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Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists on the Contemplative Way
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First published January 1, 1987
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May 23, 2024
EXCERPTS FROM TALKS, DIALOGUES, ETC., IN CHRISTIAN/BUDDHIST MEETINGS
The back cover of this 1987 book states, “Starting in 1981 Christians and Buddhists have been meeting informally in Boulder, Colorado to share their experiences of the spiritual way. Several dozen spiritual teachers, both men and women, representing many varieties of Buddhism and Christianity, have explored together the value of prayer and contemplation, attitudes toward God and emptiness, and practical topics such as silence, virtue, compassion, sin, suffering, the self and the ego. This book assembles the most truthful exchanges sponsored by the Naropa Institute in Boulder. It combines talks, conversations, poetry and rituals shared by participants at the annual meetings. What emerges from these pages is a sense of shared vision on the most profound level, transcending all cultural and historical differences. It will speak to Christians, Buddhists and all people who feel drawn in the course of their lives to encounter the transcendent.”
Editor Susan Walker explains in her Editor’s Note, “This book began as a stack of verbatim transcripts documenting the five annual conferences on Christian and Buddhist Meditation that were hosted by Naropa institute in Boulder, Colorado between 1981 and 1985. The transcripts included over forth individual presentations, sixteen panel discussions, and a number of behind-the-scenes interviews and working sessions. This raw material… has been sorted, rearranged, trimmed, and refined many times on its way to its present shape… In 1975, I … began a daily practice of meditation and, within the following year, took Refuge Vows with a lama of … Tibetan Buddhism. Six years later, I found myself studying and practicing with the Vajradhatu community in boulder… and working at Naropa Institute. By 1981, when I attended the first Christian-Buddhist conference, my interest in Christianity had dwindled to a minor curiosity…
“Perhaps it was because of my naiveté that I began this project… After two more conferences I announced to my fellow staff members that I had begun a project: I would compile and edit some of the transcripts into a book. Most people thought it was a good idea… I soon began to cross paths with many people, both Christian and Buddhist, who were keen to read the transcripts and who encouraged me to continue… I selected and pruned according to my original thematic outline, focusing on a central ‘cast of characters’ that the reader would reasonably get to know and recognize as distinctive traditions. As a result, a number of conference speakers, and … talks and panel discussions, have been omitted… most of the material that was included comes from the first three conferences…”
Tessa Bielecki explains, “The Carmelite story begins with a mountain: Mount Carmel, which is located in Palestine, near the modern city of Haifa. I continually delight in the fact that our tradition does not takes its name from a person, as do so many other Christian traditions, but from a great chunk of rock… It waw the scene of numerous Biblical incidents and the home of the prophet Elijah. It was on this mountain that the first Carmelite hermits went to live.” (Pg. 40)
Lodro Dorje explains, “When [Buddhists] practice meditation, there is no one there to have a conversation with; nor do we avoid the feelings of psychological aloneness by opening a book or turning on the television. In Buddhist training we don’t even have recourse to sharing our thoughts with God. We are simply alone. When we renounce the echo of self-confirmation, we are brought into immediate means that we don’t create pollution: we don’t put our demands onto other people and our environment, and when our expectations are not met, we don’t respond with resentment.” (Pg. 91)
Eido Roshi observes, “You are here because of at least two expectations. The first is that you will be free from anxieties, and the second is that, when you achieve that, you will be able to stay in that state of mind forever. The first expectation is possible to achieve, but the second is not. If you know that, then you can expedite your first expectation.” (Pg. 103)
Later, Eido Roshi explains, “Another difficulty has been chanting. If we chant the original Chinese or Japanese, of course the students ask me what everything means. But when we chant, whether it makes sense or not is a secondary matter, because it is mystical sound. The chanting is the meaning, though not intellectual meaning. That is difficult for most people, because they want to know the meaning.” (Pg. 119)
Brother David Steindl-Rast says, “Recently Father Keating said that for too long religions have disagreed about nothing. I would now add that the nothing about which religions have disagreed is God… In the strictest sense of the word, God is nothing. The only possible alternative would be that God is SOMEthing and certainly that is not the case: God is nothing. The only possible alternative would be that God is SOMEthing and certainly that is not the case; God is nothing. We live in a world of things and no-things… We can do without this thing or that thing, but as human beings we cannot do without MEANING. We live in a world which is made up of things and meaning, and meaning is nothing. I would feel much more comfortable if I didn’t have to use this word ‘God’ at all, because it is a word that is so easily misunderstood today. But if I do have to use it, I would say that God is the direction in which we go in our quest for meaning.” (Pg. 135)
Eido Roshi acknowledges, “strictly speaking, it is impossible to meet the Buddha… on the street in Boulder. It is impossible. There is only one person who you can always meet, wherever you go, and who in fact you cannot separate yourself from, and that is you yourself. You are the one who constantly carries concepts. And so when you meet the Buddha---when you meet your concept of the Buddha---crush that concept. When you carry that concept of Christ or God, or the concepts of shunyata, then kill those concepts. But it is impossible for Jesus Christ to kill you. Right?” (Pg. 140-141)
Brother David Steindl-Rast notes, “when we see the little which the Bible has to say about sexual sins as compared to the great number of warnings against exploiting others by taking advantage of them. Unfortunately, the popularized versions of Christian teachings have reversed this proportion. Exploitation is the real offense. But society has cast that meaning into particular laws, until the laws have become more important than the root meaning, and it ends up seeming that as long as you don’t get into conflict with the laws, you can exploit others as much as you want. So I think there is a deep agreement between Christians and Buddhists on this level. But I wonder how well the Buddhists actually live that way. We haven’t done so very well…” (Pg. 190)
Later, Brother David asserts, “I don’t think there is one Christian denomination where you couldn’t walk into church and hear someone speaking from the pulpit about God as a being. But that’s totally unorthodox; it’s just simply wrong. God is not A being, God is the Source of Being.” (Pg. 214)
Brother David laments, “Even Mahatma Gandhi living in India, which I’ve heard is teeming with gurus, said in his autobiography that although he was looking for a guru all his life, he was never able to find one. Now, if Gandhi, who was surely ripe for such a relationship, wasn’t able to find a teacher in all of India, what can we expect, living in the United States? (Laughter): (Pg. 257)
Jack Engler notes, “Speaking from my own experience, both as a former Christian monk and as a Buddhist lay practitioner, I would say that monks don’t necessarily have more time than lay people. The real problem is that we always think everything is happening somewhere else. The fact is that monks often get just as busy and distracted as anyone else… In my experience in Christian and Buddhist monasteries, both in this country and in Asia, about five percent of the monks practice a meditative or contemplative path in a serious and sustained way. I would guess that the percentage of lay people who practice in a sustained way is not all that different. It only looks to the layman that the monk has certain advantages, and it only looks to the monk that the layman has certain advantages. That is exactly how we deceive ourselves. No matter who we are, there is never any time. Or, there is plenty of time. It is all a matter of a little flip of the mind.” (Pg. 290-291)
This book will be of great interest to those studying interreligious dialogue.
The back cover of this 1987 book states, “Starting in 1981 Christians and Buddhists have been meeting informally in Boulder, Colorado to share their experiences of the spiritual way. Several dozen spiritual teachers, both men and women, representing many varieties of Buddhism and Christianity, have explored together the value of prayer and contemplation, attitudes toward God and emptiness, and practical topics such as silence, virtue, compassion, sin, suffering, the self and the ego. This book assembles the most truthful exchanges sponsored by the Naropa Institute in Boulder. It combines talks, conversations, poetry and rituals shared by participants at the annual meetings. What emerges from these pages is a sense of shared vision on the most profound level, transcending all cultural and historical differences. It will speak to Christians, Buddhists and all people who feel drawn in the course of their lives to encounter the transcendent.”
Editor Susan Walker explains in her Editor’s Note, “This book began as a stack of verbatim transcripts documenting the five annual conferences on Christian and Buddhist Meditation that were hosted by Naropa institute in Boulder, Colorado between 1981 and 1985. The transcripts included over forth individual presentations, sixteen panel discussions, and a number of behind-the-scenes interviews and working sessions. This raw material… has been sorted, rearranged, trimmed, and refined many times on its way to its present shape… In 1975, I … began a daily practice of meditation and, within the following year, took Refuge Vows with a lama of … Tibetan Buddhism. Six years later, I found myself studying and practicing with the Vajradhatu community in boulder… and working at Naropa Institute. By 1981, when I attended the first Christian-Buddhist conference, my interest in Christianity had dwindled to a minor curiosity…
“Perhaps it was because of my naiveté that I began this project… After two more conferences I announced to my fellow staff members that I had begun a project: I would compile and edit some of the transcripts into a book. Most people thought it was a good idea… I soon began to cross paths with many people, both Christian and Buddhist, who were keen to read the transcripts and who encouraged me to continue… I selected and pruned according to my original thematic outline, focusing on a central ‘cast of characters’ that the reader would reasonably get to know and recognize as distinctive traditions. As a result, a number of conference speakers, and … talks and panel discussions, have been omitted… most of the material that was included comes from the first three conferences…”
Tessa Bielecki explains, “The Carmelite story begins with a mountain: Mount Carmel, which is located in Palestine, near the modern city of Haifa. I continually delight in the fact that our tradition does not takes its name from a person, as do so many other Christian traditions, but from a great chunk of rock… It waw the scene of numerous Biblical incidents and the home of the prophet Elijah. It was on this mountain that the first Carmelite hermits went to live.” (Pg. 40)
Lodro Dorje explains, “When [Buddhists] practice meditation, there is no one there to have a conversation with; nor do we avoid the feelings of psychological aloneness by opening a book or turning on the television. In Buddhist training we don’t even have recourse to sharing our thoughts with God. We are simply alone. When we renounce the echo of self-confirmation, we are brought into immediate means that we don’t create pollution: we don’t put our demands onto other people and our environment, and when our expectations are not met, we don’t respond with resentment.” (Pg. 91)
Eido Roshi observes, “You are here because of at least two expectations. The first is that you will be free from anxieties, and the second is that, when you achieve that, you will be able to stay in that state of mind forever. The first expectation is possible to achieve, but the second is not. If you know that, then you can expedite your first expectation.” (Pg. 103)
Later, Eido Roshi explains, “Another difficulty has been chanting. If we chant the original Chinese or Japanese, of course the students ask me what everything means. But when we chant, whether it makes sense or not is a secondary matter, because it is mystical sound. The chanting is the meaning, though not intellectual meaning. That is difficult for most people, because they want to know the meaning.” (Pg. 119)
Brother David Steindl-Rast says, “Recently Father Keating said that for too long religions have disagreed about nothing. I would now add that the nothing about which religions have disagreed is God… In the strictest sense of the word, God is nothing. The only possible alternative would be that God is SOMEthing and certainly that is not the case: God is nothing. The only possible alternative would be that God is SOMEthing and certainly that is not the case; God is nothing. We live in a world of things and no-things… We can do without this thing or that thing, but as human beings we cannot do without MEANING. We live in a world which is made up of things and meaning, and meaning is nothing. I would feel much more comfortable if I didn’t have to use this word ‘God’ at all, because it is a word that is so easily misunderstood today. But if I do have to use it, I would say that God is the direction in which we go in our quest for meaning.” (Pg. 135)
Eido Roshi acknowledges, “strictly speaking, it is impossible to meet the Buddha… on the street in Boulder. It is impossible. There is only one person who you can always meet, wherever you go, and who in fact you cannot separate yourself from, and that is you yourself. You are the one who constantly carries concepts. And so when you meet the Buddha---when you meet your concept of the Buddha---crush that concept. When you carry that concept of Christ or God, or the concepts of shunyata, then kill those concepts. But it is impossible for Jesus Christ to kill you. Right?” (Pg. 140-141)
Brother David Steindl-Rast notes, “when we see the little which the Bible has to say about sexual sins as compared to the great number of warnings against exploiting others by taking advantage of them. Unfortunately, the popularized versions of Christian teachings have reversed this proportion. Exploitation is the real offense. But society has cast that meaning into particular laws, until the laws have become more important than the root meaning, and it ends up seeming that as long as you don’t get into conflict with the laws, you can exploit others as much as you want. So I think there is a deep agreement between Christians and Buddhists on this level. But I wonder how well the Buddhists actually live that way. We haven’t done so very well…” (Pg. 190)
Later, Brother David asserts, “I don’t think there is one Christian denomination where you couldn’t walk into church and hear someone speaking from the pulpit about God as a being. But that’s totally unorthodox; it’s just simply wrong. God is not A being, God is the Source of Being.” (Pg. 214)
Brother David laments, “Even Mahatma Gandhi living in India, which I’ve heard is teeming with gurus, said in his autobiography that although he was looking for a guru all his life, he was never able to find one. Now, if Gandhi, who was surely ripe for such a relationship, wasn’t able to find a teacher in all of India, what can we expect, living in the United States? (Laughter): (Pg. 257)
Jack Engler notes, “Speaking from my own experience, both as a former Christian monk and as a Buddhist lay practitioner, I would say that monks don’t necessarily have more time than lay people. The real problem is that we always think everything is happening somewhere else. The fact is that monks often get just as busy and distracted as anyone else… In my experience in Christian and Buddhist monasteries, both in this country and in Asia, about five percent of the monks practice a meditative or contemplative path in a serious and sustained way. I would guess that the percentage of lay people who practice in a sustained way is not all that different. It only looks to the layman that the monk has certain advantages, and it only looks to the monk that the layman has certain advantages. That is exactly how we deceive ourselves. No matter who we are, there is never any time. Or, there is plenty of time. It is all a matter of a little flip of the mind.” (Pg. 290-291)
This book will be of great interest to those studying interreligious dialogue.
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