Zen and the Art of Catholicism
My new favorite thing to do is to sit outside on my porch and read books. It's a good, peaceful thing to do, especially when the weather is as lovely as it has been. Sometimes I bring some tea along. Among other things, I've discovered that my neighbors aren't all scary, obnoxious, and drunken college students. In fact, some of them seem quite nice.
Currently, I'm reading a book called Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha (Brach, 2003). I've gotten several reactions to my reading of this book, most of them along the lines of "You're the weirdest person I know" or "Where do you find these books???" I find it amusing how the concepts in this book (and other Buddhist-inspired writings) have so much in common with DBT. I found DBT to be alternately annoying and sacrosanct: it was the bane of my existence or my salvation. In any case, I am endlessly intrigued that the practices of DBT are quite Buddhist in origin. Things like mindfulness and indeed even radical acceptance itself are key DBT buzzwords as well as central Buddhist teachings.
The point of reading all these books is not only because they're interesting, but also so I can figure out a way to incorporate such Buddhist ideas and practices into my life. Of course they would be beneficial to my daily life in general, but if I could incorporate them into my prayer life, the results could be quite sublime. The teachings of Christ and Buddha overlap in numerous places. Buddha teaches that we must abandon the concept of "self", since we are all part of a single entity and are all interconnected. Jesus teaches that we must love our neighbor as ourselves. If our "selves" are more permeable than we envision, then it makes a great deal of sense to treat our neighbors with the same love and respect we should show ourselves. Perhaps saying that we all have a Buddha nature is the same concept as saying we are all children of God.
So I suppose I will continue to read weird books. Now if I'd only read my school books once in a while...
3 comments:
I am going to start self identifying as "Roman Catholic and Zen Buddhist." We'll see how that goes over. It may just be one more way to freak my parents out.
that book sounds really interesting
If you're in the mood for a good science read try "Beautiful Swimmers" - it's all about the life of the blue crab (including a tender section about mating).
Post a Comment