true religion.’

For us, it’s no big deal. We know there are many paths to God and that this universe is vast so it would make zero sense to plop one religion down in the desert of the Middle East hundreds of thousands of years after creation and believe it is better than the beliefs of anyone else.

To the OP- honestly these types of things simply seek to dilute the other religions in order to make it palatable to the Christian mindset and clear their conscious. If they can still call themselves Christian than they feel good about it.

I personally ( and I mean no offense ) don’t think Jesus would have wanted such exclusivity to what he taught and would have liked a more universal belief such as in Hinduism. The formal religion of Christianity began after him. The Bible was written hundreds of years after him through the minds and hearts of common men and their recollections and interpretations in an area where there were wars and power struggles that benefited from exclusivity.

One can have faith and love for Jesus and not be Christian. But a Christian cannot follow the universality of other religions and still be Christian at the core. Is contradictory to your doctrine.

PP here. When I say there's no single God who created the world, that's what I mean. Hinduism and Buddhism don't have a sense of there being a man in the sky who created the world and hands down judgments about an individual's fate. Sorry I wasn't clearer about what I was referring to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

I'm one of the PPs. I don't think anyone was trying to be judgmental. It's simply the case, however, that core doctrines of Christianity are at diametric opposition with core tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism. That's simply a fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

I'm one of the PPs. I don't think anyone was trying to be judgmental. It's simply the case, however, that core doctrines of Christianity are at diametric opposition with core tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism. That's simply a fact.

Exactly. To the OP, we just want to explain to you that there are a lot of false doctrines out there that confuse Christians. I don’t think that anyone was even thinking about your spirituality or was trying to judge you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

I'm one of the PPs. I don't think anyone was trying to be judgmental. It's simply the case, however, that core doctrines of Christianity are at diametric opposition with core tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism. That's simply a fact.

Exactly. To the OP, we just want to explain to you that there are a lot of false doctrines out there that confuse Christians. I don’t think that anyone was even thinking about your spirituality or was trying to judge you.

Ok wait -- I never said Buddhism or Hinduism was a false doctrine. I just said there are core tenets that are incompatible with Christianity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

New poster here. OP, I couldn't agree with you more. And for the record, all you have to do is go through this forum and you'll even see Christians telling other Christians how they should worship and even pray!

That said and if you're still around, here are a few sites you might be interested in, and I'm sure there are many more. I applaud that you search for things that will bring you even deeper into your relationship with God. I hope you find what you're looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbVJY-31C20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7iTubbDa8

https://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/christianity/2010/03/lessons-christians-can-learn-from-zen.aspx

https://www.newseedspriory.org/christian-and-zen-you-ask.html

+1

[Anonymous]

Isn’t it interesting how Christians so often look to Eastern religions (and their practices like zen and yoga) to ‘deepen’ their Christian faith but how Eastern religions never look at Western religions in need of deepening their faith?

Seems there is a void..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I asked for information and received proselytizing and judgment. This is why I was hesitant to even ask. You assumed that I am weak spiritually and hadn't done significant research and spiritual self-search.

I'm done. If the moderator will delete my post, I would appreciate it. I'm sure you will have no problem taking yourself and your soapbox elsewhere with the self-righteous, all-knowing, holier than thou mindset.

I'm one of the PPs. I don't think anyone was trying to be judgmental. It's simply the case, however, that core doctrines of Christianity are at diametric opposition with core tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism. That's simply a fact.

This OP. Your question may be sincere, but it is flawed in concept. We are simply pointing that out to you.