Christians Talk about Buddhist Meditation, Buddhists Talk About Christian Prayer

Christians Talk about Buddhist Meditation, Buddhists Talk About Christian Prayer PDF

Author: Rita M. Gross

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2003-04-29

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780826414397

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This book adopts the format of the editorsÆ previous book, Buddhists Talk about Jesus, Christians Talk about the Buddha. In that book eight scholar-practitioners--four of them Buddhist and four Christian--explored their relationship to the great religious figure of the other tradition. Then the remaining contributors, two from each tradition, addressed themselves, rebuttal fashion, to the views expressed. In the new book the subject is the differences and similarities between Buddhist meditation and Christian prayer. What can a Christian, for example, learn from the mental and physical rigor of Buddhist meditative practice? What can a Buddhist learn from traditional Christian prayer? Can one mix distinct religious identity (Christian) with practice techniques associated with another religion (Buddhist) without compromising the religious specificity of either the identities or the techniques? Christian contributors include Frances S. Adeney, Mary Frohlich, Paul O. Ingram, Ursula King, Terry C. Muck, Yagi Seiichi, and Bardwell Smith. Buddhist contributors include Robert Aitken, Grace Burford, Rita Gross, John Makransky, Ken Tanaka, Robert Thurman, and Taitetsu Unno.

Buddhists Talk About Jesus, Christians Talk About the Buddha

Buddhists Talk About Jesus, Christians Talk About the Buddha PDF

Author: Rita M. Gross

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2000-02-01

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780826411969

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What does Jesus mean to a Buddhist, or the Buddha to a Christian? What is it about the Buddha that is appealing to a Christian, or unappealing? In this volume 12 scholars, six of them Christian and six of them Buddhists, speak simply and from the heart about their personal relationship to the great religious leader from the other tradition. The diversity of views within each tradition could be a shock to the average Buddhist or Christian on the street. Buddhists argue about Buddha's nature, Buddha veneration, and the role the Buddha plays in human liberation. Christians argue about Jesus' human and divine status, his uniqueness, and the role he plays in human salvation. The contributors celebrate the family likeness between Jesus and the Buddha, but they also acknowledge the differences as well, for it is at the points of difference that potentially there is the most opportunity for growth.

Taking Jesus Seriously

Taking Jesus Seriously PDF

Author: John Cowan

Publisher: Liturgical Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780814627587

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In Taking Jesus Seriously, the words of Jesus become clearer when matched with the practices and insights of Buddhist meditation. This book presents a Christian way to implement the words of Jesus by looking inside to see what stands between the reader and God's kingdom. Cowan connects everyday examples and Jesus' words to the method of Buddhist vipassana or insight meditation by offering instruction, perception, and guidance. With practice, readers can begin to notice what is actual, leave anxiety to the Father, accept pain, and see the world as a child would. This book is designed to be read over twelve weeks while practicing 20-30 minutes of daily meditations. Each chapter includes questions and answers

Buddhist Christianity

Buddhist Christianity PDF

Author: Ross Thompson

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2010-08-27

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1780990855

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It is possible to be a Christian Buddhist in the context of a universal belief that sits fairly lightly on both traditions. Ross Thompson takes especially seriously the aspects of each faith that seem incompatible with the other, no God and no soul in Buddhism, for example, and the need for grace and the historical atonement on the cross in Christianity. Buddhist Christianity can be no bland blend of the tamer aspects of both faiths, but must result from a wrestling of the seeming incompatibles, allowing each faith to shake the other to its very foundations. The author traces his personal journey through which his need for both faiths became painfully apparent. He explores the Buddha and Jesus through their teachings and the varied communities that flow from them, investigating their different understandings of suffering and wrong, self and liberation, meditation and prayer, cosmology and God or not? He concludes with a bold commitment to both faiths.

Beside Still Waters

Beside Still Waters PDF

Author: Harold Kasimow

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-05-10

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0861719034

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A compelling question for people of faith today is how to remain committed to one's own religious tradition while being open to the beauty and truth of other religions. For example, some fear that Buddhism is a threat to Western faith traditions and express grave doubts about interreligious and cross-cultural encounters. Yet, many who have actually broadened their experience profess to have developed a deeper understanding of and a deeper commitment to their tradition of origin. This is what makes Beside Still Waters: Jews, Christians, and the Way of the Buddha such a new and meaningful contribution. Rather than offering research or lectures, Beside Still Waters takes a deeply personal approach, allowing the reader to delve into the individual experiences of fourteen Jews and Christians whose encounters with Buddhism have truly impacted their sense of religious identity. As Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography, says in the book's foreword, "The Buddhist presence in the religious world is far larger than a head-count of Buddhists can reveal." Beside Still Waters upholds this point by way of the diverse and eloquent authors who lend their perspective in its pages; these include Sylvia Boorstein, John B. Cobb, Norman Fischer, Ruben Habito, and other important members of the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, and scholarly communities. Their collected anecdotes and interviews amount to an unprecedented and enduring work, sure to deepen our ability to understand each other, and therefore, ourselves.

Religious Diversity--What's the Problem?

Religious Diversity--What's the Problem? PDF

Author: Rita M. Gross

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2014-04-24

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1620324091

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Once upon a time, on grounds of both religion and common sense, people assumed that the earth was flat and that the sun literally rose and set each day. When newly developing knowledge made those beliefs untenable, giving them up was difficult. Today the belief that only one of the world's various religions is true for all people on earth is equivalent to the belief in a flat earth. Both notions have become untenable, given contemporary knowledge about religion. Even though many people are still troubled by the existence of religious diversity today, that diversity is a fact of life. Religious diversity should be no more troubling to religious people than the fact that the earth is round and circles the sun. This provocative book, based on the author's longtime practice of Buddhism and comparative study of religion, provides tools with which one can truly appreciate religious diversity as a gift and resource rather than as a deficiency or a problem to be overcome. After we accept diversity as inevitable and become comfortable with it, diversity always enriches life--both nature and culture.

Buddhist Christianity

Buddhist Christianity PDF

Author: Ross Thompson

Publisher: John Hunt Publishing

Published: 2010-07-15

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1846943361

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It is possible to be a Christian Buddhist in the context of a universal belief that sits fairly lightly on both traditions. Ross Thompson takes especially seriously the aspects of each faith that seem incompatible with the other, no God and no soul in Buddhism, for example, and the need for grace and the historical atonement on the cross in Christianity. Buddhist Christianity can be no bland blend of the tamer aspects of both faiths, but must result from a wrestling of the seeming incompatibles, allowing each faith to shake the other to its very foundations. The author traces his personal journey through which his need for both faiths became painfully apparent. He explores the Buddha and Jesus through their teachings and the varied communities that flow from them, investigating their different understandings of suffering and wrong, self and liberation, meditation and prayer, cosmology and God or not? He concludes with a bold commitment to both faiths.

Fragrant Rivers of Wisdom

Fragrant Rivers of Wisdom PDF

Author: A. Christian van Gorder

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-12-09

Total Pages: 207

ISBN-13: 1725287285

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Buddhism and Christianity are ancient, rich, and multivalent wisdom spirituality traditions that often have insightful similarities as well as distinct perspectives from entirely different starting points. Fragrant Rivers of Wisdom explores some of these paths and encourages readers to gain, as far as is possible, a participant's appreciation of another faith. This book aims to help readers celebrate and enjoy the rich wisdom legacies of a teacher revealing a pure lotus blossoming from mud and the legacies of a peasant Jewish carpenter from Galilee revealing love on a cross. Both teachers share the power of love, the joys of healing encouragement, and the creative resources of spirit-filled living. Their ancient words and their modern communities still following these paths are dynamically relevant for our modern context of confusion and challenge.

Buddhist-Christian Dialogue

Buddhist-Christian Dialogue PDF

Author: Paul O. Ingram

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1556353812

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The essays in this volume focus on philosophical, theological, and structural aspects of contemporary BuddhistÐChristian dialogue in an effort to assess its potential as a source for the renewal and transformation of both traditions. Writing from differing assumptions, academic disciplines, and religious world views, the nine Christian and two Buddhist contributors are nevertheless agreed that interreligious dialogue can contribute meaningfully to our understanding of some of the profound issues arising out of modern selfÐconsciousness. Believing that the human community and its survival are threatened everywhere by secularism, they seek to show that the dialogue between Buddhists and Christians can provide not only insights but a conceptual framework for authentic living in the present age of religious pluralism. Each writer shares the conclusion that BuddhistÐChristian encounter is vitally important for a larger understanding of contemporary issues of selfÐidentity, evil, communication, and fulfillment.

Christian Mindfulness

Christian Mindfulness PDF

Author: Peter Tyler

Publisher: SCM Press

Published: 2018-09-28

Total Pages: 123

ISBN-13: 0334056713

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Many Christian commentators have been taken aback by the seemingly unstoppable rise of the ‘mindfulness revolution’ that has occurred over the past decade. But there are many Christians who worry that mindfulness techniques constitute a covert import from Buddhism. How far are Christians adopting Buddhist techniques, ideas and ideologies? Do we risk squaring Buddhist ideology and approaches to fit the Christian circle? Beginning with an exploration of the practice of mindfulness in its Buddhist origins, Peter Tyler reflects on the practical use of mindfulness, its place within the Christian tradition of prayer, and its future within the Christian tradition. Tyler argues that far from a foreign import mindfulness is not only endemic but essential to the Christian understanding of how the human person relates to the divine. Each chapter concludes with practical exercises to help the reader in their understanding of mindfulness in the Christian context.