When Buddhist conceptions of Christ are positive they are typically highly mystical. So, having just described the hallowed presence of the Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh continues,
When a sage is present and you sit near him or her, you feel peace and light. If you were to sit close to Jesus and look into His eyes – even if you didn’t see Him – you would have a much greater chance to be saved than by reading his words. But when He is not there, His teachings are second best, especially the teachings of His life (Living Buddha, 53; my emphasis).
In the Lankavatara Sutra (Ch. 2) it is taught that the knowledge of ultimate reality cannot be attained through a rational process. The Buddha tells Mahamati:
the way of instruction presented by the Tathagatas is not based on assertions and refutations by means of words and logic” (my emphasis). Buddhism severs the link between words and ultimate truth:
Words are an artificial creation; there are Buddha-lands where there are no words. In some Buddha-lands ideas are indicated by looking steadily, in other gestures, in still others by a frown, by a movement of the eyes, by laughing, by yawning, by the clearing of the throat, or by trembling. For instance, in the Buddha-land of the Tathagata Samantabhadra, Bodhisattvas, by a dhyana [sc. meditation] transcending words and ideas, attain recognition of all things as un-born and they, also, experience various most excellent Samadhis [sc. states of meditative absorption) that transcend words. Even in this world such specialised beings as ants and bees carry on their activities very well without recourse to words. No, Mahamati, the validity of things is independent of the validity of words…
words are only sweet sounds that are arbitrarily chosen to represent things, they are not the things themselves, which in turn are only manifestations of mind. Discrimination of meaning is based upon false-imagination that these sweet sounds which we call words and which are dependent upon whatever subjects they are supposed to stand for, and which subjects are supposed to be self-existent, all of which is based on error. Disciples should be on their guard against the seductions of words and sentences and their illusive meanings, for by them the ignorant and the dull-witted become entangled and helpless as an elephant floundering about in the deep mud.
Words and sentences are produced by the law of causation and are mutually conditioning,- they cannot express highest Reality. Moreover, in highest Reality there are no differentiations to be discriminated and there is nothing to be predicated in regards to it. Highest Reality is an exalted state of bliss, it is not a state of word-discrimination and it cannot be entered into by mere statements concerning it. The Tathagatas have a better way of teaching, namely, through self-realisation of Noble Wisdom.
However, while Christians need to be aware of this barrier to receiving a Word-based message this should not deter us. We must recognise that we are not presenting a merely human word but the very words of God. Paul avowed,
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile (Romans 1:16).
The gospel is God’s word of new creation. Psalm 33:6-7 recalls the description of creation in Genesis 1:
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
It is as others preached not themselves but Jesus Christ as Lord (2 Corinthians 4:5) that the
God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
However, bearing in mind the Buddhist view that ultimate truth transcends words we might appropriately stress Romans 11:33-34:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
So Job confessed:
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know (Job 42:3b).
Posted August 5, 2008
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