A Merry Buddhist Christmas

We recently watched one of my all-time favorite Simpsons episodes, called She of Little Faith. Lisa has a crisis of faith and subsequently converts to Buddhism. Marge makes a bold, loving, and hilarious attempt to win Lisa back during the Christmas season, but it backfires and Lisa runs away on Christmas eve.

Lisa then visits the Springfield Buddhist Temple where Lenny, Carl, and Richard Gere are meditating, and she receives some excellent advice:

Gere: ...Buddhists respect the diversity of other religions, as long as they're based on love and compassion.
Lisa: Wha...?!
Gere: It's true. So why don't you go home? I'm sure your family really misses you.
Lisa: I can really celebrate Christmas?
Gere: You can celebrate any holiday. And, you know, my birthday is August 31st.

I have to confess, with a little selfconscious embarrassment, that Lisa Simpson is my favorite cartoon superhero: Her moral compass seems to be aligned with my own. And, in the aforementioned episode and others, whenever she takes her progressive leanings too far, she learns important lessons about tolerance and moderation. Yet she is always able to stay true to herself. (See Lisa the Vegetarian and Lisa the Iconoclast for examples.)

Which brings me to my own (disjointed) thoughts on Christmas:

Schitzophrenic Santa

For me, there have always been two sides of Christmas: There is the spiritual side, with august Christmas Eve church services, the wonderful story of the nativity, and some of the most spiritually moving music ever written. Then there was the celebratory side, with Santa, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the Christmas Tree, gifts, feasts, candy, rum and eggnog.

Now, in twenty-first century America, the holiday seems a bit more...bipolar.

Less is More

As a child, both my joy and anxiety regarding Christmas revolved around gift-giving. Even before I had any money to spend, I wanted to find things that my family members would really want. When I finally got a salary, I went a little wild. It was certainly fun to buy people the things they most wanted, but it can also make them feel a little uncomfortable.

I eventually landed in a relationship with a true shop-a-holic. I discovered what the phrase "desires are inexhaustible" could mean when taken to the extreme. What's the point in trying to make someone happy with gifts, if, on the day after Christmas, they're still wanting? What's spiritual about enabling someone's addiction?

I was beginning to think society would eventually reach the point where we would all simply transfer funds to each other, and the goal would be to transfer more into the recipient's account than he or she had transferred into yours. Pretty cynical, eh?

Just within the past few years, my family has done away with most Christmas gift-giving. Most of our family can afford to buy for themselves whatever they need, and also most of what they want. Plus we're geographically dispersed, so it's difficult to pick up on subtle gift ideas. When every need and want can be met by visiting an on-line store, where's the challenge?

Instead we search for fun, light-hearted, inexpensive gifts based on a simple theme. One year the gift was limited to "Christmas-themed" items. This year was "food and drink" year, though we weren't able to participate due to the prohibitive cost of airfare. Next time that happens, I think I'll recommend "charitable donation" year. I can get all my shopping done on-line at Oxfam.

Christmas gift-giving (both the celebration and the shopping) is now more fun, and less stressful.

Christmas Without Christ?

Christmas is as religious or as secular as a family decides to make it. Those who have turned it into a political argument are spoiling the fun for everyone.

Of course, Christmas is a Christian holiday. But so many other religions have joined the season of celebration by increasing the celebratory fervor around December holidays. In some cases, those holidays were once rather subdued occasions.

In some ways, Christmas isn't becoming a secular (effectively non-religious) holiday, but a pluralistic (multi-religious) celebration.

I can understand, even relate to, a concern that Christmas could become spiritually compromised--watered-down, so to speak--by pluralism. The birth of Christ is a deep, holy, stirring event! Why would a belief in a different tradition be seen as a denial of what's considered holy to others?

Secular Is as Secular Does

Before my Christian friends worry too much about spiritual compromise, I would remind them of a few historical notes regarding Christmas:

In this country, and in others, it used to be blasphemous (and illegal) to celebrate Christmas. Puritans and other groups were big on the stoic. "No more fun of any kind."

Also, it's on the wrong date. I recall learning that the birth of Jesus of Nazareth was likely in the Spring, not the Winter. December 25 was originally the day that the Romans celebrated the Winter solstice and the birth of Mithras, who had some connection to the Sun (which becomes stronger after the solstice).

The Christmas Tree? Totally pagan.

And then there's Santa Claus, and the shopping, and the gift-giving, and the dancing and revelry (rum and eggnog...Mmmmmmm!). Various traditions from around the world, all frowned upon by the Puritans, the same folks who gave us Thanksgiving. Maybe they just felt the pressure, knowing that Christmas was just a few shopping weeks away...?

It's a Huge Celebration! Secularists didn't make Christmas into a commercial holiday. No one watches Miracle on 34th Street and thinks "Those damned secularists! Look what they've done!" Do they???

Sugar Plums and Pluralism

Christmas has changed so much over the centuries. Would it be so bad if everyone around the world joined in and declared it a multi-religious celebration of peace, joy, hope, tolerance, the birth of a wise man (or God, depending), patience, shopping, economic growth, and gift-giving?

I'm not trying to push a naive idealism here. I just don't think we have a lot of actual control over our own evolving culture. I think Christmas is headed that way, and we can either embrace the lively growth of American culture with joy, or we can be miserable, cranky grinches for the rest of our lives.

Jesus, The Buddha

There are numerous studies, theories, legends, and myths connecting Jesus of Nazareth to Buddhism. Some suggest that his teachings were influenced by the Far East. Others suggest that he may have inspired stories of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. (At some point the female image of Kuan Yin morphed into the male image of Avalokiteshvara. Talk about cultural changes!)

Any historical flow of ideas in either direction could explain some interesting similarities between the teachings of Jesus and those of Sidhartha Gautama. For example, The Golden Rule, which has been attributed--in one form or another--to numerous wise men throughout the ages, and exists in every major tradition.

There is a different explanation that, in the absence of scientific data, I find more spiritually motivating: The truths uncovered by both the Buddha and the Christ are universal, and universally available to us all, regardless of tradition or belief.

The historical Buddha was probably not the first, and was certainly not the last, to awaken. Nor would he be the last to do so outside of the lineage of his teachings. Good ideas are often realized independently by numerous people. A lot depends on how vocal they are, and whom they piss off.

Emphasis on the divinity of a historical individual tends to reduce the impact of the lessons. We seem to fall into a hero-worship trap: "Oh, those are special teachings, and I'm not worthy, so I won't even try to fulfill them." Or worse, "I am loved and forgiven, so I can break the rules and get away with it." And the latest cop-out: "Those are great ideals, but we have to be realistic!" Is life and death and war and peace so much harder now than it was then? Or was Jesus just wrong?

I don't think so. To me, and to many Buddhists, Jesus was a Great Buddha, one of a handful over the millenia who had the insight, and the gumption to share that insight. He is known as the Prince of Peace. Why isn't our nation of mostly Christians known as the Country of Peace? Why don't we have a Department of Peace?

Too idealistic? I'm not suggesting we have to be perfect. I'm suggesting we try to live up to the ideals we claim as our own.

Too political? Yeah, you got me there. Apologies.

Have a very Merry Christmas!