Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

Buddhism vs Christianity: Can a person be both? and can I be sangha free?

vintagelotvintagelot
edited November 2011 in Buddhism Basics
I kind of don't know where to start but long story cut short a few years ago I was in a really intense and stressful job and ultimately i also ended up quite sick a really nice nurse one of my hospital visit gave me a book called Radical acceptance by Tara Brach. This was excellent and started me off on the Buddhism study however I have got to a state of confusion since meeting a sangha and going to a few meetings. Firstly its like every characteristic I have is what the teacher calls 'anti-buddhist' and its got to the point where I feel im expected to change my whole personality. Yes, I confess to being a materialistic person and thats whats created my suffering I understand that now and see that all the practices of Buddhism allowing to recover and seeing my flaws and correcting them.

I will adapt on a lot of areas what i'm unsure about is how far people are expected to be devoted, I am currently out of work and frantically looking but when I make a comment in conversation about how when I get a job again i'm gonna get my life back (i.e: I still have bills coming in!)its completely frowned on to make a realistic comment. However the one few issues that I have is if I can be both a Christian and a Buddhist? I asked a few people at two different sangha's if it is possible to be both a Christian and a Buddhist and both didnt manage to say its possible but I wondered do any of you follow both Buddhism and any other faith.

Also do any of you not belong to a sangha do you feel its better to be in one or to not be in one?

Sorry if this has already been asked before (and sorry for moaning here too!)

Comments

  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Look for another sangha, if you have the option. You're not always going to find a good fit right away.

    We just had a thread on someone wanting to combine Christianity and Buddhism, Leon Basin started that thread. Take a look at the listings, it shouldn't be hard to find. It was a popular thread.

    You can learn a lot here, and from reading, if you don't find a sangha that fits, and that accepts you as you are. (We all have to start somewhere, and if that somewhere is in a place where you need to meet needs in the material world, that's reality. It shouldn't be held against you. And it's fine to begin your practice wherever you are in your life's and consciousness' journey.) Everything takes time, the teacher should be patient, and should help you be patient.
  • vintagelotvintagelot
    Hi Dakini,

    I know I felt a bit silly when i posted it and then saw a similar one a few other discussions below - sorry.

    I think the issue i have with the teacher is that she sees us as Monks in training sort of and im there trying to master my meditation technique. Its a like some things that we say as students in the sangha get taken out of context - for me my comment of working and getting my life back was actually so I can see how well my meditation techniques work when im stressed not to restart a materialist lifestyle.


  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Maybe you need a teacher/sangha that starts at a more basic level. It's a big assumption, to view everyone as future monastics. That's a much higher standard for precepts and for everything. Does the teacher teach meditation? There are DVD's on meditation you can buy. Jack Kornfield has a good one.
  • vintagelotvintagelot
    Agree about getting back to basics. I joined this forum in October and havent really got round to going through the whole boards as I did spend a lot of time with the sangha. Its only till recently that when i ask any question the answers are just brushed aside.

    The meditation part is good and thats the one part that has kept me going back. But there is a lot of controls that the sangha follows that I dont think are for me.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Much of Buddhism is about getting to know your mind and ways to get rid of suffering mental states and cultivate positive states. There is a belief system but its not necessary to follow it to get much of the benefits from working on your mind. There's no point reward system for following certain beliefs.

    A sangha is like a support group for you to learn about the teachings and to help keep you on the straight and narrow. But like Dakini said, not all sanghas are created the same and you may need to look around to find a good fit.
  • Floating_AbuFloating_Abu Veteran
    BuddhaNet World Buddhist Directory
  • mithrilmithril Veteran
    edited November 2011
    ...if I can be both a Christian and a Buddhist?
    You can be both a Christian and a Buddhist, no Buddhist should care if you decide to investigate both.

    This does not mean they work together though. The Buddhist practice is designed to investigate every belief and adjust your reaction to it. If you are going to practice, either at one point you will react by attaching to Christianity or will have to let it go.

    Buddhism has no interest in faith in a God. The idea of Christianity is to have faith in a God (attach to an idea of a God). The idea of Buddhism is to throw you, the God, Buddhism, Christianity in a trash bin even if just to see what happens (remains?).
  • DaozenDaozen Veteran
    I haven't read it, although I have loved everything else I have read of his:

    Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh
Sign In or Register to comment.