Greetings. I'd like to introduce myself as a new contributor to this multi-blog. My name is Danny Fisher, and I'm a graduate student working towards a Master of Divinity degree at Naropa University in Boulder, CO, USA. At present, I'm wrapping up my second year (of three) at Naropa, preparing to begin a Clinical Pastoral Education unit this summer at a local hospital. I also maintain a weblog of my own.
I guess it's appropriate that someone from Naropa participate in this multi-blog. It seems like Naropa has been one of a few key locations for Buddhist-Christian dialogue in America, along with the Abbey of Gethsemani. In fact, we recently hosted our second Buddhist-Christian Dialogue Conference. (The first, held in the mid-1980s, resulted in a tremendous book entitled Speaking of Silence: Christians and Buddhists in Dialogue.)
As a way of beginning to participate here at Interlog, I thought I would share a few choice quotations from the keynote lectures given during Naropa's most recent Buddhist-Christian dialogues. The first keynote, delivered on March 4, 2005, was by Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and founder of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd.
Here are a few things he said that struck me:
* "Ultimate Reality--the least objectionable term for 'God.'"
* "There isn't anything other than God, it just looks that way...to know God truly is to know one's self."
* "Everybody is a chosen soul just by virtue of being born."
* "You can't have a big enough idea of God...of His manifestations in the present moment."
* "God's last great act of humanity was making himself equal with us."
The second keynote, delivered on March 5, 2005, was by Acharya Reginald A. Ray, Ph.D., one of my professors at Naropa and the author of what I think is probably the most important work of Buddhist Studies in the last twenty-five years: Buddhist Saints in India.
Here are a few things Reggie said that struck me:
* "By using the term 'God' as something outside of the self, Jews and Christians are reminding us that Ultimate Reality is something outside of our control."
* "You can't be unique--you are unique...Not-self is awareness of who we are...[it is] a complete and total embodiment of who we are."
* "Our individuality is not personal...when we become who we really are, we are completely transparent to God/the Buddha-nature."
* "[Engaged Buddhism]...the Christians reminded the Buddhists that, hey, this is in our tradition."
* "The only true love is the love that is not intentional."
I hope I've given us all some things to think about with my first post! I look forward to seeing where we can go together.
In your experience of the Christian/Buddhist dialogues is there any mention of the femine ascpect of the divine?
Posted by: Derek Scefonas | 17 April 2005 at 01:17 AM
and by ascpect I mean aspect. And by femine I mean feminine. LOL. I am blaming my last post on the Kitty.
Posted by: Derek Scefonas | 17 April 2005 at 01:20 AM
Good call. I don't like the assignment of a gender to Ultimate Reality, but I thought I would leave the quotations unmanipulated.
Posted by: Danny Fisher | 17 April 2005 at 01:31 AM
It is always good to leave quootations unmanipulated. :^) I don't mind an assigment of gender to Ultimate Reality it's just that half of the Ultimate Reality appears to be missing from the discussion. I should ask Jill to comment on this. More later
Posted by: Derek Scefonas | 17 April 2005 at 03:14 AM
Jeez, I am so sorry about the crazy spelling. I am usually typing with one hand. Because of Wilson. I think I shall start composing in word and cut/paste so I stop being such a dork.
Posted by: Derek Scefonas | 17 April 2005 at 03:19 AM
Regarding Thomas Keatings' points,
- Tillich referred to God as ultimate concern rather than ultimate reality and this makes some sense to me.
- It makes more sense to me to say that God is other than everything that is and especially God is other than self.
- That everyone is chosen is a nice idea but some seem to have been chosen to suffer terribly
- OK
- If you put this point together with the previous one, it means you cannot have a big enough idea of yourself which seems thoroughly narcissistic.
There seems to be a trend toward trying to generate a pan-religious orthodoxy that is based on the idea that all things, especially us, are incarnations of God. This seems to me, however, to be a very dubious, if not dangerous, idea.
Posted by: Dharmavidya | 19 April 2005 at 03:08 PM
Danny,
It is good to see you will be posting on interlog. I enjoy your blog very much, so I am sure I will enjoy your contributions to the discussion on interfaith topics here. I am very happy and appreciative that Dharmavidya put this thing together. ~Amadeus
Posted by: Amadeus | 20 April 2005 at 10:07 PM
I'd like to just say thank you to everybody who has contributed to Interlog so far. It has been an excellent experience.
Posted by: Dharmavidya | 24 April 2005 at 09:58 PM