I’m writing this after reading “The Trinity as a Way to Idolatry” by Rev Alan. Her description of the Trinity as a paradox, and how that was a good thing, hit me wonderfully hard. The use of symbols and statues in Buddhism is controversial if not paradoxical, not to mention all the various Buddhas that dance in and out of the different branches of my faith. The trinity? Pssht. We got a million Buddhas by one accounting….

But we ain’t got no God.

This was my first detour. But I was still buzzing about the concept. What was the closest comparison to the paradox of the Trinity? I had to be careful…not confusing, but a direct paradox. There’s lots of confusing stuff in Buddhism, but where does the Dharma use a direct paradox as a teaching element?

I think my teachers might say a paradox indicates dualism, and all forms of dualism are Verbotten!!! in a big way, a complete way, a total way within the Dharma. There’s a couple passages where the Buddha just won’t shut the hell up about it.

But this passage from Rev Alan’s post took me to a better place of understanding about what i was looking for:

“This is the God who refuses to be boxed up or boxed in, the God is not even limited by the categories we have assigned to God. The infinite God who would learn finitude, the omnipotent God who seems to prefer to manifest itself in human frailty, the omnipresent God who chose life in a single time and place to redeem all of humanity.”

So maybe we should relax about the Trinity. As long as we allow this three-way paradox, perhaps we’ll allow God to be God?”

It’s not about paradoxes, it’s about dealing with the infinite! The unknown, the unseen and all that stuff that happens when you die. And as it so happens The Buddha was asked point blank about these questions of Infinity, and he refused to answer: here are the questions he was asked by a venerable scholar:

(1) Is the universe eternal?

(2) Is the universe not eternal?

(3) Is the universe finite?

(4) Is the universe infinite?

(5) Are the soul and the body the same?

(6) Are the soul and the body not the same?

(7) Will the enlightened one (Buddha) be reborn after death?

(8) Will the enlightened one not be reborn after death?

(9) Will the enlightened one both be reborn and not be reborn after death?

(10) Will the enlightened one neither be reborn nor not be reborn after death?

Here’s what Buddha answered (It helps if you picture him pausing, and then giving out a huge sigh before speaking):

“Remember what I have declared as declared. Remember what I have not declared as what I have not declared. What I have not declared are these ten questions. The answers to these ten questions I have not declared. What I have declared: ‘This is suffering’, I have declared; ‘This is the cause of suffering’, I have declared; ‘This is the cessation of suffering’, I have declared; and ‘This is the path leading to the cessation of suffering’, I have declared. I have declared the Four Noble Truths. Why did I make these Four Noble Truths known and declared? This is because they are beneficial, leading to the cessation of suffering and enlightenment, and they lead to perfect peace, happiness and Nibbāna. Why did I not declare these ten questions? It is because they do not lead to enlightenment, peace and awakening.”

This answer, this refusal to answer, effectively slams the door shut on infinity. Note the careful precision and exactitude of the answer as well; there is no wiggle room, no loopholes, no tricks, no koans, no parables….he flat out says get your head out of the clouds and study the stuff I told you to study! Infinity is for the infinite, you are not.

But as Rev Alan and her teachers describe the Trinity I see it as a different way of dealing with the infinite. The Paradox of the Trinity gives a person a handle, if not total understanding, on those huge issues as reflected in the 10 questions above. The altered tactics..if that is not too martial a term…comes from the importance of the Christian soul, which is to be saved for God, and the Buddhist concept of self, which is to be destroyed.

As a Buddhist learns the lessons designed to teach the delusion of self, he finds himself running over and over again to the escape hatch of the imagination, which is infinite. The ten denials, and other teachings, close these avenues and return one to the source of our problems, the existence of a separate concept of self.

The Christian isn’t asked to do any of that. Instead they are given tools to deal with their selves, their personas, their uniqueness. The seeming paradox of the Trinity uses infinity to connect the individual with the whole, because the one thing that we all understand, that there is some shit we will never understand.

But everything can be understood.

And that is where we come together. Both the Buddhist and the Christian believe that there is something to seek, to find out, to discover, to understand…and this is the best part– we CAN understand these impossible, invisible, confusing three-faced things. It’s hard. It can hurt. And sometimes you have to wear weird hats, but we can do it! And as we do, dealing with the illusions and reality of Infinity is crucial for anyone on a spiritual path.

There is a fine line between infinity and us. Let’s dance on it.