Chaps was quite the character. A poker-playing, Communist-hating, God-loving man, he was from Hungary and grew up under the Communists (hence the passionate distaste---and don't get him started on Muslims, either). He started a Bible study at his home on Wednesday evenings and, when we returned from Thailand, I talked to him about Buddhism. Buddhism, as a philosophy, held a distinct lure for me---peacefulness, serenity, calmness---all emotions alien to this high-strung, fiery dynamo (yes, I think that accurately describes me).
I asked him if Buddhism was compatible with Christianity and he surprised me by saying, "Yes, and there is such a thing as a Buddhist Jesuit."
I think the attraction comes from what one practitioner has said:
"Christianity is long on content but short on method and technique. So I think Buddhism is providing Christians with practices, with techniques, by which they can enter more experientially into the content of what they believe."
Chaps knew I wasn't much of a drinker and asked me what I liked. "Sweet wines," I said.
"I have the perfect wine for you," he said, and he pulled out this tiny bottle from his cabinet and poured a small bit of golden liquid into a glass. "I think you'll like this." And every time I went over to his house after that, he would pour me a glass of Tokay.
Tokay is incredibly sweet. It's like drinking warm liquid raisins, for lack of a better description. I don't think I could drink enough to get drunk before I would get sick, but it was enough to "warm" me up, to shake my rigidness and inflexibility loose, to allow me to feel fellowship with others.
What I wouldn't give to have a glass of Tokay in Guam---and a mulligan.
2 comments:
Ever read Thomas Merton's "Mystics and Zen Masters?" He compares and contrasts folks like Juan De la Cruz and Teresa Avila with those wild strange Chinese and Japanese masters of the immediate. My flavor of Christianity has no beef with da Buddha, save for what's at the heart of Buddhism: nothing. Buddhism and Christianity at their best (and admittedly Buddhism has a better historical track record--can you name one Buddhist Conqueror?) walk in the same direction, but to opposite destinations: Christ pointed at the Everything that is All, and Siddharta did the same at the Nothing. Complimentary colors, perhaps.
He sounds like my kink of chaplain! Ha ha.
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