I saw Mount Everest this morning and it was awe inspiring (it's the peak on the left). There is something sacred about mountains. All of creation is breathtaking, but mountains and oceans have a special capability to convey peace and majesty.
Perhaps that's why I like Matthew's idea of the Sermon on the Mount. No offense to Luke, but delivery from a mount seems way cooler than delivery from a plain. So it is from Matthew that I will pull from today, Chapter 5 verses 38-48 (I'm a KJV guy, pardon the English). But I get ahead of myself.
Tibetan Buddhists value pithiness (the ability to express truths with the fewest amount of words). American Christians really like fully developed explanations to truths. So I chuckle when I think to myself that the words of Jesus fill a pamphle,t while the words Sakyamuni fill a library. It almost seems like our cultures got our sacred persons confused. While I read many Buddhist text I recognize many of Jesus' words. It has happened a number of times that the Buddhist text help me understand a little more of what JC had to say. As an example, I give a little Buddhist expansion on a part of the Sermon on the Mount.
Matt 5:38-39: Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Bodhisattva Practice #13: Even if someone were to cut off one's head, though one is free from the slightest fault, it is the practice of bodhisattvas to take all wrongdoing upon oneself through the force of compassion.
Matt 5:40-42: And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. (note: twain is two)
Bodhisattva Practice #12: If someone, swayed by great desire, steals all one's wealth or incites others to do so, it is the practice of bodhisattvas to dedicate to that person one's own physical body, enjoyments and virtues of the three times.
Matt 5:43-44: Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you (practice #14), do good to them that hate you (practice #15), and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you (practice #16).
Bodhisattva Practice #14: Even if someone proclaims all kinds of defamation about me throughout the three thousand fold universe, it is the practice of bodhisattvas to praise that person's qualities repeatedly with a loving attitude. (note: Buddhist cosmology includes multiverses, which has some really interesting ties to modern physics)
Bodhisattva Practice #15: Even if someone, amid a crowd of many people reveals one's faults and utters harsh words, it is the practice of bodhisattvas to bow to that one respectfully with the notion that this one is one's spiritual teacher. (The idea here is that we can not see our own faults, and those who point out our faults help us to become better people. So those that hate us and defame us are actually doing us a great favor, and we should regard them as we would spiritual teachers.)
Bodhisattva Practice #16: Even if someone for whom I have cared for as dearly as my own child perceives me as an enemy, it is the practice of bodhisattvas to love this one devotedly, just as a mother loves her child stricken by disease.
Matt 5:45-47: That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just an on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans do so?
Bodhisattva Practice #17: Even if a person equal to or inferior to myself defames me due to the force of pride, it is the practice of the bodhisattvas to venerate this one, like the master upon the crown of my head.
Matt 5:48: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
Bodhisattva Practice #18: Even if I am deprived of livelihood, constantly belittled by everyone, and stricken by a severe illness or demonic influence, it is the practice of bodhisattvas to take upon oneself all the suffering and evil of all beings without becoming fainthearted.
That last bit sounds really familiar, perhaps we should emulate someone like that...
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