Worth Abbey

I am very glad to be here to take part in this interesting day conference. Thank you for inviting me. Worth Abbey is a fitting place for us to meet and we are grateful to the Abbot and the community. Several modern spiritual teachers have insisted that Meditation and Social Action are interdependent. I want first to share what some of them have said. I then want to suggest how our meditation can energise our search for justice, reconciliation, care for the suffering and respect for our planet.

Just this week I came across this quotation from Raimon Panikkar, which seems appropriate: ‘The modern monk does not want to renounce, except what is plainly sinful or negative; rather he wishes to transform all things.’[1] Words of Wayne Teasdale, of blessed memory, who explained why he chose to be ‘a monk in the world’ also seem to be appropriate. ‘I want to identify with and be identified with all those who suffer alone in the world, who are abandoned, homeless, unwanted, unknown and unloved.’[2]

Holy people, traditionally, have withdrawn from the world in their search for the Divine. In recent years, a new pattern of spirituality, which draws inspiration from all the great faiths, has emerged in which the pursuit of holiness takes place in the midst of a non-violent struggle for peace and justice and in the service of the poor. Mahatma Gandhi said once that ‘If I could find God in a Himalayan cave, I would proceed there at once, but I can only find him in the service of the poor.’[3] Maha Ghosananda, a Buddhist leader, came back from a monastic life in exile to help his people of Cambodia in their agony. ‘We Buddhists’, he said, ‘must find courage to leave our temples and enter the temples of human experience, temples that are filled with suffering. If we listen to the Buddha, Christ or Gandhi, we can do nothing else. The refugee camps, the prisons, the ghettos and the battle fields will then become our temples.’[4]

[In a similar way, the Dalai Lama has written, ‘My call for a spiritual revolution is not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly… Rather it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected.’[5]]

I could add many other witnesses. It is significant that many of those in the twentieth century who will have the lasting influence were people of deep spirituality – Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama. Their inspiration will be remembered when only historians recall Chairman Mao or Stalin and other tyrants.

How to balance spirituality or to use today’s title ‘mediation’ and social action is something we each need to work out for ourselves. For some their most effective witness is by their withdrawal which gives them the insight to see through the assumptions of a greedy society. As Thomas Merton said in a paper given in Bangkok on the day of his death, ‘The monk is essentially someone who takes a critical attitude towards the contemporary world and its structures.’[6] It may also be that the mystic has clearer eyes with which to see the deceit and corruption of society. Fr Alfred Delp, a Jesuit who was imprisoned in Nazi Germany, believed like Merton that solitude was a vital pre-requisite for the awakening of the social conscience. He said, ‘Great issues affecting mankind have to be decided in the wilderness, in uninterrupted isolation and unbroken silence. They hold a meaning and a blessing, these great, silent, empty spaces that bring a man face to face with reality.’[7] Those who are called to engage actively in the world need an inner detachment, which spiritual exercises help to develop. Otherwise they will exhaust themselves and experience ‘compassion-fatigue.’

How is it then that our times of withdrawal equip us for life in the world?

When I was doing notes on the authors of prayers which I included in my 1,000 World Prayers, I was at first surprised that so many had spent time in prison – some had even been put to death. But then I realized that those who see most vividly God’s will for the world will be the most critical of abuse and active in social reform. So, first, as we wait in the presence of the Holy, we gain a picture of the world ‘as God’s love would make it.’ Martin Luther King, in those famous words, declared, ‘I have adream’ and if we have then we will feel impelled to try to realise it and to campaign for justice and for the ‘kingdom of God.’

But this is tough going and it is easy to give up. I remember attending a meeting, arranged by the United Nations Association, at the height of the Cold War, at which the question was asked, ‘What have religions to offer?’ and the then Archbishop Robert Runcie replied, ‘Hope.’ Because – to use theistic language – we believe this is God’s world for which God has a purpose, we believe that in the end truth, goodness and justice are stronger than falsehood, hatred and oppression. As Gandhi said, ‘I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persist.’ ‘Lead us from despair to hope.’

As we our still, we may not only catch a glimpse of God’s purposes for the world but also feel a oneness with the divine and all living beings. As Francis Younghusband said of his mystical experience during the Welsh Revival in the early years of the twentieth century, ‘ I felt as if I were in love with every man and woman in the world.’ That experience inspires compassion and forgiveness.

The Tibetan Buddhist practice of tonglen (Tibetan for ‘giving and taking’) is a good way to develop compassion. First, you focus on a suffering individual or group. Breathe in deeply and feel yourself drawing in all their emotional pain, right into your heart, making their grief your own. Then, as you breathe out, send love, warmth, kindness and compassion to people who are suffering – replacing – in the hope that their fear and pain will be replaced by courage and some acceptance. [There are similar practices in other faith traditions, but the Bodhissatva’s vow can be an inspiration for us all

May I become at all times, both now and forever,

A protector for those without protection,

A guide for those who have lost their way,

A ship for those with oceans to cross,

A bridge for those with rivers to cross,

A sanctuary for those in danger,

A lamp for those in need of light,

A place of refuge for those in need of shelter,

And a servant to all those in need. ]

The sense of oneness means that we recognise God’s presence in the other, especially the deprived and marginalised. Jalal al-Din Rumi tells of the time when God rebuked Moses, saying, ‘I am God, I fell sick; but you did not come.’ Moses asked God to explain. God said again, ‘Why didn’t you kindly ask after me when I was sick.’ Moses answered, ‘O Lord, you are never ill. I don’t understand: explain the meaning of these words.’ God said, ‘Yes, a favourite and chosen slave of mine fell sick. I am he. Consider well: his infirmity, his sickness is my sickness.’ [This is reminiscent of Jesus’ parable of the Sheep and the Goats. The righteous are surprised when the king says to them ‘I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and your received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the king explains, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’[8]]

But as Howard Thurman has said, ‘It is much easier within the context of mystical piety to identify with the sufferer, the hungry, the poor, the neglected, than with those whose power, privilege and insensitivity are largely responsible for the social ills.’ [9] Gandhi also asked, ‘How is one to treat alike insulting, insolent, and corrupt officials, co-workers of yesterday raising meaningless opposition and people who have always been good to one?’[10]

This sense of oneness also makes forgiveness possible. Once you can begin to think of the other not as ‘the enemy’ or as a ‘terrorist’, but as a person, your feelings change. [An Israeli soldier has said how his whole outlook was changed when he had to search the body of an Arab who had been shot. In his inside pocket there were pictures of the dead man’s wife and children who were much the same age as the soldier’s own son and daughter.] Daisaku Ikeda, the President of Soka Gakkai International, tells how deeply he was affected by his mother’s example. Soon after she had been told that her eldest son had been killed in action in Burma, an American pilot parachuted to earth near their house. Japanese soldiers seized him and began to beat him and kick him. Daisaka’s mother protested, saying, ‘Think how worried the American’s mother must be about her son.’

If the sense of oneness inspires empathy with other people, the experience of the Divine transcends all our dogmas and doctrines. This is the true basis for ‘a fellowship of faiths.’ Kathleen de Beaumont, one of the ‘wise women’ of the Congress when I joined it over forty years ago, said, ‘We believe that, in the Great Unity, we are members one of another.’[11]

[Those who have had such an experience find it more convincing than the claims that one religion has a monopoly of truth, even if some scriptures suggest that this is the case.

By what name shall I call upon you,

Who are beyond all name!

You, the Beyond-all, what name shall I give you?...

All names are given to you and yet none can comprehend you.

How shall I name you then, O you, the Beyond-all name?[12]

Asked the Church Father Gregory of Nazianzus (329-89) and many mystics who claim to have experienced the holiness and presence of God agree that language fails them to describe the Holy One – even if many of them have written at length.]

Finally, our sense of oneness, deepens our concern for the natural world – for the welfare of animals and the protection of the planet. [Father Thomas Berry, a leading environmental theologian, insists that religions have to recognise that that ‘the universe is now experienced as an irreversible time-developmental process… Not so much a cosmos as a cosmogenesis.’[13] This implies that human beings are co-creators with God. For weal or woe, the future is in human hands. ‘The first great contribution this new perspective makes to religious consciousness’, writes Father Berry, ‘is the sense of participating in the creation process itself. We bear within us the impress of every transformation through which the universe and the planet have passed.’[14] This also means that human beings have to see themselves as part of the earth community and recognise that all life is bound together. Fr. Thomas Berry has written ‘We are earthlings. The Earth is our origin, our nourishment, our support, our guide. Our spirituality itself is Earth-derived.’[15]]

Perhaps it is only as we recognise our inter-connectedness with all life that we shall find a vision to motivate us to seek a new world order. Pictures of the earth taken from space have provided such a vision for some people and have been called a symbol for our age. Astronauts David Brown and Kalpana Chawla, who both died in the Columbia spacecraft disaster, spoke of the magical beauty of our planet as seen from space. [‘If I’d been born in space,’ David Brown said, ‘I would desire to visit beautiful Earth more than I ever yearned to visit space. It’s a wonderful planet.’] Kalpana Chawla said, ‘The first view of Earth is magical… in such a small planet, with such a small ribbon of life, so much goes on. You get the feeling that I need to work extraordinarily hard along with other human beings to respect that.’[16]

It is significant that like those who have explored outer space, mystics – people of deep prayer and meditation - who have explored inner space proclaim the same message of unity. The French Jesuit and palaeontologist Teilhard de Chardin said, ‘I live at the heart of a single, unique Element, the Centre of the Universe, and present in each part of it; personal Love and cosmic Power.’[17] The environmentalist, Jane Goodall , has written, ‘We are moving toward the ultimate destiny of our species – a state of compassion and love.’[18]

As we wait in prayer and meditation, we may be aware of the dawn of a new era. But I do not think it is inevitable, which is why if we have glimpsed its possibility we have a responsibility to allow ourselves to be used for its realization. Mediation and Social Action go together. As Mairead Maguire, the Irish Nobel Peace Prize Winner, has said, ‘Dream the impossible, then so live that the dream is fulfilled’[19] or as an Indian child put it more succinctly, ‘Dream and Sweat.’

2,186.

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[1] Quoted in Monastic Interreligious Dialogue Bulletin, 2006/2, p. 19 from Raimon Panikkar, Blessed Simplicity, the Monk as a Universal Archetype, Seabury Press, pp. 34-5.

[2] Wayne Teasdale, A Monk in the World, New World Library, 2002, p. xxix.

[3] Quoted from Harijan in Bede Griffiths, Christian Ashram, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1966, p. 127

[4] Reproduced in Buddhist Peacework: Creating Cultures of Peace

[5] The Dalai Lama, Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for a New Millennium, Little, Brown and Company, 1999, p. 24

[6] Quoted by Kenneth Leech, The Social God, Sheldon 1981, p. 45

[7] The Prison Meditations of Father Alfred Delp, 1963, p. 95, quoted by Kenneth Leech, The Social God, Shjeldon press 1981, p. 41.

[8] Matthew, 25, 35-40.

[9] From Henry Thurman, ‘Mysticism and Social Action: Breathing in and Breathing Out.’

[10] Quoted in My Life With Martin Luther King, p. 193.

[11] Both references are from the WCF’s journal Forum, No 21, June 1954, p. 21.

[12] English translation is by Mary Rogers in World Faiths, no 99, Summer 1976.

[13] Dr Thomas Berry, ‘The Cosmology of Religions’, in A Source Book for Earth’s Community of Religions, CoNexus Press, 1995 edtn, p. 95

[14] ‘The Cosmology of Religions’, p. 96.

[15] Thomas Berry quoted in ‘The Cosmology of Religions’, p. 98. See als, Thomas Berry, ‘The Spirituality of the Earth’ in Celebrating Earth Holy Days, Ed. Susan J Clark, Crossroad, 1992,

pp.69-82.

[16] Quoted in Marcus Braybrooke, 265 Meditations for a Peaceful Heart and a Peaceful World, Godsfield , 2004, p. 380

[17] Teilhard de Chardin, quoted in ‘The Cosmology of Religions’, p. 97,

[18] Jane Goodall, reason for Hope, Warner Books, 1999, p. 267.

[19] Mairead Corrigan Maguire, The Vision of Peace, Orbis Books, 1999.