Snow Lion Meets Europe

Foreword by Don McIntosh

WHEN I WAS initially approached by the good people at Je Tsongkapay Ling, a Buddhist college in the U.K., about publishing a book of teachings from a Buddhist leader, I wasn't sure what to say.

I am a Christian, and a fairly conservative Christian at that. My faith in Jesus is like that of the apostles, in that I believe 'there is no other name under heaven...by which one must be saved' (Acts 4:12). I am not even optimistic or broad-minded enough to be a Christian ecumenicist, let alone a religious universalist. So the idea of publishing material from a non-Christian religious perspective seemed inconsistent with my convictions and calling.

Yet when I looked it over the material itself appeared largely unobjectionable and even illuminating. As Editor of Gerizim Publishing, then, I decided that we would be happy to publish the book — but on the condition that I had an opportunity to say a few words about it myself in the front matter. When I suggested, therefore, the possibility of writing a Foreword to the book from a Christian perspective, I was pleasantly surprised that the staff at the college, were happy to oblige. (I should add that it was a genuine pleasure working with two members of that staff in particular, Ludwig Roemer and Sonja Wagner, whom I have come to regard as friends.)

Addressed to a European audience, Snow Lion Meets Europe is essentially a series of sermons/lectures on the state of Western culture by a respected (and recently deceased) Buddhist monk, Khenpo Kyosang Rinpoche. Going into writing this, I had in mind the basic idea of politely but uncompromisingly defending the integrity of the Christian faith. That is, I was expecting my faith to be frequently challenged and undermined, if not openly attacked. Instead, I was greeted with an insightful, mostly fair-minded analysis, not only of the state of Western culture generally, but in many places of Christianity in particular. That's not to say that there are no issues that I believe need to be answered from a Christian perspective. There are, and as readers will see I have tried to answer them.

For the most part, though, Rinpoche's critique is reserved for Western civilization generally rather than the Christian religion particularly. For example, in the opening chapter on 'Consumers,' he says: 'You believe that every labour brings suffering and that leisure always makes one happy. At the same time you regard laboriousness as one of the main human virtues.' Point taken! This love-hate relationship with work admittedly creates considerable anxiety and tension in our culture. With vacations and weekends we try to experience the leisure that promises joy, but we can't, because our work ethic continually reminds us that we should be increasing our productivity instead. So at work we long to relax, and while trying to relax we're itching to work.

For another example, Rinpoche addresses the simplicity and value of little things, which unfortunately get lost, even trampled upon, in the ongoing consumeristic pursuit of leisure. In an age marked by the 'ease' (or annoyance, depending on perspective) of, 'autocorrect' text formatting, targeted advertising, virtually unlimited television viewing options, and the like, Rinpoche speaks of a book created with woodcuts: 'Modern machines can print a book so that you do not need to copy it by hand or to cut printing patterns from wood anymore. However, if cutting your printing patterns took you a whole year you surely will remember the book you have produced this way. You will value it.' (As an editor who necessarily puts much work into the production of books, I say to that: 'Amen.')

The lesson? What's easily accessible or producible will not be considered valuable; yet we remain positively addicted to the ease which devalues our lives nonetheless. (One almost fears we are on the verge of living out the movie plot of The Matrix, with the difference being that now we are plugging ourselves into an artificial computer-generated world willingly and even eagerly.) The old texts to which Rinpoche alludes were at one time learned by heart; now, of course, they are simply stored on the Internet. So he asks: 'Do you have any knowledge left in your head, though, if you store it on the web?' In this he calls subtle attention to what has become obvious to many of us: that the world was actually a much more interesting place before the Internet. There was a time when my family and I could take a trip to a state park, for example, where part of the fun was using a map to navigate and anticipating what our destination might look like when we got there. Now, of course, a GPS directs our every move, and Google Earth photos reveal everything we might want to see beforehand, from every possible angle. I remember many years ago having a dispute with a college roommate, Forrest, about who played the role of Alan Shepard in The Right Stuff. I was certain it was David Carradine, while Forrest, though not sure exactly who it was, nonetheless swore that it was not David Carradine. As it happens Forrest was right; the actor was Scott Glenn. I was able to easily confirm that fact just now, thirty-five years later, by way of a Google search that took less than a minute — because now everyone knows everything instantaneously.