What is Buddha to you?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

I was curious about the late Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh so I picked up a short anthology of his writings. But an acquaintance was quick to exclaim as if in horror, “But you’re a Christian!”

“And so?”

“Aren’t their teachings against what you believe?”

Thich Nhat Hanh would be the first to teach you that Buddha is not God. In fact, there is a line in the anthology I got where he states that as fact.

I grew up in Honolulu where my friends, neighbors, and teachers were Buddhists.

Despite being baptized by a Marianist missionary, I am not a stranger to the basic tenets of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Buddhism.

When I moved to Chicago, I made friends with people who taught me Thai and Tibetan Buddhism.

It was my Jesuit teachers at Loyola University who confirmed for me that everyone should learn from Buddhism. In fact, it could even enhance my Christian faith.

In the over 24 years since I left my homeland, I have developed my own theology regarding Buddhism in my life.

I believe in God who created everything around me. He created the people I encounter. He created the encounters I would have with ideas.

I believe God gave me Buddha to learn from—to enrich and deepen my own Christian beliefs.

In this regard, Buddha is no god to me, nor savior. He is an encounter God has given me to make me better understand the world I live in—that God created.