One of the joys of retirement is I have more time to read for pleasure. So I finally got around to reading Richard C. Morais’ Buddhaland Brooklyn, which had been on my Kindle for a couple of years after it was recommended to me by a friend. I did enjoy the novel and will share a couple of quotes that jumped off the page as I was reading but don’t necessarily reflect the main themes of the novel. You’ll have to read it to see what it is about, but the gist of the novel is about a young Buddhist priest-monk who is sent from Japan to Brooklyn, NY, as a missionary to help build up a Buddhist community and have a temple built in which they could worship.
A Priest who too often faced the Believers, rather than offered his back, interfered with their direct connection to the Buddha. (page 118)
A nice call to prayer or one way of imaging the priest praying for the believers. The priest, like all believers, is turned toward the Buddha in prayer. When he faces them, he talks to them, teaches them, preaches to them, instructs them, directs them, confronts them. Those things can be important, but ultimately, his goal is to get the believers to experience the Buddha and have a relationship with him. Too much ‘face time’ means the believers are having a relationship with the priest but that may interfere with their true search and their spiritual growth. As St John the Forerunner said of Jesus: “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30). So too the Buddhist priest needs to decrease his presence in the lives of believers so that the Buddha’s presence can be fully experienced. This is something for Christian clergy to consider as well – the goal is to have Christ shine through one’s life, not to make oneself indelibly and indispensably present in their live. So that, Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:11).
“Mental stability is found in constant and steady effort, like running water, not in the fireworks of bliss. Prayer, for me, is water. Not fire.” (page 190)
Another good image – many seem to want spiritual fireworks in our lives – whether emotional or displays of power. But a better image for the spiritual life and the prayer life is flowing water of a stream. Fireworks make a fantastic explosion and display, but it lasts but a very short while and then like smoke it vanishes away. It also is loud and smells of smoke and burning explosives. It’s gone in a poof. While fireworks thrill a lot of people, it is not basis for how to live. There the image of the steady and constant flow of water in a stream is a much better metaphor for the spiritual life. The water cleanses, refreshes, moves in a direction toward an end. It is full of life and is a powerful force. And we can’t live without water. That is the spiritual life.
When you force open a window long sealed shut, it’s not just the smells of sweet blossoms that come to you, but all of life, including the fly-filled winds of the village latrine. (page 215)
We often want to throw light on a subject. Opening a window can do that, and certainly is allows all the fresh fragrances of life to enter our homes and cleanse them, making them healthier for us to live in. But an open window does not discrimate what smells come in – whatever is in the air will come into the house. So too when we open the eyes of our heart or mind to see reality, we are confronted by all that is, good and evil. If we live with eyes wide open so that we see clearly and truly, we will see all kinds of wonders and mysteries, but also we will see ourselves as we are, sinners in need of God’s mercy.
But that is precisely the point of it all—the Light of Enlightenment comes to us as we are, not when we are in a state of human perfection. (page 235)
A good spiritual lesson. While we were still sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We don’t have to be perfect before God loves us. There is an awful lot of misguided spirituality that demands perfection before God will reward you for your efforts. We sinners, on the other hand, have experienced the grace of God’s love. Whether we seek God’s mercy and forgiveness, or whether God’s grace finds us as it did the Parable’s prodigal son or comes to us in a flash as it did to the wise thief on the cross, God’s love saves us. We aren’t saved by our perfection. We can look everyday for signs of God’s presence in our lives, even as sinners God beckons to us and embraces us like the father did the prodigal, and as Jesus promised the thief.
Fraternized 