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Spirituality:
Books Buddhists shed light on Benedicts Rule
BENEDICTS
DHARMA: BUDDHISTS REFLECT ON THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT Edited by
Patrick Henry Riverhead, 223 pages, $23.95
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REVIEWED By WAYNE
TEASDALE
We have entered a new age -- what I call the Interspiritual Age --
in which the barriers between cultures are collapsing, and thousands of years
of cultures in isolation from one another are coming to an end. In this
remarkably creative period of history, some members of religious traditions are
exploring the depth dimension of other traditions. If a person is mature in
his/her faith, such crossing-over can be a rewarding experience. In the
Catholic understanding of this exploration, what weve learned from it is
that when Christians cross over, they are able to view their faith in deeper
ways. The mystery of Christ is seen in a new light, in a fresh perspective.
This was Thomas Mertons experience, and that of Henri Le Saux, Bede
Griffiths, Raimon Panikkar and countless others.
When its a matter of interreligious dialogue, a kind of
mutual irradiation can occur. This term was suggested by the Quaker mystic
Douglas Steer, and it presupposes that the partners in dialogue are friends,
something the Dalai Lama recommends as essential for genuine encounter to
flower into communion.
More and more interspiritual books are appearing. Henri Le
Sauxs Saacidananda: A Christian Approach to Advaitic Experience;
Raimon Panikkars Invisible Harmony; The Ground We Share:
Everyday Practice, Buddhist and Christian by Robert Aiken and Br. David
Steindl-Rast; Thich Nhat Hanh and Steindl-Rasts Living Buddha, Living
Christ; and Hanhs Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers, to
name a few.
There are numerous bilateral dialogues happening around the world:
Hindu-Christian, Christian-Buddhist, Islamic-Catholic,
Native-American-Catholic, Taoist-Christian, Jewish-Buddhist, Christian-Sufi and
many others.
It is the one between Christianity and Buddhism that is the most
fascinating to me and potentially the most significant of these ongoing
interreligious conversations. The historian Arnold Toynbee noted in 1973 that
the meeting between Christianity and Buddhism was the most important event of
this period of history. Perhaps, he was referring to the great fruit for
humanity that could result from the relationship.
Benedicts Dharma can be regarded as one of the first
fruits, an interspiritual work that is a reflection by four Buddhists on the
Rule of St. Benedict, a 1,500-year-old monastic document that has guided
monasteries in their attempt to live the gospel in a more complete way. The
four Buddhists are Norman Fischer, a Zen lay monk; Judith Simmer-Brown, a
Tibetan Buddhist academician; Ven Yifa, a Taiwanese nun who was a lawyer and
who also has a doctorate in religious studies; and Joseph Goldstein, a master
of Vipassana meditation in the Theravadin Buddhist tradition.
Their insights have developed out of the rich and deep
Christian-Buddhist dialogue, which began with Thomas Mertons visit to
Dharamsala in November 1968 and his three conversations with the Dalai Lama. A
significant process was initiated in 1980 when the intermonastic hospitality
exchange was begun between North American monastics, under Monastic
Interreligious Dialogue, and Tibetan monastics under the Dalai Lama.
On Sept. 5, 1993, at the Parliament of the Worlds Religions,
the focus was on the development of compassion in the context of
sunyata, or emptiness and kenosis, Christs self-emptying in
the event of the Incarnation. Then in July 1996 Gethsemani I occurred, when
monastics from both traditions met for five days in Mertons abbey.
Gethsemani II is planned for April 2002.
Benedicts Dharma emerged out of Gethsemani I.
Skillfully edited by Patrick Henry, longtime executive director of the
Institute of Ecumenical and Cultural Research at St. Johns University in
Collegeville, Minn., with a contribution of an introduction to the Rule of St.
Benedict by Sr. Mary Margaret Funk, the executive director of Monastic
Interreligious Dialogue, and concluding evaluation of these reflections by
Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine leader of Buddhist-Christian dialogue. The entire
text of the rule is included in the book.
Each Buddhist contributor expresses great appreciation of and
respect for Benedicts Rule and identifies parallels with Buddhist
teachings. Goldstein discerns a relationship between holiness or sanctity and
enlightenment, and that sanctity is enlightenment, having both a wisdom level,
or an understanding of reality, and a moral dimension in the progress of
virtue. There is a profound connection between the Christian emphasis on love,
evident in the rule, and the Buddhist notion of emptiness.
Speaking in the context of forgiveness, Goldstein says: The
term love has better public relations than emptiness, but I think
those two words at the deepest level refer to the same thing.
Yifa tells us she is amazed at the profound similarity between the
Christian and Buddhist monastic approaches, especially in their codes. She is
impressed at the nearness of the traditions to each other, particularly when
reading the sections of the rule focusing on the importance of obedience and
humility. These chapters are foundational to the Benedictine vision, and
Benedict exhorts: The first step toward humility is obedience without
delay. Yifa comments on her reading of the prologue to the rule, where a
middle way is suggested, that the words could be taken from any number of
Buddhist monastic codes.
Simmer-Brown, remarking on the treatment of the sick, who are to
be seen as Christ himself, conceives this as a way to get beyond
self-fixation and deepen ones compassion. She puts it: When we look
into the face of a sick person, we are taken out of ourselves and our own
self-confirming habits. We are aroused to compassion and service.
Fischer disagrees with chapter 68, which concerns obedience, when
one is asked to perform difficult tasks, or to accept assignments that seem
impossible. Instead, he counsels empowering monastics with some choice in the
matter.
Steindl-Rast perceives a deep reverence for the Holy Rule in the
musings of these four Buddhists, an appreciation of the common ground we share,
a common ground that is eminently practical, emphasizing as it does daily
practice, realization of impermanence, emptiness and love. Finally, as he says:
This book is but a beginning. It opens a gate. No one can tell what
discoveries lie ahead.
Wayne Teasdale teaches at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago,
and is author of The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in
the Worlds Religions (New World Library).
National Catholic Reporter, December 7,
2001
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