The dialogue between Buddhism and Christianity has not gone very far, in my
opinion, because we have not been able to set up a solid ground for such
dialogue. This is a reflection of the present situation.
Buddhists believe in reincarnation, the possibility for human beings to
live several lives. In Buddhist circles, we do not use the word incarnation
very much: we use the word rebirth. After you die, you can be reborn and can
have another life. In Christianity, your life is unique, your only chance for
salvation. If you spoil it, then you will never get salvation. You have only
one life.
Buddhism teaches that there is non-self, anatta. Christianity clearly
teaches that a Christian is a personalist. Not only are you a person, self, but
God is a person, and He has a self. The Buddhist teaching of emptiness and no
substance sounds like the teaching of no being. Christianity speaks of being,
of existence. The teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the philosophy of
being, la philisophie de l’etre, the confirmation that the world is.
There is compassion and loving-kindness in Buddhism, which many Christians
believe to be different from the charity and love in Christianity. Charity has
two aspects: your love directed to God, and your love directed to humankind.
You have to learn how to love your enemy. Our Christian friends have a tendency
to remind us that the motivation of love is different for Christians and
Buddhists. There are theologians who say that Buddhists practice compassion
just because they want liberation; that Buddhists don’t really care about the
suffering of people and other living beings; that they are only motivated by
the desire to be liberated. In Christianity, your love is grounded in God. You
love God, and because God said that you must love your neighbor, so you love
your neighbor. Your love of your neighbor springs from the ground of your love
of God.
Many people, especially in Christian circles, say that there are things in
common between Christianity and Buddhism. But many find that the philosophical
foundations of Christianity and Buddhism are quite different. Buddhism teaches
rebirth, many lives. Christianity teaches that only this one life is available
to you. Buddhism teaches that there is no self, but in Christianity there is a
real self. Buddhism teaches emptiness, no substance, while Christianity
confirms the fact of existence.
If the philosophical ground is so different, the practice of compassion and
loving kindness in Buddhism and of charity and love in Christianity is
different. All that seems to be a very superficial way of seeing. If we have
time and if we practice our own tradition well enough and deeply enough, we
will see that these issues are not real.
First of all, there are many forms of Buddhism, many ways of understanding
Buddhism. If you have one hundred people practicing Buddhism, you may have one
hundred forms of Buddhism. The same is true in Christianity. If there are one
hundred thousand people practicing Christianity, there may be one hundred
thousand ways of understanding Christianity.
In Plum Village, where many people from different religious backgrounds
come to practice, it is not difficult to see that sometimes a Buddhist
recognizes a Christian as being more Buddhist than another Buddhist. I see a
Buddhist, but the way he understands Buddhism is quite different from the way I
do. However, when I look at a Christian, I see that the way he understands
Christianity and practices love and charity is closer to the way I practice
them than this man who is called a Buddhist. The same thing is true in
Christianity. From time to time, you feel that you are very far away from your
Christian brother. You feel that the brother who practices in the Buddhist
tradition is much closer to you as a Christian. So Buddhism is not Buddhism and
Christianity is not Christianity. There are many forms of Buddhism and many
ways of understanding Buddhism. There are many ways of understanding
Christianity. Therefore, let us forget the idea that Christianity must be like
this, and that Buddhism can only be like that.
We don’t want to say that Buddhism is a kind of Christianity and
Christianity is a kind of Buddhism. A mango can not be an orange. I cannot
accept the fact that a mango is an orange. They are two different things. Vive
la difference. But when you look deeply into the mango and into the orange, you
see that although they are different they are both fruits. If you analyze the
mango and the orange deeply enough, you will see small elements are in both,
like the sunshine, the clouds, the sugar, and the acid. If you spend time
looking deeply enough, you will discover that the only difference between them
lies in the degree, in the emphasis. At first you see the difference between the
orange and the mango. But if you look a little deeper, you discover many things
in common. In the orange you find acid and sugar which is in the mango too.
Even two oranges taste different; one can be very sour and one can be very
sweet.
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