Abstract
Nostra Aetate has played a major role in fostering positive Buddhist-Christian relations. Buddhist-Christian dialogue differs from Christianity’s other inter-religious dialogues both due to Buddhism’s non-theistic assumptions and due to the primary locus of post-conciliar dialogue: the dialogue of religious experience among contemplative monastics. The decision to concentrate on monastics as a Buddhist-Catholic bridge continues to bear fruit, not only for larger Buddhist-Catholic relations but for the academic study of mysticism. The author discusses the experiences of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, the landmark Naropa Institute conferences, and other institutionalized Catholic outreach to Buddhist monastics. John Paul II’s remarks about Buddhism in Crossing the Threshold of Hope were a low point and setback in dialogue; the author evaluates these remarks and their consequences.
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Notes
- 1.
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation, AAS 84 (1992): 414–446, no. 42.
- 2.
See, for example, Michael L. Fitzgerald and John Borelli, Interfaith Dialogue: A Catholic View (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2006), 33: “This [4th kind of dialogue] has flourished mainly between Buddhists and Christians, since they share the tradition of monasticism.”
- 3.
See Chapter 2, “Dialogue for a Changing World,” in Fabrice Blée, The Third Desert: The Story of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 50–92.
- 4.
Ibid., 51.
- 5.
Judith Simmer-Brown, “Preface to the Second Edition,” in Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists in Dialogue, ed. Susan Szpakowski (Halifax: Vajradhatu Publications, 2005), 4.
- 6.
Simmer-Brown, “Preface to the Second Edition,” and Donald W. Mitchell and James Wiseman, eds., The Gethsemani Encounter: A Dialogue on the Spiritual Life by Buddhist and Christian Monastics (New York: Continuum, 1997).
- 7.
Venerable Tze Sheh Fu, quoted in Yu-ing Ching, Master of Love and Mercy: Cheng Yen (Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1995), 66.
- 8.
Cheng Yen, “Performing Good Deeds Is More Important Than Shunning Evil Ones,” Inspirational Extracts, May 1, 2001. www.tzuchi.net/MindMap.nsf/836a9f1c801ca09f48256b7a00296f5a/e53c3e67be962d2648256bb10004f60e?.
- 9.
Jose Ignacio Cabezon, “A Buddhist Response to John Paul II,” in John Paul II and Interreligious Dialogue, ed. Byron L. Sherwin and Harold Kasimow (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1999), 118.
- 10.
His Holiness John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994), 84–90. Italics in the original.
- 11.
Robert Aitken, “The Intrareligious Realization: Ruminations of an American Zen Buddhist,” in Sherwin and Kasimow, John Paul II and Interreligious Dialogue, 105–106.
- 12.
Donald W. Mitchell, “Editorial on Pope John Paul II’s Book, the Boycott in Sri Lanka, and the Taiwan Encounter,” Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies Newsletter No. 16 (Fall 1995): 5–7.
- 13.
Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, ed. Naomi Burton et al. (New York: New Directions, 1968), 312–313.
- 14.
See ibid., vii and 311.
- 15.
Ibid., 4–5.
- 16.
See Rose Drew, Buddhist and Christian? An Exploration of Dual Belonging (New York: Routledge, 2011); see also Sallie B. King, “Toward a Buddhist Model of Interreligious Dialogue,” Buddhist-Christian Studies 10 (1990): 120–126.
- 17.
Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer (New York: Image Books, 1971), 97, 100. Remarkably, the more recent edition of this book contains an affectionate and dialogical introduction by Thich Nhat Hanh.
- 18.
The following is an abridgement of Steven Katz, “Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism,” in Steven T. Katz, ed., Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 22–74.
- 19.
Ibid., 26.
- 20.
Ibid., 59.
- 21.
Ibid., 40.
- 22.
Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 3rd edition (New York: Schocken, 1941), 5–6.
- 23.
This is an abridgement of Sallie B. King, “Two Epistemological Models for the Interpretation of Mysticism,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 56, no. 2 (1988): 257–279, especially 264–267.
- 24.
One can see these insights clearly in the books resulting from these encounters: Speaking of Silence, The Gethsemani Encounter, and the websites of the inter-monastic dialogue (e.g., www.dimmid.org).
- 25.
Merton, Asian Journal, 143–144.
- 26.
Brother David Steindl-Rast in Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists on the Contemplative Way, ed. Susan Walker (New York: Paulist Press, 1987), 147–148.
- 27.
Mitchell and Wiseman, The Gethsemani Encounter, 266.
- 28.
Simmer-Brown, “Preface,” 4–5.
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King, S.B. (2018). Fifty Years of Buddhist-Catholic Relations and Inter-monastic Dialogue: A Buddhist Perspective. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Engaging Other Faiths. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98584-8_15
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