“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone-we find it with another.” - Thomas Merton
Back when I taught Comparative Religion to students at a boarding school, Buddhism was a popular form of spirituality. There were a number of books that used the Buddhist perspective as their framework, the themes were becoming common in popular entertainment, and many of the returning graduates would speak warmly of their college conversion to something they described as Buddhism.
None of it was really Buddhist, of course, just the veneer of a religion, enough to satisfy the transient spiritual curiosities of young people. When we were in the final weeks our course, and looking at the commonalities between all religions, many of my students were visibly disappointed to realize that all religions speak of community as the ideal forum for spiritual inquest. A couple resisted the idea altogether. What made ersatz Buddhism so attractive to them was that it looked like something that was entirely personal; entirely individual. It served as a spiritual barrier between themselves and the rest of the world.
Thomas Merton, a Roman Catholic monk who studied with Buddhist monks, knew more than anyone else in the 20th century about the commonalities between the two, and wrote extensively of it. As a hermit, he also knew the limitations of solitude. As scripture makes clear repeatedly, and as Merton saw through his own experience, what Jesus offered was a radical redefinition of community. The Newer Covenant, in all of its glory and responsibility, was dependent on the mutuality of its adherents. Certainly, we may learn more of God by learning more of others. Just as certainly, we may find more portions of the Kingdom in our own existence if we work together, especially with those with whom we have little in common.