What do Mahayana Buddhism and Catholicism have in common? As I discovered in China, my readings and today at the Olympia Mahayana Buddhist Center...quite a lot. What I discovered today was more of the common themes that many religions share who have the ideal of perfection or near perfection, and the belief that it is possible to reach that state through help from outside powers.
The Kadampa Mahayana Buddhism at the Olympia Buddhist Center came out of Tibetan Buddhism, which explains the many Buddhist deities and living and past masters as guides to attain Enlightenment. Certain Gurus have attained Enlightenment and are there to guide their pupils to achieve Buddhahood through worship, much like honoring the Saints in order to get closer to God and more Godlike. The main difference is in Mahayana Buddhism it is taught that you can become a Buddha, in Christianity a person cannot become a Christ. As it turns out both depend on outward salvation from a higher power in order to attain goal of living virtue.
How to describe the Center? The Center was a small building located near the park by the Capital building. Once inside there was a shop, an area to get tea and the worship area where Golden Buddhas sat with offerings, as well as a picture of the Guru who had come from Tibet.
The prayers reminded me of the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. They Kingdom Come thy will be done on earth as is Heaven. Gives us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not unto temptation but deliver us from all evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever.
The prayer that the two nuns lead us in was the "Heart Sutra" which involved praying to the guide and protector Je Tsongkhapa to lead us to virtue and protect the disciples from straying from the path and the temptations of Samsara (the cycle of death and rebirth). It involved confessing mistakes and how living virtuously had not been done and to help bring virtue upon the disciples and to be like the Master Kelsang Gyatso (who is the founder of the New Kadampa tradition of which the Center is based on) and past Buddhas in mind, heart and body. The prayers were based in praise and submission while asking to be made better and Buddhas. The Pure Land was referenced as the place where the Buddhas were which is similar to Heaven in the Christian tradition since it is a place of bliss, happiness and an end to suffering.
It was an interesting experience and reminded me of my experience in China where the Buddha and Bodhisattvas/Deities were prayed to. I think was this reveals to me about us humans is our desire for salvation outside ourselves. We can seek out Allah, God, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, the Gods of past religions or other honored teachers or symbols in order to better ourselves or to have the peace of mind that maybe death, really isn't the end and that there is something or someone out there watching out for us and helping us reach paradise in this world and the next.
Mars Hill Church is a Church that I have heard a lot about. It's pretty young, currently going on it's fourteenth year of existence since Pastor Mark Driscoll founded it. The Church has grown quickly and has expanded all over Washington State. What are the beliefs of Mars Hill and what was their service that I attended on Halloween like?
First I want to describe the feeling of the U-District Campus of Mars Hill. The Church was a mixture of old and new. There were stain glass windows and from the outside the Church looked like a Chapel. Once inside though, it was much more modern. There was a large screen from which Driscoll's sermons were posted and lyrics for songs. It was like being in a Church mixed with a movie theatre. The Church quickly filled up and I understood why in the announcements they were splitting the 10 o' clock service into a 9am and 11:15am service to make the building a no longer a fire hazard. There were mostly young people in the audience and the one guitarist in charge of music was one of my friends from High School.
The beliefs of Mars Hill are more in line with Calvinism. God's love plays a part, but God's judgment is one of the large themes. The rode to Heaven is seen as a narrow road, and any bit of straying from the Bible and Jesus is the road to Hell without confession of disobeying the Bible. I disagree with this perspective since I think the essence of the Bible gets lost in the dogma. I do think it is one of the roads to living virtuously though. Even though I think that path is not a path for many people, including myself...and it is a path that has been used to abuse power and oppress in the past and the present.
The church was very much built upon the Pastor who had founded it. Though there was a Pastor the U-District Mars Hill Church, we would not be hearing him preach. The other Churches were the support for Mark Driscoll's pulpit. This reminded me of the early Churches in the United States during the Great Awakening and Second Great Awakening which were built around the personalities, perspectives and charisma of their leaders. In that way Pastor Driscoll functions like a modern day Joseph Smith. I don't like this very much because it becomes a suppression of ideas when only one person's ideas control what a book full of myth and mysteries holds. The mysteries like in any story, are there to be discovered, and revealed, not to be controlled.
The sermon that we watched televised by Pastor Mark Driscoll was about bullying and how to defeat bullies (not giving them power) and how a person will go to Hell for an Eternity if they do not accept Jesus as their savior. Which was how he defined "blasphemy to the Holy Spirit." I found the sermon about bullying prevelant and good. I saw how it applied to many situations and of the importance of standing up for oneself and beliefs.
The part about Hell also made sense as far as Pastor Driscoll's interpretation of Jesus's word meant too. I disagree with it, cause I believe any person believer or non-believer can live virtuously, even if they will always be messing up. Accountability to self and those you love be it God, family and friends is something that goes beyond Christianity and is part of living virtuously.
This was my first Hellfire sermon. For a hellfire sermon though, it was pretty chill. The theme of religious bullying applies to Mars Hill as it does to any group...and I hope Pastor Driscoll realizes that. Any person who believes that their interpretation is the world of God is setting themselves up to be a bully. As was said during the sermon "Relationship with God is personal." Which I see as applying to all religions and their relationship to the Divine and their quests for Virtue. Any leader can be a bully in any organization, and that's what any group no matter what religion they are, needs to watch out for.
At the end there was a call by the Pastor for anyone who wanted to be saved to come forward during communion. Like Generation Church I watched the many faces pass me by and was happy for them. They have found a way to be accountable to God and themselves as I have found mine. I was blessed to visit and I was grateful for the sermon shown and attending the Church with my friend Sarah.
