We did something a little different for church last Sunday. This month's Big Year theme (check out abigyear.net) is "Reform Yourself, Not Others" and one of the challenges is to go to a different church or religious group to see what you can learn from them. Our church and Big Year crew went to a Buddhist temple. There's an amazing complex on Underwood Rd in Springwood that is a temple and Buddhist school as well. It's already large and will double in size when stage two is complete.
As we waited for others in our group to arrive, we talked with the kids about the need to be quiet and respectful when we go in. One of my mates said, "Ben I think it's probably not appropriate to expose yourself in a Buddhist temple."
"What?"
"Your fly's undone."
"Ah." Good start Ben.
It's definitely worth checking out if you're in Brisbane and haven't been already. They were very welcoming and let us walk around and have a look wherever we wanted. There were beautiful gardens, peaceful prayer spaces, signs everywhere to tell us what was going on and what Buddhism is about, a nice little cafe, an art gallery and some amazing architecture. It was a perfect autumn Sunday morning and there was a chanting service happening and big groups of people doing tai chi on the lawns. Actually there were quite a number of people there - many older, quite a few young people - and even with so many people it was still such a peaceful place. I actually really enjoyed the experience and I can see why people are gravitating to Buddhism (comments like this worry my father-in-law).
Afterwards our group went to Maccas for a coffee and a chat, and to unleash the kids. In order to include the kids a little in the conversation we sat at tables inside the children's play area, and the atmosphere was a fairly big contrast to the serenity of the temple. The key idea that came through at the temple was PEACE - from the attitudes of the people to the layout of the grounds, the simplicity of the art and the... absence of children? We agreed that if you were to walk into most Christian churches, the idea of peace probably wouldn't come out like this. It's generally a lot messier and noisier in churches - especially in our home church. I think that's ok though, because I think the main idea that we want to come across in our own gatherings is LOVE. Does it though? That's a question for every church to ask themselves. If we don't have peace and we also don't have love are we like Jesus at all?
I asked the group what they thought are the key ideas behind western culture and one of them said, "This right here: Maccas. Noise, greed, money spent on ourselves." Accumulation, achievement, success, gain. It's clear we could learn a lot from Buddhists. Even the ability to stop, be still, be quiet, rest and listen is something we desperately need to learn - something that Buddhism does very well. Another is contentment. One of the themes I picked up from the signs around the place was the idea that we should make peace with whatever circumstances we find ourselves in - success or hardship.
Being a school chaplain, I've heard a lot about the debate over whether or not chaplains should be in schools. There's a lot to it, but if the future went in this direction, I'd happily work alongside a Buddhist or Muslim chaplain in my school. I think there's a lot we can learn from each other and a lot we can work on together.
