![]() Reading through Mark's account, I feel tired as I imagine the relentless demands on his time and energy. Also he has a mission - to re-open the Way to eternal life and he's quite uncompromising in his commitment to, as he puts it, "carrying out his Father's will". People don't always understand at once, but are left with an image to ponder. He also has a great gift for conveying spiritual truth in the form of images, using the most everyday things to illustrate points he wishes to make: bread, fields, corn, salt, children, trees. Although there is much said about him being the son of God, somehow that doesn't seem nearly as significant to me as the fact that he is a person - a man of great presence, enormous energy and compassion, and significant psychic abilities. Well, I have to say that he comes across as being much more human than I remember. So now, after more than twenty years as a Buddhist nun, what do I find as I encounter Jesus in the gospel stories? Also, although the idea was quite shocking to me, I saw within the awakening of interest in being part of a monastic community. I felt deeply drawn by the teachings, and by the Truth they were pointing to: the acknowledgement that, yes, this life is inherently unsatisfactory, we experience suffering or dis-ease - but there is a Way that can lead us to the ending of this suffering. I also saw that they were relaxed and happy - perhaps that was the most remarkable, and indeed slightly puzzling, thing about them. I was totally fascinated by those monks: by their robes and shaven heads, and by what I heard of their renunciant lifestyle, with its 227 rules of training. Also, they were immensely practical and as if to prove it, we had, directly in front of us, the professionals - people who had made a commitment to living them out, twenty-four hours a day. It didn't occur to me that it was 'Buddhism'. The teachings were presented in a wonderfully accessible style, and just seemed like ordinary common sense. Although the whole experience was extremely tough - both physically and emotionally - I felt hugely encouraged. In front of us was Ajahn Sumedho, who presented the teachings and guided us in meditation, with three other monks. I attended a ten-day retreat at Oakenholt Buddhist Centre, near Oxford, and sat in agony on a mat on the floor of the draughty meditation hall, along with about 40 other retreatants of different shapes and sizes. His teacher was Ajahn Chah, a Thai monk of the Forest Tradition who, in spite of little formal education, won the hearts of many thousands of people, including a significant number of Westerners. And even positive states could turn around and transform themselves into pride or conceit, which were of course equally unwanted.Įventually, I met Ajahn Sumedho, an American-born Buddhist monk, who had just arrived in England after training for ten years in Thailand. I was weary with the apparent complexity of it all despair had arisen because I was not able to find any way of working with the less helpful states that would creep, unbidden, into the mind: the worry, jealousy, grumpiness, and so on. Having tried with sincerity to approach my Christian journey in a way that was meaningful within the context of everyday life, I had reached a point of deep weariness and despair. A little about how I came to be a Buddhist nun But after re-reading some of the gospel stories, I would like to meet Jesus again with fresh eyes, and to examine the extent to which he and the Buddha were in fact offering the same guidance, even though the traditions of Christianity and Buddhism can appear in the surface to be rather different. I was brought up as a Christian and turned to Buddhism in my early thirties, so of course I have ideas about both traditions: the one I grew up in and turned aside from, and the one I adopted and continue to practise within. ![]() When invited to look at Jesus through Buddhist eyes, I had imagined that I would use a 'compare and contrast' approach, rather like a school essay. He affirmed our common humanity, without in any way dismissing the obvious differences. ![]() ![]() His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, speaking to a capacity audience in the Albert Hall in 1984 united his listeners instantly with one simple statement: "All beings want to be happy they want to avoid pain and suffering." I was impressed at how he was able to touch what we share as human beings. In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. ![]()
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