Reddit reviews Living Buddha, Living Christ: 20th Anniversary Edition

I think it may be helpful to have a series of discussions about why you are looking to learn more about Buddhism. For many Christians non-Abrahamic religions are very difficult to understand (source: me, an agnostic raised by an Evangelical Born-Again father and Catholic mother). Part of the process for you and your girlfriend could be learning about Buddhism together, and understanding how it is both different and similar to Christianity.

As someone who comes from a Christian background myself, as a teenager I found Thich Nhat Hanh's works Living Buddha, Living Christ and Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers as effective ways of comparing and contrasting various concepts and values of both the religions. As long as you and your partner are having an ongoing open discussion about your spiritual journey I think you'll be OK.

EDIT: I'll also put forward that if part of your reason for looking outside of Christianity is that you're "not much of a social guy", you should be aware that community (Parsa or Gana) is very important to Buddhists as well.

Living Buddha, Living Christ is a good one.

Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Thich Nhat Hanh

I'm not sure if it'll help but here is the book I gave to my Mom when I "came out" to her: http://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-Anniversary-Edition/dp/159448239X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344470189&sr=8-1&keywords=living+buddha+living+christ

I wouldn't have a problem being around the rituals your family does. Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it isn't beautiful to watch and to support your family. In not wanting to take part, I think you may have thrown out the baby with the bathwater. You can still attend and take part in the things that aren't against Christ.

In fact, a few years ago I hung out with a group of Buddhists and Hindus. I was the only Christian. I felt more love and acceptance by them than I did in a number of churches. And no one tried to convert anyone, and we just enjoyed being together. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

You might try reading this. People may downvote for the very suggestion, but I found it to be excellent.

I think this comes down to the elephant in the room: you want to be seen in a way that clearly your mother has not seen you. However, she has literally been that way for four-fifths of a century plus, and now you want her to think in a certain way so that you can be understood in that way. This is a beautiful and bittersweet issue to have at this late stage in life. So I do sympathize here.

You said you went to college to find common truths, and clearly you're an intellectual type that still seems to think in the 'book club' way. Is it really crucial for your mother to value logical fallacies before she dies, or is it because you value them very much and want her to as well, etc etc, if you know what I mean. I would dig into that urge for understanding, consider what that means, and consider that maybe this craving puts pressure on her (will you feel deep un-ease that will only lessen if she starts to value critical-thinking, or whatever?) which is possibly not appropriate (especially if she doesn't have the energy for it).

Here's also something to think about: most of her idea of spirituality seems to be about living and seeing in a certain way, and none of your story mentions her spending nights drenched in scripture, dissecting stuff like Saint Acquinas's treatise on theology, or being inspired by a persuasive argument or set of propositions. In no way is that a diss, by the way.

Honestly, I wish I was more like your mother. Too much of our generation mistakes the thinking for the doing. Me included, bigtime. An ounce of embodiment is worth a pound of theory. People who really practice seem to think that 'book club' bonding is sort of like comparing your town's street signs to their town's street signs. It might be nice to discuss how much they match, but no feet hit pavement at the end of the day.

All of this being said, you might let her check out 'Living Buddha Living Christ,' which I criticized in one of my other comments — but lots of people seem to get a lot out of it. Sometimes you gotta meet people where they're at even if it is a little misleading in the process.

> https://www.amazon.com/Lifetimes-When-Jesus-Buddha-Other/dp/1401923151/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523666138&sr=1-2&keywords=jesus+and+buddha
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Buddha-Parallel-Sayings-Seastone/dp/1569751692/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523666138&sr=1-1&keywords=jesus+and+buddha
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-20th-Anniversary/dp/159448239X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1523666138&sr=1-3&keywords=jesus+and+buddha

Look in the sidebar over there>>> under BASICS. Click Christian and there are a number of resources in the threads found there. Also, obligatory recommendation of this book.

Welcome!

If you are embracing suffering you're still doing it wrong, i suggest you read "the heart of buddha" , "a beginners mind", and "living christ living buddha" as both holistic teachers tought the same thing, but had different methods to help people obtain the goal of unlocking the door to the inner true self, conciousness, the shadow within.

Opening the hidden door in the bible: https://www.openbible.info/topics/doors

An entire website dedicated to finding the hidden door buddha talks about: https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-all-knowing-buddha-a-secret-guide

If you think the bible is about "God" you still havent solved the riddle.

Maybe reading up on the ancient poet Rumi would be a nice place to look.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/5322592-1-one-went-to-the-door-of-the-beloved-and

You still havent found the door, youre embracing suffering rather than ending it.

Behind the door is a familure face, dont blink.

"Occasionally he stumbled over the truth but he always picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened. " (Winston Churchill)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0767903692/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_1u2SBbZ1N3G98

https://www.amazon.com/dp/159448239X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_aX2SBbYPPCCYE

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1721250093/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_9U2SBbJSXH2A6

Living Buddha, Living Christ was an excellent book for those that really struggle with what you mentioned a couple comments up the chain. Hahn is a buddhist that also became a christian and this book describes really well his journey through all that. I highly recommend this one, too.

>The reason I want to stay away from the religious portion is because I am Christian - I don't mind learning about it, but I would like to expose myself to the largely philosophical portions of Buddhism.

Unfortunately, Buddhist philosophy contradicts many aspects of Christianity. No eternal soul, rebirth, etc. As drainos pointed out, the philosophy is based on these tenets, and if you come into it firmly holding to your christian doctrine you won't get very far at all.

That being said, you might enjoy Living Buddha, Living Christ.

Yes, I think someone has noticed.

Jesus and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings

Without Buddha I Could Not Be A Christian

Thich Nhat Hanh wrote two books on the topic:

Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers

Living Budha, Living Christ

While can't say I've read it, it seems that a lot of people think Living Buddha, Living Christ is a good book on the matter, if you're interested.

Yup - arhat is just a term for someone who's attained the state of nirvana. With Theravada, practitioners believe that attaining nirvana / reaching arhathood is a more realistic path to start off with; the path to Buddhahood is extremely difficult, and it's okay to want to attain a state of personal bliss and stay in that for a very long time, before eventually progressing further along the spiritual path towards Buddhahood.

Mahayana practitioners also realize that it's an extremely difficult path, but the end result (Buddhahood) allows someone to accomplish so much in order to help all sentient beings that it's perhaps a little selfish to want to spend so much time in a blissful yet incomplete state (arhathood), when there's an option to skip that phase and progress along the path of bodhisattvas, which involves greater sacrifices but ultimately reduces the time necessary to reach Buddhahood (an even more blissful state than Arhathood, the state of ultimate bliss according to Buddhism) by a significant amount (many, many eons). Bodhisattvas are characterized by their devotion to the practice of bodhicitta - the desire to attain Buddhahood as quickly as possible in order to maximize their ability to help end the suffering & root causes of suffering for all sentient beings (the Wikipedia page on "sentient beings" is a good place to start, if you're unsure of what sentient beings means, in the context of Buddhism). Sentient beings are typically classified into 6 realms of existence in the Buddhist worldview: Gods, Asuras (demi-gods, with less enjoyment and more anger + jealousy), Humans, Animals, Ghosts, and Hell beings, and until we reach the state of Arhat or a certain level of Bodhisattva (it's complicated - the scriptures classify these levels in many different ways, the most complicated method lists 52 different levels of Bodhisattvas), all sentient beings are stuck in this cycle of infinite rebirth (reincarnation) into these 6 realms, depending on one's personal karma.

By the way, I responded to the question "selfish vs unselfish" Buddhism below, you might be interested in looking at that.

Personally, I base my practices on Mahayana (and the Vajrayana subsect of Mahayana) scriptures and texts. This is because most of the teachers I find myself admiring and feeling a strong connection to are Mahayana & Vajrayana lineage masters. While the Mahayana path is more difficult than Theravada one (this is acknowledged by many historical scholars & practitioners of both traditions), the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions also provide many more effective methods of practice that allows one to progress along the spiritual path much more quickly than Theravada techniques. Most of my current teachers belong all four major sects of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, but I've also spent over a year (on and off) living in a Chinese Mahayana monastery in Taiwan, as a volunteer.

Last of all, regarding your question here:

> And is it possible to be still ordodox and live middle way? I am not telling that i am Zealous i am just more like agnostic but well, but when is hard or thinking about life i found that i ask myself am i wrong?

I'd like to quote the Dalai Lama's perspective on this, since he's a widely respected figure amongst the Christian community as well (he's actually been invited by a couple of Christian communities in the past to share his perspectives on the Bible, believe it or not). Basically, his view is that no matter what religious tradition one chooses to follow, the most important thing is to keep a spirit of inquiry and skepticism as opposed to blind faith, because ultimately blind faith can be pretty dangerous on the path in search of truth, whereas healthy skepticism & inquiry allows for a more natural / gradual realization of knowledge & truth. If you've been raised / grew up as an Orthodox Christian, the Dalai Lama suggests keeping that as your main spiritual belief system unless you reach a compelling point where there's no reason for you to feel like you want to continue with that tradition; but of course, you're always welcome to use Buddhist concepts / teachings (e.g. meditation, visualizations, etc) to supplement your practice of Christianity, as long as they don't interfere with the core concepts of your current belief. If you're interested in reading more about using Buddhist techniques to complement Christian practice, I recommend the following book by Thich Naht Hanh, a Vietnamese Mahayana monk of the Zen tradition who's also highly respected amongst Christians (I had a high school Christian teacher who started doing some mindfulness meditation after reading some of Thich Naht Hanh's books):

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-20th-Anniversary/dp/159448239X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1495546375&sr=8-3&keywords=thich+nhat+hanh+christian

> I am a former Catholic, and find the zen/Buddhist philosophy very appealing to me.

Boom, you answered your own question. Give Zen a shot. See if Zen resonates with you. In particular, you might really like Thich Nhat Hanh, who is basically the man. It's possible that there is a practice center within his tradition near you. If you come from a Christian background, you might appreciate his book Living Buddha, Living Christ, which single-handedly resurrected a palatable mythos of Jesus Christ in my mind. It's great and extremely accessible.

The one issue to look out for in Zen is clear instruction. Zen can be a bit opaque in offering meditation-related guidance and instruction. This issue varies by teacher and center. It's a unique practice/teaching philosophy, but if you feel like you need more answers, don't be afraid to ask and continue seeking. The asking and seeking is half the fun. Also, make sure you really understand what you're supposed to be doing when you meditate. Because of the sometimes vague instructions, I've run across long-time Zen practitioners who really didn't seem to get it. You don't want to waste your time on the mat. The teachings can be confusing. Don't let them confuse you, unless the confusion is the purpose of the teaching itself (which is one method that Zen employs through the use of koans).

Good luck! :)

You may be interested in the book Living Buddha Living Christ. It's not a very commonly recommended beginners book but it does discuss a lot of the similarities between the teachings of the Buddha and those of Jesus. Since you are familiar with Christian teachings it might be a smooth transition piece for you.

You might also want to take a look to Living Buddha, Living Christ

http://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-20th-Anniversary/dp/159448239X?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Probably because he didnt have access to Buddha's teachings. Everything Jesus said Buddha covered in more depth 500 yrs earlier. Plus he explained the rational behind each teaching and why each thing applied will impact you and those around you (cause and effect.)

I used to be Christian, reading the Old Testament/Torah turned me into an atheist (genocide to take land because god said so is the main topic, even Moses advocates genocide) but reading Sutras "woke me back up" in the spiritual realm (more about contemplating the human condition, still no belief on god, but Buddha said he was just man....one more reason I lost faith...how can a man know more then the son of god?)

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2000/02/Jesus-And-Buddha-The-Parallel-Sayings.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/159448239X

You might find [Living Buddha living Christ] (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-20th-Anniversary/dp/159448239X&ved=0ahUKEwjOyM_V-pHVAhVh0oMKHRXVCV0QFggpMAA&usg=AFQjCNE3W4ZtEScRfiHAcPjHRdWp9G4wdg) to be a helpful book for your situation

There are secular buddhists, and there are christian buddhists. I think they're very similar in a way... Secular buddhists strip away whatever they don't like according to some standards (logic? rationality? I don't know), and christian buddhists can similarly, strip away those things that do not work together with their christian faith. I don't think there's anything neccesarily bad with this, surely there is merit in following buddhist teachings.

If secular buddhists can go by the definition of "buddhist", surely a christian following some buddhist teachings can also call themselves a buddhist to their hearts desire. I really don't see any issue with that, it's just a word. What constitutes a "buddhist"? Who decides? Go ahead and be a buddhist.

Thich Nhat Hanh has written a book you might be interested in... Living Buddha, Living Christ I haven't read it myself, but it seems relevant, and has recieved many good reviews.

this book is by one of the most prominent buddhist teachers, thich nhat hanh. it's about how we can all benefit from living out the teachings and traditions of the buddha and jesus, right now. in this life.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Buddha-Christ-20th-Anniversary/dp/159448239X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467821779&sr=8-1&keywords=living+buddha+living+christ

imo the virtue of spiritual traditions is in their collections of teachings. we're free to study them all and consider how to apply them to our own lives. i like buddhism as a foundation because it's pretty consistent regarding what type of outcome we're working toward. other traditions can at times be contradictory or have fuel for acts that might not always be for the benefit of all people, but from what i've found buddhist teachings are pretty consistent regarding how conduct, positive and negative effects ourself (or our non-self lol) and others.

Here's Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh's answer to your question (5th question in link).
He has written two books on this topic called "Living Buddha, Living Christ" and "Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers".
He sometimes mentions Christianity in his dharma talks, some of those are available here.

I also found Eckhart Tolle's book ["The Power of Now"] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Now-Spiritual-Enlightenment-ebook/dp/B002361MLA) helpful which is about the common "essence of all religions" and is strongly influenced by Buddhism.