Something I learned very eary in my Buddhist practice is that regardless of our religious upbringings, there is, lurking in our minds, all sorts of ghosts and demons related to religion. Maybe from how we were raised, maybe from cultural osmosis. Maybe good, maybe bad. But it's there.
I recently received teachings from my root lama, and at the conclusion of an empowerment, at the part where samaya is given, he said that it is a breach of our commitments to have any wrong views about, or to disparage, a practitioner of any religion (meaning nonworldly religion, such as one that hurts animals or does magic to hurt beings), and that we are all fellow spiritual bretheren.
I like Thich Nhat Hahn's book on Buddha and Christ. For some reason, speaking in an ecumenical fashion about Buddhism and Christianity gets people's hackles up. I've seen Thay ripped by Buddhists and well as Christians alike for being heterodoxical. But as Thay shows us, we have these roots, they're not going anywhere, which is why great masters like His Holiness the Dalai Lama encourage people to stick with their native religions: the roots are there, they're viable-- why not water them and collect the fruit? Deep wisdom.
I'd be bold enough to say that any of us brought up with a religious context strong enough to imprint us deeply-- are destined to be hybrids of Christianity & Buddhism, or Judaism & Buddhism, or whatever. I can already hear the orthodox salivating, circling, so let me clarify that I don't mean we're destined as Buddhists to believe in the god of Abraham, because of our previous religious exposure. No. No. That's wrong view. But what we do have to do is deal with all the energy that former religious experiences stirs up in us. I see a Virgin Mary and I feel something. I see a Madonna and Child, something happens in me. That's not going away. I can surpress it but it will just get bigger. iIam a good enough of a meditator to know that. I can try to nuke it with something, mantras, whatever, but the mind doesn't work that way. Imprints are deep. But but but... say the orthodox, those symbols don't have a meaning in the Buddhist context. No, they don't. They have a meaning to me. Marian images. But also ravens. The sound of the cello. Hoppy beer. It's more about me than Christianity or maybe even about religion. I have to work with my ravens ever bit as much as my Lady of Czestochowa.
So I was never raised in a religious way, but Marian images move me. Karma? Maybe I just like women? I don't know. Doesn't matter. So I own them as Tara. I can hear the orthodox licking their lips, circling, waiting for a shot at my belly, but I don't care. I'm not the only one. I know of Tibetans, stone cold orthodox vajrayana practitioners who have done the same. Tara is as Tara does.
My root teacher once said that Christ was a bodhisattva and should be as one, and since the, that has been my upaya. I see Moses and Mohammed that way as well. And here come the orthodox, wanting to take me out for appropriating foreign religious symbols into Buddhist practice. After all, am I not committed to Buddhist culture?
My counter to all objections is-- we are to train in seeing everyone as a buddha or bodhisattva. All men as Chenrezig, all Women as Tara. Why is it a problem with Jesus? Really, why is it a problem with Jesus or Mary when it's not a problem with the guy who fixes my copy machine and my exwife's mother? So the orthodox come for me, and say: Hey! You're making a theological argument. A statement. You're being syncretic. Obviously the New Testament is not in accordance with the view of the Great Madhyamaka. No, it's not. But it is also our training to see all beings as buddhas and all speach as the dharma. If the speach is at all useful to beings, then it is really the dharma. Perhaps a worldly dharma, perhaps a supermundane dharma, it depends upon the eyes of beings and their minds.
I remember when I first studied with my first lama. He was an inji covert like me, which was great as he *knew me*-- he knew my culture. I'd ask him all sorts of a questions as a 20-something noob, many of the questions ethical in nature because of the things 20-something young men get themselves into. I remember one day he just said to me:
I was really shocked. I didn't know what to think. He was a wild and crazy dude, something of a mahasiddha and a Zen master rolled into one. Years later I recognize the analogy to the Zen story of the two monks crossing a river, and one monk carries a woman across, against his vows. On the other side, his fellow monk chides him, to which he responds, "drop the woman, I did an hour ago!"Put Jesus down! He's dead! He's starting to stink!
Lama was trying to get me to drop all my religious baggage. Get closer to my roots. Own and embrace it. Get comfortable with it. And then it's as significant as being 5'10".