S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 8 5 Martin Dojčár To what extent is the practice of double or multiple spiritualties of different religious backgrounds in accordance with fidelity to one’s own religious tradition from your perspective? I think what I have said in response to the previous question could also serve as a response to this one. You have published extensively on Swami Abhishiktananda, a French Benedictine monk Henri Le Saux (1910–1973) who went to India in 1948 and devoted his life to building bridges between Hindus and Christians. Le Saux personally met with some of the extraordinary saints of the Indian sub-continent of the time and was deeply impressed particularly by Sri Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. Afterwards, he made a life-long effort to integrate his “advaitic experience”, he experienced in the presence of Ramana Maharshi shortly after his arrival to India, with his Christian worldview. In one of your articles, you describe his understanding of dialogue as follows: “true interreligious dialogue is not discussion about the differences of religious practices or doctrines, but heart-to-heart communication about the experience of God” (“Abhishiktanadna’s understanding of the monk”, Dilatato Corde 1 (1) 2011). How would you characterize the legacy of the life and work of this remarkable man, a great pioneer of interreligious dialogue of spiritual experience? What is the continuing importance of his work for today? I have said – though not in writing – that although I greatly admire Swami Abhishiktananda, I am not personally attracted to “advaitic spirituality”. I suppose I could say I am too much of a dualist, someone for whom an “I-Thou” relationship to God in Christ and through the Holy Spirit is a more appealing and intelligible expression of my relationship with the divine. What I admire about Abhishiktananda is his total commitment to a spiritual path, which, although radically different from the one in which he was formed, offered him a compelling and authentic way to strive for union with God. I believe it is significant, however, that after his intense spiritual experience of oneness with the divine shortly before his death, he described that experience as his discovery of the Grail. In other words, he too could not forget “the language of his mother”. Between the years 1994–2001 you had been staying in Japan as a member of the priory of Saint John’s Abbey and at that time you began practicing Zazen within the Sanbō Kyōdan school of Zen. Over the centuries, all traditions of Japanese Zen Buddhism restricted the transmission of Zen to Buddhist monks exclusively. However, since Sanbō Kyōdan school of Zen was established in 1954 by Hakuun Yasutani, this exclusivist rule was broken, and Zen was made available at first to Buddhist laity, later on to non-Buddhist as well. Since 1970, Yasutani’s successor, Kōun Yamada, has allowed to receive Zen training and to obtain the right to teach Zen, the so called “Dharma transmission”, to Christians without requiring them to convert to Buddhism. This means that the Dharma transmission was officially granted to non-Buddhists. Such a dramatic turnaround can only be described as revolutionary. The first Christian, who successfully completed his Zen training under the direct guidance of Rōshi Yamada, was a German Jesuit Fr. Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle (1978). Others followed soon – clergy, nuns and monks, laymen. Altogether, over twenty Christians until 1989, out of which twelve were granted the Dharma transmission mandate. Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle is another exceptional example of interspirituality – as an officially recognized Rōshi, master of Zen, he had never forsaken his Christian and Jesuit identity. How could you explain to us this kind of multi-religious and multi-spiritual identity represented by Fr. Enomiya-Lassalle, SJ, at present by Fr. Robert Kennedy, SJ, and others? I think both have made it clear that they were drawn to Zen Buddhist not as an alternative to Christianity but as a way of developing dimensions of their Christian identity that had gone unrecognized or were underdeveloped. The reason I became affiliated with the Sanbō Kyōdan was that shortly after my arrival in Ja-
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