The disconnect is that to us, “nothingness” is damnation.
Nirvana is not “nothingness”. The Buddha was in nirvana for the last 45 years of his life on earth; that was not “nothingness”.
Our faith teaches an eternal connection to the Father, versus an end in oblivion and permanent death.
Eternal life is eternal suffering:
[The Buddha said] “What do you think, monks: Which is greater, the tears you have shed while transmigrating and wandering this long, long time — crying and weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing — or the water in the four great oceans?”
“As we understand the Dhamma taught to us by the Blessed One, this is the greater: the tears we have shed while transmigrating and wandering this long, long time — crying and weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing — not the water in the four great oceans.”
"Excellent, monks. Excellent. It is excellent that you thus understand the Dhamma taught by me.
“This is the greater: the tears you have shed while transmigrating and wandering this long, long time — crying and weeping from being joined with what is displeasing, being separated from what is pleasing — not the water in the four great oceans.”
– Assu sutta, Samyutta Nikaya 15.3
Buddhism teaches nothing of an afterlife, just life after life after life followed, you hope, by oblivion. An end to consciousness. The answer to the “Mu” koan is “nothing.”
Nirvana is not nothing or oblivion.
[The Buddha said] “There is, monks, an unborn, an unbecome, an unmade, an unconditioned. If there were not that unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, no escape would be possible from the born, become, made, conditioned. But precisely because there is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, escape from the born, become, made, conditioned is possible.”
– Udana 8.3
To begin to understand the Mu koan, you need to know the pronunciation of the relevant Chinese character at the time the koan originated in China. The current Jabamese pronunciation of that character is “Mu”. The old Chinese pronunciation was different:
Q: “Does a dog have Buddha nature?”
A: “Wu!”
This life IS quite real, what you do in it DOES matter, and YOU have the potential for eternal life.
Why would I be attracted by an offer of eternal suffering? Look at the Assu sutta I quoted above. One of the causes of suffering is “being separated from what is pleasing”. Christians, like Buddhists are told to love their neighbours as themselves. Can you be happy while those you love are being eternally tortured. Those victims are people you love as yourself. How can you be happy knowing that those you love are suffering eternally? The Christian afterlife, as described, is an eternity of suffering for everyone.
Have you ever read Venerable Thich Nhat Hahn’s “Peace is Every Step,” or, more poignantly, his “*Coming Home: Christ and Buddha as Brothers?” *Or any of the writings of the great Thomas Merton?
I have read some of both, though not the particular books you mention. Thomas Merton in particular is very impressive:
[At Polonnaruwa] I am able to approach the Buddhas barefoot and undisturbed, my feet in wet grass, wet sand. Then the silence of the extraordinary faces. The great smiles. Huge and yet subtle. Filled with every possibility, questioning nothing, knowing everything, rejecting nothing, the peace not of emotional resignation but of
sunyata, that has seen through every question without trying to discredit anyone or anything - without refutation – without establishing some argument. For the doctrinaire, the mind that needs well established positions, such peace, such silence, can be frightening.
I was knocked over with a rush of relief and thankfulness at the obvious clarity of the figures, the clarity and fluidity of shape and line, the design of the monumental bodies composed into the rock shape and landscape, figure rock and tree. And the sweep of bare rock slopping away on the other side of the hollow, where you can go back and see different aspects of the figures. Looking at these figures I was suddenly, almost forcibly, jerked clean out of the habitual, half-tied vision of things, and an inner clearness, clarity, as if exploding from the rocks themselves, became evident and obvious. The queer evidence of the reclining figure, the smile, the sad smile of Ananda standing with arms folded (much more “imperative” than Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa because completely simple and straightforward).
The thing about all this is that there is no puzzle, no problem and really no “mystery.” All problems are resolved and everything is clear, simply because what matters is clear. The rock, all matter, all life is charged with
dharmakaya… everything is emptiness and everything is compassion. I don’t know when in my life I have ever had such a sense of beauty and spiritual validity running together in one aesthetic illumination. … I mean, I know and have seen what I was obscurely looking for. I don’t know what else remains, but I have now seen and have pierced through the surface and have got beyond the shadow and the disguise. …
It says everything, it needs nothing. And because it needs nothing it can afford to be silent, unnoticed, undiscovered. It does not need to be discovered. It is we who need to discover it.
From: The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
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