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Talk: 2011-06_01 Learning How to Live_ Self Knowing in Action.json Start_time: 00:48:20 Display_question: What would say to someone who’s a practicing Christian, and who wants to follow the Buddha? Keyword_search: Christian, Buddha, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Zen, Catholic, synagogue, enlightened, faith, Mount Athos, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, breath awareness, Jesus, Buddhist, CIMC Question_content: Questioner: Well, interesting that you ended on that note, because I wanted to ask you what you would say to someone who's a practicing Christian, and who wants to follow the Buddha? Larry: Why not? Yeah, you see, that's a very good question, and there's no one answer to it, because, for me, so you're only getting my answer. If you ask me, am I a Buddhist? And many people here will be disappointed, and some will be relieved. I'm not. Now, if you mean by that an affiliation, an identity, I don't know when the holidays are. I don't know what this gesture means, or what that gesture means, or where the Buddha was born, where he… I've read it a thousand times, but I think it's a brilliant guide to living, and so I've been doing my best to understand it, and to put into action, and I found it to be extraordinarily helpful. Break_line: Now, I would say the core of this teaching is universal. Has it picked up cultural stuff along the way? Absolutely. Then that would make Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, very different than Buddhism. And if you read the world religions, they're endlessly arguing about what I would consider the fluff. Now, I've worked with… when I spent ten years in Zen, some of it in Japan, there were Catholic priests who were practicing Zen, who had done beautifully. Personally, I don't care. In other words, and many people who are pious Jews who come here, I mean, they go to synagogue, and so forth, and we talk about the practice. I have no interest in converting anyone, to anything. Break_line: Now, if you want to be a Buddhist, if that's something that warms your insides, and it's helpful, I don't undercut that. Why not? We have all these ridiculous identities, that we take on, that don't work. This one may be a better one, but you've heard it's really a high teaching, but people use it as if they know what they're talking about. If you meet the Buddha on a narrow path, kill the Buddha. So, people that means you don't have to practice. We're already enlightened. That's nonsense. Are we already enlightened? Now, what they're saying is everything you need is inside, and it's obscured. What they mean is the concept of the Buddha. Break_line: Okay, so could you maintain your Christian faith and some practices? I don't know the answer, but let's say… if you do, just breath awareness. Have you done some breath awareness? That gives you energy, doesn't it? Doesn't it calm the mind? And then if you wanted it... look, believe it or not, I got a letter from a monk from Mount Athos. I think it's Greek Orthodox, similar to Russian Orthodox, and so forth, and he's doing the Jesus prayer, and keying it. They do that there a lot, and keying it to the breath. And he read about all the Buddhist approach to that, and he wrote to me, and we had a perfectly good exchange. I mean, he really understood it, and I understood what he was saying. I just don't say, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on my soul, as I breathe in and out. So can it help you? It can. It can also create an immense conflict; am I Christian? Am I Buddhist? I don't know what to do, I'll come here no, this is no good, I'll run into church. Oh no, I go to church, but there's too much of this nonsense, I'll run back to CIMC, that's a no nonsense, low budget place. You see what I'm getting at? So, I think it depends on you. But in principle, I don't see personally see a problem. It should help you enhance, your Christian practice. End_time: 00:52:15
