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Article: Living Buddha, Living Christ.
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- October 16, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A Zen Buddhist teacher sets a statue of Jesus on an altar alongside the Buddha and lights incense to both. A Catholic priest sits cross-legged in meditation and attends to his breathing as he has been instructed by Zen teachers. Increasingly, Buddhists and Christians are borrowing from each other's traditions, and the results present new opportunities and new questions for both religions.
Generations of Christian missioners journeyed to Asia to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some discovered in the religions they encountered there an experience of meditation so powerful that it changed their lives. Buddhist teachers, in turn, came to Europe and the U.S. to ...