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Silence is Golden

26/2/2015

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One of the issues that comes up from time to time in interfaith relations is that of praying together. Some people of faith are reluctant to do this, thinking I presume, that by doing so they are acknowledging a false god, legitimising a false religion or worshipping in a forbidden way. Sometimes a distinction is made between coming together to pray (each in our own way) and praying together. This is seen as a way of keeping the integrity of each faith’s understanding of God and respecting difference with regard to worship and prayer.  It's a distinction that I've not fully understood.  For me the Rig Veda sums it up, ‘The Real is one though known by different names’. Is there not only one God? Is this God not present in all things and does that not include all faiths? Does this God listen attentively to the words we say or to the intentions of our hearts? 

Someone ( I can't remember who though it might be Thomas Merton) has said that when we pray together  we are experiencing the same reality but in different ways - in the ways mediated by our religious conditioning.  John Hick calls the gods to whom religious believers pray and whom they worship 'cultic gods'. He believes that each religion's god is in fact different and the reality is that we are in fact all praying to different gods.  There is some truth in this but surely these so called cultic gods are mediations, reflecions, revelations of the One True God, the Supreme Reality that is beyond human understanding.  Surely then to pray to them is to come into contact with that which is beyond them, the Reality to which they point - the God beyond God as Meister Eckhart says.  While this is true public services need public expression of our understanding of God and this is perhaps where the difficulty lies. But I wonder if there cannot be a form of prayer which allows us to agree to a form of words that allows us to pray to our 'own' God while realising this is a way of relating to the God beyond God. In workshops I use an exercise which gives people nine prayers and asks them to guess which religion they come from. Invariably they can't do this and participants are always struck by how they could pray all the  prayers with integrity.  

There is a moment in  Morris West’s 'Ambassador' when a Buddhist monk says to the ambassador ‘When we speak we are two, when we are silent we are one’. There's great truth in this.  Each month I meditate with an interfaith group and in the silence there is real communion and an energy which we dedicate to world peace. There's a real sense of praying together but as I enter into the silence of my own heart I'm aware of an encounter with the God who is within each of us but also between us. I'm also aware of  the presence of all those who have become part of me and as an interfaith practitioner this includes my friends of many faiths and none. 

Praying in silence overcomes the  difficulties of common prayer. In the silence differences or disagreements about doctrine or understandings of God fall away. Words are of no significance and the rapt attention of each one witnesses to their integrity, honesty and commitment to their faith. It's to see religion at its best.  It's to experience a communion deeper than words and to hear the call of God, spoken in the silence of our hearts to further fellowship and  relatedness.
 

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Dust to dust

18/2/2015

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We are half way into February and there are signs of spring everywhere with even the crocuses showing their colours. I particularly like to see the snowdrops. They struggle through the hard ground to hang their tender white heads as a sign of hope.  Spring is in the air and for Christians lent has begun. The word itself comes from an old Anglo-Saxon word meaining spring and lenctentid which means not only springtime but also the word for March which is the month in which the majority of lent falls. While lent is associated with fasting and penitence the word shows that its underlying theme is the sense of new life and new beginnings. As someone said another opportunity for those new year resolutions which we have long since broken. 

Fasting is a practice which is common to most religions. While Christians are observing lent, Baha'is are also fasting- from 1st - 21st March and for them it's also a preparation for a new beginning, in this instance their new year. The Baha'i fast is like the Muslim fast during Ramadan in that it lasts from sunrise to sunset with no food or drink during day light hours.  For Muslims, this can be quite severe if it takes place as it does this year during summer with daylight hours in Scotland lasting for fifteen to sixteen hours.  For Baha'is taking place as it does around the equinox the daylight hours are not so long.  Religions like Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism don't have their fasting seasons as such but have specific days and occasions on which they fast. 

The only religion that doesn't promote fasting is Sikhism, believing that moderation in all things means no need for fasting.  This is a good lesson for those of us who belong to religions that do fast. As a spiritual practice it's a good thing but like all practice it's not an end in itself. If it doesn't lead to a deepening of spirituality and a growth in love and compassion then it's not worth very much and is simply empty religiosity. Sikhism reminds us not to absolutise any religious practice or see it as an end  in itself. It's easy to focus on externals and think of ourselves as holy and virtuous while neglecting our neighbour. Religious practice can easily turn us inwards instead of outwards towards others.

The lenten journey begins with Ash Wednesday and for Catholics the tradition is to have the mark of an ash cross applied to the  forehead . The ash comes from the burning of palms used on Palm Sunday and is symbolic of an old custom of wearing sack cloth and ashes to show sorrow for sin and wrongdoing.  This indicates the importance of  recognising our sinfulness and willingness to engage in some kind of practice which will help us live a better and fuller life. For me the words said as the ashes are applied are important and significant. There are two possibilities. The older one is 'Remember that you are dust and into dust you shall return'. This I prefer for it's good for all of us to realise, I think, our creatureliness.  We are made of the same dust (and scientists tell us that this is star dust) as all other creatures and in spite of any pride we might have in our own importance or accomplishments we will go the way of all the earth and return to that dust from which we came. None of us can escape it. This the great leveler, the reality that puts our lives into perspective, that reminds us of our relationship to the rest of creation. To abuse it is to abuse ourselves.  To live our lives in the face of death is to make the most of the giftedness of our precious human existence, to accept each day as it comes moment by moment, breath by breath, to try to live in a way that will promote compassion, justice, love, goodness.  

The second phrase used at the distribution of ashes takes up this theme. It's ' Repent and believe the good news'. And what is the good news? - that the kingdom of God is not far from any of us - it's in our very midst. Some people don't like the term 'kingdom of God' but I'm used to it. For me it's obvious whenever and wherever people are struggling to overcome disability, poverty, oppression, violence, injustice, discrimination, marginalisation, inequality etc; whenever and wherever people are trying to make sense of their human lives and do the best they can with what life has given them; whenever and wherever people are generously and even heroically helping others and making life better simply by who they are and what they do; whenever people are trying to live a balanced and moderate life and use responsibly the world's resources. In fact the kingdom is everywhere. Someone once said that Christians ought to be kingdom spotters. To spot the kingdom, made visible by its values of justice and peace, is to see it everywhere and in the most unexpected of places. To spot the kingdom is to have hope that a better future is possible in spite of what would appear to be evidence to the contrary.  

Come to think of it that in itself would make quite a good lenten practice. I think I'll try it.


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A Pioneer in Interfaith Relations

8/2/2015

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PictureThomas Merton with a young Dalai Lama
Last week, on the last day of January, some of us remembered the 100th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Merton, a giant among men and a pioneer of interreligious dialogue.  He was a convert to Catholicism and early in the 1940s joined a very strict catholic religious order in which silence and contemplation was a daily practice.  He was a man of contradictions. In spite of his desire for silence he felt called to be a writer and wrote over 50 books in his lifetime as well as numerous articles which had international acclaim. In spite of his desire for solitude he had a large number of correspondents and visitors to his monastery and hermitage where he lived for the last 3 or 4 years of his life.  He taught the novices in the community so there are lectures and notes of his instructions. 

He was a man whose spirit could not be contained by a monastic way of life and though he followed the life faithfully his interests were wide and varied, ranging from concerns  for social justice and spirituality to interreligious dialogue.  He met with important people in other faiths such as the Dalai Lama, Tich Nhat Hanh whom he regarded as brothers and corresponded with Dr Suzuki, the expert in Zen Buddhism.  He explored the wisdom of the Zen masters, Hindu holy figures, Sufi mystics and Taoist sages, translating some of their scriptures and reflected on the relationship of Christianity to these faiths. He did all this from his monastery. He had taken a vow of stability but his heart was as wide as the world. He had a real sense of solidarity with other human beings and in his autobiography describes how " in Louisville, at the corner of the Fourth and Walnut, in the centre of a shopping district I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs"  For him there was no separation between himself and others.

Towards the end of his life he was invited to give a talk at an interfaith gathering in Bankok and, having got permission from his Abbot, his journey there gave him the opportunity to dialogue with others and visit some significant pilgimage sites.  Having delivered his talk at the Bankok gathering he returned to his hotel room and tragically was accidentally electrocuted. He was 54 years of age.  Forty six years on he is still remembered as an inspiration to those involved in social justice and interreligious dialogue - a universal man as a recent publication is called. 

On his trip to Thailand he visited Pollonaruwa in Sri Lanka, a visit which happened just nine days before his death. I've been to Pollonaruwa and it's a remarkable place. There are three enormous, majestic statues of the Buddha,  one sitting in meditation, one standing and one reclining in sleep or death.  There is an atmosphere of awe and wonder and as one stands before these magnificent statues a  realiation of one's smallness  and unimportance, one's nothingness in the face of such focussed compassion. After standing some time before the reclining Buddha, Merton wrote: ".....  I know and have seen what I was obscurely looking for. I don't know what else remains but I have now seen and pierced through the surface and have got beyond the shadow and the disguise"

Commentators have speculated about whether this profound experience would have led Merton to become a Buddhist. Well who knows but I doubt it.  Thomas Merton was someone who had pierced through the surface of religion to find the pearl of great price which is at the heart of all of them. To a certain extent he belonged to all of them because he respected their wisdom and insight while recognising that they all had institutional aspects which could reveal or obscure their central message. Earlier in Zen and the Birds of Appetite he had written " Now if we reflect for a moment, we will realise that in Christianity, too, as well as Islam, we have various admittedly unusual people who see beyond the "religious" aspect of their faith." He was such a one. He recognised a Reality that transcended religions' cultural, social and even religious structures. It would seem at Pollonaruwa that he had found this pearl of great price and knew it with the whole of his being. There would have been no need for Thomas Merton to convert to another religion. 

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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