Eyes of Our Maker

Each day my Lord,
Let me stop 100 times
and breathe deep, the Holy Spirit.
100 times
let me step out of the market place
where I have built my life.
Let me stop and breathe,
in order to arrive in your kingdom.

100 times to breathe your air,
to feel your sun warming me,
and with each breath,
let this truth,
penetrate my flesh and blood and bones:

That my life is full
of the beauty and goodness
of your universe.
My life itself is the majestic dance
of sunlight and wind
of earth and ocean.

Upon my return to the marketplace
let me walk nobly, head high,
a sovereign member of your kingdom.
And in the midst of those voices.
the buyers and the sellers,
100 times, Lord,
let me hear you whisper:

 “My child, you are good,
beyond beauty and plainness,
beyond wisdom and ignorance,
beyond wealth and poverty.
You are good
beyond success and failure,
beyond power and helplessness.
For in my kingdom,
these are small.
In my kingdom,
beloved child,
you are radiant as the sun.”
                                  Mike McMahon

The Eyes of Our Maker (Video)

A Brief Introduction to Christian/Buddhist Dialogue
By Mike McMahon

Mike McMahon is a long-time practitioner in both the Christian (Catholic) and Buddhist Traditions.  He has been ordained as a lay member of Thich Nhat Hanh's Order of Interbeing, and has been certified as a spiritual director through Creighton University. He is a founding member of the Honey Locust Sangha- a group in Omaha, NE which practices mindful living in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.




If you are a Christian encountering Buddhist teachings for the first time, I offer you this reflection to help:
The Buddhist experience, born not of concepts and thoughts, but of the experience of meditation (letting go thoughts), is that teachings, concepts, theology, do a very poor job of conveying the deep nature of life, of reality. Buddhism asks you not to be attached to it's teachings (or any teachings or concepts), or they will not be helpful to you. From the Buddhist point of view, in all the cosmos, the only thing that is real is this present moment of life that we are living.  Everything else is just a thought.
All spiritual teachings are tools which we can use to help open ourselves to a deep, open, loving experience of life in this moment. If you are not able to open to and explore the idea that the teachings, the theology, are only relative truth (an idea, that you will find among Christian Theologians, including those represented in articles on this website) then you will have nothing but frustration in this dialogue.

If you are a Buddhist desiring to be nourished by  Christian thought and practice,  I offer you this small reflection to help (note: this is, according to my life experience, my own poetic description of  how Christianity is in the world. I make no claim to define or describe Christianity for anyone else, or in any kind of absolute way):
At its most beautiful and eloquent depths, Christian theology is a poetic attempt to convey deep and profound encounters with life and reality. Christian practice is the ongoing process of opening heart and mind to unconditional love of all people, places and things.  St Thomas Aquinas, who spent a lifetime composing the most elegant, intricate, detailed theology of life and Christ and God, said towards the end of his life, that his writings were "so much straw".  If you approach the teachings as poetry (some Christian theologians will object to this, some will not) pointing to the deep and profound mystery of life, you will be able to be nourished by the beautiful heart of Christianity.

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