Carlo Torriani

SWARGA DWAR

The conversion of a catholic missionary

presented by

Card. Simon Pimenta

PIME Publications, PIME Regional House, Eluru - 534 0-07, A.P., India

BUDDHISM

 Letter No. 37, March 1990

Dear Friends,

    In our ashram, Swarga Dwar, we try to be open to other religion since we have inmates of different religions. In the evening we read, by turn, from different Holy Scriptures. From our Christian revelation we know that “The real light… gives light to every man”  (John,1:9)  So, every man can be satisfied with his own light; but sharing our interior light can be an enrichment for all. This is what some particular men did after receiving special revelations. These are Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster,  Confucius, Krishna , Buddha and others who are at the beginning of the great religions. My Christian friends should not wander why we put Jesus in line with the others. To start a dialogue you should start from a common ground: they are all extraordinary men who had been able to look at reality from a particular point of view and have communicated their experience to those who believed in them. Everyone has his own originality and uniqueness. But one is surely exceptional. You may think that I refer to Jesus. No. I give for granted that my Christian friends know that Jesus is the only Son of God and the Saviour of all.     

    I intend to speak about Buddha. He is exceptional because, while all the founders of religions have spoken in different ways about God, Buddha, from whom Buddhism started, never spoke about God. How can we have a religious dialogue without speaking about God?

    Recently I went to Sri Lanka for a study tour. There Buddhism is the national religion and I had a chance to know their way of living. How is it possible for a Christian to make space for Buddha?

It would be simplistic to avoid the problem saying that Buddhism is not a religion but only a philosophy. Millions of people solve the problems of their existence with Buddhism as we solve them with our religion. So, sociologically speaking, they are equivalent.

    Since thirty years we Christians repeat, with the Vatican II, that “the Catholic Church does not reject anything good and holy which is found in these religions”, but I think that the time as come to search and define what is good and holy in every religion, otherwise we risk to remain always in the generic. Now it is easy to recognise the deep religious and monotheistic faith of the Muslims, the historical sense of salvation of the Hebrews, the mystical devotion of the Hindus and also the respect for nature of animists and polytheists. But what can we save out of an atheist (so to say) religion?

    It is my personal opinion that if the Catholic Church wants to start a serious dialogue with the other religions, she has to recognise at least the founders of these religions as holy men and their basic inspiration as positive. Along the categories of apostle, martyr, virgin, confessor, we should find a category for the holy founders of religion.

    About recognising their basic inspiration as positive, the most difficult one to evaluate is surely Buddhism. How to accept the silence of Buddha about God? How can we ignore God? But, I think, that if we make an effort to understand why they ignore God may be we will realise the need to purify our idea of God. Buddha lived in a time in which Brahmin religion was reduced to rituals with sacrifices of animals. A god who divides humanity in castes and takes delight in the blood of animals was not believable for Buddha. He discovered in himself the divine dimension and taught the path of enlightenment to his followers.

    We Christians say that our God is the one revealed to us by Jesus Christ. He challenge of Buddhism is just this: to distinguish how much is revealed and how much invented. A popular Buddhist idea is the one to peel off an onion to see what there is inside. Every one must do it for himself.