Curious Christian

A conversation the other day nudged me to look more closely at Buddhism in Nepal. Though I expected Tibetan influences given Nepal’s proximity to the Himalayas, what I found was a far more layered picture.

Nepal is home to three distinct strands of Buddhism:

• Newar Vajrayāna in the Kathmandu Valley, a living survival of the old Indian tantric traditions, kept alive by Newar families in their temples and festivals.
• Tibetan Vajrayāna in the highlands, practiced by Sherpas, Tamangs, Gurungs and others, with their monasteries, lamas, and scholastic traditions.
• Theravāda Buddhism, a more recent revival brought from Sri Lanka and Burma in the 20th century, emphasizing meditation and study of the early scriptures.

All three mingle in Nepal’s cultural life, often overlapping with Hindu practices. It reminded me once again that that religions are rarely neat, but braided together in ways that reflect the complexity of human longing foe meaning.

Having practiced Zen Meditation before following Jesus, I am no stranger to Buddhist ways of thinking. One theme that runs through all of these traditions is the importance of merit. Acts of generosity, chanting, meditation, and ritual are ways of generating merit, which is accumulated step by step.

How does this compare to my current path? I have found the gospel turns this logic upside down. It isn’t my merit that carries me forward, but the merit of Jesus. What he has done is enough. That frees me from treating good works as a way of earning spiritual credit. Instead, they become an act of worship, not performed to gain, but to give. The invitation is to live a life according to the law of love, not counting, not calculating, but giving freely because we have already received freely.