Recently, I serendipitously took a break from my work just in time to catch Bill Moyers’ On Faith and Reason on PBS. The series is devoted to exploring various aspects of spirituality and religion as they relate to science, reason, politics, art, culture and everyday life. Today’s guest was a woman née Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, but who later assumed the pseudonym Pema Chödrön at her ordainment as a Buddhist nun in 1974, at the age of 38.

I found the interview rather curious. Since my earliest days in martial arts, I’ve had more than a strong academic interest in Eastern philosophy — from Buddhism to zen to taoism. What I’ve often marveled at is the sheer number of Westerners — of Christians — who explore these philosophies and their religious branches. The sad part is that most people spend many more years, money and effort in studying these (as well as exploring other faiths and sects) than they do at rediscovering their own Catholic Faith, which they largely misunderstand, take for granted or dismiss entirely.

Admittedly, there’s a lot in Buddhism, zen and taoism to admire, if only for the simplicity of their ‘pearls of wisdom.’ Indeed, much of their philosophies are quite compatible with Christian doctrine. But the sad part is that people who convert to these religions seeking to ‘awaken to the self’ or to ‘discover the truth’ inevitably discard and cast out the real Truth — that is, God.

Take the interviewee, Pema Chögrön, for example. Falling away from the cradle-Catholicism of her youth, she explored numerous alternate religions, including Protestantism and scientology, before discovering and becoming enamored with Buddhism. When asked by Moyers if she now believes in God, Chögron states, “Buddhists neither believe nor disbelieve in God, but rather leave it as an open question.” That is to say, they are — or at least she is — agnostic.

If a Buddhist does not firmly believe in God, then his attempt at self-purification distills down to a very human act. Strangely, converts like Chögrön often say that they were drawn to Buddhism precisely because of this grounding in the self: Buddha, as a mere man, embodies what every “sentient being” has the potential to become through his own will, independent of any divine intervention or guidance. At first, this is comforting, for a person seems in control of his own life. By stripping away the veil of falseness that obscures human vision, Buddhists argue, one is able to discover the ‘truth,’ and thereby discover how to live. Upon closer inspection, the lack of God in the Buddhist framework is alarming and distressful. While a human attempt at self-purification may consist of genuine remorse over past actions, without God, it cannot be redemptive.

Catholicism has a grand heritage, including many mystics and contemplatives. The various orders are founded upon centuries of beautiful tradition, and many, such as the Carmelites, have ‘tertiary’ (or ‘third’) orders for the lay community. If Jesus, due to His divine nature, doesn’t seem approachable, then blessèd Mary and the Saints serve as innumerable reminders of what each and every person has the capacity to become, through the grace of God.

This — God’s grace — is the principal difference that sets the Christian contemplative tradition apart from its Eastern siblings: Whereas in Buddhism and zen and taoism, the practitioner strives for self-purification and perfection by controlling negative emotions, or by ‘reorienting the self’ to turn a peaceful and kind face to the world, the Christian contemplative calls upon the grace of God to aid him in his transformation. In so doing, his spiritual combat is not a personal one, limited to human abilities and the natural world, but now extends into the supernatural order. Its purpose transcends ‘being nice’ and strives toward cultivating true Virtue.

Dietrich von Hildebrand explains this difference more eloquently than I:

[The natural idealist’s] object is not to be reborn: to become radically — from the root, that is — another man; he merely wants to perfect himself within the framework of his dispositions. … invariably in the idealist, the readiness to change is limited to a concept of nature’s immanent evolution or self-perfection: its scope remains exclusively human. Whereas, with the Christian, it refers to a basic transformation and redemption of things human by things divine: to a supernatural goal. … [Furthermore,] the idealist’s readiness to change is aimed at certain details or aspects only, never at his character as a whole.

Dietrich von Hildebrand
Transformation in Christ
p. 6

For those of you who are yearning to discover the Truth, do not wander waywardly. The answer does not lie in Gnostic fallicies. Instead, gaze inwardly and find that God is already there. Once you realize this, you can follow in the venerable footsteps of Catholic mystics and contemplatives.

To learn more, check out the following resources:

The Interior Life

• Cloud of Unknowing
• Interior Castle — St. Teresa of Ávila
• Dark Night of the Soul — St. John of the Cross
• Practice of the Presence of God — Brother Lawrence
• Abandonment to Divine Providence — Jean-pierre de Caussade
• Imitation of Christ — Thomas à Kempis
• Spiritual Combat — Lorenzo Scupoli
• Spiritual Combat Revisited — Jonathan Robinson
• Introduction to the Devout Life — François de Sales
• Transformation in Christ: On the Christian Attitude — Dietrich von Hildebrand
• I Want to See God: A Practical Synthesis of Carmelite Spirituality and I Am a Daughter of the Church — P. Marie-Eugene

Prayer, Meditation & Contemplation

• Prayer — Hans Urs von Balthasar
• Christian Meditation — Hans Urs von Balthasar
• New Seeds of Contemplation — Thomas Merton
• Beginning Contemplative Prayer — Kathryn J. Hermes
• Centered Living — M. Basil Pennington
• The Diversity of Centering Prayer — e.d. Gustave Reininger

Vocations

• Read more about religious orders here.