a lesson from buddhism

Originally uploaded by DesignbyGecko. 
I organised for a local buddhist monk to visit my year 9 RE class today. I blogged about his previous visit here on the hopefulimagination lent blog. What struck me today was the word 'attachment' - dukkha (suffering or unsatisfactoriness) comes from attachment. The Buddhist way of life is about becoming attached to the right things and unattached (letting go) of that which makes for unbalanced life. The Buddhist way of life is a call to simplicity. There is something deeply attractive and challenging about this. As Christians we to need to become less attached to that distract us from God and neighbour. Jesus in the sermon on the mount echoes this call to simplicity and unattachment (Matt 6.19-21, 25-34) with the call to seek first the kingdom of God. I think we are too attached to too much, especially as western christians. This story on ekklesia about two methodists who are giving up shopping (apart from the essentials) for lent, is the kind of faithful practice we should encourage and nuture. We store up too many treasures on earth.