Cobblers Apprentice
Member
I would just like to say hello to everyone, and also say that though I have chosen not to identify as a Christian, the restriction of choice to "yes" or "no" made the "no" option the one less likely to cause confusion......
(I am actually a Moderator on a Progressive Christianity Forum, where my non-combative posts have been welcomed and generally appreciated)
Personally I gain more from the writings and the lives of individuals who I have come to respect. Those who have shown a tolerance for all others, yet combined with a deep fidelity to their own chosen path. For me, these two things go together.
One such mentor is Thomas Merton, the Catholic Trappist monk, who wrote in a letter to the Zen/Buddhist scholar D.T.Suzuki.......
I want to speak for this Western world.................which has in past centuries broken in upon you and brought you our own confusion, our own alienation, our own decrepitude, our lack of culture, our lack of faith...........If I wept until the end of the world, I could not signify enough of what this tragedy means. If only we had thought of coming to you to learn something..............If only we had thought of coming to you and loving you for what you are in yourselves, instead of trying to make you over into our own image and likeness. For me it is clearly evident that you and I have in common and share most intimately precisely that which, in the eyes of conventional Westerners, would seem to separate us. The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact?.....
Just to finish, I would just like to say that though I have read deeply from the Bible, I am unimpressed by those who would seek to quote it to "prove" a point, whatever "point" it may be. I am not seeking to be contentious here, merely to say that when the point "proven" is different from person to person who quotes the particular words, then not much is gained, or any point proven at all.
Anyway, again, greetings to all.
(I am actually a Moderator on a Progressive Christianity Forum, where my non-combative posts have been welcomed and generally appreciated)
Personally I gain more from the writings and the lives of individuals who I have come to respect. Those who have shown a tolerance for all others, yet combined with a deep fidelity to their own chosen path. For me, these two things go together.
One such mentor is Thomas Merton, the Catholic Trappist monk, who wrote in a letter to the Zen/Buddhist scholar D.T.Suzuki.......
I want to speak for this Western world.................which has in past centuries broken in upon you and brought you our own confusion, our own alienation, our own decrepitude, our lack of culture, our lack of faith...........If I wept until the end of the world, I could not signify enough of what this tragedy means. If only we had thought of coming to you to learn something..............If only we had thought of coming to you and loving you for what you are in yourselves, instead of trying to make you over into our own image and likeness. For me it is clearly evident that you and I have in common and share most intimately precisely that which, in the eyes of conventional Westerners, would seem to separate us. The fact that you are a Zen Buddhist and I am a Christian monk, far from separating us, makes us most like one another. How many centuries is it going to take for people to discover this fact?.....
Just to finish, I would just like to say that though I have read deeply from the Bible, I am unimpressed by those who would seek to quote it to "prove" a point, whatever "point" it may be. I am not seeking to be contentious here, merely to say that when the point "proven" is different from person to person who quotes the particular words, then not much is gained, or any point proven at all.
Anyway, again, greetings to all.
