The Buddha and The Cross

I find it very interesting that the Buddha found enlightenment as he let go of everything under the bodhi tree and that Jesus was fully glorified as he let go of everything nailed to a tree.

Miester Eckhart, the Dominican Priest in the Middle Ages said, "nothing is gained in the soul by adding anything, but rather by the process of subtraction". To Eckhart, the real spiritual work that needs to be done is the work of letting go and peeling away all the attachments and addictions that we've added on top of the authentic self. We are such an addictive culture (addiction - to add on top of). We look high and wide to all sorts of things to find fulfillment and satisfaction - possessions, personas, professions, even people (co-dependence). We get addicted to these attachments. We cling to them. We hold on tight as if our lives depend on them. But in reality, it is our attachments that choke out real life. When Eckhart speaks about the process of subtraction, he is speaking about this spiritual work of letting go; of sifting through all the things we have piled on top of the self.

It is interesting and unfortunate that Eckhart is rarely quoted in traditional Christianity. In fact, Eckhart who was a Christian, is most often quoted by Sufis and Buddhists. A major emphasis of Buddhism is that true happiness and enlightenment only comes by letting go of all attachments. The highest form of the self is only known by detachment. All through the teachings of the historical Jesus is the same philosophy. "In order to find your life you must lose it; leave your boat, leave your nets, leave your father, leave your mother and follow me".

In total honesty with you, the heavy emphasis in traditional Christianity on Jesus' death on the cross as some blood sacrifice that is payment for my penalty seems quite primitive and not palatable to my twenty-first century thought about a God that we define as love. I do however, think that the archetype of the cross is an extremely powerful and important symbol of the ultimate letting go - it is the ultimate symbol of subtraction. Eckhart goes as far as to say, "I pray to God every day - to rid me of God". To him, that was the pinnacle of letting go - letting go of all idols, attachments, constructs, and addictions. I'm pretty sure that one can not get any more Zen than that. Buddhism, Jesus, Eckhart, and the beautiful sign of the cross - they all call us to "let go" that we might "live". Jesus says to Peter, "you can walk on the water". In other words, you can live a different kind of life and existence - but to find it, "you've got to leave the boat behind".

At some point in life, we will all find our cross - we will all sit under the bodhi tree.