Sharing wisdom, prayer: two New York monasteries—one Catholic, one Buddhist—cultivate spiritual interdependence in weekend dialogues

National Catholic Reporter, Nov 14, 2003 by Patricia Lefevere

"It's a miracle this is happening. It's a miracle for Catholics to be here," proclaimed Bishop Thomas Costello of Syracuse, N.Y.

The bishop stood in front of more than a dozen Buddhist monks and nuns, dressed in their traditional brown, gray or crimson kimono-like robes, their heads shaven.

Behind the podium from which the bishop spoke was a glowing altar to the Buddha, replete with offerings, and across from it a large crucifix lighted by three candles. "It is important not only that we be together, but that we pray together," Costello said during the ceremony that opened the Buddhist-Catholic Dialogue Oct. 9-12 at the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center in Garrison.

The event developed from a three-year friendship that has brought two Hudson River valley monasteries together--the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement at Graymoor in Garrison and the monks and nuns of Chuang Yen monastery, 15 miles away in Carmel, N.Y. The two religious houses, about an hour's drive from Manhattan, served as venues for a weekend of shared meals, conversations and presentations, and also shared rituals.

Catholics rose early to attend the 6 a.m. Buddhist meditation in the Little Flower Friary Chapel at Graymoor. Seated crossed legged on the floor, or supported by cushions or a chair, persons of both faiths sat in pre-dawn silence for 30 minutes. A single "ding" of a temple bell marked the beginning and end of meditation.

Buddhists stayed to attend the daily Mass that followed the meditation. Some Catholics expressed awe over how reverently the Buddhist monks folded their hands and bowed during the consecration and by how intently they listened to scriptural readings that underlined much that the two world creeds hold in common--compassion and service, especially to the poor--and actions of love and understanding.

Later Kongsak Tanphaichitr told the audience he had been moved at Mass when the priest said the words of Christ, which the St. Louis physician summed up as "I offer this bread and this body as if it were my life." In private conversations some Buddhists monks expressed interest in obtaining a Catholic Lectionary after attending the Masses and after hearing a talk on lectio divina, the practice of spiritual reading aloud, by Felician Sr. Judith Kubicki, a theologian at Fordham University in the Bronx.

On Oct. 11 participants carpooled to Chuang Yen monastery where they were treated to a welcoming ceremony, a Buddhist service, lunch and a day of presentations by leaders and scholars of both faiths. They also toured the 20-year-old monastery whose Great Buddha Hall is built around a giant 45-foot-high statue of the Buddha, surrounded by 10,000 small Buddha images.

The perils facing the earth and its people was an undercurrent of the dialogue. In an interview with NCR, Abbot Ji Ru of Chuang Yen described Buddhists as peacemakers, whose first moral precept is "no killing," followed by "no stealing." Ji Ru, who came to America from his native Malaysia in 1992, said, "The more I know this country, the more concerned I am."

"The president talks too much about aggression," the abbot said. He decried "killing for fun," which through the media influences youth around the world.

Catholic leaders must show the followers "of the largest world religion" another way, one that is more peaceful and harmonious, and stresses the simplicity of life, the abbot said.

Theologian Ewert Cousins pointed to the abundance of spiritual resources at humankind's disposal, and added, ';There has to be a special wisdom in the world right now to penetrate into the crisis we're in." He pointed to the fruit of exchanges between East and West that have brought to the United States the spirituality of Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh and Mahaghosananda, patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism.

Cousins, emeritus professor at Fordham, found that "a sense of common mission, empathy and mutual enrichment" helped the exchange of spiritualities at Garrison. He detected a ,certain quality" in the relaxed atmosphere of the two monasteries "that flitted the quality of the dialogue," he said.

Cousins told NCR that the "joy and delight" that flowed from the weekend was an "appropriate" response to the sharing of "great spiritual gifts in diversity... I believe we are on the right path with our dialogue. The richness of each [faith] is so great that we need time to assimilate it." He has had encounters with Buddhists since the 1960s.

The Graymoor-Chuang Yen meeting was the second work of dialogue and formation organized by the Faiths in World Committee of the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers. In 1998 the group held its frost Buddhist-Catholic Retreat/Dialogue at a Benedictine monastery in Malibu, Calif., inviting Catholic and Buddhist monks, nuns and lay leaders from California and across the nation. Besides the collaboration of the national association and the two monasteries, the Buddhist Association of the United States and the Buddhist Council of New York cosponsored the Garrison weekend.