[Buddha-l] Christian meditation and eastern symbolism

[Michael J. Wilson]

  When I read this "whole imagery of the Trinity" in meditation it reminded me of three things.  In Nepal on a trek  in the Himalaya, not far out from Kathmandu, I stayed overnight in a guest house.  When I looked at the white painted wall of the one of the rooms outside, I saw what looked like a Tibetan "Wheel of Life" tangka painted. Not too unusual as most Sherpas had a Tibetan form of buddhist religion.  On closer inspection I realized it was a "Christian Wheel of Life" with a distinctly chrisitan symbology, that Holy Trinity perhaps being one of them:. the life of Christ clearer being depicted in the storytelling. Then I remembered that there is a small, totally non-intrusive "ashram", but chrisitan religious centre, in Sarnath (major buddhist pilgrimage place near Varanasi where Shakyamuni Buddha first turned the wheel of Dharma.  You would never see this place from the street but peering in through the gate you can see a statue of Jesus, in our common western concepti!
 on of
 him, sitting in a lotus form of meditation.  I also recall that the Swiss christian hermit and mystic Nicholas of Cusa used to practice a "medallion" meditation, which involved christian symbolism.  I can't remember it now but the medallions represented "stages of the cross". Medallions are circles though, aren't they, or wheels of life?
   
  Michael J. Wilson
   
   
  
You said:
   
  It shows that Christianity or more precisely Catholicism has not changed 
a bit, but uses the same negative dogmatic attitude against any form of 
prayer or meditation that doesn't contain the whole imagery of the 
Trinity as in the past against its own more mystically enclined currents.

quote:

12. With the present diffusion of eastern methods of meditation in the 
Christian world and in ecclesial communities, we find ourselves faced 
with a pointed renewal of an attempt, which is not free from dangers and 
errors, "to fuse Christian meditation with that which is non-Christian." 
Proposals in this direction are numerous and radical to a greater or 
lesser extent. Some use eastern methods solely as a psycho-physical 
preparation for a truly Christian contemplation; others go further and, 
using different techniques, try to generate spiritual experiences 
similar to those described in the writings of certain Catholic 
mystics.(13) Still others do not hesitate to place that absolute without 
image or concepts, which is proper to Buddhist theory, (14) on the same 
level as the majesty of God revealed in Christ, which towers above 
finite reality. To this end, they make use of a "negative theology," 
which transcends every affirmation seeking to express what God is, and 
denies that the things of this world can offer traces of the infinity of 
God. Thus they propose abandoning not only meditation on the salvific 
works accomplished in history by the God of the Old and New Covenant, 
but also the very idea of the One and Triune God, who is Love, in favor 
of an immersion "in the indeterminate abyss of the divinity."(15) These 
and similar proposals to harmonize Christian meditation with eastern 
techniques need to have their contents and methods ever subjected to a 
thorough-going examination so as to avoid the danger of falling into 
syncretism.



		
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