God, our Great Satisfaction

Lately, I have been consuming large quantities of information about Buddhism. I suppose I would have been averse to studying other religions when I was younger, but I now feel as there is nothing harmful in assessing a religion and even incorporating various aspects of that religion into my own ideas.

With Buddhism, however, my interest is more than merely academic. I find certain similarities between Christianity and Buddhism to be fascinating. The most profound similarity lies at the very base of Buddhism (and may lie at the base of Christianity as well).

The Buddha taught that all of our suffering comes about because of our desires. Buddhism, strangely, would go so far as to teach that even what we might term "positive desires" are a cause of suffering. For example, the desire to love your child would be viewed by most Westerners as a good desire. But in Buddhism, even that sort of desire can (and ultimately will) be used to create suffering. Perhaps by way of the death of that child. If you had not loved the child, his death would cause you no suffering.

Now, in the way I understand "desire", I am not able to accept that all desires are negative and therefore cause suffering, but I do believe that Christianity teaches as part of its core message that our desires are broken and are absolutely the cause of all suffering.

What was the first sin? This question is a favorite of armchair theologians (I could be chairman of this society). On the surface the first sin was simply the sin of disobedience. God said, "Don't". Adam and Eve did it anyway. My kids are experts at this. On examining the underlying cause of the disobedience, however, we might discover that Eve wanted to be great and wise as the Serpent had promised: the sin of pride. Or maybe that Eve didn't really take God very seriously, so that she ignored His warning: the sin of dishonoring God.

You could personally come up with several more nuanced ways to consider the question of the first sin, but I will posit that the first sin was this: Adam and Eve did not believe they already possessed everything they needed.

God had given them everything they needed to live as He wanted them to live. They had no clothes because they needed no clothes. They had no weapons, for there was nothing to kill. They had no tools, for the garden provided food. But at some point they believed they lacked something, and the Serpent was all too ready to provide them with a fruit that would supposedly fill that void.

I'm with the Buddha here; their desire caused suffering. The solution to avoiding the scandal of the first sin would not have been perfect obedience nor a subjugation of inner pride. The solution was and still is contentment.

God made your food to grow on trees. He provided a temperate environment that abrogated the need for clothing. HE WALKED WITH YOU IN THE GARDEN. What else did you need?

How, in that pristine garden, did Adam and Eve find need for anything? I wonder if the full lesson of the Garden, had it been allowed to play out as God intended, would have been that eventually we would stop eating altogether as we realized that God Himself is our great satisfaction.

The Buddha might have seen this as the Great Emptiness or Silence, but I think He has a name tied to all Being. A name so pervasive and powerful that Jewish worshipers won't even write it on paper. The Great I AM who exists in a way as to make all other life vapid and tenuous by comparison; and also, who exists in a way as to make all other life eternally substantial and majestic.

According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. - 2 Peter 1:3-4