A few weeks ago, towards the start of this series, we looked at the Fourth Noble Truths, which are the most basic distillation of Buddhist thought. As a reminder, they go something like this: Dissatisfaction or suffering is everywhere; the cause of this suffering is our attachment; suffering can end by severing those attachments; and … Continue reading The Eightfold Path and the Gospel: 1. Right Understanding
So far in this series exploring Buddhist thought as a mirror to better understand Christianity we’ve seen just how central the idea of attachment/non-attachment is in Buddhism: We are dissatisfied with the world, thereby suffering and acting to cause others to suffer, because we are overly attached to the transient things of the world around … Continue reading The Gospel and the Three Poisons
Of the basic teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha one of the most influential for Buddhist thought and life is what is called the ‘middle way’ or ‘middle path’. This was the epiphany that true freedom and wisdom is to be found neither in the life of indulgence knew knew in the palace … Continue reading The Gospel and the Middle Path
In our highly individualist, consumer-driven culture, we often (hopefully unintentionally) bring our customer mentality to spirituality, as though God should be happy for our business and trip over Godself to ensure we have a positive experience and 'meet our needs'. But of course, we’re dealing with the infinite creator of the universe here, and so … Continue reading Only Our Duty: A Reflection on Luke 17.5-10
Last time, we explored the core Buddhist teaching of impermanence and how it relates to Christian teaching. Today we’ll see that that same understanding of pervasive instability extends even to the person itself. This is the concept of anatta, ‘non-self’. It’s an oft misunderstood idea, so will need some unpacking before we can responsibly look … Continue reading Who Am I Anyway?: Non-Self and the Gospel
Matthew Root 