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East, West Monks Dialogue
PAGE 9 - The Georgia Bulletin, July 19,1990
BY DOM ARMAND
VEILLEUX, OCSO
The Venerable Rizong
Rinpoche, Buddhist abbot of
the Tibetan Drepung Lose ling
Monastery in India came to
the United States recently, as
emissary of His Holiness the
Dalai Lama, to consecrate a
piece of land that was donat
ed in the mountains of North
Georgia for the establishment
of a Tibetan monastery. At
the end of his visit to Geor
gia, he was received at the
Trappist Monastery in
Conyers.
This visit of a Buddhist
monk to a Catholic monastery
is nothing new. A constant
dialogue has been going on
since Vatican II between
Catholic monks and monks of
other religious traditions. In
its declaration on the relation
ship between Christianity and
other great religious tradi
tions, Vatican II acknow
ledged the working of the
Spirit of God in these tradi
tions, and encouraged the
development of a dialogue
with them. A secretariat was
formed at the Vatican, called
the Secretariat for Dialogue
with Non-Christians.
When Catholic monks and
nuns of all the countries of
Asia met for the first time
after Vatican II to work to
gether at their renewal, they
invited Thomas Merton to
attend their meeting in Bang
kok. Merton unfortunately
died in an accident during the
meeting, but he had a meet
ing with the Dalai Lama on
his way to Bangkok and both
spiritual men were very im
pressed by each other. When
the Catholic monks and nuns
of Asia met again in
Bangalore, India in 1973 and
in Kandy, Sri Lanka in 1980,
they invited representatives of
all the great religious tradi
tions of Asia to take part in
their meeting. A few years
later, the Holy See officially
asked the monks to assume a
leading role in the dialogue
between Christianity and the
great spiritual traditions of
Asia. The North American
Board for East West Dialogue
was then formed in 1978 by
Benedictine and Cistercian
monks and nuns, and a simi
lar group was established in
Europe. Apart from sensitiz
ing the monks and nuns of
the U.S. to the wealth of the
spiritual traditions of the East,
NABEWD has developed an
ongoing dialogue particularly
with the Tibetan branch of
Buddhism.
When the Dalai Lama was
in the U.S. in 1981 for the
Kalachakra initiation, he was
approached by one of the
board members of NABEWD
who proposed to him an
exchange of monks so that
we can leant to know each
other better. The Dalai Lama
agreed wholeheartedly, and
an “Intermonastic Hospitality
Exchange” program was
started, which is now in its
fifth phase. Each one of the
Tibetans who took part in that
program was personally chos
en by the Dalai Lama him
self.
In 1982, a Buddhist monk
visited six U.S. monasteries.
In 1983, three Buddhist
monks visited 13 U.S. monas
teries.
In 1986, three U.S. nuns
and three U.S. monks visited
26 Tibetan monasteries and
four nunneries in India. In
1988, two Tibetan monks and
one Tibetan nun visited 25
U.S. monasteries.
Similar exchange programs
have been going on in Europe
also; and each time that the
Tibetan monks have been
able to go through Rome on
their way back home, they
have been received by John
Paul II, who has always given
a warm encouragement to this
dialogue.
Some years ago, Arnold
Toynbee declared that when
the history of our time is
written in a few centuries
from now, historians will be
preoccupied neither with the
Vietnam war, nor with the
struggles between commu
nism and capitalism, but with
what happened when for the
first time Christianity and
Buddhism met at a deep
level. Bom out of a spiritual
reform within Hinduism some
six centuries before Christ,
Buddhism is by its very na
ture a monastic religion,
although not everyone is
expected to be a monk or a
nun. This explains why the
dialogue between Buddhist
and Christian monks is almost
DIALOGUE - Dom Armand VeiUeux, pictured above with Buddhist Abbot
Rizong Rinpoche, has been involved in inter-religious dialogue for several years.
Under his chairmanship the Hospitality Exchange Program between Tibetan
Buddhist and Christian monastics was initiated.
“natural” in spite of the
great philosophical and theo
logical differences. To sort
out those differences will
always be the task of a very
small number of specialists,
but to learn how to know and
love each other through dia
logue is always open to ev
eryone. And, in one way or
another, it is a duty for every
one.
MONASTIC RELIEF -- Venerable Rinpoche exam
ines a bound volume of Gregorian Chant on display at
the Monastery of the Holy Spirit. Lobsang, on the
right, acted as translator for the visiting abbot. Below,
Brother Paul, initiator of cultivation of bonsai at the
monastery, greets the Buddhist abbot in the nursery
where the dwarf trees are developed.
NATIVE TREASURES - The guests from India
view the collection of Native American arrowheads
found on the monastery’s property.
QUIET GRANDEUR -- His Eminence Rizong
Rinpoche, translator Lobsang and attendant
Suelpuenla view the vaulted heights of the monastery’s
sanctuary.
Buddhist Center Planned
A center near Mineral Bluff in North Georgia devoted to the
teachings of Buddha will be completed in early 1991. The
Venerable Rizong Rinpoche, Buddhist abbot of the Tibetan
Drepung Loselinp Monastery in India, came to the area recently
to consecrate the 27 acres donated by Barbara Turner and her
husband, Jim Kroeplin.
The center will “reflect the needs, desires and wishes of
western students of Buddhism,” Lida Sims, a member of the
board of directors for the teaching center said. Two Buddhist
monks are expected to reside there and facilitate the learning.
Venerable Rinpoche also visited the Cistercian Monastery of
the Holy Spirit at the request of Dom Armand Veilleux, abbot
of the Conyers abbey. He spoke to the monks and toured the
facilities. Through a translator, Dom Armand explained various
aspects and activities of the Catholic monastery and took his
guests on a tour of the cloister.