How Can You Be a Christian Engaged in Buddhist Practice?
When people hear that one is a Christian who engages in Buddhist practice, many people immediately assume that the Christian belongs to a very liberal or progressive sect of Christianity. This, however, is not always so. There are Catholic priests who are Zen teachers, such as these two. They may be politically progressive or not, I have no idea, but the Catholic faith itself is very conservative in its orthodoxy.
I am also from a conservative, orthodox faith, though not Catholic. I am not sure what my politics would be called because the labels recently changed meanings in the United States. I used to be called a conservative (though libertarian-ish) or "classical liberal," but now "conservative" seems to mean something completely alien to what it meant before.
And yet, I read Buddhist scripture and practice Buddhist meditation and mindfulness. To me, there is no conflict. I do not adopt all of the metaphysics of Buddhism. I do not believe in the idea of no-self, but I do believe that the self is constantly changing, and I believe strongly in the pursuit of non-clinging and attention to the present. I believe that all of physical creation, as we now know it, is impermanent, and that much suffering is caused by clinging. Additionally, Christian and Buddhist morality overlap almost entirely.
I do not yet know if my practice will ultimately tend more towards Soto Zen or Vipassana or perhaps something else of which I am not yet aware, but this is all right. My Christian affiliation has changed several times during my lifetime, and, for the first half of my life, I wasn't a Christian at all. As is the theme of this blog, we are all making experiments in life. It is okay to try new things and to change our minds as we develop new insight.
The culture in my country is currently to be very brittle about views. The fashion is to cling to views very tightly and define them in oppositional ways, even to attach more beliefs of increasing extremity to one's views to prove one's adherence and faith. By this, politics has become almost a kind of religion, and many people all over the political spectrum identify their politics with their religion as a package. Very strange! Very very strange!
To you, I offer a virtual bow, and may God be with you.