Buddhism

* Re “Vesak Festival Celebrates Life of Buddha,” May 5: I am saddened, though not truly surprised, to learn that the Catholic Church sees Buddhism replacing Marxism as its “greatest challenge.” The Catholic Church has a long history of intolerance. The May 5 article about the discovery of the site of a Taino massacre by Spanish troops in 1503 only too well illustrates the history of the church’s alliance with capitalism, and the destruction of cultures and civilizations.

If, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger claims, Buddhism is “an erotic spirituality,” then it is so in the truest sense of the word: a practice (not dogma) founded in love, compassion, shared joy and equanimity. This is a far cry from the doctrine of original sin, which for 16 centuries has played such an important role in Western Christian theology.

The Order of Interbeing, founded in the 1960s by Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, holds as its first precept the practice of openness: “Aware of the suffering caused by fanaticism and intolerance, we are determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill or die for.” The church, and other institutions, could learn much from this simple practice.

PAUL M. HERSHFIELD