Too often any mission to spread the good news of Christ in foreign lands is seen as a violent clash of cultures and cosmologies. But maybe, just maybe, there were also moments of spiritual synthesis and mutual understanding in Thomas’ life with the Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains of the east. In India, Thomas certainly encountered an exotic new world of food, music, art, gods, goddesses, and ritual practice thousands of years in the making. He must have marveled at the myriad of religions and beliefs that lived in relative peace and harmony. But Thomas also encountered something he would understand well … wandering ascetics, holy men and women seeking the answers to fundamental questions of human suffering and a desire for a spiritual union with the divine. While the ultimate destination of these men and women were the same, Thomas quickly learned that they followed very different paths … some followed the path of the Arhat while others the path of the Bodhisattva.
The difference in the two types is illustrated in a wonderful story by Huston Smith in his classic text The World Religions of four seekers who, journeying across an immense desert, come upon a compound surrounded with high walls. One of the four determines to find out what is inside. The seeker scales the wall, and on reaching the top gives a whoop of delight and jumps over. The second and third do likewise. When the fourth seeker gets to the top of the wall, he sees below him an enchanted garden with sparkling streams, pleasant groves, and luscious fruit. Though longing to jump over, the seeker resists the temptation. Remembering the other wayfarers who are trudging the burning deserts, this seeker climbs back down, and he devotes himself to directing them to the oasis.
The first three seekers are Arhats, one who, like a focused hermit, seeks enlightenment and union with the divine with prodigious concentration toward that goal. The last was a Bodhisattva, one who voluntarily renounces this goal and returns to the world to make enlightenment available to others. In particular, bodhisattvas promise to practice the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom in order to fulfill their vow of aim of attaining enlightenment of all beings.
In these wandering ascetics, Thomas found teachers and companions in this new journey. And the nine small communities of that Thomas would go on to establish found their own place in this harmony of seekers.
Excursus #1
The Bodhisattva Vow
Just as all the Buddhas of the past
Have brought forth the awakened mind,
And in the precepts of the Bodhisattvas
Step-by-step adobe and trained,
Likewise, for the benefit of beings,
I will bring to birth the awakened mind,
And in those precepts, step-by-step,
I will abide and train myself.
In the Bodhicaryāvatāra by the monk/teacher Shantideva, the actual taking of the vow is preceded by various other preparatory practices and prayers often done through the recitation of a prayer.
Excursus #2
A story … from a thirteenth century Italian chronicler Jacobus de Varagine in The Golden Legend.
“When Thomas’ ship arrived in India the local leader was celebrating the wedding of his daughter. The king had commanded that the entire city assist in the feast, and Thomas was obliged to attend. One of the musicians who was entertaining the guests noticed Thomas from across the room. She approached him and began to sing to him a psalm in Hebrew, ‘There is a God in heaven, who created all things.’”
It seems that the world was more connected than Thomas could ever have imagined, Jews had settled in India centuries before he had ever arrived.
The difference in the two types is illustrated in a wonderful story by Huston Smith in his classic text The World Religions of four seekers who, journeying across an immense desert, come upon a compound surrounded with high walls. One of the four determines to find out what is inside. The seeker scales the wall, and on reaching the top gives a whoop of delight and jumps over. The second and third do likewise. When the fourth seeker gets to the top of the wall, he sees below him an enchanted garden with sparkling streams, pleasant groves, and luscious fruit. Though longing to jump over, the seeker resists the temptation. Remembering the other wayfarers who are trudging the burning deserts, this seeker climbs back down, and he devotes himself to directing them to the oasis.
The first three seekers are Arhats, one who, like a focused hermit, seeks enlightenment and union with the divine with prodigious concentration toward that goal. The last was a Bodhisattva, one who voluntarily renounces this goal and returns to the world to make enlightenment available to others. In particular, bodhisattvas promise to practice the six perfections of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom in order to fulfill their vow of aim of attaining enlightenment of all beings.
In these wandering ascetics, Thomas found teachers and companions in this new journey. And the nine small communities of that Thomas would go on to establish found their own place in this harmony of seekers.
Excursus #1
The Bodhisattva Vow
Just as all the Buddhas of the past
Have brought forth the awakened mind,
And in the precepts of the Bodhisattvas
Step-by-step adobe and trained,
Likewise, for the benefit of beings,
I will bring to birth the awakened mind,
And in those precepts, step-by-step,
I will abide and train myself.
In the Bodhicaryāvatāra by the monk/teacher Shantideva, the actual taking of the vow is preceded by various other preparatory practices and prayers often done through the recitation of a prayer.
- Making physical, verbal and mental offerings to the Buddhas
- Confessing one's negative deeds, "one admits to doing the negative deed, one feels true remorse and then one resolves not to do it again."
- Rejoicing in the goodness and virtues of others
- Requesting the Buddhas to turn the wheel of Dharma (to teach the way)
- Dedicating the merit of all good deeds for the benefit of all beings
Excursus #2
A story … from a thirteenth century Italian chronicler Jacobus de Varagine in The Golden Legend.
“When Thomas’ ship arrived in India the local leader was celebrating the wedding of his daughter. The king had commanded that the entire city assist in the feast, and Thomas was obliged to attend. One of the musicians who was entertaining the guests noticed Thomas from across the room. She approached him and began to sing to him a psalm in Hebrew, ‘There is a God in heaven, who created all things.’”
It seems that the world was more connected than Thomas could ever have imagined, Jews had settled in India centuries before he had ever arrived.
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