This is the second posting in a series of postings reflecting on Thich Nhat Hanh's book, Living Buddha, Living Christ (Riverhead Books, 2007; originally published in 1995). The introductory posting, which sets the stage for the series is (here).Thich Nhat Hanh is a peaceful guy, but he starts off in the first section of the first chapter of Living Buddha, Living Christ (pp. 1-2) rather provocatively. He tells about an inter-faith conference he once attended where one of the participants stated to the conference that, "We are going to hear about the beauties of several traditions but that does not mean that we are going to make a fruit salad." Thich Nhat Hanh rejoined in his address by saying that fruit salad can be delicious, and he told how he had once shared the Eucharist with Fr. Daniel Berrigan. He then writes, "Some of the Buddhists present were shocked to hear I had participated in the Eucharist, and many Christians seemed truly horrified." But, he observed that for him there is no reason to taste just one fruit; he writes, "We human beings can be nourished by the best values of many traditions."
For most of Christian history for most Christians these observations aren't just startling or disturbing, they are an invitation to practice heresy. Where East Asian religions tend to have porous boundaries and worry less about heretical beliefs and practices, the religions born in West Asia, including Christianity, tend to worry much more about maintaining proper, even rigid boundaries. Our spiritual inheritance, then, is one where labels and correct thinking and practice according to officially proscribed standards matter. We have no intention of making a fruit salad from the various religions!
There's an upside and a downside to our constantly measuring our beliefs and practices by established theological and ecclesiastical standards. We draw strength from knowing who we are. We retain connections to the roots of our faith tradition. We are encouraged to return to the earliest days of our faith to preserve the work of the Spirit and the person of Christ. That's good. What is not so good is that we often become so fixated with the boundaries that we actually looe sight of Christ and lose touch with the Spirit. We obsess with whether we're in the right or not and we subject others to microscopic inspection as to the rightness of their beliefs and practices. We can and do crush the very things we cherish by gripping them too tightly. Spending some time with our neighbors of other faiths can show us that we need not grip our own faith quite so tightly and that loosening our grip can actually strengthen our faith in Christ, the Prince of Peace. Amen.
