_________________________________________________ EUROPEAN NETWORK OF BUDDHIST CHRISTIAN STUDIES _________________________________________________ N e t w o r k I n f o - M a g a z i n e __________________________________________________ (c) by ENBCS September 1999 __________________________________________________ Editors: Br. Josef Goetz josef.ottilien@t-online.de Martin Roetting martin.roetting@t-online.de Internet: http://home.t-online.de/home/ buddhist-christian-studies/network.htm ___________________________________________________________________________ Content 1. Editors Note, Martin Roetting, Germany 2. Outlook to the next conference theme / Br. Josef Goetz, Germany (*) 3. Jesus Through Buddhist Eyes / Dr. John May, Ireland 4. Christian perceptions of Buddha in Korea / Martin Roetting, Germany 5. The Network Homepage/ Martin Roetting, Germany 6. News about the next Conference in Lund 2001/ Prof. Aasulv Lande, Sweden ___________________________________________________________________________ 1. EDITORS NOTE ___________________________________________________________________________ Dear Reader, on a sunny sunday afternoon Br. Josef, my wife and me were sitting in the garden of St. Ottilien Benedictine Abbey and seeking for ideas to bring the people engaged in the network closer together in the time between the conferences -and suddenly came out the idea to publish a magazine four times a year. Here it is! Of course like all babies its fare away from being perfect. Also August is not the best time to reach anybody. And in fact I write this lines in Kaunas, Lithuania, the homeland of my wife, and not in my office. So please, put all this together to forgive us the uncounted mistakes (I am not a native english). The articles with a (*) will come soon - they are promised, just the authors are in holiday.... :-) Martin Roetting __________________________________________________________________________ 2. Outlook to the next conference theme (*) __________________________________________________________________________ Br. Josef promised this article after is return from London. mailto> josef.ottilien@t/online.de __________________________________________________________________________ 3. Jesus Through Buddhist Eyes __________________________________________________________________________ mailto>jdmay@tinet.ie Third Conference of the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies St Ottilien, Germany, 26 Feb. - 1 March 1999 This ambitious conference, attended by well over 100 participants including a number of practitioners of Buddhist meditation from southern Germany and Austria, has put the European Network of Buddhist-Christian Studies firmly on its feet. Intended mainly for academics working in the field and held entirely in English, the conference, on "Buddhist Perceptions of Jesus", traced various paths from the polemics which characterised relations between Buddhists and Christians well into the century now ending to the remarkable progress made by Buddhist-Christian dialogue in recent decades. The Archabbey of St Ottilien has itself been the scene of intermonastic exchanges between the Benedictine monks and their Japanese Zen counterparts. The architecture of the conference brought out clearly the distance that has been travelled. Iso Kern (Berne) examined the missionary methodology of the Jesuits in 16th and 17th century China. He showed how they preferred to rely on arguments from reason rather than affront the Chinese with the full implications of Christian revelation, treading a thin line between absorption into harmony with Chinese religion as “a special type of Buddhism” and controversy about the uniqueness of Jesus and his redemptive death on the cross. The Christian idea of a Creator who redeems a sinful world by the substitutionary sacrifice of his own Son was so repugnant to Confucian sensibility that the Jesuits chose a different route, though Prof. Kern defended them against Pascal’s accusation that they ‘hid’ the scandal of the cross. Heinz Mürmel (Leipzig, in a paper read in his absence) sketched the sterile polemics which characterised early Buddhist-Christian encounters in Ceylon/Sri Lanka, while Frank Usarski (Sao Paulo) analysed the equally bitter exchanges between early German converts to Buddhism and their Christian opponents. We were to find not only that these controversies are still remembered in Southeast Asia, but that the obstacles to understanding encountered by the Jesuits in China and Japan still cause problems in Buddhist-Christian relations today. Of fundamental importance to the development of the conference was a difficult paper by Shizuteru Ueda (Kyoto) on “Jesus in Contemporary Japanese Zen”. Starting with his teacher Nishitani’s presentation on “Nietzsche and Eckhart” to Heidegger’s seminar in 1938, Prof. Ueda set out to show how both European nihilism and Christian absolutism can be overcome by Nishitani’s understanding of shûnyatâ: “The last ground of ‘I am’ is without ground and groundless”. Shûnyatâ is itself subject to shûnyatâ: nihilism can only be surmounted through nihilism itself. This dynamic relationship between Into-Nothingness and Out-of-Nothingness is Zen’s point of access to Paul’s characterisation of Christian life-out-of-death: “I live no more, Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Confronted by the question “Who said this?”, as Nishitani confronted his Christian friend Muto, the Christian is challenged to ask whether he or she can actually say it, thereby bearing true witness. Ueda’s problem is not with this witness, but with the Christian claim that Jesus is unique, for God is not only infinite Person but infinite Openness (basho). Some of these themes were echoed by two speakers who based themselves on experience rather than philosophy: Karl Schmied, a lay associate of Thich Nhat Hanh, and Than Santikharo Bhikkhu, an American monk at Suan Mokkh and Buddhadâsa’s translator in the last eight years of his life. Without repudiating his Catholic roots, Mr Schmied said that he had simply found more joy in Buddhism. If Jesus is Son of Man and Son of God non-dualistically, could not the relationship between Buddhism and Christianity be one of non-duality, despite obvious differences (rebirth/historical uniqueness; no-self/person; emptiness/being). Cannot Jesus be seen as a universal Bodhisattva whose ‘centre’ is everywhere rather than as God’s ‘only’ son? Santikharo Bhikkhu, who still visits the Christian congregation in which he grew up, said that he also found it impossible to accept that Jesus should be the only ‘incarnation’ of the divine rather than a universal prophet, adding that his work with Catholic priests and nuns in the Philippines had enriched his Buddhist practice. Buddhadâsa had found Christian equivalents for dharma, law, duty and the fruits of practice in nature, God, redemption and salvation, though the concept of a ‘good’ creation appears naive to Buddhists, for whom this world arises out of ignorance and craving and is characterised by suffering. How are Christians to respond to this sympathetic but demanding Buddhist agenda? The cudgels were taken up by two Lutheran theologians with long experience of Buddhism. Notto Thelle (Oslo) suggested that Buddhists will have to become more daring in crossing boundaries now that Buddhism is spreading in the West. Their assumption that Buddhism is unsurpassable has the effect of “neutralising” all other traditions and amounts to the same strategy as Christian ‘inclusivism’, which Prof. Ueda had rightly found to be inadequate. Prof. Thelle developed interesting complementarities between Buddhism as a “religion of the eye”, which begins as philosophy and grows into story, and Christianity as a “religion of the ear”, which initially takes a narrative form but gives rise to philosophy. It is beginning to exist, not ceasing to exist, that is the true mystery. The Christian concept of creation, traditionally couched in the language of being, could more appropriately be seen in terms of nihility as a component of all things. The Christian emphasis on reconciliation and communion suggests the Buddhist ‘between’ (basho) and is one way of speaking of the ‘suchness’ of reality as revealed by the Tathâgata Jesus. Whereas Buddhists stress compassion, for Christians the responsibility that leads to action is important: should Buddhists be more ‘disturbed’ by social injustice? This theme was also taken up by Michael von Brück (Munich), who pointed out that all religion, inasmuch as it is a social construct, is also a social factor. His main concern, however, was with the spirituality beyond religion, the reality beyond distinct identities, to attain which “you have to shûnyatâ shûnyatâ”, as Prof. Ueda had said, just as Christians must avoid trying to ‘grasp’ God. Both Buddhism and Christianity are ultimately about death and dying. The test of whether Buddhists and Christians have really heard the ‘lion’s roar’ of the Buddha or Jesus is their response to suffering. Understanding - not the same thing as agreement - will be built on this, not on the “hermeneutic devices” of doctrines. Not pluralism, but what he called “relationalism, a partnership in identity” will disclose the universality of our attitudes, e.g. to social reality. For Christians, spirituality means accepting God’s unconditional love and ourselves as expressions of its power. The lotus and the cross are not in opposition! Profound and comprehensive as it was, this conference opened up still further areas for exploration, among them the Buddhist and Christian teachings on nature/creation. The Network’s next meeting will be held in Lund, Sweden, in 2001. Questions were raised about the conference methodology (underrepresentation of women, more interactive process), but it definitely marked a new phase in relations between Buddhists and Christians in Europe. John D’Arcy May, Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin ___________________________________________________________________________ 4. Christian perceptions of Buddha in Korea (1) ___________________________________________________________________________ RELIGIOUS SITUATION IN KOREA TODAY Before we go into the christian perceptions of buddhism in korea, it might be helpful to give a small overview about the religious situation in korea in general. Korea here means only a part of it, namely south korea, for the RELIGIOUS situation in north korea is not the same. As in many societies in the world, also in korea, civilization left its strong footprint in the religious life. But unlike in other country in Korea we can find nearly all kinds of religions alive. The old shaman religion with its believe in local gods and spirits and in continues in the rituals of the shaman (kor.: mudang), namely women, who are doing special services for people in illness or difficult family situations and for the developing nature. Even the most koreans might call the shamanism a over left believe, its still living in the feeling and thinking. Buddhism came 372 trough China in the today Korean peninsula which was in that time the three kingdoms Kogyro, Paekche and Silla. Later in the Great Silla Dynastie (668-918) the Zen-School was introduced also from China, and during the Koryo Dynastie (918-1392) Buddhism became the state-religion. During the later Yi-Dynasie (1392-1910) Konfucianism came was in the form of Neoconfucianism introduced from China and came to power, buddhism was oppressed could only survive hiding itself in the mountain/temples. After Korea opened the ports to the west and became freedom also from japanese pressure, buddhism took again its role as a main religion for the country, but now with a new "concurrent" on the scene: christianity, which was introduces to korea around 200 years ago. Today there are around 48% of the population buddhist, 27% protestant christians, 5% catholics, 18% Confucians and 2% others.(2) But there are no official statistics from official side, so that the pro cent are related to the numbers given from the religions themselves. Confucianism is seen mainly as a ethic culture. Shamanism, even not mentioned, takes its place in the religious live of the people. It still happens very often that a family jumps from one religion to another. Its sometimes said the korean is a confucianism when he behaves in society, a christ when he is marring, a buddhist when he seeks the trough and a shaman when he comes in trouble. Even overdone this saying shows that the belonging to one religion is not so important and clear to koreans as to western view. BUDDHIST PERCEPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY Somebody who is a christian and looks up on the religious scene in korea might find much easier a buddhist perception from christianity and of course there are such takeovers, so they should be mentioned before we go into the wise a verse thing. Buddhist took mainly organization-skills and parish-forms from the "new " religion. There are sunday-services in the mist buddhist temples, according to the 7 day week with the free sunday, and additional to traditional buddhists instruments the visitor and participant of buddhist services will find a piano used to guide buddhist songs with very christian like melody, and even women-choirs like in parish services. In the theological field for the most buddhist buddhism seems to be much more developed in philosophies than the christianity they get to know about. Of course this has to do also with the special kind of christianity witch appears in korea mostly: very strong protestant and often narrow minded forms. This fact is the reason to look to the RELATIONS OF SOME PROTESTANT CHRISTIANS TO BUDDHISM. The most protestant churches in Korea hold a strong missonising attitude to everything what is not in the same church like they. Catholics and Buddhist are in their view the same poor who have to go to hell will they not convert so "their" church. Some aggressive groups tried to burn down buddhist temples or to sprey a red cross - sign of the protestant church on the buddha images and paintings around the dharma-hall. This make clear why a real dialogs is so complicated in Korea. That's also why there is a much more clear distinguishing between "christian" which means "protestant" and "catholic". To the last one the relation from buddhist are very friendly. Catholics and Buddhist, even mostly do not know much about each other, they meet each other in a great friendship and respect. "Christians" in this article names the open christians, catholic or protestant, who try to live in peace and respect with each other. And these christians started already not only to mission ate buddhists, but more to respect them as a other religion seeking for the trough way of life. In this seeking procuress they found in buddhism a pilgrim friend on the way who can also offer something to the christian seeker. CHRISTIAN PERCEPTIONS OF BUDDHISM The reason why christians are getting in touch with buddhism in Korea like in the west differ from man to man. But if the main interest in the wet is to learn from buddhism or to apologetic christianity, in Korea on of the most strongest reasons of dialogs is inculturation. christianity, even already well developed andsettledin the Land of Morning Calm, it is still a jung, new religion seeking to get roots for the new planted tree. Inculturation means also to find common point in asian and western religions to make it easier for korean christians to adapt to the new. Koreans sometimes sitting on the ground in the church, not on chairs or banks. Also they bow instead of bowing the knees to the altar or the cross. But beside this more outside differences ther are more deeper seedings in order to get to the point. THE MEDITATIVE ELEMENT At first the most Koreans like to be very western christians, not because of the "western", but because of the western culture is new to them and shows the freshness and strongest. But next to it there is a feeling that in all this ther is a lack of meditative elements which are known from the old buddhist religion, namely in the zen-tradition. ZEN AS A INSPIRATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN CONTEMPLATION Some decades ago Father Eomia Lasalle, a German Jesuit Japan-Missionary who studied Zen under a Roshi, came to the benedictine abbey in Waegwan to give introduction to Zen for Christians. Unlike his great success in Germany the Korean benedictine monks in waegwan showed a small interest in it. Of course the reason might be that a "westerner" came to teach a asian way of meditation. Later, mostly catholic priests, monks and nuns, went themselves to study traditional korean zen under the guidance of a zen master and then tried to use this experience for the christian way. This maybe where easier for them because they heard about the big boom buddhism has in the same time in the west. The most korean zen masters do not say anything against such wishes, just they ask them to keep all rules like buddhist scholars have to keep. Some zen masters of will advise christians to choose in between shaving the had or not teaching them. To shave the had in korea is a expression for becoming a buddhist monk or nun. Because of the big respect for especially the catholic priest, monks and nuns, buddhist zen-masters feel honored and offer their teaching with a pleasure. Some catholics practicing zen-meditation in a buddhist temple or retreat-center straight under the guidance of a buddhist monk or master. Others doing a retreat in a catholic retreat-center. This center, runed by the sisters of the seacred hard, is not offering a zen-teaching, but christian contemplation in the form of the jesus-prayer or heart-prayer. But the form of this jesus-prayer covers many elements of the local zen tradition. In order to avoid the discussion if a christian is allowed to name himself a zen-master or doing something nativebuddhists I find it rather wise not to talk to much about "christian zen", but simply to learn and to do - contemplation is a wide form. SITTING , BREATH AND HWADU The main elements taken from korean zen into contemplation are the sitting-posture, the BREATHwatchinggo and the hwadu. contemplation in the western form has no strict advise for the sitting posture. Even in some hesiychistic writing you can find a description how to sit for the jesus-prayer (3), this does not go ahead with the needs of the scholar. Here the lotus- ore half-lotus posture as practiced in the korean zen, fits much more to a long silent sitting and helps to keep the mind in peace. A main part of zen teaching has to do with a free and natural breathing. The right BREATH is teached to be one key to the open mind. Also in christina philosophie theBREATHh has a deep meaning for in hebrew language "ruach" means "storm", "wind", "BREATH", and "spirit". For christians it so not to difficult to give a attention to the "moving spirit" in us. The hwadu-zen is sometimes beloved as the strongest way to enlightenment. The korean term "hwadu" means "end of a question" or "goal of a question" and points to the essence-sentences of famous zen-sorties like: "A Zen master was asked what is the buddha-nature and he replied to the scholar \DRY SHIT ON A STICK\" Here the answer of the master could be the scholars hwadu. If he intnd to understand deeply the answer of the master, he has to reach his masters mind. Sometimes zen-masters are giving straight a question as a hwadu like "Who are You?" "How looked Your face before Your mother was born?" "What is this?" "Its said all things are returning to the one thing - there is the one returning?" In japanese Rinzai-Zen there are a lot of Koans to solve, in Korea Masters sometimes give only one to there scholars and let them practice with that one over many years. Its said that if one is solving his hwadu, he solved all hwadu. In christian contemplation teaching in korea sometimes a hwadu is given like the following: In John 9 Jesus is telling the Pharisees: "The truth will make You free" So the hwadu out of this for the contemplation is "What is the truth?" THE STARTED DIALOG The dialogs between christians and buddhists is just started in korea. To deep is the remembering of strong mission that the buddhist could get in touch to chritians without sceptic the new "dialogs" might just be another form of to try to conversate. But there are many personal friendships between buddhist monks and nuns and catholic priest, monks and nuns. Trough the respect of common monk-rules buddhist and christians are coming together also. OUTLOOK Up to now there are not much organized dialgoue meetings or groups both religions have to find there part in korean society, this takes time. Christians in Korea are still seaching for a korean way of christianity. It seems that the friendship between the individual believers of both religions will prepare the way... Martin Roetting, Germany martin.roetting@t-online.de Notes (1) Please forgive all my language-mistakes for I had no chance to give this to a native speaker and to publish in time. Take it just like it is. :-) Correcting this paper I found that because I am typing with a german tastature in a english spelling y and z is mixed, so sometimes a "zen-master" became an "yen-master"...:-) ups. (2) According to "Religionen in Korea", Du Mont, Suedkorea, Stand 1990. (3) The Hesychis-masters advised to sit on a small chair, the hed down untill the kin touches the breast and to concentrate on the heart-region. S. a. Dodel, Franz: Das Sitzen der Wuestenvaeter, Eine Untersuchung anhand der Apophthegmata Patrum, Freiburg, Schweiz, 1997. ___________________________________________________________________________ 5. The Network Homepage ___________________________________________________________________________ Internet: http://home.t-online.de/home/ buddhist-christian-studies/network.htm Welcome to the homepage of the European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies - since one year the visitors of our homepage are greeted and invited to take a look in the side. After the last conference the side/design was renewed and the who is who list, the infoboard and the discussion/forum came as a new parts. Paul Traffort did a big work and organized a discussion group in association with the mulitifaith/net. There its possible to share ideas and views about the speakers-themes of the last conferences and to discuss about the new theme. We are up to now not sure if its better to have a closed discussion group with password and of course less discussion partners or to have a open forum. The NEWS - sector is developing trough emails we get from different countries. For its a huge work to keep it up to date we are happy for every correction or hint we get to develop it as good as we can. The WHO IS WHO LIST should help people who met at the conferences or seeking for specialist in some part to get easier in touch. In the LITERATURE sector beside a small book list there is a online-archive with conference-talks and dialogue articles. So we hope that the homepage can more and more develop as a forum to share information and to get connection between the different dialouge activities around Europe and the World. No body is perfect - so if You miss anything in the homepage or notice a mistake, please feel free to send a mail - we will be thankful for every detail. Martin Roetting, Germany martin.roetting@t-online.de ___________________________________________________________________________ 6. News about the next Conference ind Lund 2001 ___________________________________________________________________________ Preparation is proceeding here for the next meeting of the conference which is to take place in Lund, Sweden 04.05.01-07.05.01. The beautiful conference centre of Aakersberg (near Lund) is reserved for the event. Bernard Durel, Dominican priest,has joined the preparatory committee together with drs. and Theravada Buddhist Natasja Kärvinge and professor Aasulv Lande (Lutheran ordained minister). Until further notice the university adress of prof. Aasulv Lande serves as the adress for communication. Department of Theology, Lund University, Allhelgona kyrkog 8, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden Prof. Aasulv Lande, Sweden ============================================================================ ____________________________________________________________________________ The Networkinfo-Magazine is a free quartal published email magazine of the EUROPEAN NETWORK OF BUDDHIST CHRISTIAN STUDIES ____________________________________________________________________________ To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE this magazine, fill our networkinfo/form in the hompage: http://home.t-online.de/home/ buddhist-christian-studies/network.htm click NETWORKINFO at the menue bar or send a mail to martin.roetting@t-online.de subject> subscibe magazine or unsubscribe magazine (c) 1999 31th August European Network of Buddhist Christian Studies ============================================================================