Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Meeting Fr. Bede on the Path

I was a Benedictine Oblate of the Anglican community at Nashdom when in the mid 1960’s I was studying for the priesthood in the Anglican Church at St. Stephen’s House in Oxford so it was not unexpected that I was attracted to Fr. Bede Griffith’s book, The Golden String. I had visited Prinknash once before so I already knew the community and I found his commitment to Interreligious Dialogue extremely interesting. At about the same time I was reading the documents of the Second Vatican Council especially Nostra Aetate on the Catholic Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions. I was particularly taken with what was said about Buddhism. As I was endeavouring to live a life of contemplative prayer and spirituality I encouraged reading it saying “Buddhism in its various forms...proposes a way of life by which people can, with confidence and trust attain a state of perfect liberation and reach supreme illumination.” Furthermore it authenticated my engagement in real dialogue with Buddhists when went on to say: The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions……The Church therefore urges its sons and daughters to enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions and to acknowledge the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians.
This desire to be open to enrichment from Zen Buddhism didn’t really come into its own for me until 1983 when, after spending 15 years as an Anglican priest, my wife and I moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma where I was accepted as a married Roman Catholic priest. It was my good fortune at that time to have Osage Monastery almost on the doorstep. Osage was a small community of Benedictine women religious established by Sister Pascaline Coff after she had spent a sabbatical year with Fr. Bede in Shantivanam. The monastery was built in a 50 acre forest in Osage Indian territory. Fr. Bede came from India to do a traditional blessing of the land and buildings thus establishing it as the first Benedictine Ashram in North America. In subsequent years Fr. Bede always came to visit Osage Monastery for a week or so during his visits to the United States. During those visits I was able to spend a good deal of time in conversation with him and received much encouragement. By concelebrating the Eucharist with him I was also able to learn how to preside at it in the Indian style which was most helpful when I acted as Chaplain to the Community from 1990 – 1995.
In my conversations with Fr. Bede we touched on my Zen practice. Fr. Bede was most encouraging, reminding me that Zen grew out of the Hindu tradition and it still had many close associations in its deepest roots. ( Here Fr. Bede used his familiar demonstration using his fingers and the palm of his hand to show that all the world religions come together at their deepest and most fundamental level.)
Although I had begun using my own style of Zen meditation inspired very much by the writings of Thomas Merton during the 1980’s it was at Osage Monastery that I was first introduced to a genuine Zen Roshi. Ruben Habito Roshi came to lead the Sisters in their annual retreat. Following my attendance at this retreat I was accepted as a serious Zen student by Ruben in 1990. This marked the time when my Zen practice developed more authentically. My priestly assignment in the Diocese at that time was to be Diocesan Director of Spiritual Formation. As part of my work under this rather grand title I had started some contemplative prayer groups. Although still called Contemplative prayer groups they developed into The Monos community who gradually under my direction became much like a Zen Sangha.
In 2001 I was due for a month long sabbatical time. A member of the Monos Community had offered to pay for me to travel to Japan to study at a Zen monastery there. I carefully considered this but I was eventually drawn to participate in the month long residency programme at Zen Mountain Monastery located in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. This monastery was regarded as one of the very best Zen training monasteries in the West. Daido Loori Roshi, the Abbot of the Monastery had trained with the Japanese Zen master Taizan Maezumi Roshi who came to Los Angeles in the 1950’s. The books by both Taizan Maezumi and Daido helped m a lot in my practice to I decided that I would spend the whole month of October at the monastery under the direction of Daido Roshi. The experience of this time was so powerful that with Ruben Habito’s agreement I became a formal student with Daido Roshi.
During all this time I was still connected with the work of Fr. Bede as I had transferred my stability as a Benedictine Oblate to the Camaldolese Benedictine Community at Big Sur, California. During my visits there for retreats and some solitary time in a hermitage I became really good friends with Fr. Cyprian Consiglio who is a member of that community. Fr. Cyprian has studied the writings of Fr. Bede and spent quite a lot of time at the ashram in Shantivanam. Like me he is really dedicated to the work of interreligious dialogue and spends quite a lot of time each year travelling all over the world to teach the message of Fr. Bede using words and music which he composes using words and melodies from many different world religions.
It will be no great surprise that when I retired from the work I was doing in Tulsa in 2004 and returned to live in England it was not long before I started a Zen sitting group in the Cotswolds. Since 2006 we have become The Wild Goose Zen Sangha which meets each Thursday evening at St. Lawrence’s Church at Chesterton in Cirencester. When I came back to England however I could no longer fulfil the requirements for being a student of Daido Loori Roshi. Because of my longstanding friendship with Fr. Robert Kennedy who is both a Jesuit priest and a Zen Roshi I asked him to accept me as a Zen student. He readily agreed and in 2009, with the agreement of Bishop Declan the Catholic Bishop of Clifton, he passed transmission to me and authorised me as a Zen Sensei (teacher) in the Zen White Plum Asanga Lineage which had been founded by Roshi Taizan Maezumi.
I was pleased to have my work further affirmed by the publication in 2010 of a teaching document from the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales named Meeting God in Friend and Stranger. In it they report that Pope Benedict, during his visit to Turkey in 2006, declared that Dialogue was not an option but a necessity. It seems to me that there can be no better way of responding to this than by using a practice of prayer drawn from another religious tradition which is also perfectly compatible with the Christian Faith. After all Yamada Roshi a Japanese Zen master used to say two things to Christians who came to study Zen practice with him; There is no difference between a Christian and a Zen Buddhist at prayer: they are both light sitting in light. Alternatively he would tell his Christian enquirers that: I am not trying to make you a Buddhist but to teach you to empty yourself as did your Lord Jesus Christ.
In my own life I have found that the Christian tradition is splendid on the theory and theology of contemplative prayer but lacking in given instruction on how to do it. For those who are drawn to a contemplative style of prayer beyond words and images Zen can be a positive and practical way of entering into a practice which puts one in touch with the truth of one’s own true self and the truth of all reality. Zen offers something very simple, very direct and is readily accessible to all.
If you are interested in exploring this further I have included the Wild Goose Zen Sangha programme for 2012. I suggest that newcomers to Zen would be advised to come as a taster to one of our Zazenkai (Zen days).
© Patrick Eastman





Wild Goose Zen Sangha 2012 schedule

January 28 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

February 24-26 Sesshin (residential) at Marian Centre Nympsfield
February 25 Zazenkai at Minster Abbey Thanet

March 24 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

April 13 – 15 Sesshin (residential) at Ladywell, Godalming, Surrey
April 28 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

May 12 Zazenkai with Fr. Jinsen Kennedy Roshi at Ladywell, Godalming, Surrey
May 26 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

June 23 Zazenkai at Minster Abbey
June 30 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

July 14 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

September 28 – 30 Sesshin (residential) at Barns Conference centre Toddington.

October 13 Zazenkai at Minster Abbey
October 20 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

November 9- 11 Sesshin (residential) at Turvey Abbey, Nr. Bedford
November 17 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

December 15 Zazenkai at St. Lawrence Church Cirencester

For further information or to register for any of these events
please contact Jenny Averbeck at avrc62@dsl.pipex.com
Telephone 01227 766734

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