Buddhist Christian Exploration - report.

One day, all interfaith conversations will be like this...
Participant - Buddhist Christian Dialogue.

In their depth of meaning, and in the level of spirituality that ran throughout the day. Engaging with Faith was the subtitle of this event, led by Dr. Elizabeth Harris and Dr. Dharmavidya David Brazier, in association with Amida-kai. How do we engage with our faith? and How do we engage with the world though our faith?

The session opened by inviting the participants to share some of their faith journey, and what had led us to this event. There was a brief pause before the sharing began, and then one person followed another warmed up to aspects of their own stories by hearing those of other people.  As a participant myself, hearing some of the journeys of others gave me a new perspective to interrogate my own faith journey and to share a little of this, (And what an important role encountering others, like today, played in that.) with the group.

The spiritual thread which wove throughout the day is very important, as it's what keeps us together...or me the importance is the willingness to go deeper and be vulnerable. I felt this was achieved on Saturday.

We were a mixture of Christians interested in Buddhism, one time Christians who had converted to Buddhism, Christians interested in interfaith, and Buddhists who had never been Christian - and so there were many differences in our journeys, but the sense of journeying, of facing something greater, was a thread which ran though all our experiences.

This sharing laid the ground for the rest of the day - in which the personal element of our engagement with faith was to manifest particularly strongly. 

After a lively coffee break Dharmavidya took Elizabeth through an interview, in which we explored in some depth, her journey with faith - from her Christianity, to her experiences in a Buddhist country*. Dr. Harris shared the moving story of a Sri Lankan R.C Preist. Father Michael Rodrigo; A man who lived by his faith completely, changing the attitudes of wary Sri Lankans in his chosen village to one of warmth, and a man who was killed for speaking out against injustice.

Our processing and sharing of the material presented highlighted Father Rodrigo's story as one that many felt inspiring and touched by.

We returned, after lunch, to watch another interview, this time Elizabeth questioning Dharmavidya about his faith and 'love affairs with Religion'. We witnessed a moving account of Dharmavidya's engagement with faith, and then were able to explore some particular Buddhist concepts, and talked more about Engaging with faith, on the spiritual and on the social level.

It was wonderful to be part of, and to see so many people, sharing ideas and experiences. The whole day felt like a shared journey and this reflected the spirit of the dialogue.  There was a great many themes and ideas raised during this event that might act as springboards for further exploration, with this in mind - look for more events of this type in the future.

-Gareth Thompson
for the Maitri Project

*For more information see A Journey into Buddhism, by Elizabeth Harris