Random thoughts

I have just been reading the latest issue of the Journal for the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies and have been reminded how important the work of Interfaith dilaogue is in our world today. The world religions have much to learbn from each other. For my part my Christian faith has been so enriched by my exposure to Zen Buddhism. we live in a pluralistic and post modern- world and although ...we are doing much better at the work on integration with people from other ethnic backgrounds abnd cultures and wish to see aourselves as accpting rather then being prejudiced we still have a long way to go on the work of listening to and dialogueing with people of other faiths. From my own tradition I wonder how many Roman Catholics have read and taken seriously the letter of the RC Bishops of England and Wales. " Meeting God in Friend and Stranger" They strongly state that Interfaith dialogue is NOT an optional extra but an essential part of one's faith.


Buddhism is really about awakening from the illusion about ourselves and the world, and realizing reality—who we are and what is real and how things are interconnected through karma and causation and so on. In a Dzogchen text it says, “From the beginning we are all Buddhas by nature, we only have to realize that fact.” So in Dzogchen the whole practice of what we call the view, meditation, and action is about awakening to—not just our momentary personality—“self” with a small s—but our true Buddha nature, our original nature.