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Taipei Diary No. I. Remarks on Buddhist and Christian Prayers

Veröffentlicht am 11.05.2018

Learned something new during my guest lectureship at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan. In Buddhist prayers, you first have to pick the right God. Not every God deals with every topic. Hence you better make sure that a proven expert takes on business. Once you have found this expert, you should introduce yourself properly. Full name and address – after all, it's likely that there are some name twins out there, right? Only then may you submit your wishes to the divinity. Now compare this to a standard Christian prayer. Firstly, no introduction on behalf of the addresser is required. The believers complacently assume that it's God's task to know them, not the other way round. Secondly, there is no culture of competitive expertise in the Christian heaven. God is a metaphysical monopolist. How can we be sure that he is trained in the respective area? Viewed in this light, Christian prayers are a sign of human hubris, laziness and mystical naiveté. The Buddhist prayer rather testifies of pragmatic humility and active personal responsibility.