Zen master (Catholic Priest) tells curious to embrace a new faith

NorthJersey.com ^ | 01.22.06 | EVONNE COUTROS

[Coleus]

Zen master tells curious to embrace a new faith

RIDGEWOOD - The two-hour lecture at the Old Paramus Church Education Center began with several minutes of silent meditation.  And for many who attended, participating in meditation was a first step in understanding the basic teachings of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy.  "All attempts at mutual education are important to help us grow," said Robert Kennedy, the noted Jesuit priest and Zen master. "It widens our vision."

Kennedy Roshi, as he is known to Buddhists, was the key speaker at Saturday's event, which was attended by more than 100 people of varied faiths. It examined immortality, salvation and schools of thought in Buddhism and Christianity.  It is the third lecture in a series to promote the understanding of Buddhism and Eastern thought sponsored by the Dhamma-Chakra Society of New Jersey. Kennedy is a practicing psychotherapist and retired chairman of the theology department at St. Peter's College in Jersey City. After being ordained a priest in the Jesuit tradition, he also studied Buddhism for many years and in 1991 was installed as a sensei, or teacher, of Eastern thought.

Saturday's lecture focused on many aspects of Eastern philosophy as well as Christian theology.

"I think the Buddhist and Christian traditions are both magnificent and both give wonderfully poetic metaphorical examples of what is inexpressible," Kennedy said. "I don't think the metaphors can be reduced to each other but that makes it all the better. Everything is not reduced to one way of looking at things."

Kennedy praised the strong outreach among Catholics and Jews to Buddhism.

"I don't think Buddhism is interested so much in learning from us, but they are open to us," said Kennedy, who holds doctorates in theology and psychology and is the author of "Zen Gifts to Christians" and "Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit."  "I think we're coming to appreciate each other on a practical level as in marriage."

Parviz Dehghani is a Muslim who has been married to his Buddhist wife for 25 years and attended the lecture as both religious scholar and admirer of Kennedy as a Zen master. The lecture allowed the public to understand the similarities between Buddhism and Christianity, Dehghani said.  "This lecture gives people a different direction in their own faith," he said. "It gives them a sense of enrichment in their own beliefs and a different way of looking at what they have been believing all along and through their lives. If Buddhism can enhance them to be a better Christian or Muslim, that's what it's all about."

Kennedy studied with Yamada Roshi in Japan, Maezumi Roshi in California and Glassman Roshi in New York. Glassman installed Kennedy as sensei and conferred the Inka, or final approval, on the cleric in 1997 that elevated him to master, or roshi. John LoGiudice of Paramus is a practicing Catholic who came to the lecture with several family members and friends to gain more knowledge of Buddhism. "I gained an insight of how the Buddhists and other cultures think and from what I gather - with Buddhism being an older culture - perhaps they are a little bit more advanced spiritually," LoGiudice said. "It's a journey. We're trying to learn more about it."

[stig]

Don't take Zen seriously? What is this: pseudo-Zen? Nonsense. Zen teaches you to abandon all desires, that includes adoration and asking for things. Or are you talking about some new fangled Zen that I am not aware of?

I believe there are Zen buddhist prayers where Buddha and Bohdisatvas are asked to impart the dharma. I would think same would hold true from a christian zen perspective. In the end it becomes a koan to point the way to a deeper understanding of the truth.

The point isn't what is the ultimate aim. The point is given my current spirtual understanding how do I get there? What sign posts are available to lead me in the right direction.

For the christian trying to go deeper Zen meditation can be used as a tool. Many are put off by the Buddhist trappings of Zen. By having a christian context for Zen, Kennedy Roshi adds another path toward realizing the truth for oneself.

[Mr. Silverback]

God forbid accepting other religions as anything but blaspheme, especially those religions that preach peace and human dignity.

Hold up there. Since when are the statements "Bhuddism is not compatible with Christianity" and "Bhuddism is crap" the same statement. The guy's putting forth a theological point and you're treating him like a trashtalker.

Christian orthodoxy requires a respect for other faiths, because deriding a lost person will certainly not help them get to the truth. That doesn't mean that one must accept them as an equal revelation, or anything but an obstacle between the lost and Christ. It simply means we don't go around talking trash. I don't see where Bnelson has talked trash about Bhuddism.

[Sangey]

Zen is very meditation based, without much chanting or reliance on Sutra. They seek an individual liberation, although they are sort of Mahayana, in many ways there are Hinyana, especially in the US forms, like the Mountains and Rivers order.

I do not understand how a Catholic Christian can also be a Buddhist 'master.' From what I read of the posts, this Jesuit order is outside the mainstream of Catholic Christianity (? -or do I not understand?) But the Zen Roshi's mentioned are outside of much of traditional Buddhist practice, as is much of American Zen.

Our Temple has often had Zen visitors and we sometimes visit their Zendo. It is a very different experience. Vietnamese Zen and Chinese Chan Buddhists are closer to mainstream Buddhism than American Zen.

A Buddhist is not exclusive. We believe that anyone may earn merit if they show compassion for others and are working to ease the suffering of other sentient beings.It is not exclusive with Christianity.

My failure to understand is that I thought that Christians believed that the only way was through their forgiveness from God.

It seems to me that while Buddhists and Christians can live together and work together and even be friends (I have many good Christian and Catholic friends including a Colubmus Knight) - it just seems like the faith - and especially the priesthood itself - should be one way or the other.

I am born Buddhist and raised Buddhist. I am not Christian and I dont want to convert anyone or to be converted by anyone.

I would not want one of the Abbot at my temple or one of the monks to be both Christian and Buddhist. It just does not seem right.

Too many American Buddhists just think that they can take whatever they want from the the Sutras and Tantra and then go to a psychology book or a movie star or whoever is giving out advice on TV and mix it all together and and call that their religon. I have a Christian friend who calls it "Cafeteria Christianity." Well I do not want there to be "Cafeteria Buddhists," either.

You follow Christ. Good for you!
I follow Buddha. Good for me.


Sangye

Buddha Bless the USA

[Iscool]

John LoGiudice of Paramus is a practicing Catholic who came to the lecture with several family members and friends to gain more knowledge of Buddhism. "I gained an insight of how the Buddhists and other cultures think and from what I gather - with Buddhism being an older culture - perhaps they are a little bit more advanced spiritually," LoGiudice said. "It's a journey. We're trying to learn more about it."

This person has clearly never had any contact with the Holy Spirit...But, he's a practicing Catholic...What's that mean???

[Mr. Silverback]

I'm a Catholic and there's a lot more philosophies I find more offensive than Zen.

Isn't that a bit of a strawman, though? Observe:

1. One would have to be a very bizarre person to put Zen at the top of the "offensive philosophies" list. Who, for example, would hate Zen more than they hated the views of Nazism or Marxism-Leninism? What Catholic would find Zen more offensive than the sort of hedonist narcissism that drives many homosexual activists?

2. The posters point was not that Zen was offensive, but that it isn't Christian.

Soooo...straw man. Big time.

[Mr. Silverback]

Zen also does not posit anything. Everythign is absurd, everything is nothing, everything is everything.

C.S. Lewis called the god-concept in the Eastern religions "an infinitely extended rice pudding."

[cyborg]

nice mani wheel

[Mr. Silverback]

I can't imagine why people think they can improve on the model of prayer given by Jesus himself.

[fat city]

You are right- Zen isn't Christian, and in fact, could very well be seen as secular- historically it was popular with Japanese military and martial arts.

[bnelson44]

For the christian trying to go deeper Zen meditation can be used as a tool. Many are put off by the Buddhist trappings of Zen. By having a christian context for Zen, Kennedy Roshi adds another path toward realizing the truth for oneself.

A Christian gets to heaven by following the teachings of Christ and the Church. He doesn't do it by another path which may or may not realize the truth. Prayer for a Christian was taught to us by Christ himself and "Christian prayer is ALWAYS determined by the structure of the Christian faith, in which the very truth of God and creature shines forth. For this reason, it is defined, properly speaking, as a personal, intimate and profound DIALOGUE between man and God. It expresses therefore the communion of redeemed creatures with the intimate life of the Persons of the Trinity. This communion, based on Baptism and the Eucharist, source and summit of the life of the Church, implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from "self" to the "You" of God. Thus Christian prayer is at the same time always authentically personal and communitarian. It flees from impersonal techniques or from concentrating on oneself, which can create a kind of rut, imprisoning the person praying in a spiritual privatism which is incapable of a free openness to the transcendental God. Within the Church, in the legitimate search for new methods of meditation it must always be borne in mind that the essential element of authentic Christian prayer is the meeting of two freedoms, the infinite freedom of God with the finite freedom of man." From:

LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON SOME ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN MEDITATION Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Emphasis mine.

[Mr. Silverback]

I think it comes from our materialistic and scholastic world view.

Agreed. There are too many people who think they can figure out God, and too many people who realize their materialism is a problem and try to solve it with a philosophy that puts away the material...but they forget the real answer to a lack of Jesus in your life is more Jesus, not reinventing the wheel.

[Coleus]

This person has clearly never had any contact with the Holy Spirit...But, he's a practicing Catholic...What's that mean??? >>

the Dali lama was just in jersey and what these newspaper reporters do is find these so-called "practicing" Catholics. If they were practicing Catholics they wouldn't be a these things. I bet Ted Kennedy calls himself a practicing catholic too.

[bnelson44]

I do not understand how a Catholic Christian can also be a Buddhist 'master.' From what I read of the posts, this Jesuit order is outside the mainstream of Catholic Christianity (? -or do I not understand?) .

They are today. They use to be very orthodox.

But the Zen Roshi's mentioned are outside of much of traditional Buddhist practice, as is much of American Zen.

From what little I understand of Zen, I tend to agree. He is making it up as he goes along, IMHO.

[cyborg]

If they were practicing Catholics they wouldn't be a these things.

*A priest certainly should not be!

[Mr. Silverback]

I have a Christian friend who calls it "Cafeteria Christianity." Well I do not want there to be "Cafeteria Buddhists," either.

Though I do not recognize your faith as Truth, I believe it deserves far too much respect for these people to treat it as just another fad. It also has the side effect of contributing to the common prejudice that Americans are shallow and have no respect for foreign cultures. Sad behavior, transparent fad-ism using the soul as an accessory.

[Mr. Silverback]

For the christian trying to go deeper Zen meditation can be used as a tool.

How exactly would one improve one's relationship with Christ by rejecting His models for prayer and for deepening the relationship?

[cyborg]

What is the difference between a buddhist prayer beads and a Catholic rosary?

[Mr. Silverback]

I have a lot of respect for the Dalai Lama, but it is respect for his guts, personal integrity and gracious manner. Any Christian who goes to one of his events expecting to hear religious truth might as well be reading the Weekly World News for their morning devotional. Smart man, kind man, but a teacher of Truth? Nope.

If such Christians call themselves "practicing Catholics," they sure need to keep practicing, because they suck. :-)

[bnelson44]

The purpose of the Rosary is to help keep in memory certain principal events or mysteries in the history of our salvation, and to thank and praise God for them. There are twenty mysteries reflected upon in the Rosary, and these are divided into the five joyful, five luminus, five sorrowful and five glorious mysteries. Praying the Rosary is a type of contemplation.

[Mr. Silverback]

What is the difference between a buddhist prayer beads and a Catholic rosary?

About ten bucks, depending on where you buy them. :-)

Excellent question. For starters, one is Buddhist and one is Catholic. It sounds like I'm being a smart aleck, but that really is the point. A christian has a path to greater relationship with Christ mapped out, and He even taught us how to pray. If a catholic takes their rosary beads and says, "Time for Buddhist meditation" they are leaving that path, no matter what kind of beads are in their hands.

Both are tools to help one remember prayers, but the view of Christian orthodoxy is that the prayers couldn't be more different.