Why is it that Buddhism inspires such fascination?
By Todd R. Svanoe
W hat, explains the rush last,
iionlh of more than 12,000 uni-
/ersity staff and students who
swooped down on tickets to Wednesday's
public lecture by the Dulai Lama before
they could even be offered to the general
public?
One wonders how many thousand seals
more would have been snatched up by
eager participants and whether recent
national movies on Tibetan Buddhism
alone could enamor so many to this par-
ticular public figure.
Are we seeing, as Time religion writer
David Van Biema puts it, "the vague
undifferentiated good will of a cynical and
over-caffeinated world still auditioning
sources of truth, calm and peace"? Is the
interest, merely political: a natural sympa-
thy for the leader of the gentle-hearted
Tibetan people, underdogs in the battle
for autonomy against communist China?
Or are increasing numbers of people in
the West seriously seeking an Eastern reli-
gious alternative to a dominant Judeo-
Christian paradigm?
Wondering what trips people's spiritual
triggers has been a lifelong hobby for me.
So like a good, slightly audacious
American journalist — determined to get a
handle on Buddhism in a matter of days
— I marched off to Deer Park Monastery
outside of Oregon recently for a few talks
with the local masters.
Sopa, 75, a retired professor of South
TOOD SVANOE
Geshe Thabkay, a Buddhist from
India, makes an offering before an
altar at Deer Park Monastery outside
Oregon.
While there I discovered many surprising
similarities between Western Christianity
and this Eastern form of Buddhism, as
well as some insurmountable differences.
Removing my shoes, I was greeted with a
kindly smile by the abbot of the
monastery, Geshe Lhundup Sopa, robed
in trademark saffron and maroon.
"The main target of Buddhism is an ego-
tistic and self-centered view," started
such love the hallmark of genuine faith,
Asian studies from the UW-Madison. This
view expresses itself in anger, hatred, jeal-
ousy, etc.
M ost of the practices of Buddhism
concern developing good mental
habits in the pursuit of six per-
fections: charity, morality, meditation,
patience, diligence and wisdom, he said.
Most people have developed only a minus-
cule portion of their minds.
I grew up with a grandmother who took
away my transistor radio because it was a
tool of Satan. I remember sitting at the
kitchen table with her, looking up "jazz"
in the dictionary, hoping an objective defi-
nition would persuade her.
Suffice it to say, I know well the anti-
intellectualism found in some parts of the
Christian church. So any religious man
with an emphasis on the mind is a friend
of mine.
He told of one of the thousands of medi-
tation techniques available to the serious
seeker.
Monks here have been offering at an
altar seven dishes of water each day as a
means of developing the habit of generosi-
ty. "It's not because the Buddha needs it,"
he explained. "You learn to give without
expecting anything in return."
A different practice, but the words sound
so familiar.
Another practitioner tells me that the
Dalai Lama has written several books on
how to love one's enemy. Jesus, too, made
ferings." The apostle Paul, in fact, sought
So, are the two religions the same?
Hardly, said Sopa, who believes it is the
differences of Tibetan Buddhism that hold
so much appeal to those who have given
up on Christianity.
"Christianity is much more grounded in
faith and doing whatever God or the cre-
ator says. There is no creator out there
separate from yourself. Buddha says, 'Use
your own wisdom. Don't follow me
because. I say so. You have to examine
what I say.' "
H
not why.
ere, too, I partially identified with
the teacher. Too often Christians I
meet know what they believe, but
But I've come to see that Buddhists dif-
fer from Christians very fundamentally in
their view of suffering.
Both religions would agree with the first
two of Buddhism's four Noble Truths:
People exist in a state of suffering, and
that suffering has a cause.
For Christianity its cause is in a fissure
between God and humanity. To Buddhists,
there is a chasm between people and their
limited conceptualization of reality.
But Buddhists' solution to that problem
is vastly different. The doctrine continues:
There is a cessation of suffering, which is
nirvana; and there is an eight-fold path to
this liberation. "You develop a realization
of emptiness," explained one practitioner.
By contrast, the Christian Scripture says
Christ "was made perfect through his suf-
to "share in Christ's sufferings," not
escape them.
Reflecting on all of this, I couldn't help
but think of a sermon I had hoard at
Bethel Lutheran Church over the holidays
on the incarnation of Christ.
"We don't try to enter God's world, as
the great saints of Eastern religions say,
by ceasing to be human," said Rev. Bill
White. "Rather, we meet the God who
became flesh by being more deeply
human."
White gave the example of Mother
Teresa, who suffered with the dying, hav-
ing no method of deliverance to offer
them, just blankets and bowls of soup to
dignify their deaths. To some, this is not a
very satisfying picture of religious faith.
I n four short encounters with the
Madison Buddhist community and lots
of reading, I, too, have become fond
of Tibetan culture.
But if the displacement of Christianity
helps explain Wednesday's packed house
at the Kohl Center, perhaps this is a par-
tial explanation: In the words of G.K.
Chesterton, "The Christian ideal has not
been tried and found wanting; it has been
found difficult and left untried."
Todd R. Svanoe, a correspondent for The
Capital Times, writes regularly about reli-
gious issues. He will be covering the Dalai
Lama's visit to Madison this week.