Buddhist's insight on resurrection

Catholic New Times, May 4, 2003 by Joelle Morgan

What was that moment in the tomb about? It is almost a blip in the Passion story, and yet it is crucial to our knowing Jesus as fully human. This universal experience of death is virtually the only thing that all humans know we will experience. And we fear it.

Liturgically, people try to, of wish to, avoid the Good Friday experience--"we are an Easter people," I hear professed over and over ... and yet he died. He suffered, most likely excruciating pain--physical and emotional. He virtually begs for the cup to pass him by, and yet he is wholly willing to enter that suffering for others. Does God really demand this of him? Or is this a vestige of faulty interpretation, a point often made by many feminist writers who see the patriarchal, abusive father-figure in the story? This cannot be ignored, but this year I enter this Easter season with a new sight from my .readings into Buddhist thought, particularly that of the Vienamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.

In reflecting on living through the Vietnam war, he remembers his brothers and sisters who chose to burn themselves (self immolation in various public places) in order to bring awareness to the world and raise compassion in it. Many Westerners could not understand this choice and condemned these as suicidal acts. He counters that they did not act out of despair, but in a deep hope that their actions would "move the hearts of the oppressors and call attention to the suffering of our people." Thich Nhat Hanh reflects on their "unconditional willingness to suffer for the awakening of others." He says; "Every action for peace requires someone to exhibit the courage to challenge the violence and inspire love. Love and sacrifice always set up a chain reaction of love and sacrifice." And he makes the connection to the crucifixion of Jesus as just such a witness.

We hear the story of Jesus with this new insight--how it might be possible to die in a profound store of freely given compassion. The phrase, "that others might have life," begins to make sense. However, we are a resurrection people; it is traditionally beyond the tomb that we find hope, but what insight can we further gain if we stay in the tomb a little longer?

Another key concept that teaches compassion in Buddhism is "interbeing." It is that idea that we are all more than interconnected, and are actually part of each other's being--the flower is the sun, the rain and the soil. Not simply connected to them, but a part of them as interbeing. Rosemary Radford Ruether explores this Buddhist concept through the image of decomposition and recomposition. All things die and decompose, and it is in this process that nutrients are released into the earth, which nurture new life to rise again. So that we are a part of all things that have gone before us--not just connected, but in the reincarnate idea of being the essence of those material things that have come before us, decomposed and newly recomposed.

Newly aware now of the interconnection, the question that evolves is how are we called to treat our neighbour? How does Jesus' call to love shift in light of interbeing? When we stay in the tomb .a little longer, is there new insight to be unearthed? If we allow that maybe Jesus' body decomposed over more than a weekend, and that as we say on Ash Wednesday, we return to dust, to the nothingness of time immemorial, could it be that we might reinterpret or deepen our understanding of resurrection into a new form?

The gift of interfaith journeying this season brings the gift of understanding the interconnectedness of all life, and the challenge to love our neighbour in light of this wisdom. As well, we might ponder the profound path of compassion to which Jesus' death calls us.