I will be away for the weekend. I leave you with this thought that I posted at my other blog, Sacred Graffiti, this week:
It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community, a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the earth.
Thich Nhat Hahn
To me this is the most beautiful concept. What do you think, is it possible? And how can we become midwives – both women and men – to such a Buddha community?
Image by Teresa Stanton
Elsewhere:
I mentioned Sacred Graffiti above. It is my commonplace book, a gathering together of sacred scraps. What I’ve found through Tumblr (the software host) since starting it is a treasure trove of similar collections. Here are three of my favourites: Women Reading, Dreaming in the Deep South (Wait – what?) and the stunning Crashingly Beautiful. Treat yourself this weekend, follow the links and explore the treasure.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
In Zen Buddhism, all things have Buddha nature. (Christians would say all things have Christ nature.) How about the Earth as Buddha? The Gaia Hypothesis, (standard now, though once thought entirely controversial), says that our Planet is a living organism, because it fulfills all the characteristics that define “life” as we know it. But does it have consciousness? Is it an enlightened being?
These seem like advanced eco-spiritual ideas, but asking these important questions roots back to the understanding of prehistoric times, and those fabulous fertility figures. In other words, now that we’ve built civilization up to a point of threatening our own extinction, we need to begin to build back down again, via our humble respectfulness and prayerful devotion to the Earth, whether as Buddha or Christ nature, or the mother of us all as the living Gaia.
Tess,
I’ve reopened my old KigenKat livejournal —
and am beginning all over again. I hope to embrace some of the ideas of eco-community there. The Net too is a possibility for that ultimate community that will save the Planet. Maybe I am too off the edge on this, but it also could be a natural evolution, the Internet as a vehicle for Earth’s own self protective care.
I’ve bookmarked this post both for the quote and for the wonderful links. Thank you, Tess.
This is an interesting, newfangled take on Buddha. Christians can learn from such pliability, and perhaps become better “midwives” of community and Spirit. (Fitting metaphor Tess!)
Often we hear the everyday Christian complain about contemporary society’s knee-jerk reactions against creed. This is a shame, because if this is true, they themselves have helped create such a reaction-ism. Creedal-knee jerks, indeed, have pockmarked the historical sweep of Christianity. This is quite ironic because Paul via Christ were not theologians but missional-people, deeply concerned with approaching complex cultural milieu with sensitivity and skill.
This newfangled take on the coming Buddha seems to be in concert with Pentecost; a spiritual glue which infuses and connects a community of people – no matter linguistic gaps! Is this an accurate assumption? I am not so familiar with Buddhism..
In the end, it is not about creed but canon; all the different or variegated creeds fall under a similar canonical umbrella of thinking which sees creation/cosmos yearning, clawing even, for renewal and regeneration.
@kigen/KigenKat: I really like your phrase about building back down. Not tearing down, more like following a more Earthly/Buddha-like/Christ-like path down. And I shall look forward to the new musings of KigenKat!
@Chania Girl: thanks for your comment, I hope things are well with you.
@davidmdavid: thanks for both your comment and separate email, and welcome to my blog. Thich Nhat Hahn articulates a particular Buddhist-focused wisdom in his writing that I really appreciate. I love the connection you make with Pentecost and its ‘spiritual glue’. What you say about creed makes me think of all those times Jesus went against the law of His time, and yet here we are as Christians often substituting creed for humanity. I think there’s something about us as a human race that wants to know the “rules”.
I hope this will be the case, Tess, for Buddha and Christ and the next Vishnu avatar. I hope we succeed in being the Body of Buddha, Christ, Vishnu, Godde, all together. This is why they all came, didn’t they? For us to become like them
)
Thank you for the links.
I have to admit, that I think it’s not only possible but inevitable. Who knows how long it will take, though?
I like your question about how to be a midwife to this. I think it’s about paying attention more than anything else. Paying attention to everything, inner and outer, without argument. The paradox being that only by giving up the fight to change things will they actually change.
Claire, Pollinatrix, coming together and paying attention, yes those are the most important. I just finished reading a book called The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson, which I found extraordinary. In it, in the context of violent intervention, her character says “Love is an intervention, why don’t we choose it?”