In an atmosphere of meditative attentiveness more than a score of monks, nuns, and lay women and men interested in contemplative dialogue with Eastern monasticism assembled on Saturday evening, June 4,1977, to begin an intensive experience looking toward the promotion of fruitful communication between adherents of Eastern and Western world religions. Sponsored by the Benedictine Secretariate Aide Inter-Monasteres, (AIM in this report), the meeting brought together persons of the most diverse backgrounds and interests for communal meditation and discussion with experts in the various Asian cultures and religious faiths.

Following a welcoming reception and supper, participants assembled in a large pleasantly appointed room for the first formal session. Most subsequent discussions were held in this room. An opening prayer was offered by Father Mayeul de Dreuille.

Father Basil Pennington, organizer of the conference, welcomed participants and introduced Sister Dorothy, of the Sisters of the Assumption, hostesses for the meeting, who added her words of welcome. He then introduced Abbot Cornelius J.A. Tholens, of the AIM Secretariate, who gave the background history of the meeting and focused for participants the purposes of its organizers. A tall, gentle, disciplined man, he radiates peace and has the ability to ask a question or insert a remark from time to time which serves to re-focus discussion. As the person responsible for the AIM Secretariate activities in Asia, Abbot Tholens recently returned to the Netherlands after a number of years spent with Dom Bede Griffiths in India, convoked the present meeting, the first of two, the second to be held at Bethanie, in Belgium, August 21-29.

Since AIM exists to offer help to less fortunately situated monasteries and to indicate to those in a position to help what sort of assistance would be most helpful, these purposes are best served in the present instance by trying to establish clearly the goals of this conference:

1. To reflect together about the importance for monks and nuns to meet and understand, to respect, and even to assimilate certain values of the Asian religions.

2. To take the initiative in promoting inter-religious dialogue with Asian monks and Asian religions, as requested by the Roman Secretariate for Non-Christian religions.

3. And finally to arouse interest among Western monks and nuns in regard to the extreme importance of Asian cultures and religions for themselves and for the contemporary world.

We must recall that in our desire to study and assimilate certain Eastern religious values we are following the directives of Vatican II, which treated of the Church in relation to non-Christian religions in the document Nostra Aetate. Christians are there directed to recognize, guard, and promote the spiritual and moral values of Asian religions:

The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. . . .

The Church therefore urges her sons to enter with prudence and charity into discussion and collaboration with members of other religions. Let Christians, while witnessing to their own faith and way of life, acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture.

As the Abbot Primate said at Bangkok, East and West are relative concepts; from a cultural angle, East and West meet allover the world; and anthropology finds that each man can discover elements of East and West within himself. We are at a great turning point in the West as a result of technical changes and pancultural influences. To meet this challenge the Gospel message may have to be discovered in a new light and “our monasticism now must also, in its pluralism, seek to be pancultural”. As Father Jean LeClercq observed at Bangkok, we must free Christianity from a particular culture and open it up to the East, to Africa, and to the scientific world. Our monasticism must similarly be freed.

Father Bede Griffiths has said that for both cultural and theological reasons the time is past when Eastern and Western religions can exist apart from or in conflict with one another. Despite the conflicts of the past, they must meet today in a new way. It is no longer possible to be a mature Christian, a mature Hindu or Buddhist without taking account of other religions. Each must
be ready to listen to the other, to grow in mutual understanding. Eternal Truth has from the beginning been revealing itself to all men.

We are here at the behest of the Roman Secretariate for Non-Christians to take initiative in promoting interreligious dialogue with Asian religions. In 1974 Msgr. Moeller gave an outstanding conference on the role of monks in promoting hospitality by opening their monasteries to be prayer centers and meeting places for dialogue. At Bangalore the need for opening up monasteries in this way was again stressed, and appreciation for what has been done was expressed.

It is furthermore necessary to sensitize the entire monastic order to the need for this dialogue. In a letter to the Abbot Primate dated 12 June, 1974, Cardinal Pignedoli, of the Secretariate for Non-Christians, made it clear that the Roman Secretariate asks for this kind of activity:

. . . Historically, the monk is the outstanding type of the homo religiosis of all times, and as such, he attracts and serves as reference point for both Christians and non-Christians. The existence of monasticism at the heart of the Catholic Church is, in itself, a bridge connecting all religions.

If we are to approach Hinduism and Buddhism, not to mention others, without monastic experience we should hardly be considered religious men.

I am glad to take this opportunity to express my regard for the work of the Benedictine Order, especially through the AIM Secretariate, its undertaking in view of dialogue with non-Christian religions. I should like to encourage you, too, to promote this work within the Benedictine Confederation and develop it in every possible way. I am certain that by adopting this line of action, your Order will continue that service of evangelization which has already made it so illustrious in the Church.—Signed Crd. Pignedoli—P. Rosseno, Secretary

With such encouragement, the Abbot Primate asked the AIM Council at a Paris meeting to submit some suggestions, to start the work the Bangalore encounter had so keenly perceived as a need. These are the main points the Council drew up and the Abbot Primate approved:

The secretariate should start a section for inter-religious dialogue (indicated by the letters AIM-DIM). Documentation should be available at Vanves for monks and nuns who want to be updated on what has been done, said or written on the subject, or who plan to take part in inter-religious dialogue through the monastic world. One section of the AIM Bulletin should deal with the same question. All this is being done.

In answer to an inquiry as to how those interested in the dialogue could communicate efficiently, some 20 replies were received in which the need for such a meeting as the present one was emphasized. The present meeting is the outcome of a decision of the Council of AIM in June, 1976.

This conference has the very practical aim of helping monks and nuns, as representatives of the monastic world, make better known the Oriental renaissance, the discovery of mankind’s inexhaustible riches in Asian cultures and religions, of promoting a more universal humanism and establishing communion which will result in the using of each one’s characteristic heritage for the benefit of all.

In the quest for ultimate meaning in human existence, there is a monk in every man, and each one faces the task of integrating this dimension of himself. The monastic experience can be a bond of unity transcending dividing lines between religions. Merton pointed out that common contemplative experience must precede the dialogue and theology. The study of Hinduism, it has been said, is gaining popularity in the West partly in reaction against materialism. We are living at a moment in history when the Church is for the first time beginning a serious encounter with the Oriental tradition.

The monastic congresses at Bangkok (1968) and Bangalore (1973) showed the authenticity of the values of non-Christian monasticism, but at the same time the fact that these values are not sufficiently recognized by Christian Monasticism. How can we help the West open out to the East? The East around us. How can we help others share in this task? How make Christian monasticism known in the East?

Some suggestions: we need a list of experts, East and West; of monasteries; of useful publications. We need exchange of persons between East and West; visits to ashrams. How can we instruct our Christian monks in techniques and methods of Asian meditation? Yoga, etc.

In answer to questions, Abbot Tholens pointed to some texts to be found in the New Testament which can serve as links to Yogic doctrines. Contact is most possible at the highest point of each religious tradition: this contact may be made in silence, but very really. In this way the East-West dialogue differs from ecumenical reflections among Christians. We need to start where we are one, in the Spirit of God. Even as Christians we must go beyond all thought. One is first a human being, then a Christian, then a monk. Christians are always “on the way” to God. The monk, as homo religiosis, is a point of reference for all men; each of us has a point of reference to the infinite.

The evening concluded, as did each subsequent evening, with a short prayer service led by Father Basil. The following day’s work began, as did that of each day of the meeting, with a meditation period of an hour guided by Abbot Tholens or by another Master making use of the Asian insights into the divine nature available also to Christians. “These prayer services, as well as the daily liturgies at 5 p.m., were held in a room adjoining the main meeting room. The prayer room was furnished with cushions for those who preferred to pray seated in the Eastern postures. The adornment of the altar (quite empty on a day of discussion of Zen; adorned with flowers situated at eight points of the compass when the emphasis was Hindu) and the style of the meditation carried out the Eastern themes. A short prayer service drawing from the Chinese tradition, prepared by Sister Helen Wang, concluded each morning session.