The Chinese Catholic jurist John C.H. Wu pointed out that if the philosophy of cogito, ergo sum (“I think therefore I am”) has driven the cerebral West, then the philosophy sum, ergo cogito (“I am therefore I think”) of Zen Buddhism offers a perhaps necessary tonic.11xJohn C.H. Wu, The Golden Age of Zen (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2003), 34. Nietzsche offered a similar refutation of Descartes in The Gay Science (aphorism 276), but the Catholic theologian Franz Xaver von Baader came first (see note 29). The allure of Zen is irresistible for many, and—as countless local North American sanghas (Buddhist communities) can testify—it is not going away, even if its initial countercultural buzz has dissipated since the sixties. And since Christianity is not going away either, the necessity of a genuine exchange (not just fatuous “dialogue”) between Christians and Buddhists is as important as ever.
Although I can’t recall where I read it, the most instructive analogy I’ve come across to describe Buddhist-Christian discussions in the past sixty years comes from beekeeping. Apparently, when one attempts to merge two hives, if newspaper is not judiciously employed, the colonies are launched into total war. However, when a newspaper barrier is carefully deposited between the two hives, the competing colonies have a chance to get used to one another’s pheromones. This happens as they slowly chew through the newspaper.
Lacking such a prophylaxis, exchanges between American Buddhists and Christians—who are competing for the spiritual share of the same democracy—have gone awry during the past several decades, with venomous stingers being unsheathed on both sides. Perhaps the best-known of these angry bees is Alan Watts (1915–1973), whose popularity has been lately renewed thanks to popular reprints of his books and the reissue of his captivating lectures and seminar discussions in podcast form.