There is some mystery about Jesus’ life before he started his ministry. Some believe that he went east in those years and encountered Buddhism. Frankly, this makes sense because it is very easy to re-interpret much of what Jesus taught and did from a Buddhist point of view.
I would like to look at some basic Christian ideas from a particular perspective (mine) that has some (moderate) Buddhist influences.
What I get from Buddhism and Mormonism is this–joy is accessible if we open up to it. As Lehi taught his sons “men are, that they might have joy.” However, feeling joy, or feeling the spirit in an ongoing way can only come from a disciplined practice, or, in Buddhist terminology, skillful thinking or mindfulness. Feeling joy or feeling the spirit is best achieved when we are totally present in the moment, and we are not distracted. Distraction (unskillful thinking) is what prevents joy (the spirit) from dwelling in us constantly. A joyful (spiritual) state is actually our most natural state. It is what exists when we remove all the distractions.
So what then is sin? Sin is unskillful thinking that distracts us from feeling joy. When we are spiritually pure, we are free of sin, and are open to joy. We Mormons think of sin as something that is intrinsically bad, and displeasing to God. I would argue that the main reason it is displeasing to God is because it distracts us from feeling joy (the spirit).
Obviously some acts are morally bad. For example, if an action hurts another person such as murder, aggression or stealing, then it is clearly immoral. But many sins aren’t morally bad, they are simply sins because they distract us from feeling the spirit. They consume our thoughts at the expense of being ‘in the moment’ and feeling joy (the spirit).
A Buddhist might say desire is the cause of all suffering. A Mormon might say sin prevents us from feeling happiness. These two perspectives can be merged into one by looking at it in the following way. When we feel desire we are not living in the moment. We are looking toward the future. We can only truly feel the spirit (joy) when we are present in the moment. Thus, this distraction of desire, could be considered the sin.
Let’s take ‘lust’ as an example. All Mormons agree that lust is a sin, and most would agree that it interferes with feeling the spirit. But there are many other less obvious examples of desires that distract us from feeling joy (the spirit), and many of these are not morally bad. Let’s take a more complicated example, ‘ambition’. Ambition is admired, and is considered an essential part of our lives. However, ambition can also be a huge distraction. It can clearly prevent us from living in the moment because it is totally oriented toward the future. Thus, if not kept in perspective, ambition can become a barrier to feeling joy (the spirit). From this perspective, ambition, which is not immoral, could become sinful by being a distraction from feeling joy (the spirit). Other examples such as ‘worry’ or ‘regret’ might be seen positively or negatively but are not usually seen as immoral. However, these too would easily fit this definition of sin, because they are surely distracting us from feeling joy (the spirit).
As you see, some sins are morally bad and others are not. But all sins prevent us from feeling joy (the spirit). It is a little harder to realize that those desires that seem beneficial (like ambition) can also be distractions. We really do need to keep them in perspective because any desire can turn into a distraction that keeps us from feeling joy (the spirit).
The trouble with our usual perspective on sin is that it induces shame and guilt. Unfortunately, shame and guilt have proven to be counter-productive and often end up making us more distracted and less able to control our thoughts and actions. Living joyfully is a much better motivator for avoiding sin than shame and guilt. When we are joyful (full of the spirit) we lose interest in immoral behavior. We are not focused on our desires. Instead we are mindful of the moment, feeling our natural state of joy and enjoying the presence of the spirit. These desires that distract us from joy and from the present moment, are the same desires that drive immoral actions.
There is actually a large body of research that supports this idea. Happiness research has started to develop tools that help us understand what leads to happiness and what mental states are most conducive to happiness. One consistent finding in this research is exactly this–distraction interferes with happiness. Happiness can’t be maintained when we are distracted. The most joyful (spiritual) people are those who master their desires. Jesus saw the benefit of this when he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. However, most of us aren’t at that spiritual level yet, but taking a break from indulging our desires is certainly a useful technique, and most Mormons already do this with food on fast Sunday. Meanwhile, even if we can’t fast for 40 days and 40 nights, we can adopt perspectives and habits that help us spend more of our time in a joyful (spiritual) state.
For example, let’s take this perspective to our intimate relationships. A lot of us are in meaningful, intimate relationships that include sexual satisfaction. Well, as it turns out, being in a satisfying relationship that allows us to satisfy our sexual longings ends up substantially freeing us from our lust or desire, and thus allows us to spend more time in a state of joy (full of the spirit) (free of desire).
Even during the sexual act we can be in a state of full presence and full awareness and thus feel more joyful. I think anybody who has ever had good sex knows that it is only good when neither one of you is distracted. The distraction interferes with the enjoyment. Well, this is true of everything really. We should enjoy our spouse after sex too. We should enjoy our spouse the next day when we are doing something else with them. And even if we don’t have a spouse, we should enjoy our friendships. We should enjoy our families and our communities. We should also enjoy our meals. We should enjoy the sunset. We should enjoy the clouds, the rain, the wind, the birds. We should enjoy the traffic jams and the city noises. We should enjoy our times of solitude. We should let ourselves feel joy as much as we can. This is true communion with the spirit.
So I propose that we replace the western idea of sin with the eastern concept of unskillful thinking or distraction. The pain I feel from succumbing to distraction arises because it prevents me from connecting with joy (the spirit). I don’t need to feel guilty because I succumb to distraction, rather I can feel motivated to learn skills and practices that help to decrease distractibility and increase my ability to access joy (the spirit). This what God wants for me. God isn’t mad at me when I fail. God isn’t punishing me. He doesn’t need to. Joy is the reward. It is up to me to choose it.
An experience I had yesterday illustrates how distraction (sin) takes away from joy. In the morning I was feeling happy, but in the afternoon I started thinking about a friend I was supposed to see, and I started getting annoyed about the fact that he owed me money. The more I thought about it the less joyful I felt, and the annoyance managed to get me totally off track for the rest of the day. This fixation was from a genuine frustration, but more skillful thinking would have allowed me to let go of the anger so it wouldn’t continue to distract me. In this case, ‘resentment’ was the distraction (sin) because it was keeping me from joy (the spirit).
We need to practice living a life free of distractions. The best thing we could possibly do is to spend every day full of the spirit (or full of joy). This is what a meditative practice is for. Some Mormons master this in their personal prayers and in their temple and church worship. Some need to find outside tools and turn to meditative practices like mindfulness. Some people find joy by concentrating on the beauty of music, or the beauty of service. Some find joy by concentrating on the beauty of a hobby such as climbing or golf. Some people find it in creativity. Some people find it in a simple meal. Most people find joy when engaging in a deep conversation or enjoying an excellent movie. Most people find joy watching a beautiful sunset. These activities are joyful when they are experienced with total involvement, passion, and single-mindedness. People who are expert at it can find joy in the many simple things that they encounter throughout the day. They can engage. They are in the moment–the eternal now. They can see beauty or patterns and be amazed or curious. Bringing presence to our daily activities allows the spirit (joy) to dwell inside of us.
I encourage everyone to learn how to spend more time free from distraction so they are better able to feel joy (the spirit). I also propose that we change how we look at sin, and the consequences of sin. The idea of obedience out of guilt doesn’t work. The idea of giving your life over to Jesus (like the Born Again Christians) or giving up your desires (like the Buddhists) or living so the spirit can dwell in your heart (like us Mormons) is fundamentally about letting yourself feel joy. It is not about obedience to an angry God, but about allowing God the pleasure of giving us joy. It is a skill and a practice. Distraction interferes. Let’s focus on learning and on skillful practice instead of guilt-induced obedience.
–Thanks to Debbie Nielson Perez for her substantial input into this essay.
Daniel Parkinson
DANIEL PARKINSON was born and raised in Utah to a Mormon family with a thick Mormon Heritage. He comes to this issue as a psychiatrist, with a strong sense of activism, and a desire to help the two communities that he inherited as his birthright: the Mormon community, and the gay community. He administrates the GayMormonStories.org podcast and the NoMoreStrangers.org blog.
All posts by Daniel Parkinson
What a beautiful article. You have expressed so succinctly what has brought joy into my life. Now I just need to work on keeping the distractions to a minimum.
Excellent article – perhaps the best I’ve read on Rational Faiths. Thanks Daniel.
Daniel,
Would you care to address your take on “righteous desires” that may distract you from the moment?
For example, our family used to choose 5 needy families every year and purchase food and gifts for them at Christmas time. would spend months learning what their kid’s favorite toys were or what the parents desperately needed.
I can remember, specifically, sitting around in my room at night, as a 10 year old boy, just relishing in the idea of what we were doing. I was definitely being distracted from the moment (sleeping) but was caught up in so much joy over the desire to “do good” that I can’t imagine it being contradictory to Buddhist thought to sin.
I would like to hear your thoughts in this sort of desire as I have found this article very interesting and thought provoking.
Thank you Daniel.
Your AZ friend, Jake
Jake, you opened a major can of worms with that question. It will probably require an essay longer than the original. I will work on that and post it here, as well as get the input from some more experiences and knowledgeable Mormon Buddhists. Meanwhile, although the question is extremely important, I don’t think it is completely relevant to the main point of my essay, which I will sum up this way in a couple of sentences–that sin is only sin because it deprives us of God’s spirit or joy. Anything that deprives us of joy is a sin (especially behavior that harms others). God only cares about sin because he wants us to feel joy, not because he wants to punish us. I am going to need a couple of hours to frame my thoughts about desire, so I will post it here as soon as I do.
OK…here it goes. I hope it doesn’t seem too incoherent. Somehow all of this makes sense in my head, but when I try to explain it I kind of fail.
I have struggled with the idea of all desire being ‘undesirable’ to a Buddhist. I realize that some buddhists might see the anticipatory desire of doing a really good deed to be a barrier to full mindfulness, and enlightenment. In fact the rejection of desire becomes almost a contradiction as they ask themselves why they are even pursuing enlightenment if the desire for enlightenment is a barrier to its achievement. These are all questions that I can’t answer as an expert, so I am going to tell you my perspective based on where I am right now, and I am actually going to try to use Mormon terminology instead of buddhist.
In the grand scheme of things we have to keep an eternal perspective. From the viewpoint of the eternal, it is hard to give any single event huge importance. What we eat for breakfast might seem really important right now, but doesn’t really matter if you think in terms of millions of years. In the same way being diagnosed with Cancer would seem catastrophic in a temporal way, but in an eternal sense it is just a few minutes on this extremely long time line. So I think it is useful to put less importance on any single event, no matter how good or bad.
Mindful people figure out that by detaching they can enjoy the moment more. Detaching has to be distinguished from apathy. Living in the moment requires us to live life as if we could change the world, as if we could save humanity, as if we could become like God…..That is how we should live each moment of our lives. Live to the fullest. But at the same time we also have to hold on to the idea that what we are doing right that minute might not save humanity, or change the world or even help us become Gods. In fact hardly anything we do will matter in an eternal sense.
So why do these contradictions need to co-exist? I don’t know, but it works for me. It is very easy for me to feel despair about the terrible things in the world. I need to detach from the importance enough to enjoy the moment, but also to act in a way to help our planet. Take the environment for example. I don’t think I can save the planet from mans environmental destruction. Since I feel hopeless about this, then I should just do whatever I want and not worry about it, right? Wrong! I have to live as close to I can in a way I think all humans should be living in order to save the planet. Even if I fail, I have to try in order to have spiritual health. This is why I choose to be a vegetarian. It is not because I think I can make a real difference, but I have to live as if I could. This is also why I have entered the realm of activism for the Mormon LGBT cause. I get depressed when I hear about gays in Russia, Uganda or Iran, so I have to detach, but I need to act as well, in a place that I can.
An experienced Buddhist would realize that they shouldn’t feel any more sadness about the death of their own child than the death of any other person. However, even the most expert buddhist would have a hard time putting that into practice. Meanwhile a buddhist father or mother. would also recognize that their detachment doesn’t exempt them from responsibilities, such as the responsibility to love and care for their children, or care for their community.
This all relates to desire as well. Desire can play an important role in our lives. None of us would want to deprive our child the rich experience of setting a goal, and then working to achieve it. Or of falling in love, and pursuing a relationship with their beloved. The anticipatory desire that you describe as you prepared a service project is another example of an experience of desire that everyone should experience.
For me, at some point in my life cycle I have to let go of most of these desires, as part of a way of accepting aging and mortality. I can’t pursue the same dreams that I did when I was 20 or 30.
But part of this all has to do with accepting Gods will…when it comes to an outcome. As a child, I think you would have had more trouble helping a family if you didn’t anticipate a certain outcome (e.g. a grateful family receiving the gifts). As we mature we have to learn to enjoy the process, and accept whatever outcome may happen. For example if you prepare the gifts for the family, but on the way to deliver them you get in a car accident and it all gets destroyed, then the child might regret having made the sacrifice. But as a more mature person who recognized the good in every moment of planning and preparing, (and of even enjoying the anticipation) then there is no need to have huge regrets for this unintended outcome. The process is more critical than the temporal outcome.
Another example of this is parenthood (I am speaking to you Jake because I know you are a parent, and I know this is a huge motivation for what you do in life). As a parent you have to do the best for your child. You have dreams and desires for your child, but in the end it is the process of parenting that is more important than the outcome. Your child is going to become something that you never intended. So the desires that you feel or felt for your child need to be held in perspective.
This all my seem like rambling, and it is, but in my mind it all connects to the same thing. I guess I would call it putting perspective on our desires, ambitions and goals.
I really hope some more wise people will weigh in on this.
(I really needed your “rambling” this morning; last night was rough. Thank you for answering Jake’s question because it answered some of mine that I didn’t even know I had.)
Buddhist Mormons – interesting term. My daughters BYU religion teacher called himself a Zen Mormon. I assume they are similar. I am just beginning to study Buddhism and would love more insight from Buddhist Mormons. I hope you keep enlightening me through this blog. Thank you.
I thought the same thing, Carrie. “Buddhist Mormons? Where? Where?” (Like an excited kid). I’ve studied mindfulness and meditation a little bit, and although the focus wasn’t Buddhism, there was enough that draws me to it.
Daniel, I read this yesterday and wanted to let you know how much I liked it. I want to use it for a Family Home Evening lesson and almost volunteer myself to give a church talk based on it (almost LOL). This was a gift. Thank you.
Daniel, thank you for this. I just love it. And thank you to your friend (and mine) Esther for sending me this link. So grateful to have you both in my life.