Volume 4 Issue 2 Fall 2018

6 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 pan, I visited Fr. William Johnston, SJ, and asked him how I could go about becoming familiar with Buddhism as a spiritual path. He recommended the Sanbō Kyōdan to me precisely because it was an expression of Zen Buddhism that was open to foreigners and people of other religious traditions – but one that also attracted Japanese followers. It was there that on several occasions I heard the comment of Yamada Kōun Rōshi, the the Dharma heir of Hakuun Yasutani and father of one my masters, Yamada Ryoun Rōshi, that the practice of Zazen was like drinking tea: you didn’t have to be a Buddhist to do it and to profit from it. 3 Interreligious Dialogue of Spiritual Experience We have already been talking about interfaith dialogue today. Let’s have a closer look now at the dialogical stance of a religious tradition you are rooted in – the Roman Catholic Church. The turning point for the Roman Catholic Church was the Second Vatican Council in many regards. Following the apostolic mission of the pioneering Pope John XXIII. (1959), Vatican II announced “aggiornamento”–“bringing up to date” the Church in herself as well as in her relation to the World. In regard to non-Christians, the Council issued a revolutionaryDeclaration on the relationship of the Roman Catholic Church to other religions Nostra aetate. Here, all Catholics are “exhorted”, as you often remind us, to “recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values“ in other religions (Nostra aetate 2, 1965). You serve as Secretary General of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (DIM·MID), one of the leading promoters of the interfaith dialogue nowadays. An integral part of DIM·MID’s mission is “to open up new pathways of dialogue of spiritual experience”. Could you be more specific in this regard and describe DIM·MID’s original approach to the dialogue of spiritual experience in the above-mentioned context? The predominant model of interreligious dialogue has been that of an academic conference in which papers are presented, discussed, published – and then, of course, added to one’s  curriculum vitae. One of the reasons for this practice can be found the very word “dialogue”, which immediately implies talking to one another. Another reason is the ease with which religious people – especially Christians, I would say – emphasize the doctrinal expressions of religious belief. DIM·MID’s approach to interreligious dialogue emphasizes an experiential knowledge of other spiritual paths and promotes “plunging” into another religious tradition to gain this experiential knowledge. In the words of Fr. Pierre de Béthune, the first Secretary General of DIM·MID, “If you are deeply rooted in your tradition, as can be expected of a monk who has been formed over many years, you don’t have to be afraid of immersing yourself in another religion. It’s not a question of compromise, saying I’ll accept this, but not that. No. I accept everything! But I accept it with all that is mine. It’s a meeting from faith to faith. Or more exactly, from fidelity to fidelity.“ [Si on est profondément ancré dans sa tradition comme on peut l’espérer d’un moine qui a été formé pendant de nombreuses années, à ce moment, il ne faut pas avoir peur de s’immerger, de se plonger dans une autre religion, ce n’est pas une question de compromis, non plus, en disant je prends ça mais je ne prends pas ça, non, je prends tout! Mais je le prends depuis mon tout! C’est une rencontre de la foi à la foi. Peut-être même plus précisément de la fidélité à la fidélité.] (From the documentary film “Strangers No More“.)

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