© Lawrence Freeman, 2000 and 2010
Published in 2010 by SCM Press
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978 1-84825-037-6
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CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, SN14 6LH
For Rosie
‘They are strangers in the world as I am.’
–Jesus (Jn 17:16)
Contents
Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
3 Self-Knowledge and Friendship
The World Community for Christian Meditation
Acknowledgements
In 1995 the World Community for Christian Meditation invited me to give the annual John Main Seminar entitled ‘On Jesus’. This book took its first shape in those lectures at the University of San Diego. Since then many have helped and encouraged me and I celebrate them for helping me bring the book to its present form. I am particularly grateful for the help and encouragement of Professor Gerald O’Collins SJ for focusing me and for invaluable advice. Professor Robert Kiely, Fr. Brian Johnstone CSsR, Dr. Robin Daniels, Carla Cooper, Giovanni Felicioni, Doreen Romandini, Clem Sauvé, Teresa da Bertodano, Shirley du Boulay, John Little, and Dominic Schofield gave me the insights of their readings through several revisions. Polly and Mark Schofield helped generously with the notes and Susan Spence with the proofs. Dr Balfour Mount gave a final and most valuable review of the manuscript. My monastic community of the Monastery of Christ the King, Cockfosters, has enriched this book with its friendship, tolerance of my ways and much personal support. Meditators in the World Community have everywhere been my teachers and the love emerging from the silence of meditation with them has sustained and inspired this book on many occasions. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has, through the extraordinary dialogue of the past few years, asked illuminating questions that were more filled with consciousness of Jesus than answers often are. His love of truth and openness to what is different has often returned me to the gospels with new insight. To Doreen and those others who have died and also for those with whom the divisions of life have occurred I hope this book can be a sign both of gratitude and the healing of Christ that is unlimited by time or space.
Foreword
More than forty years ago, as a young man, I left my homeland as a refugee. Since then the sorrows that have befallen the Tibetan people have mounted up and the difficulties that I have faced as their leader have not diminished. However, there are often unexpected rewards to be found even in the darkest of times. And for me personally, one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life in exile has been the opportunity to make friends all over the world. From the many religious practitioners I have befriended I have learned the truth that it is not only the goal of all religions to help us to become better human beings, but that they are indeed capable of doing so. Moreover, it is my experience that when we overcome our doubts and suspicions and approach each other with respect, there is much that we can learn from one another.
However, I do not advocate attempting to unify our various traditions. I firmly believe that we need different religious traditions, because a single tradition cannot satisfy the needs and mental dispositions of the great variety of human beings. At the same time I do not believe that people should lightly change the religion of their birth. What we need to do is to develop an understanding of the differences in our various traditions and to recognise the value and potential of each of them. Indeed, I believe that one of the benefits of achieving an inner transformation in our own spiritual lives is that our experience helps us appreciate the value of other traditions, rather than the exclusive preciousness of our own.
Although I am no expert on Christian doctrine and its scriptures, my meetings with Christian brothers and sisters have reinforced my conviction that many common strands can be found in our spiritual endeavours. I am therefore honoured to have been invited by my good friend Father Laurence Freeman to contribute a few words of introduction to this book.
As a Buddhist monk I am filled with admiration for the deep Christian sense of community and social responsibility. It is an inspiration to see practical expression of this in the dedicated work that so many Christian monks and nuns perform in the fields of education, health care, alleviation of poverty and so forth. This aspect of compassion in action is something I continue to encourage within the monastic bodies of Tibetan Buddhism.
Meanwhile, many of my Christian brothers and sisters, led notably by such figures as Thomas Merton and John Main, have taken up the practice of meditation in their daily lives. This is very important, for I believe that if we combine prayer, meditation and contemplation in our daily practice, it will be very