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Learning from Eastern Traditions
SERMON - 10.15am, Sunday 16th November 2008, Hong Kong
Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam.
Revd. Matthew Vernon
As many of you know, interfaith activity has been a feature of my work here.
We held our fourth interfaith day of peace at St. John's Cathedral last weekend.
Sister Nishita spoke about peace from a Hindu perspective
Rabbi Stan Zamek shared a Jewish method for focusing on the present moment.
Two teenager girls danced wonderful Hindu dances in beautiful Indian dresses.
A Buddhist drum group got us on our feet.
Yuen Hong Chau led us through a Daoist meditation.
It was a wonderful afternoon of mutual sharing and learning and friendship.
Interfaith activity has been a feature of my work here.
Tao Fong Shan Christian Centre on the hill above Shatin is one of my favourite places in Hong Kong with its Chinese architecture and Christ Chapel that looks like a Temple.
Also its logo of a cross on a lotus flower.
The lotus flower is a Buddhist symbol of enlightenment.
The cross, for Christians, is the way to enlightenment.
Interfaith activity is one of my "talents", to use the language of this morning's Gospel,
• and I feel (rightly or wrongly) that I've had a good return on my investment.
I have learnt a great deal through my interfaith work
• and I'm deeply enriched by my relationships with people of other religions.
That has been the experience of many Western Christians who have spent time "in the East" and have engaged with eastern traditions.
Tao Fong Shan was founded as a Christian Mission to Buddhist by Karl Ludvig Riechelt.
He arrived in China in 1903 with negative notions about non-Christian religions,
• but he soon developed interest in Chinese religion, particularly Buddhism.
He made many friends in Buddhist monasteries all over China.
And he founded Tao Fong Shan as a place where Buddhists could meet Christians in an atmosphere of friendship.
The Chinese architecture was so Buddhist monks would feel at home in familiar surroundings.
Reichelt's experience, and that of many Western missionaries, has been described as the "conversion of the missionaries".
That's not to say they abandoned their Christian faith to become Buddhists or Daoists,
• but they were converted to a larger faith –
• a Christian vision which discovered that God is present and active in all cultures.
They were converted to a larger faith –
• a Christian vision which discovered that God is present and active in all cultures.
That has been my experience.
I didn't come to Hong Kong as a traditional missionary exactly,
• but my faith and view of God has been enriched
• through meeting people of different traditions.
Learning about aspects of their traditions has made more aware that those aspects are within Christianity.
I'll give three examples: mindfulness, service and meditation
A Christian friend has learnt a lot about Buddhism in recent years.
She spent time in Tibet.
She told me she knew the Christian saying "the peace of Christ",
• but she never knew what it meant until she learnt about Buddhist mindfulness.
The goal of mindfulness is to be fully aware of where you are and what you are doing.
So often our minds are like a monkey swinging through the trees:
• jumping from one thought to the next.
Or when we are with a person, speaking to them, our minds my wander off to some other thought.
Learning to focus brings inner peace.
Learning to recognise God in all things.
Eating is another example:
• learning to enjoy what's in our mouth,
• rather than thinking ahead to the next mouthful.
Or making tea: noticing the water as it flows out of the kettle
• drinking the tea so you appreciate its flavour.
Or walking aware of what's around you.
You can do that even if you're in a hurry
• though it is easier if you slow down.
There's a story about a Zen student who had finished his ten year apprenticeship.
After ten years in Zen training you were ranked a teacher.
The student went to see one of the Zen masters.
It was a rainy day, so the student wore wooden clogs and carried an umbrella.
When he walked into the Master's room the Master greeted him and said,
"You left your wooden clogs and umbrella by the door, didn't you?
"Tell me, did you place the umbrella on the right or the left of the clogs?"
The student was embarrassed because he had no idea.
He realized his lack of mindfulness and decided to begin another ten years apprenticeship with this Master.
In Daoism and Buddhism, as in Christianity, the goal is to move away from selfish desires to humble service.
Daoism has a beautiful image for this:
• Water flowing down a mountain.
Mountains are universal symbols for God:
• majesty; glory; religious aspiration.
But the way of faith does not remain in up the lofty peaks,
• but goes down like water to serve the lower places.
The water always seeks its ways downwards, down to the valleys, to the lower places
• in order to give life to fields and trees, to nurture animals and human beings,
• always serving.
In the same way, God is always seeking the lower places.
Jesus humbled himself, taking the form of a servant.
He left the mountain and descended to the valleys where people where struggling with their lives.
He descended even to the valley of suffering and death.
So he made God present where nobody expected God to be: the lowliest place we can conceive.
Each Sunday we sing "Glory to God in the highest".
The Dao and the Gospel remind us also to sing "Glory to God in the lowest".
To follow Christ is to follow him down towards the valleys and the low places,
• like the water,
• in order to serve and share.
There's a Buddhist story about these things - about a monk visiting a well for water.
It has a familiar ring.
The Monk Ananda was a close disciple of the Buddha.
He was passing through a village one day.
He was thirsty so he went to the village well and asked a girl there for a cup of water to drink.
The girl said, "Great monk, I am unworthy to give you water. Please do not ask me this of me. I would only cause you impurity. I am from the lowest caste in this village."
The great monk looked at her with compassion.
"My child, I did not ask you for your cast. I asked you for a drink."
It's well known that meditation is central to Buddhism.
And there's a whole range of types of meditation.
Some are mental exercises to teach us what's important and help us focus on those things.
One that is popular with Christians is the loving-kindness meditation
• it helps us extend our love to our enemies,
• the people we find really annoying.
Some kinds of meditation are to still the mind;
• to empty the mind of all our concerns, troubles, burdens
• and be open to our what Buddhists call our Buddha nature,
• what we call the image of God within us.
This kind of meditation has a long history in Christianity.
Its been recently popularised by the World Community of Christian Meditation,
• founded by the Benedictine monk John Main.
John Main rediscovered meditation amongst the practice of the early Christian monks of the 3rd and 4th Centuries.
The practice centres on repeating a mantra, a word or phrase, over and over.
That occupies the mind and the ego which is usually rushing around like the monkey in the tree I mentioned earlier.
Quietening the mind in that way allows our true nature, our deepest identity as God's children to come to the fore.
It's a way of controlling the ego and its insatiable appetite for entertainment and distraction.
Three things then that I've learnt about in my time here
• and which have enriched my spirituality immeasurably:
• mindfulness, service and meditation
Each part of Eastern traditions and of Christianity.
I'll end with one of my favourite interfaith stories – one with a definite Eastern theme.
A Christian once visited a Zen master and said, "Allow me to read you some sentences from the Sermon on the Mount."
"I shall listen to them with pleasure," said the master.
The Christian read a few sentences and looked up.
The master smiled and said, "Whoever said those words are truly enlightened."
This pleased the Christian so he read on.
The master interrupted and said, "Those words come from a saviour of mankind."
The Christian was thrilled. He continued to read to the end.
The master then said, "That sermon was pronounced by someone who was radiant with divinity."
The Christian's joy knew no bounds.
He left, determined to return the next day and persuade the master to become a Christian.
One the way home, he met Jesus along the road.
"Lord," he said enthusiastically, "I got that man to confess that you are divine."
Jesus smiled and said, "And what good did that do you except inflate your Christian ego."
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