Agree. I tend to think more toward finding the Divine within, which enriches me. Transformation should be for something, not for nothing.

Hi Earl,

What if there is something more essential than desire, and that instead of digging a whole one is actually brushing aside mental and emotional veils on that essence? What if wiping the slate clean is not wiping away God and self, but our notions of God and self, so that what is left is the ineffable purity of God and self freed from the words and images of our small, limited, fallible minds?

Do we know what Buddhists really mean when they speak of nothingness and emptiness? What about the Jewish and Christian mystics of who speak of God’s essence as the Ayn Soph, literally the Limitless Non-Thing? What about Christian mystic saints who teach that the prayer of silence, of emptying one’s mind, is opening to the mysterious presence of the Holy Spirit? What about the Via Negativa?

Can dying for compassion and peace be an act of tremendous love, even if we think it is misguided? What if perfect love leads us to sacrifice ourselves in service of something, as so many of our own apostles and saints have done in becoming martyrs for the faith, not to mention our Lord?

Agape,
Chuck

Hi Earl,

You make an excellent point, but as Chuck mentions, we should try to get a handle on the Buddhist concept of emptiness. I think in both Christianity and Buddhism the goal is the same; emptying of self. In both, what separates us from the Absolute (Buddhism) or God (Christianity) is the veil of ego, self, or conciousness. In both traditions, the ”renting of the veil of the temple” removes the separation between us and the Absolute. What is left, is the Absolute, Truth, or God. For the Buddhist, this culminates with the internal, personal and experiential event of enlightenment. For Christians, it is an externally manifest event revealed by Christ’s death on the Cross.

The empty center of self, or lack of self-being in Buddhist enlightenment is no different than the void, or nothingness of John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Spirit. In both Christianity and Buddhism the resulting egoless unitive state is a purified and transformed state.

The point that I am trying to make is that the emptying of self is necessary and desireable in both traditions. When there is no hole (whole) left we have attained Buddhist enlightenment or Christian Theosis. There remains nothing to ”fill”. The great paradox is that for any of us to realize the Truth as One, all of our individual knowledge and experience of these truths must fall away. The Revelation of both Christianity and Buddhism, while differing in doctrine, have much to contribute to this process.

God’s Peace.
Steve