A New Article I Wrote Published in SIS Journal

A recent article I've written has just been published in the peer-reviewed journal Studies in Spirituality, which approaches the subject of religious spirituality from a scholarly-academic perspective. My article is an outline and critical comparison of the Buddhist "perfection of wisdom" in The Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 Lines and the Christian "righteoused by faith" in Paul's letter to the Romans - both as paradigms of ultimate transformation.

To view abstracts and ordering information, visit here.

Buddha Doc on PBS

Yesterday a new PBS documentary about the Buddha was shown. Filmmaker David Grubin conveys the story of the life of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) which is narrated by Richard Gere (a Buddhist and advocate of Tibet), which I feel is not only relevant for people interested in learning more about this monumentally influential figure in world history but also provides instructive insights addressing our times frought with turbulence, confusion, cultural diversity, and religious ambiguity.

The documentary features interviews with religious scholars on the Buddha and Buddhism as well as with practitioners and adherents of Buddhism (including a few monastic renunciants). Though a bit watered down for time's sake (and I do admit my prejudice as an extra-scrupulous perspective as a religious studies scholar), it's a great historical-cultural overview of the life of the Buddha and the origins of the great Eastern (and increasingly Western) spiritual tradition.

Watch the whole documentary online here.

Buddhism and the Dalai Lama on Unity.FM

Rev. Dr. Tom Shepherd's online radio program "Let's Talk About It" is featuring discussion on the topic of the Dalai Lama and his Buddhist teachings in relation to the Christian season of Lent (which we're currently in).

Here's a short description of the upcoming show:
"His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the great spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, is known worldwide simply as the Dalai Lama. He has written a grand summation of the most important things in life, which includes these words: 'Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.' Buddhism generally understands love as compassion for all sentient beings and, paradoxically, detachment from desire itself. Christian love is about forgiveness and altruism; there is a self-sacrificial tone to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Yet there is much that Buddhists and Christians share in common. Compassion, kindness, and selflessness. This week Dr. Shepherd looks at what Christians can learn from their Buddhist counterparts as his panel of distinguished guests discusses 'Lenten Lessons From the Dalai Lama.'" (Unity.FM)

As a scholar of Buddhist-Christian dialogue and a participant in interreligious interface, I'm curious to see who Dr. Tom's guests are and where the discussion leads, especially in terms of relating Tibetan Buddhist principles to Christian practice of Lent. Since Lent is normally understood as that time in the Christian liturgical year when we recognize our mistakes and shortcomings and reflect on how we might improve ourselves through anticipating and then sharing in Christ's death and resurrection, which are essentially archetypal symbols for the process of overcoming unsatisfactoriness and distorted relationships and living a new existence characterized by life in Christ. This world-renouncing activity of self-emptying and self-discipline in the Christian practice of Lent resonates quite well with the Buddhist ideas and practices of anatta/anatman (no self/soul) and paticcasamuppada (dependent origination) that tend to emphasize the importance of the interdependency of all phenomena and the resulting ethical implications of compassion and altruism that follow.

Tune in on Friday February 26, 2010 at 4pm CST for what ought to be an exciting and stimulating show on "Let's Talk About It."

Portrait of Dalai Lama on Interfaith Voices

Interfaith Voices radio program will be rerunning a conversation with Pico Iyer, a long-time friend of the Dalai Lama, about the life, teachings, and spirituality of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

If you haven't heard this interview with Iyer by host Maureen Fiedler check it out at Interfaith Voices online. It's an excellent portrait of the Dalai Lama's biography (from how and when he was chosen to his issues with the Chinese government as the leader of Tibet) and Lamaism in Tibetan Buddhism.

Buddhist Violence?

There is a new book out by Michael Jerryson and Mark Juergensmeyer called Buddhist Warfare (Oxford, 2009).

This book chronicles the history and significance of violence caused by Buddhist practitioners and their reasonings and rationale for engaging in such actions. The notion of violence by Buddhists flies in the face of most Westerners' stereotypes of Buddhism as a thoroughly peaceful and non-violent religion. Indeed, while the principles of Buddhism and the Buddha himself largely advocated for peace and non-violence, nonetheless, in the harsh reality of daily life in the world of samsara violence and aggression have been argued for and engaged in by devout Buddhist practitioners.

I believe this simply goes to show how ambiguous religion (any religion) can be. Religious principles and faith can be used to develop some of the most loving, compassionate, and selfless acts the world has ever seen but can also be used to justify the most heinous of actions causing hatred, suffering, and destruction. Yes, even Buddhism:)

For more info on the new book visit OUPs website.

To read a commentary on the book see Religion Dispatches.

Harvey Cox and Thomas Dyer on Interfaith Voices

This week's program of Interfaith Voices ("a public radio show promoting religious harmony and interfaith understanding") includes a feature of Harvard theologian, Harvey Cox, and Buddhist military chaplain, Thomas Dyer.

Harvey Cox, Hollis professor of Divinity at Harvard University, looks inside the idea of ‘spritual but not religious’, and discovers that modern believers are abandoning creeds and doctrine for practices that emphasize a direct experience with the divine in his new book The Future of Faith. He speaks of this current development as Christianity, and religion in general, entering the "age of the Spirit." This is an idea that would resonate significantly with Unity ministers, students, and churchgoers of all stripes. One of the central tenets within Unity circles is that creeds, dogmatic statements, and static belief are not the cornerstones of authentic faith. Rather, it is first-hand experience of the Divine or Sacred or Spirit that promotes faith and engenders spiritual growth.

And Thomas Dyer is the first Buddhist military chaplain. A former Southern Baptist minister, Dyer is now a practicing Buddhist that has entered the military as as spiritual guide and counselor for Buddhist and non-Buddhist soldiers alike. With the increasing number of Americans becoming interested in Buddhism it is completely understandable how eventually a representative of the growing American Buddhist traditions would be included in military chaplaincy. Interfaith Voices conducts an intriguing interview with chaplain Dyer.

Check out these features and more at Interfaith Voices.

Buddhism's Prominence in America

A friend turned me on to this article at the Buddhist Channel about Buddhism and its place in today's American society and culture. Andrew Lam briefly outlines the roots of Buddhism in the U.S., its development up to now, and its impact and presence in here in the States. All this from his own Buddhist perspective, of course.

It's a concise but intriguing article. Check it out here.

(Image from Buddhist Channel website.)

Christian and Buddhist faithful focus prayers on value of resolving conflict

Buddhists and Christians gathered in the Pittsburgh area for a 40-hour prayer and meditation vigil for the purpose of resolving the tension and conflict in the world and in the midst of the G-20 summit.

It was talked about as an event where people aren't talking about peace or discussing resolutions, but are able to simply sit together, connect with each other through prayer and song, and "be peace."

Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the entire story at Faith in Public Life.

New Book on Buddhist-Christian Dialogue and Science

B. Allan Wallace has written a new book called Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism and Christianity. Though I haven't had a chance to purchase and read it yet, it looks to be a wonderful scholarly analysis of the inquiry into human consciousness through the meditative techniques of Buddhism and Christianity with the inclusion of modern scientific research into these practices.

"By establishing a dialogue in which the meditative practices of Buddhism and Christianity speak to the theories of modern philosophy and science, B. Alan Wallace reveals the theoretical similarities underlying these disparate disciplines and their unified approach to making sense of the objective world." (Center for Progressive Christianity)

Read the full review of Wallace's book at the Center for Progressive Christianity.

Watch a video of Wallace talking about his book.

Dalai Lama Featured on Interfaith Voices

This week on Interfaith Voices radio program, Pico Iyer, who is a journalist for Time magazine, talks about His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a long-time friend. Topics range from how the Dalai Lama was chosen, his childhood, his religious and political leadership of Tibet, and Tibet's relationship to China.

This interview with Pico Iyer is an intriguing and informative piece for those interested in Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama, and/or interreligious understanding.

Listen at Interfaith Voices.

Buddhist chaplain is Army first

Thomas Dyer is the Army National Guard's first Buddhist-affiliated chaplain to be deployed. Though Dyer used to be a Baptist pastor, he has since been involved in Buddhism and Buddhist meditation techniques, which he feels will be useful during the trying months ahead when he will be deployed in December for Afghanistan.

Bob Smietana of the Nashville Tennessean has the full story at Faith in Public Life.

New Book: "The Buddha's Wish for the World"

"The Pure Land tradition is the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in the world. In Japan, the Pure Land path is epitomized by Jodo Shinshu (Shin Buddhism), Japan's largest Buddhist denomination. The head of Jodo Shinshu, Monshu Koshin Ohtani, has written a book that will be available in English for the first time. The Buddha's Wish for the World will be published in September, 2009, by the American Buddhist Study Center Press.

The Buddha's Wish for the World is dedicated to honor the 750^th memorial of Shinran Shonin (1173 - 1263), the founder of Jodo Shinshu, who established this spiritual path in 13^th century Japan. The book includes a foreword by world-renowned Buddhist scholar, Professor Robert Thurman, Professor of Buddhism at Columbia University and Founder of Tibet House in New York."

Should be a great read for those interested in the Pure Land tradition, and especially the Japanese Jodo Shinshu. I'm not very knowledgeable about Japanese Buddhism, besides a very general understanding of some main branches of Zen practice, but there is certainly a special place in my heart for Pure Land Buddhism. I would venture a guess that this is because of the often noted parallels between the Christian and Pure Land understandings of soteriology, which describes that liberation requires at least some "other" assistance in this process -- that liberation isn't possible without some measure of outside influence or help. While both Christian and Pure Land soteriologies can be much more nuanced than that, this is the fundamental conviction upon which the elaborate doctrines are based.

Though many people in Unity would decry this "other power" liberation type as something left over from the "traditional" (and thus the implication is often "outdated") understanding of salvation, it actually nonetheless fits well into the Unity system. Unity usually emphasizes the belief that one is master of one's own fate and therefore is solely responsible for one's own liberation from sin (which means going from an awareness that is not in line with the omnipresent reality of God to Christ-consciousness that is fully harmonious with God-Mind). Granted, there are some Unity students who would point out the notion of the collective consciousness where all the thought-actions of humankind are present and can affect individual people and events in the relative world. But I think that the traditional Christian and Pure Land notions of "other power" soteriologies are compatible in the Unity metaphysical system largely due to the teaching of "interdependence" or "interconnectedness" or, as most simply put it, "Oneness." Since all individuals depend on each other for their existence and are intimately connected at the most fundamental, essential level, this seems to me to imply that ultimately none of us is completely independent to the extent of being able to achieve a liberated state without help, or at least the existential influence, from/by others. Since we need/rely upon each other for being, existing, living we also need/rely upon each other in the continual process of becoming ever more liberated into greater awareness of Oneness and Love.

Besides this, one of the most basic values in the Unity movement (which I think cooperates with the metaphysical system) is that "we honor all paths to God, all ways to worship God" because it is the underlying Presence of God's Love that underpins all spiritual and religious expression. This ethic of openness and inclusivity is a steadfast hallmark of the Unity movement that couldn't explicitly single out any particular understanding of soteriology as "wrong," "false," or "untrue." This is one of the most precious aspects that I cherish about Unity.

This is just my two cents (or is it $10.00 with inflation) on the subject.

To read a review of the upcoming Pure Land book visit the RNS website.

My Recent Publication in Faith Initiative Magazine

I have just recently published a short essay in the UK magazine, Faith Initiative, which is a publication dedicated to promoting interreligious conversation and embracing diversity.

In this 21st issue of Faith Initiative I write about my experiences as a Christian attending a Buddhist-founded university (University of the West) and living in a mostly Buddhist community. The article outlines my familial, cultural, and religious background, my experiences dialoguing and "worshipping" with Buddhists, and how being a Christian among Buddhists has impacted and changed my Christian faith and identity.

It's a personal rather than a scholarly article, but it was fun to write and share my spiritual experiences with others in an effort to promote interfaith relations and cultural diversity here and abroad. I was able to mention my alma maters as well as describe how I came to embrace the Unity movement as the best communal support for cultivating my progressive Christian spirituality.

Since only select essays can be accessed on the Faith Initiative website, mine isn't yet available to read online, but will be in a few months (I'll send out a reminder when the time comes). However, if anyone is interested, let me know and I can send a personal PDF verson of the essay via email.

Read select essays at Faith Initiative.

Teaching the Dalai Lama's Monks: Better Religion Through Science

"A scientist/professor in an experimental program teaching science to the Dalai Lama's monks explains why this project is so much bigger than this one program, bigger even than working to reconcile religion and science." (RD 7.1.09)

These interactions between Tibetan monks and scientists are very important in the increased understanding between religious practitioners and scientists through dialogue. However, we must keep in mind that it's not simply religion that must be open to learning from science but also science drawing insight from religion as well (which I haven't seen as often). It's important that the religion-science conversation is truly two-sided -- a real dialogue rather than two disconnected monologues.

Arri Eisen has the story at Religion Dispatches.

Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh on Speaking of Faith

The Vietnamese Buddhist Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh is featured in the most recent installment of the Speaking of Faith radio program from American Public Media.

Host Krista Tippet re-broadcasts her interviews of Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003 during a mindfulness retreat in Wisconsin. Thay (as students and followers address him) is a relevant and prophetic voice speaking of the real possibility of living an evenminded and contented life amidst the plurality of greed, hatred, and violence extant in the world. In this program, he speaks of his life as a monk during the war in Vietnam and the different practices he engaged in and programs he founded to help alleviate the suffering caused on every side of that conflict. He speaks of "being peace," "engaged Buddhism," and "mindfulness" and their relevancy for life in today's world.

Also interviewed are Cheri Maples and Larry Ward, both participants in the retreat. They speak of how Thay and his teachings and practices have changed their lives for the better. Cheri is a licensed attorney and consultant on justice and community corrections. She was ordained as a dharma teacher by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2008. And Larry Ward, who happens to be a fellow student in the religious studies program at University of the West, is co-director of the Lotus Institute in Encinitas, California and an ordained Baptist minister. Both of these interviews are personal, insightful, and helpful in shedding light from a different angle on Thay's Buddhist teachings and practices.

As a Unity student and Christian, I've found Thay's approach to Buddhism very approachable, for it speaks more clearly and directly to me as an American Christian interested in mindfulness practices. Even though we have analogous practices in the Christian contemplative tradition (meditatio -- centering prayer, contemplative prayer; and affirmative prayer), opening myself up to the Buddhist version of these practices has been instructive for two fundamental reasons: 1) as a result I've been able to better humanize and understand Buddhists and Buddhist teaching and 2) it has reintroduced me to the vast and deep contemplative tradition at the heart of Christian spirituality. Thay has a way of communicating the Buddhist mindfulness and socially engaged principles so simply and clearly (so that everyday Westerners can relate to them) that, even though I've been aware of many Buddhist texts and doctrine for years, these teachings took on fresh meaning and import.

Listen to the Speaking of Faith show with Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh.

(Above photo from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village website.)

Buddhism in America -- Helen Tworkov article

Helen Tworkov, editor of Tricycle magazine, writes a piece for EnlightenNext (formerly What is Enlightenment?) concerning the character and future of Buddhism in America. Over the past few decades Buddhist traditions and practices have been becoming assimilated and grafted into modern Western culture. The question Tworkov brings up is, "how can we make sure its heart and soul aren't getting lost in the translation?"

Read the article at EnlightenNext.

Fareed Zakaria to Interview Dalai Lama

CNN's Fareed Zakaria will sit down and talk with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on CNN Sunday May 10, 2009 at 1 and 5pm Eastern.

Read an interview with Zakaria about Tibet and the Dalai Lama on CNN.com.

UWest Chaplaincy Program Connections

University of the West's newly initiated Buddhist Chaplaincy Program is now on Twitter, Facebook, and has its own blogsite.

This program is currently coordinated by my friend and colleague, Danny Fisher, who writes about Buddhist chaplaincy on his blogsite and many other forums.

Chaplaincy is such an important vocation in supporting individuals in their personal well-being, so I'm so pleased that Buddhism, which is a growing influential religion in the U.S., is becoming increasingly present in chaplaincy contexts. I'm blessed to know leaders from other religious traditions who are actively using chaplaincy as a means to promote healthy living and spiritual growth.

Commentary on Unity Essay "Is Karma Real?"

On the Unity.org website, Lila Herrmann writes an interesting essay on karma and Unity. In this brief article, she briefly discusses what karma is and if it fits with Unity teachings.

As a scholar of world religions, I was a little disappointed with the lack of understanding of the detail and nuance with which the term karma is/has been used in Indian religious systems. She recognizes that it comes from Indian traditions, but cites no Hindu, Buddhist, Jain practitioners or Indologists (scholars who study the cultural and religious traditions of India), instead relying solely upon Unity leaders and ministers to corroborate her understanding of karma. Now, I have utmost respect for Charles Fillmore, Eric Butterworth, and many other Unity ministers in terms of their insight into the practice of prayer and knowledge of Unity principles, but most of them aren't scholars of Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. and so their statements of karma are, at best, simplistic and, at worst, rather inaccurate.

Herrmann does acknowledge the Sanskrit origin of the word and gives its root meaning as "action"; this is all very straightforward and accurate. However, using Fillmore and Butterworth, it seems that she depicts karma as a kind of deterministic cycle of punishment. This negative understanding of karma as dealing only with wrongdoing, sin, and/or punishment simply isn't always the case in Indian religion. It's actually much more complex than that, since we're dealing with several different religious traditions within India and a plethora of various viewpoints within those traditions. However, I'll summarize some of the trends of the Indian traditions regarding karma.

In general, most Hindus and Buddhists agree that karma isn't the accumulation of the effects of past sins or some kind of debt to be paid off from lifetime to lifetime. Rather, karma is more like a cosmic law or principle of cause and effect/action and reaction that governs all existence. This karmic principle is valuated as neither good nor bad - it simply is - it's a mechanism of the universe that directly influences the outcome of actions. Karma deals equally with positive and negative actions, since it deals with all action (hence the root meaning "action" not "negative or positive action").

Karma isn't punishment or retribution because it's simply the extended expression or fruit of actions performed. The effects of actions are also able to be influenced by other actions and are not necessarily fated or predetermined. That is, a certain action performed now is not binding on a particular future experience or reaction. Karma is not simply a one-to-one preordained correspondence of reward or punishment. Though there are some deterministic positions within Hindu philosophy, the Indian religions largely agree that humans have free will to shape their own destiny. Thus, according to the Hindu Vedas and Upanishads and the Buddhist Pali Canon (as well as other non-Indian Buddhist texts), actions have their appropriate and corresponding effect. Thus, for example, if one does a good/wholesome/healthy deed this will result in a good/wholesome/healthy effect, and if one does a bad/unwholesome/unhealthy deed this will result in a bad/unwholesome/unhealthy effect.

Jainism is the only Indian system that holds a view of karma that one could probably argue to be explicitly "negative." Jainism doesn't view karma as a law/principle of cause and effect but more like a kind of subtle material or fine energy field (often referred to as karmic dirt) that pervades the entire universe. This fine karmic matter is attracted to the soul because of vibrations created by activities of one's mind, speech, and body as well as various mental dispositions. So karma is the subtle matter surrounding the consciousness of a soul from which the soul must extricate itself before it can experience its natural state of "nirvana."

There are, of course, differences in details between the Indian religions concerning karma. In Hinduism, this principle of karma can be created and influenced by a deity/ies or not, depending on the sectarian viewpoint, whereas in Buddhism and Jainism deity/God is simply not usually part of the system. In Buddhism, karma is one of the five causal categories and so is only one of many different influences/conditions of a person's experience in the complex chain of cause and effect. (There are conditions of action (karma), environment, heredity, intention, and tendencies in nature, which all come together in various ways and combinations to bring about the events experienced in one's life.) [For more info on all the above, see R.C. Zaehner, Hinduism, 1966; L Babb, Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry, 1983; M. Weber, et al, Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism; C. Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, 2007; W.D. O'Flaherty, Karma and Rebirth in Classical India Traditions, 1980; P. Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, 1989; and P. Dundas, The Jains, 2002.]

My general point is that, besides Jainism, most Indian religion understands karma not as a cycle of punishment or retribution but as a neutral,natural universal principle that brings about appropriate results of one's actions. In this light, karma is not so disparate from the "Law of Mind-Action" as outlined so well in Herrmann's essay. Much like karma, the Law of Mind-Action says that one's experiences (results/effects of action) are created by our actions (grounded in thought, but also in word and deed). This primacy of mind-intention in Unity probably places it more in alignment with Buddhism than most other Indian systems, since Buddhism grants a primary place of intention in their notion of karma. Both karma and the Law of Mind-Action recognize that in order for one to experience a life of contentment and well-being one must change one's actions (in mind, speech, and physical work) accordingly to suit these purposes. Positive and healthy activity will bring about like results.

In addition, in both the Indian religions and Unity, it is prayer, contemplation, and meditation that are considered to be the means of cultivating a life that brings about experiences of good, truth, love, and well-being.

Unity's Law of Mind-Action is much closer to some of the Indian teachings of karma than I believe Herrmann has recognized. This is likely due to the influence of Indian religious philosophy on especially Charles Fillmore who became acquainted with world religions through reading some of their texts, but mostly via the Transcendentalism movement (Emerson) and other New Thought thinkers. Regardless, though I know Unity has been striving to solidify a distinct identity, it is only fair and factual to concede that there's at least some real similarity between karma and the Law of Mind-Action.

Newly elected Bishop also Embraces Buddhism

"Episcopal bishop-elect of Northern Michigan, who's come under fire from conservatives for his simultaneous embrace of Zen Buddhism." This speaks to the increasingly common modern/postmodern phenomenon of multiple religious identities and its controversial status among a certain sector of our population. Daniel Burke of the RNS has the story.