Q: I read of your retreat at Garrison Institute, which I have also visited and it is wonderful. The struggle that I have is, as a Christian, the large statue of Buddha. I noticed many people bowing during the retreat as they left the hall daily, but as a Christian I did not. Can you share your thoughts of visiting this space as a Christian and the Buddha statue in particular. I feel conflicted about going back because of this. I love the teachings, the community, but I am a believer in Jesus as my savior and worry that there is a conflict.
A: Thank you for sharing your struggle. As a Christian who has meditated with Buddhists and Hindus and has spent a lot of time on retreat at the Garrison institute, I find your question very resonant.
Thomas Keating, following in the tradition of Thomas Merton, was a pioneer in interfaith dialogue, organizing gatherings and conferences for religious leaders of all faiths. In the early days of Centering Prayer, he consulted Zen masters to ask their advice about how to structure Centering Prayer retreats and integrate walking and sitting forms of meditation into the retreat schedule. The picture of him below giving the Dalai Lama a little kiss says a lot about his love and respect for people of other faith traditions. I was once on a retreat at Garrison at which Father Thomas was speaking and he turned and looked at the big Buddha sitting behind him as he spoke and said with a smile, “He’s not bothering me back there!”
There are many Buddhists who come to Garrison on retreat and there have been many Centering Prayer retreats there over the years. To me there is something beautiful about this meeting of meditation traditions in a space blessed for many years by the faithful prayers of the Franciscan monks who lived there, resulting in a tremendous accumulation of spiritual energy. You can respect this confluence of spiritual energies without needing to bow to the Buddha yourself if that does not feel right for you. While other religions can offer opportunities to encounter the one God in forms that touch our hearts and souls in new ways and open us to otherness and transformation, nevertheless, God makes Godself available to other people in ways that may not be for us. There are many ways of being in spiritual community and you can share space with seekers from other faith traditions while honoring your own relationship with Jesus. Jesus may not be the only path to God, but he may be the only path for you.
Have you brought your questions to Jesus in your prayer? I would suggest that you offer him all your discomfort and questions and then listen to how he answers you in your heart. How does he want you to love him? Can you see his face and feel his energy in other spiritual traditions? What does Jesus require from you in terms of faithfulness and loyalty? Would your respectful acknowledgment of other faith traditions detract from your faithfulness or are your experiences at Garrison an invitation to be with Jesus in a new way?
Together with Jesus in prayer you can discern the answers that are right for you as you follow your own unique path. A spiritual director or spiritual companion might be helpful in exploring some of these questions.
Warm regards,
Lindsay Boyer
And included here are two responses received after this Q&A was published in 2024 March:
- “Lindsay Boyer’s words in “the Meeting of Meditation Traditions” brought something to completion for me. I recall as a young man thinking that if Buddha and Jesus met, they would collaborate, they would be friends, they would not be in conflict over religion. The picture of Thomas and the Dalai Lama is for me a meeting of Jesus and Buddha in our time! Surely Jesus and Buddha were alive and present in those two men on that day. For me, this is a reminder that we are called to this kind of friendship with all sincere seekers on the spiritual path. One of Thomas’ sayings gives me hope in this regard: In Christ there is perfect Unity and infinite diversity. Thanks for this message of Unity.”
- “Thank you. For months I have been asking God a question and I actually just received my answer. For months now I’ve read the e-newsletter and there was always this feeling of disquiet in my Spirit. I would tell myself to shake it off in my desire to learn contemplative prayer. But when I read your answer to the young lady’s question about the Buddha statue, the ‘alarm bells’ in my spirit were too loud to ignore. There is only One way to God and that is Jesus Christ. The one who said that was Jesus (John 14:6) and He continued to say that ‘… no one comes to the Father except through Me’. If you don’t believe that, you may be a very nice person, but you are not a Christian. I wish I was able to warn my Christian sister of the danger being taught. I have unsubscribed myself.”
We bless both of these respondents with all Goodness as they go deeper into the heart of God. May Contemplative Outreach be a community for all contemplatives, where all voices are heard, and all faithful beliefs can be held together in prayer as we journey together, discerning our call.
