As someone with a vested interest in this discussion, please allow for my bias......
As a veteran of Discussion Forums I have mercifully survived many threads that revolve around such issues. They often crop up on Buddhist Boards, where the question is asked...............Can a Christian be "enlightened" Dogged defenders of the Faith step in with talk of the "one and only way" (based on a text in the Theravada Scriptures), the more philosophically minded speak of the "Eternalist View", held to be the view of Christians and therefore excluding them from the insight/wisdom needed for enlightenment. (This is normally where I step in, arguing for my Christian friends............ But hey, I'm not necessarily looking for reciprocation here, please feel free to tell it like it is,...at least, as it is for you)
And though I have never actually seen it, I would imagine the same form of discussion take place on Islamic Boards, centered in all probability on the words from the Koran....There is no joy in the life hereafter for those outside of Islam. (I suppose that we both, Christians and Buddhists, have a vested interest here! ) In all probability, the staunch would insist that the word "Islam" in the verse speaks of the actual historical Faith itself. Others, perhaps, seeking reconciliation, would ask just what the word "islam" means, and would answer that it means "submission(to God)". Therefore that any human being, of whatever faith, who submits to the divine can be "saved". And others still, seeking a deeper reconciliation still, would ask what the word "submission" truly involved, and perhaps would begin to speak of selflessness......................and begin to find community and communion with Buddhists, with the anatta (no-self) teachings. And so it goes on.........and on........and on.....................and on.........
I did speak of having a vested interest, so please allow for my bias. I did spot one little line that seemed to edge towards a Buddhist understanding......submitted by wil...
So as I see it, not only is salvation not restricted to Christians, but unless we accept that fact...it isn't offered to us
For me, there is certainly truth in this. In my own Pure Land tradition, the "going forth" is at once the "return". (Or, the "setting apart" is at once the identification with all) The one "thought moment" of enlightenment is a moment outside of time, that in fact embraces all time. What we have to be is what we are.
Anyway, to end with a quote from a letter written by the Catholic Trappist monk Thomas Merton, from his exchange with the Zen scholar D.T.Suzuki..........
For me it is clearly evident that you and I have in common and share most intimately prescisely that which, in the eyes of conventional Westerners, would seem to separate us. The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact?............
As a veteran of Discussion Forums I have mercifully survived many threads that revolve around such issues. They often crop up on Buddhist Boards, where the question is asked...............Can a Christian be "enlightened" Dogged defenders of the Faith step in with talk of the "one and only way" (based on a text in the Theravada Scriptures), the more philosophically minded speak of the "Eternalist View", held to be the view of Christians and therefore excluding them from the insight/wisdom needed for enlightenment. (This is normally where I step in, arguing for my Christian friends............
But hey, I'm not necessarily looking for reciprocation here, please feel free to tell it like it is,...at least, as it is for you)And though I have never actually seen it, I would imagine the same form of discussion take place on Islamic Boards, centered in all probability on the words from the Koran....There is no joy in the life hereafter for those outside of Islam. (I suppose that we both, Christians and Buddhists, have a vested interest here!
) In all probability, the staunch would insist that the word "Islam" in the verse speaks of the actual historical Faith itself. Others, perhaps, seeking reconciliation, would ask just what the word "islam" means, and would answer that it means "submission(to God)". Therefore that any human being, of whatever faith, who submits to the divine can be "saved". And others still, seeking a deeper reconciliation still, would ask what the word "submission" truly involved, and perhaps would begin to speak of selflessness......................and begin to find community and communion with Buddhists, with the anatta (no-self) teachings. And so it goes on.........and on........and on.....................and on.........I did speak of having a vested interest, so please allow for my bias. I did spot one little line that seemed to edge towards a Buddhist understanding......submitted by wil...
So as I see it, not only is salvation not restricted to Christians, but unless we accept that fact...it isn't offered to us
For me, there is certainly truth in this. In my own Pure Land tradition, the "going forth" is at once the "return". (Or, the "setting apart" is at once the identification with all) The one "thought moment" of enlightenment is a moment outside of time, that in fact embraces all time. What we have to be is what we are.
Anyway, to end with a quote from a letter written by the Catholic Trappist monk Thomas Merton, from his exchange with the Zen scholar D.T.Suzuki..........
For me it is clearly evident that you and I have in common and share most intimately prescisely that which, in the eyes of conventional Westerners, would seem to separate us. The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact?............
