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Dilatato Corde 4:2
July – December, 2014 
CHRISTIAN / BUDDHIST MONASTIC DIALOGUE ON MDEDITATION / CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER Turvey Abbey, July 9, 2014 PRESENT In addition to our Buddhist guests (the Abbot and four other monastics, male and female, from Amaravati,) there were monks and nuns from the following Benedictine (Anglican and Roman Catholic) monasteries: Turvey, Chester, Malling, Prinknash and Mucknell. In all we were a group of sixteen. We were delighted to have both Anglican and Roman Catholic Benedictines with us for the day. It was a joyful interfaith and ecumenical gathering. Throughout the day outside the official sessions and over the meal, one could see twos and threes engaged in earnest and apparently enjoyable conversation. This day developed from the closing meeting of the former MID-GBI Commission, held at Amaravati Buddhist monastery (ABM) on July 6th, 2013. At that meeting it was clear that both Buddhist and Christian monastics strongly wanted to continue the dialogue we had been practising for many years as part of DIMMID, under our own steam, as it were. Since interfaith dialogue is very dear to both Turvey communities, we offered ourselves for another meeting. The day described here was organised by Ajahn Amaro and Sr Lucy of Turvey Abbey. Both Turvey communities were deeply involved in the day, Sr Lucy and Esther representing the nuns. Br John hosted the gathering, which took place in the Monastery of Christ our Saviour. It was a day of shared practice as well as dialogue in speech. We had three short periods of meditation together as a group: one after refreshments on arrival, one in the early afternoon and a final period before we said good-bye. In addition, almost the entire group joined the Turvey communities for Midday Office. The dialogue was divided into a morning session led by the Turvey communities (in effect, Br John, Br Herbert and Sr Lucy in effect) and the afternoon session was led by Ajahn Amaro and Sr Brahmavara. CHRISTIAN INPUT We began with a short period of silent meditation, Sr Lucy leading. Then Sr Lucy, Br John and Br Herbert each spoke for about ten minutes about how each of us (from very different backgrounds) had arrived at our present understanding of contemplative prayer and meditation. Sr Lucy began. She explained that during her life, several outstanding moments of insight or illuminations had formed her spiritual understanding of contemplative prayer. She said she would at this stage of her life be quite happy also to call it “meditation” in the way that is used in Buddhism. The main reason is that her own experience from early childhood had revolved around experience, and the idea of PRESENT and PRESENCE. In childhood (1940s and 50s) this mainly meant the presence of Christ in ordinary everyday life as well as in saying prayers. This understanding developed especially from the 1960s as the Roman Catholic Church at large re-discovered ancient forms of silent prayer. Spiritual practice is about LIFE. Only in the NOW, the present situation, is God (‘Yahweh-I AM’) truly PRESENT. The connection with Buddhism is clear. In the 1980s, all of this Christian exploration opened up further when she came in personal contact with Buddhism through the interfaith ministry of Turvey Abbey and her own position as community representative in interfaith dialogue. A very powerful moment of illumination in the early 1990s was when she read a story about Ajahn Chah. When asked by a Christian Minister what he thought about the reality of the Christian God, he laughed and said “There is only ONE REALITY”. Sr Lucy suddenly realised that what she had learned through her own practice and through wide reading including the mystics, was much the same. It was an “AHA!” moment. She was excited and happy to integrate this new understanding with her long Christian faith-experience of the indwelling Presence. Unlike Buddhists, she saw this ONE REALITY as personal: the indwelling Trinitarian Abba-Christ-Spirit). The One Reality that Christians call “God”, Muslims call “Allah” and Jews "Adonai". Sr Lucy ended her input by reading two short (and very challenging) passages from Meister Eckhart’s sermons. Br John’s presentation centred around contemplative prayer and living as GIFT—for him, often experienced through the natural world. He gradually became more aware of this throughout his life, and he told some moving anecdotes of how this growth in contemplative awareness and the gift of prayer grew in him. It did not seem to be there as a result of striving. All of it was/is pure GIFT. He had been helped in understanding the nature of the soul by the “remainder concept”. Concerning interfaith dialogue, it seemed to him that the practice is the way into understanding the teachings of these Faith traditions. For Benedictines, St Benedict’s insistence listening is of the utmost importance. Listen to the experience of Life. Not for nothing is "Listen" the first word of his Rule Br Herbert’s contacts with ABM go back over 30 years and he had known Ajahn Amaro as a very young monk. He spoke now from his long, wide experience of life, beginning with his Jewish/Christian background in Germany, then of becoming aware of a Christian faith that led him through some years as a Baptist, into the Roman Catholic faith and eventually to the a Benedictine monasteries of Prinknash and Turvey. His reading in Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism have enriched his practice. He realised at one point, that the “methods” of meditation/prayer he had learned seem at this stage of life to mean little to him. “All I want is to sit still”. After the Christian ‘offerings’ there was general group discussion. We made good use of the loop system, and passing a microphone from one speaker to another seemed to make our speech more thoughtful. Much of the discussion circled around aspects of PRESENCE and the different ways it is understood by Christians and Buddhists to our mutual enrichment. In addition to commenting on the presentations, questions were put to the Christian speakers, and to Ajahn Amaro to clarify some particular point raised. Some younger monastics took the occasion to chance to ask for explanations in response to their own questions and doubts, which helped everyone. It was a lively and fascinating period and the lunch break seemed to come all too soon. ************ Lunch time in common offered some amusing moments. We (Christians) learned that Buddhist Abbot Ajahn Amaro had to have food actually presented to him. Other Buddhists might help themselves from the common table. Then as we queued for food, the two young Buddhist Anagarikas attempted to stay at the end of the queue, only to be ushered forward by Abbot Francis: “This is not our custom. It’s ‘guests first!’” he insisted. He went on to explain a practical in-house custom from his own monastery. When guests are at Prinknash for meals, someone announces clearly “FAMILY, STAND BACK!”. The Buddhist novices graciously gave way—seeming, however, to be rather embarrassed to precede Abbot Francis... Then followed a “free” period. Those who wished, accompanied Br John and Sr Lucy for a guided tour around the garden, including the monks’ walled garden, and the Easter garden with its memorial tablets for all the departed members of our Turvey communities, even those not buried in Turvey. Here we shared interesting and amusing anecdotes about one or two notables of our communities. We also visited the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The Buddhists were very interested in the meaning and style of the Orthodox icons there, including the one known as “the Trinity icon”, whose real name is “The hospitality of Abraham”. This period ended with a group photograph taken by Sr Judith. We then re-entered the monks’ guests house for our afternoon session. BUDDHIST INPUT The session began with a period of meditation, Sr Brahmavara leading. Ajahn Amaro then followed up on some of the subjects that came up in the morning session, such as the meaning of PRESENT and PRESENCE for Buddhists. He spoke about the concept of not-self as taught by the Buddha. To my surprise, he said that nowhere in the Pali Canon does the Buddha say that there is no self. When asked directly by a disciple, the Buddha responded as he did when asked if there is a God: by Noble Silence. This concept of not-self is not a denial of selfhood but an encouragement to explore and discard what we are not. He spoke of the need to ‘get out of the way’ of our experience which we tend to identify as “self” and to let it go. “In the end there is only the Path”, he said. The Buddha often said that all is Dhamma. Buddhists feel comfortable with saying “I am Dhamma” but would Christians say: “I am God”?, asked Ajahn Amaro. Sr Brahmavara spoke in a similar vein of the five “Khandhas” as ‘heaps, masses or aggregates’, the five only ways through which we experience reality. She described how these are constantly changing, and thus are impermanent and unreliable, experiences over which we have little if any control. The five (she gave us the Buddhist terminology) are body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and concepts, and consciousness itself. There is no possibility of holding on to any of these as belonging to or consisting of a “self”. Sr Brahmavara shared her own experience of the search for self, through her monastic training. It felt like a stripping away of delusions, thus (hopefully) enabling the heart to purify. She concluded by raising the question of how the Christian concept of “soul” can be integrated with the Buddhist concept of “not-self”. The great richness of the presentations in both the morning and afternoon sessions made for very rich and fascinating discussions. We began with the “soul”, the ‘remainder concept’. Both Ajahn Amaro and Sr Lucy shared experiences of people with Alzheimer’s, who suddenly seemed, after years of being “out of it” to be totally aware, present and clear in mind for a brief moment before death. We all expressed wonder at this: could it be that what is left when the mind and body decay is something deeper, independent of these, which Christians call “the soul”? Discussion also revolved around the meaning of Dhamma and its relation to the Christian understanding of God, specifically around the Christian concept of God as person--which is not to be confused with personality or persona.. Someone said that while Buddhists might say “I am Dhamma”, Christians would not say “I am God”, though they might perhaps say “I am not God, but I am not separate from God. God is ONE and has no parts...” Meister Eckhart and his teaching came up several times in the discussions and shed light on a Christian way of approaching some Buddhist concepts e.g. not here, not there; no-thing, timelessness, etc. The day of dialogue was such an inspiring experience, it is impossible to do justice to it in words. I am sure that everyone will be “sitting with” what touched them mostly deeply. See below for some personal responses. We are grateful to all who attended. Before we left, we made a tentative arrangement to meet 2015 in Amaravati, D.V. *************************************************** PERSONAL RESPONSES I greatly appreciated the startlingly wide range of nationalities present, and the way people opened up more and more in their contributions and became ever more trustful Some of the wise words and reflections of my Christian Brothers and Sisters that I heard on Wednesday I will never forget. Most particularly I was struck by Brother John's words about his sense of the soul, as the remainder concept, whose 'existence' is useful as a means rather than as a reality. This has stayed with me and I continue to contemplate it, as well as many of the other comments and shared experiences, so precious. In the friendly and open discussions, much was learned on a deep level on both sides, not always by the words but by the shared silence. I hope we will continue with these meetings in future. I found it very exciting and stimulating. I can't wait until the next one! The meeting was an experience of meeting familiar and not-so-familiar faces and sharing in a deep desire to explore our own and each other’s traditions. The questions and insights were highly intriguing and illuminating. It was challenging and rewarding to explore the language we use and how it relates (or not) to the language and concepts in the other religion. The conversations were warm, personal and penetrating and have left me very excited for the next meeting. |
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