Our Beliefs — The more they change, the more they are the same
31 March 2019
Thought it would be interesting to share comparisons between Christianity and the beliefs of Buddhism in the Chinese context and demonstrate that at the end of the day it is human desire for wealth and power and our search for peace that is eternal. The pattern of reasoning may change a bit but the aim is always the same.
We start first with the Apostolic Church which is the church formed in the early years from 100 A.D. — 500 A.D. which corresponded to the peak and fall of the Roman Empire and because the Roman emperor Constantine permitted the spread of Christianity and even gave them money. This also coincided with Europe becoming Christian. In those days the belief was that everyone had a direct relationship with God and the church was not that important. If you compare it with the teachings of Buddhism: ｢衆生皆普薩 ｣: Everyone is a Buddha with the ability to discover your inner goodness and attain nirvana it is quite similar.
Then came the Roman Catholic Church which established the hierarchy of the Church which led to laymen relying on the priests to interpret God’s word. This led of course to the Catholic Church’s substantial influence on Government which led to corruption especially in the selling of indulgences for sinners rampant in the dark ages all the way till the Enlightenment.
One interesting thing or objective for the selling of indulgences is supposedly for Catholics to spend the least amount of time in purgatory after death. Purgatory was supposedly this place for purification after death and those who are righteous spend little time there before being whisked to heaven. In Buddhism there is the belief of “Bardo” ｢中陰 ｣ which is the state one gets to upon death and similarly a state where one is “in between” before being sent for reincarnation ｢輪迴 ｣. Buddhism encourages selflessness and the precept of doing good for the benefit of others in order to have a superior bardo and reincarnation. There is also the emphasis of penance ｢懺悔 ｣ for one’s sins for the same objectives. The early Catholic Church had the same concept but unlike the Buddhist method of benefiting others it would involve other ways such as paying to the Church and pilgrimage to holy sites. It is no surprise then the Church of Fatima and the Camino de Santiago in Spain have become popular tourist destinations for the same reason. In Islam those who can are encouraged to visit mecca for pilgrimage on specific days every year. Three million pilgrims descend into Mecca every year for the same purpose and it is a profitable business for the government of Saudi Arabia.
Another way of making penance for Catholics is in a prescribed number of prayers, usually a call to Mother Mary. The Buddhists in turn derive benefits ｢功德 ｣ through the chanting of the names of deities ｢唸佛号 ｣. With all this happening in the Church, it is probably no surprise that in the 16th century we had Martin Luther and his 95 theses which started the Reformation Movement that split the Church into Catholics and Protestants. Martin Luther also advocated the separation of Church and State although he put the State above the Church. For many years in the Roman Empire the Church was the state. In the Spanish Inquisition the Church relied on the State to persecute the so-called heretics and resulted in the gruesome deaths of many Protestants. During the Reformation Movement in Europe King Henry Ⅷ through the Act of Supremacy even made himself and future kings the head of the Church of England. And his daughter Mary used it to persecute protestants. Imagine the Queen Mary, after whom Hong Kong’s biggest hospital was named, was the persecutor of Protestants and burned hundreds to death.
The Reformation Movement’s Leader Martin Luther while a clergyman had gotten married. This further split the Protestants from the Catholics. From that moment forward the protestant ministers could marry and female ministers are now quite common. The Roman Catholic Church still stuck to the rule of celibacy.
In the years of the Apostolic Church and for a few hundred years after there was an emphasis on asceticism (｢修行 ｣in Buddhism). The famous Desert Fathers were monks (later joined by nuns) who lived in caves and mountains in the deserts of North Africa. They lived with very bare essentials and often ate only one meal per day as none at all. This is quite common in Hinduism and Buddhism teachings but the Church has slowly gotten rid of these teachings and that of meditation and fasting. I find it perplexing that the Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists are arguing over the significance of the Lord’s Supper and the wafer known as the body of Christ. It is such a trivial matter compared to the greater good accorded by prayers and meditation.
When the Church was the state many atrocities were committed in its name in the 15th — 17th centuries. The Spanish Inquisition being the most famous. These led to the multiple incursions to North Africa and the Middle East known as the Crusades. The aim of the Church was to ostensibly capture the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Muslims. None of the brutal incursions succeeded in wrestling the control of the Holy Sepulcher from the Turks. Today we are just coming around to seeing the destruction caused by ISIS in its bid to establish a Caliphate in their world. The mode of recruitment; the radicalization of the Muslims from countries as far away as Malaysia; the brutality towards heretics are all similar to the Crusades. The only differences are the weapons used and the landmass covered which are due only to the technology available at the relevant times.
The PRC in its form of communism or socialism with “Chinese characteristics” presents conflicting messages. On one hand it preaches (no pun intended) the futility of religions as had Marx. On the other hand it uses its state powers to interfere in religions. For years there were both a Vatican appointed bishop and or another appointed by the Beijing government. Even the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama is to be determined by Beijing. The State has determined that the Tibetan monks with their mystical powers are less capable in finding the next reincarnation of his Holiness. Go figure. The use of religion as a convenient tool to persecute a chosen minority is well documented. Throughout history in the Middle Ages Jews and Protestants were the victims even though the Bible has identified the Jews as the chosen people and the Messiah himself is a Jew. The Lateran Council of the 13th Century had decreed to identify Jews with special symbols which was of course emulated by the Nazis a few hundred years later.
One of the departures from Catholicism after the Reformation was the elimination of murals and images inside churches as well as patron saints. It is kind of ironic that Christianity was founded on the basis of the Ten Commandments and it called for the avoidance of worshipping idols. It was also supposed to uphold a monotheist religion. However Catholicism even today still has various patron saints for various causes or even professions such as St. Anthony for the sailors. How is that different from the Greek Gods and the Hindu Gods? In the early days of the Roman Empire (100 B.C. — 100 A.D.) there was a battle between Christians and Manicheans to be the official religion. Manicheans and further down the road the Gnostic religion advocated a world of two Gods — one evil and one good who is in a constant battle for the heart of the human beings. In Monotheistic religions such as Christianity there is the Almighty God who is superior and there is Satan who is trying to undo all the good that God has done. I have yet to find a logical explanation as to how an almighty, all-powerful God would even allow Satan to be lurking around? The spiritual advisors prefer the existence of every person having his own connection to his Divine. It is those who have muddled their connections that caused their loss of way and wrongdoings. I subscribe to that and so do the teachings of Buddhism.
It is interesting to note that in the Reformation Movement was preceded by the effort to translate the Bible from Latin and Greek to modern languages such as English, French, Dutch, etc. It was consistent with the early Church belief that every person can be his own interpreter of the word. The Catholic Church of course was against this in order not to lose its influence and power. That is why the Catholics still lead masses today in Latin with only a few who even understand the language. Buddhist scripts were written in the ancient language of Pali and today in temples there remain chants in Pali with few that understand it. It is only thanks to a few monks and leaders that we were able to comprehend most of the meanings. Nonetheless the monks were wise enough to insist on not translating certain key terms such as 般若波羅密 (paramita) because there is no equivalent word on even words in modern languages. The Muslims though insist that the Quran be read in its original language of Arabic (Although the Quran is written in classical Arabic which is rarely in use today ) to avoid any misunderstandings. It is probably why the early leaders of Islam was confident enough to preach the concept of “Ijtihad” on independent thinking. Buddhism teaches basic principles of Goodness ｢善念 ｣ and Impermanence ｢無常 ｣ and Selflessness ｢無我 ｣ but it is merely principals that ask the followers to consider its motivations and subsequent actions. This is quite far from the dogmas of the Christianity which insists that all have to believe without question the Messiah died for our sins before we can even be saved. Buddha considers himself merely a teacher and is interested merely to spread the teachings to all. The Prophet Mohammad considers himself the messenger of God but not God himself. It is these dogmatic differences that shape the religions today and also the factors behind how the ill-willed leaders can twist the teachings for their own benefits.
