Christian Influence

[Osal]

I sometimes marvel at how the religion I was raisedin, Christianity, continues to intrude on my Buddhist path, even though I haven't identified as a Christian for decades.

Christmas is a prime example. I still celebrate Christmas. My wife and I have a tree and exchange presents. When we visit family out-of-state, I'll go to Christmas Eve services with my mother. We have a couples' dinner party with friends on Christmas Eve when we stay home. We watch A Muppet Christmas Carol. Repeatedly. I find Christmas music comforting. Hell, even my sangha won't give me a break. We have a new member reception every year between Chanuka and Christmas and the reception are is decorated for the holidays.

I don't think I'll ecape this in my lifetime. I'm not sure I want to.

There are other Christian influences to be sure; stuff that was a part of the culture I was raised in.

Thoughts?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

If this is the extent of your Christian influence, congrats on successful cherry picking.

 

[Nakosis]

I sometimes marvel at how the religion I was raisedin, Christianity, continues to intrude on my Buddhist path, even though I haven't identified as a Christian for decades.

Christmas is a prime example. I still celebrate Christmas. My wife and I have a tree and exchange presents. When we visit family out-of-state, I'll go to Christmas Eve services with my mother. We have a couples' dinner party with friends on Christmas Eve when we stay home. We watch A Muppet Christmas Carol. Repeatedly. I find Christmas music comforting. Hell, even my sangha won't give me a break. We have a new member reception every year between Chanuka and Christmas and the reception are is decorated for the holidays.

I don't think I'll ecape this in my lifetime. I'm not sure I want to.

There are other Christian influences to be sure; stuff that was a part of the culture I was raised in.

Thoughts?

I've always thought this was the wine. You got bread and wine, Flesh and blood. The bread is the religious instruction. The wine is what becomes part of your life whether you are religious or not. Christianity influenced the direction that the world took. That's always going to be a part of our history.

 

[wintersolstice]

I sometimes marvel at how the religion I was raisedin, Christianity, continues to intrude on my Buddhist path, even though I haven't identified as a Christian for decades.

Christmas is a prime example. I still celebrate Christmas. My wife and I have a tree and exchange presents. When we visit family out-of-state, I'll go to Christmas Eve services with my mother. We have a couples' dinner party with friends on Christmas Eve when we stay home. We watch A Muppet Christmas Carol. Repeatedly. I find Christmas music comforting. Hell, even my sangha won't give me a break. We have a new member reception every year between Chanuka and Christmas and the reception are is decorated for the holidays.

I don't think I'll ecape this in my lifetime. I'm not sure I want to.

There are other Christian influences to be sure; stuff that was a part of the culture I was raised in.

Thoughts?

I think that there may be aspects of Christianity (Christmas is a good example) that spill over into family tradition and culture and continue to be a reason to gather with family and friends for love, sharing and, of course, food! Enjoy!

 

[Twilight Hue]

I sometimes marvel at how the religion I was raisedin, Christianity, continues to intrude on my Buddhist path, even though I haven't identified as a Christian for decades.

Christmas is a prime example. I still celebrate Christmas. My wife and I have a tree and exchange presents. When we visit family out-of-state, I'll go to Christmas Eve services with my mother. We have a couples' dinner party with friends on Christmas Eve when we stay home. We watch A Muppet Christmas Carol. Repeatedly. I find Christmas music comforting. Hell, even my sangha won't give me a break. We have a new member reception every year between Chanuka and Christmas and the reception are is decorated for the holidays.

I don't think I'll ecape this in my lifetime. I'm not sure I want to.

There are other Christian influences to be sure; stuff that was a part of the culture I was raised in.

Thoughts?

It's not like there is something actually admiss simply by the fact Christianity no longer takes any type of center stage, yet aspects remains attractive in some capacity.

Simply enjoying the flavor provides no such intrusion into any Buddhist path that I'm aware of, unless it of course becomes some type of hang up and is embraced as being such.

I still sing songs from Jesus Christ Superstar, and still with fondness have my favorite ripped and torn Bible that holds much sentimental value throughout it's various highlighted pages throughout the thirty years spanning many friendships and memories from that time.

I think the gist lies with the ability to set it all down as much as picking it up in the same go, identical by which we practice our meditations and applications throughout anything we do and experience in life.

 

[Vishvavajra]

Celebrating holidays that are common in your culture and traditional in your family isn't a problem. Embracing unskillful views is a problem, but that's something else altogether. For example, the idea that you must divorce yourself from the culture in which you live in order to correctly practice Buddhadharma is not a skillful view.

Christmas is a red herring. The real Christian influence on your mind is in the assumption that Buddhism is like Christianity in this way, that upon conversion you should ideally cleanse your life of all outside practices and only do "pure" Buddhist things. In fact the correct Buddhist practice is to have a good time with your family and not to give rise to thoughts such as "this belongs to our group, that belongs to the their group." Let Christians obsess over labels and in-group/out-group distinctions. Meanwhile the bodhisattva moves freely through all groups, unburdened by concepts and holding to the true Buddhadharma which knows no labels.

That said, there are some views typical to mainstream Christianity that are not skillful either, but if you're mindful of them they will have no power over you. As for me, there are some songs I wouldn't sing because I don't really agree with their content, but I like Christmas as a holiday and am not ashamed of that.