THE TRINITY AND THE THREE TREASURES

THE TRINITY AND THE THREE TREASURES

Today in Christian Churches around the world the main priest has likely tried to pass off the job of giving the sermon/homily to the curate or junior pastor. This is the quintessential theological hot potato: preaching on the topic of the Trinity. 

You see, the Christian Church has managed to get itself tied in knots by inventing a theology in the early to mid hundreds that bears no resemblance to anything Jesus actually taught, or to Jewish faith (on which, lest we forget, Christianity is based).

In the synoptic gospels the theology of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is fairly uncomplicated: Jesus teaches that we are all children of God, and instructs his followers to pray “Our Father who art in heaven ...” – note, not MY Father who art in heaven. And what of this heaven? There his teaching is clear, too, it is within you. Already, by going back to what Jesus actually taught, we are light years away from the theology the early church invented at the Council of Nicaea and beyond.

Jesus also teaches that in order to become a son of God (or daughter of God) you must align your will with God’s will. In other words, set aside the ego and become one with God. Then, he teaches, by definition you will be a son (or daughter) of God.

Only in John do we find claims of Jesus as the only Son of God: this gospel written well after Jesus’ lifetime, is also the one that has the most words attributed to Jesus but the fewest that leading scholars believe he actually ever said.

So how did the early church’s misconception of the Trinity come about? Well, in sizable part it came from a lack of understanding of Jesus’ teachings. When Jesus reframes the Jewish view of God as an intensely personal, present, immanent God, one that is within you (and you within God), one that “is” you, in a very real sense, he opts for language that aims to break down the traditional view of who or what God is.

Remember, by this time, the Jewish Kings are gone; now, first century Middle East, God is distant from humans and God’s name is never to be spoken or written down. Thus God becomes the tetragrammaton (YHWH/JHVH), and only by speculation of possible interstitial vowels expanded out to Yahweh or Jehovah. 

No, in order to reframe God as imminent – closer to you that you are to yourself – Jesus invites the use of Abba to refer to God (and no this is not “Father” it is closer to dad, daddy, papa, or pops – it is the intimate name for a father that is used by a young child). Jesus also describes God as Love: not as being merely “loving” but as the very embodiment of Love. And that is of course not sexual love (eros) but divine love (agape).

And what is this Love, this agape? It is the absolute, selfless love that is all encompassing, non-judgmental and totally inclusive. To expand on his reframing theme, he then likens God’s love to be like that of a father for his only begotten son. And here was the first place for those failing to grasp his teaching to go off the tracks.

Reminding ourselves first century Palestine was a very male oriented society, thus the pinnacle of this selfless love would be best expressed as that of a father for an only son (its not a coincidence that the parable is of the prodigal son, not of the prodigal daughter). Today some might better frame that love as being that of a mother for her only child, and better still of a parent for their only child.

Some have drawn on Augustine to help unravel the Trinity: “For I do not love love, except I love a lover; for there is no love where nothing is loved. Therefore there are three things— he who loves, and that which is loved, and love.” The parallel, then, being the Trinity as love, lover and beloved. But this raises the specter of dualism: that there must be separateness – the lover separate from the beloved and the ethereal connection of “love” itself.

Rather your true nature is Love, God’s true nature is Love – Love is who you truly are. Lover and Beloved are one (which evokes Rumi and Sufi teachings). In Buddhist terms, some have trouble with this word “love” for it has so many connotations for people: mainly its association with human love and sexuality. Rather, in Buddhism we talk of compassion. Your nature, your Buddha Nature, is pure, unadorned, compassion.

I recall while at a well know Zen Center, a discussion arose about our true nature and I happened to observe that when all else is removed (i.e. when ego and duality are put aside) what is left is compassion. The person next to me ran to the exalted teacher and repeated this to the teacher. Take no notice of Tim, came the reply, that is wrong. Tim is not yet an authorized teacher, take no notice of anything he says. If that ego could have but fallen away, there compassion would have remained.

In Buddhism we have our own “trinity:” The Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Like the Christian trinity, this trinity can be easily misunderstood. It can be wrongly unpacked as worship (in some sense) of the Buddha as an historical figure, Dharma as Buddha’s teachings, and Sangha as community. But Buddha is also Buddha Nature – who you truly are: Love, Compassion. Buddha (or rather, Buddhahood) as parallel to God, our true being (not to be confused with ‘Buddha is a God’ use of language). Dharma is the teaching, and is parallel to Jesus, The Word. That leaves Sangha and Holy Spirit. Sangha or community is at its core about interdependence – the Spirit that weaves all this together.

Rev Songdo Prajna, Abbot and Head Teacher, Still Center Zen (part of the Five Mountain Zen Order)

Fr Tim, Rector, Loving Catholics, Los Angeles (part of the Ecumenical Catholic Church/The American Catholic Church)