Sin and Salvation: The Christian Message
Healing Breath
Zen for Christians and Buddhists in a Wounded World
By Ruben L.F.Habito
Publisher: Wisdom Publications.
ISBN: 0-86171-508-X
Where the Buddhist tradition expresses the human problem in terms of duhkha, or dissatisfaction and dis-ease, the Christian view sees the human condition as a state of sin.
Sin is a state of separation, or alienation, from God. In the Creation story of Genesis, man and woman were originally created in God’s image. But, choosing their own selfish ways and separating themselves from God’s plans, they place themselves in opposition to God. This separation from God – and the rest of creation – alienates man and woman from their true selves, as beings created in God’s image.
An important point must be noted here: the basic premise of the Christian message is not that man and woman sinned, but that they were originally created in God’s image. They were originally created in a state of grace, receiving divine blessing and enjoying divine presence in their lives. In the Genesis story, the Fall came as man and woman, against divine will, ate of the ‘fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.’ Thus they lost their state of grace through their own choice.
The term original sin is thus a gross misnomer and a misrepresentation of the more significant aspect of Christian teaching. It causes much misunderstanding and distorted attitudes outside and within Christian tradition, in giving the impression of a pessimistic view of human nature. We need to reclaim the vision of the Genesis story: our original condition is a state of grace. Being the image of God is what’s ‘original’ in our created being – not sin.
Now, however – historically and existentially – we find ourselves in a state of sin, a state of separation from God. We are alienated from the very source of our life and its original blessing. This alienation from God can be called our ‘cosmic woundedness.’
Separation from God can be seen on three levels. First, separation from God is manifested as alienation from our fellow human being, who like ourselves are created in the image of God. Seeing others as objects, as opponents, as competitors, or means to our own selfish ends – this kind of alienation is at the foot of the violence we perpetrate upon each other.
Second, we are in a state of alienation from the natural world, which is God’s creation. Having separated ourselves from nature, we regard it as Other to us and in need of being subdued and dominated. Alienation from nature is the root of the ongoing global ecological crisis we all face.
Third, we are alienated from our own selves. Made in the image of God, we are unable to reflect that image in our awareness and in the way we live our lives, preoccupied as we are with our selfish goals based on our idealized and false self-images.
These various levels of alienation correspond with the state of existential woundedness described earlier. This is what we mean when we say that the human condition is in a state of sin and in need of salvation.
The word salvation – a key to understanding the Christian worldview – derives from the Latin word salus, or healthy and sound, which in turn derives from the Greek holos, meaning whole. The Christian Gospel, or Good News, is a message of salvation. Addressing us in our cosmic woundedness, it proclaims the Way to healing and wholeness.
By undergoing a total change of heart and mind, a metanoia (literally, ‘beyond consciousness’), we experience a renovation of our being as we are reconciled with God, with out true selves, with out fellow humans, and with the whole of creation.
Recalling the Buddhist expression of the human predicament in terms of duhkha – a state of dis-location, dis-ease, and of being out of touch with being itself – we can perceive a basic resonance with the Christian understanding of cosmic woundedness due to sin. How, them in concrete terms, do we overcome duhkha? What constitutes the path of salvation from this state of sin? To address these questions, let us now look at some key features of Zen practice.
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