- Aug 13, 2014
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So lately I have been studying the different forms of Buddhism, because I noticed a lot of connections between Christianity and Buddhism. This is just for info. Orthodoxy has hesychasm simlar to the meditative practices of Buddhism, but interestingly has icons just like how Tibetans have a lot of very colorful paintings, and icons used in their practice. The US and Russia are similar in that Tibetan Buddhism is very popular here as compared to Shin in Japan; There are 3 regions in Russia where Buddhism is the native religion, as well as Bhutan, and Mongolia which uses Cyrillic. There is a Lutheran theologian named Paul S Knitter who believes in the usefulness of Buddhism. There are others who have studied in from the Lutheran side. A Lutheran systematic theologian named Tillich was a big influence on such research, Tillich was influenced by Boehme, and both have influenced the Russian religious philosophy; however, these are disparate fields studied in isolation, not together so to piece the connections together comes with a lot of time. There is research on sunyata for example in the understanding of the trinity (this is all at the philosophical/systematic level). One of the main draws of Lutherans/ Orthodoxy to studying Buddhism is the idea of universal atonement since Buddhists seek to liberate all people, unlike a Reformed who believes only the elect can be saved. This idea of the gospel being "for you" in Lutherans and "radical Lutheranism" is believed to be key because without it, preaching the gospel to all seems disingenous (from a Lutheran view); however, Orthodoxy and Buddhism are most similar in the belief of free will, meditative practice, and iconography. I know there is interaction between Japanese "Kyoto" school shin Buddhists and Lutherans with Nishida at the philosophical level, but am curious as to why Lutherans have devoted so much time to the Shin branch rather than the Tibetan branch of Buddhism, or the philosophical arguments. There is a new Vietnamese religion called "Caodaism" which is similar to Christianity in that it is monotheistic, coming from a Mahayana country in Vietnam. This is mainly why I remain in the Lutheran camp despite agreeing with Presbyterians on some points because I can't see how many can be saved under such a branch, however, it seems that the most global impact on the world has been Lutheranism in multiple continents. Even in my rural area there is a Tibetan Buddhist temple area but no OPC churches or Eldona churches, showing the far reach of Tibetan Buddhism is actually greater than some denominations of Protestantism. Anyway, these are just some musings I have. I think meditation might be useful for anxiety but haven't tried it. It seems to be popular in evangelicalism, which makes sense when you consider the evangelicals, many of whom, convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, but then again, that kinda of contradicts Seraphim Rose's book railing against Hinduism (Tibetan Buddhism has more Hindu influence than Theravada and Shin); anyway, thought this was interesting so if anyone cares to muse with me, I'm not drawing any real conclusions from this.