Quakerism, Buddhism and the Peace Council
I have had a Buddhist-Christian “internal dialogue” going on inside me for some 30 years. Born and raised in a mainstream Protestant church, I was so deeply attracted to Buddhism that I came both to practice it and to become a scholar of it. At present, I am both a Quaker and a Buddhist.
When I gave a talk on Buddhism and Quakerism at an FGC Gathering one year, I learned that many Friends are in the same situation. When I asked, “How many of you have taken Buddhism into your spiritual lives in some way?” about 85—90% of the Friends in the room indicated that they had. I discovered that many Friends have been asking the same questions as I: Are Buddhism and Quakerism (or Christianity) really compatible? What about God? Is it possible to be both a Quaker and a Buddhist? Which worldview do I subscribe to, or do I subscribe to both?
As long as one is asking those questions of oneself, one might as well pay attention to the “external dialogue” going on all around us between Buddhists and Christians. I became involved with this dialogue through the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies as it was being formed. Though the Society has its home base in the academic world, its membership includes many ordained, monastic and lay persons. It has always tried to balance attention to philosophical and religious questions, spiritual practice and engagement with social issues. Like many Friends, I am both a religious person and someone who is concerned with social issues. I cannot wall these things off from each other; they are inter-dependent. The best dialogue, in my view, incorporates them all.
I have served in several offices in the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, including its presidency, and as a consequence I was invited to serve as a trustee of the Peace Council. The
Peace Council is an international, interfaith non-government organization. While religion is often blamed as a cause of violence and war, the Peace Council’s purpose is to demonstrate that inter-religious collaboration can also help to make peace. The Society began at the suggestion of the Dalai Lama, and the Peace Councilors are internationally-known religious leaders such as the Reverend Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire, Swami Agnivesh and Imam W. Deen Mohammed, among others. The Trustees are ordinary mortals like me who have a background in interfaith work and who meet as a board to make decisions about policies and plan events. The Peace Council has a challenging mission, helping to build world peace! However, since the goal and method of interreligious, intercultural and international cooperation and friendship are the same, whatever the Peace Council does helps to make the world a better place. Wonderful friendships have developed among the Peace Councilors and the trustees. Individuals from the group have traveled across the world to help another member of the group, or to further an action in which the Peace Council is involved.
One such instance of collaboration and support can be found in the work of the Peace Council in Israel/Palestine. We traveled to Jerusalem in May of 2000, before the outbreak of the current intifada, at the invitation of Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, who is a Reform rabbi there. After several days of listening to Israelis and Palestinians tell their stories, the Buddhists on the Peace Council, despite their sympathy and compassion for the suffering on both sides, were feeling out of harmony with what they were hearing. Finally, Chatsumarn Kabilsingh, then a Thai Buddhist laywoman and now a Buddhist nun, said that she could not understand, in her heart, what the Israelis and Palestinians were saying. She saw them as “nourishing their suffering” with their vows to “never forget,” whereas she had been trained to “let go” of suffering. This broke the ice, with other Buddhists expressing their agreement. Later, our host, Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, said that he finally understood why so many Jews were becoming so interested in Buddhism. In Judaism, he said, there is such an emphasis on remembering the suffering of the people that it can become an unbearable burden. Jews, he said, long for a way to put that burden down. Buddhism can offer a way.
On Holocaust Memorial Day the Peace Council visited Hebrew Union College and heard an intensely emotional presentation on the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. Afterwards, Geshe Sopa, a Tibetan monk and scholar, spontaneously spoke in a stunning way to our hosts at the College. He pointed out that the Tibetans have suffered greatly from the Chinese invasion and occupation: millions of Tibetans have died, and many others have survived torture and imprisonment. But, he said, the Tibetans do not hate the Chinese. They regard the situation as a result of the karma (past actions) of the Chinese and the Tibetans. He stressed that it is important to have compassion for mistakes made out of ignorance and from an egocentric viewpoint and to try to find a peaceful solution for all. A few days later, when the Peace Council visited the Deheishe Camp for Palestinian refugees, Geshe Sopa spoke similar words. On both occasions, those who heard these words reacted with stunned silence.
These events were the most profound instance of two worldviews entirely missing each other that I have ever witnessed. Neither the Buddhists nor the Jews or Muslims could really understand what the other side was talking about. The two worldviews could not find a meeting point. Yet it is this incommensurability that made this encounter such an opportunity for spiritual, psychological and intellectual growth. Perhaps some seeds were planted that might help the conflict to be seen in a different light. Who knows what ripple effects this encounter might produce in time?
Looking back upon these and other encounters I have had over the years, I would list the main reasons for engaging in interreligious interaction as the following:
- Reaching out in friendship is an essential part of peace making. For most people, there is nothing more important to them than their religion, and this dimension of identity and “otherness” cannot be overlooked.
- Encountering another religion challenges one into spiritual growth in a way that nothing else can.
- It brings great joy.
Sallie B. King is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. She is the author of many books and articles on Buddhism, Engaged Buddhism, Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the cross-cultural philosophy of religion. She is former co-clerk of Harrisonburg Friends Meeting, a trustee of the international and interfaith Peace Council, and serves on FGC’s Christian and Interfaith Relations Committee (CIRC).
