Deep ecumenism

That's a phrase which supposes a common stream from which all religious traditions flow and differentiate. A version of: At the heart, all religions are the same. It's manifestly nuts, (compare Jainism and Sunni Islam for twenty seconds) but like many nutty things, has a grain (kernel? nut?) of truth.

I did a hermit retreat at a Buddhist compound in the Santa Cruz mountains back in the late 90's. Four days alone in a small house; no human contact. Pretty challenging, even for an introvert like me.

Before I forget, since I am a connoisseur of the ironies of progress: before I went up to the cabin, I had lunch at the main site with the several dozen other people there, all folks you'd expect to see in New Age California. Food was cafeteria style. A sign near the line-up indicated that the ordained monks and nuns ("the members of the Sangha") were to go first and when they were finished taking their food, everyone else could follow. No one seemed to find this at all strange. Can you imagine if a Catholic retreat house had the priests and nuns eat first, before the laypeople? Oppressive hierarchy! 

Anyway, back to deep ecumenism. A book in the cabin contained Q&A by the monk-founder of the place.
I remember one exchange very well. A questioner noted that since Buddhism found the body and all material reality temporary illusion but also the so-called "soul" or "ego" or "self" an illusion, what was it that passed from one incarnation to the next? The venerable teacher replied succinctly: "Neurosis."

Pretty funny. A different take on the doctrine of Original Sin.

It's also pretty amusing that many Westerners who profess to believe in past lives and reincarnation regard this as some kind of comfort. For the traditions who assume reincarnation (and karma, its twin), it is THE fundamental nightmare: an endless round of unsatisfactory forms of repetitive suffering and death.