UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND BUDDHISM

 

 

The last place that Union Theological Seminary, NYC seems to look for answers is in the Bible. Instead, they turn to almost every other source. Recently, it sent out an advertisement to highlight Buddhist answers:

 

·       How do Buddhists address social and political violence when there can often be an insistence within our traditions that doing so disrupts harmony, takes sides, and creates division? How do we ensure our traditions do not join in the reproduction of structural oppression and inequity? How do we work diligently for justice without entrenching separation and anger in our minds and hearts?

 

·       These and other questions will frame the virtual conversation between Lama Justin Von Bujdoss and Rev. Kosen Gregory Snyder in Union’s ongoing “Dharma and Justice Dialogues.”

 

While there are many aspects of Buddhist Dharma (law) which I appreciate, without a monotheistic God who has authored and enforces His laws, their understanding of the moral laws is inadequate. Let me explain:

 

Without God, moral laws lack moral authority. We are able to violate the laws of science without consequence. For example, take the law of gravity. We can fly on airplanes, in opposition to gravity, without our conscience bothering us. We can avoid gravity’s impact entirely by taking a rocket into gravity-less space. Then shouldn’t we be able to circumvent the moral laws without consequence? Why not? Simply because the One who designed the laws will not allow us to do so, even if numb our conscience with drugs. We do so only at great expense to ourselves.

 

Of course, Buddhists would not recommend side-stepping the Dharma, but they have no explanation for its inescapable karmic effects. Nor can they explain where these laws come from.

 

Apart from an omniscient God, there is no mechanism to impose one’s merited karma. The provision of justice requires the consideration of many factors including one’s secret intentions. There is no other candidate, apart from God, who can fulfill this requirement.

 

Buddhism believes that the individual soul is no more than an illusion. What then persists after death to experience reincarnation and receive the karma due them?

 

Buddhism cannot provide hope. Even nirvana (“nothingness”) entails a loss of personal existence, even if it does promise a cessation of pain. However, death is also a cessation of pain. Even then, few Buddhists have a hope of attaining nirvana. They too know that they are sinners and fear that reincarnation will take them in the wrong direction.  

 

However, I doubt that UTS will entertain any discussion of the problems of the Buddhist worldview. It simply does not coincide with their agenda.