Little Joe Gould
Seeking God
I started my spiritual walk as a Zen Buddhist. I followed the eightfold path and the five lay precepts to the best of my ability and meditated quite frequently, especially with koans, as well as read a lot of books about the topic. But then because of various events in my life I converted to Christianity and eventually abandoned Buddhism entirely. But then once more, due to various life circumstances that I won't get in to, I became attracted to Buddhism once more, especially meditation due to a troubled mental life.
I don't feel like God would punish me for practicing Zen meditation because it really helps my mind to calm down and it helps me deal with my Bipolar illness as well as my religious delusions that people with Bipolar commonly experience.
But I'm interested as to whether you people believe that there is some way that you can somehow be both a Christian and a Buddhist. I miss the overwhelming feelings of compassion I felt from Buddhism and the peace of mind I would experience meditating in the park. But I also feel a strong commitment to Christ and to serve Him and sometimes I feel like I'm dishonoring Him by practicing anything grounded in Buddhism.
However, when you get right down to it, it seems as if these two religions have some things in common. The biggest thing to me that I see in common between the two is the denial of fleshy urges for the sake of spiritual development.
Anyway, what is your opinion on this?
I don't feel like God would punish me for practicing Zen meditation because it really helps my mind to calm down and it helps me deal with my Bipolar illness as well as my religious delusions that people with Bipolar commonly experience.
But I'm interested as to whether you people believe that there is some way that you can somehow be both a Christian and a Buddhist. I miss the overwhelming feelings of compassion I felt from Buddhism and the peace of mind I would experience meditating in the park. But I also feel a strong commitment to Christ and to serve Him and sometimes I feel like I'm dishonoring Him by practicing anything grounded in Buddhism.
However, when you get right down to it, it seems as if these two religions have some things in common. The biggest thing to me that I see in common between the two is the denial of fleshy urges for the sake of spiritual development.
Anyway, what is your opinion on this?