Relative and Absolute

 As promised (or perhaps "threatened"......) a few further thoughts. Jumbled as usual. Thoughts on morality, the "good", objective and relative and suchlike.

Its probably been gathered by some that I am into what is loosely called "inter-faith dialogue". That being so I have been denounced from all sides. One favorite is "there can be no dialogue between truth and error", with the "truth" obviously being the sole possession of my denouncer! I have been called the "antichrist" by convinced Christian believers, and told by fellow Buddhists to stop "the inter-religious bullshit" (obviously by someone in need of reading a relevant Sutta on Right Speech)

Anyway, I waffle as usual, which is what happens when I get my coffee in McDonalds.

As I work out my own salvation in fear and trembling (as the Good Book has it) my heart rests in dialogue, in the hope of unity. What comes to one will come to all.

Rather than the strident voices of the "One Wayers" I prefer the more insightful voices of the Christian mystics, those such as St John of the Cross and Meister Eckhart. Such have been recognised as "dharma brothers" by many Buddhists, in fact by any who value the Living Word rather than the Word as Text.

Eckhart has said:- “In giving us His love God has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can love Him with the love wherewith He loves Himself.” D T Suzuki recognises such words as pointing to the prajna wisdom of zen, “one mirror reflecting another with no shadow between them.” Yet it also points to a fundamental division between those who would believe in Buddha, or Jesus, and those who seek to become as Buddha was, or to become Christlike, "one" with God.

As I see it, this relates to the promise contained in the Old Testament that in the fullness of time the Law will be found written on human hearts, and not only upon tablets of stone. I think this can be relevant to this whole unending argument about "relative" and "absolute" as far as morality is concerned. Objective "right" and "wrong", set in stone, embedded in belief in some transcendent Being who also writes books and demands obedience and Who in fact becomes more and more incredible the more we try to think about "Him".

The furthest I have got in my own thought is in reflection upon the words of a zen master, Yun-men, who was once asked what were the teachings of a whole lifetime. He answered:- "An appropriate statement".

For me, this becomes more and more profound. An appropriate statement, or act, appropriate there, then but for no other time. Objective. Not relative. Yet there is a constant "becoming", an advance into novelty. Radical freedom.

In the meantime, of course, as unenlightened, as only stumbling along, maybe we need sometimes to defend the "law" on the "tablets of stone", try not to run before we can walk. As Merton has said:-

Our real journey in life is interior: it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an ever greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts.

I would quibble over Merton's use of the word "interior" - as a zen guy has said, "if consciousness ends in the skull how can joy exist?" but I am with him.

Just to add, as my coffee is not yet cold, those words of Merton comes from his volume of letters, "The Road to Joy" (letters to old and new friends) Merton had received a letter from the young daughter of an older correspondent, a letter that contained a picture of a house. Merton wrote back, saying how lovely the house looked, but that sadly there was no path up to the door. The young girl replied by sending another picture of the house, this time with a path leading up to the door. Merton then wrote of the road to joy “which is mysteriously revealed to us without our exactly realizing.” Which is my own Pure Land way of hakarai, of no-calculation, where things are made to become so of themselves, for the earth brings forth fruits of herself.

ALL COMMENTS WELCOME - THANK YOU.