Buddhism and the Meeting of East and West… 

Buddhism in Bhutan

When President George W. Bush proclaimed loudly that the USA was an ‘ownership society’, he was not being apologetic. He was bragging. He was bragging about the fact that we are possessed by our possessions. He was bragging about the fact that we are too deficient in our own resources that we need constant ‘outside’ stimulation to keep us happy. He was bragging about our constant cravings that inspire popular songs and desires forever unrequited.  

And that’s where the old traditional Buddhism comes in, because that’s what it’s all about, almost, not so much mindfulness and meditation, which are largely the concerns today, for whatever reason. The reality seems to be that Modern Christianity and Modern Buddhism are moving together so quickly as to almost be indistinguishable, so that the traditional ‘meeting of East and West’ is largely accomplished, even if many of the problems still remain, even if spread out over a more uniform landscape. 

The proof of that is manifold, if not the popularity of meditation in the West, then the popularity of ‘lovingkindness’ in Buddhism. Because every native English speaker knows that term from way back, long before any interest in Buddhism, it historically developed specifically for Christianity some 500 years ago, a fact well attested. Indian nationals swear that it is a translation for the Pali term metta, which it certainly is—now.  

But that term was translated as friendliness, i.e. friendship, for many hundreds of years, before the modern Buddhists got hold of it, whether from Western Buddhists or creative Asians, a fact easily proven by related terms for ‘friend’ in many Asian languages, variations on metta, e.g. mit, maitri, etc. The effect is the same, since Buddhism suddenly got a little warmer and emotional in the process, and maybe the West got a little cooler, too, in the exchange. ACIM, A Course in Miracles, the modern Christian spiritual juggernaut, now talks about Enlightenment in the same way as many Buddhists, and their Heaven is something accessible NOW. Sound familiar?