At the outset let me congratulate the organizers and the Bishops’ Conference on taking the initiative of organizing this conference. I am here, as you know, to give a talk on the Roots of Asian Spirituality--- on the faith and traditions that have molded the spirituality of the people of Asia.
Thomas Fox, a correspondent of the National Catholic Reporter in his book “The Pentecost in Asia” speaks about the need to look East. He says that by 2020 “ 80% of all Catholics will live in the Eastern and Southern Hemispheres, with Europe and North America containing the 20% minority.” (p. xiv )He mentions further that the locus of Catholicism is shifting dramatically in our lifetimes to Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines, south Korea, Sri Lanka, Vietnam etc. As he notes, “already some 70% of the world’s Catholics live outside Europe and North America. In the year 2000, the number of Jesuits in India exceeded for the first time the number of Jesuits in the United States.” In the context of the growing presence of Asian Catholics in the US, it is very appropriate that we hold a discussion on the roots of Asian Spirituality in order to become aware of the specific characteristics of the faith as it is practiced in Asia and as well as in the US.
The Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “Ecclesia in Asia” points out the richness of the religious traditions of Asia. According to it, “ Asia is the earth’s largest continent and is home to nearly two-thirds of the world’s population, with China and India accounting for almost half the total population of the globe….Asia is also the cradle of the worlds’ major religions—Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. It is the birth place of many other spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism…”
The spirituality of the people of the Asia has been molded by these religions. As Thomas Fox points out, “spirituality is the rhythm of Asia”(P.29)Even though Amartya Sen in his recent book “The Argumentative Indian” dismisses the notion of the existence of any special Asian values, as the countries and regions are so disparate that it is difficult to identify any single strand of values running through the lives of the people, to be called distinctively Asian, the document “Church in Asia” identifies some of the values that are specifically Asian. “ The people of Asia take pride in their religious and cultural values, such as love of silence and contemplation, simplicity, harmony, detachment, non-violence, the spirit of hard work, discipline, frugal living, the thirst for learning and philosophical enquiry. They hold dear the values of respect for life, compassion for all beings, closeness to nature, filial piety towards parents, elders and ancestors and a highly developed sense of community…..It can be said that Asia has often demonstrated a remarkable capacity for accommodation and a natural openness to the mutual enrichment of peoples in the midst of a plurality of religions and cultures.”
Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism etc have exercised profound influences on the lives of the people in this continent for thousands of years. Of the major spiritual texts of Hinduism, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita (the Song of God) have had a significant role in molding the spiritual lives of the followers of Hinduism.
The Upanishads:
The word comes from two Sanskrit words—Sad= to sit and Upa=under. ---meaning, sitting at the feet of the master. These works are spiritual treatises emphasizing the identity of the individual with the Universal soul.
These works began to appear around the 5th c.B.C. There are 112 Upanishads. The major thoughts of the Upanishads can be summarized in the following four sentences(Mahavakyas):
Brahman—the power of the Universe-- is consciousness
That self(Atman) is Brahman
I am Brahman
That Thou art.
It means that the Supreme reality is in every human being. God must not be sought as something far away, separate from us, but rather as the higher self in us. It shows then that as the individual tries to realize the Brahman within him, he reaches the highest goal of life. The Upanishads hence urge everyone to reach this state of identity with Brahman---a process of inner purification and holiness.
The Bhagavad Gita:
It offers a series of instructions with regard to the attainment of this inner holiness. Although the advice is given at the time a great battle between the warring factions of a royal family, it deals with every aspect of human life. The Gita, in other words, deals with the spiritual struggle of the human soul. The essence of the Gita is the vision of God in all things and of all things in God. Its emphasis is on the absence of desires and on self-control. Man can find peace in the Infinite, not in the finite. “Even as all the waters flow into the ocean, but the ocean never overflows, even so the sage feels desire, but he is ever one in his infinite peace.” Some of the great sayings of the Gita which have molded the spiritual lives of millions of people down through the centuries are the following:
“ Be in peace, in pleasure and pain, in gain and in loss, in victory or in the loss of a battle.”
Set they heart upon thy work, but never on its reward. Work not for a reward; but never cease to do they work.
For the man who forsakes all desires and abandons all pride of possession and of self reaches the goal of peace supreme.
Set thy heart on me alone, and give to me thy understanding: thou shalt in truth live in me hereafter…If thou are not able to practice concentration, consecrate all they work to me. By merely doing actions in my service thou shalt attain perfection.
Freedom from fear, purity of heart, constancy in sacred learning and contemplation , generosity, self-harmony...non-violence, truth, freedom from anger, renunciation, sympathy for all beings, forgiveness, purity , freedom from pride---these are the treasures of the man who is born for heaven.”
From these sample thoughts contained in the Gita, we can easily surmise how close these ideas are to those teachings of Gospel and hence how profound they are in shaping up the spiritual lives of millions of people. With a nation molded by these thoughts and ideas, it will be no wonder that it would be much harder on the part of the followers of Christianity to make any profound impact on the lives of the followers of Hinduism.
Hinduism is caught in the grip of Karma and transmigration. One gets reborn until one becomes free from all the stains of sin. In order to give hope to mankind who was caught in the vise grip of rebirths, Buddha offered a new way of life.
Buddhism:
Siddharta Gautama(563-483 B.C.) pointed out that the desire is the cause of suffering and once the desire is eliminated from life, suffering will disappear. He proposed four noble truths:
Life is full of suffering
The cause of human suffering is desire
The cessation of suffering(Nirvana) is attainable
The eightfold discipline of morality, meditation and wisdom is the path to attain Nirvana.
Nirvana is the freedom from rebirth, freedom from suffering. Karma is the force or energy produced by thoughts, words and deeds. Karma implicates all living beings in a series of births and deaths. The present lives are the fruit of the past lives. According to Fr.Bede Griffiths, “ Buddhism will not allow a personal God. The ultimate reality is conceived in negative terms—it is void(sunya). The essential truth of Buddhism is the doctrine of the Nirvana, the cessation of becoming. The way to Nirvana is that of the Dharma---the noble eight fold path---the way of right view,right thought,right speech, right action, right living, right endeavor, right mindfulness and right contemplation.”
According to the great Vietnamese scholar Thich Nhat Hanh, “ for a Buddhist to be attached to any doctrine, even a Buddhist one, is to betray the Buddha.It is not words or concepts that are important. What is important is our insight into the nature of reality and our way of responding to reality.”(Living Buddha, Living Christ, p.79) He further adds that “ In Buddhism, we speak of salvation by understanding. We see that it is the lack of understanding that creates suffering. Buddhist meditation –stopping, calming and looking deeply---is to help us understand better. In each of us is a seed of understanding. That seed is God.”(p.84)
He further points out that “ mindfulness is the light that shows us the way. It is the living Buddha inside of us….Many people call mindfulness the heart of Buddhist meditation..”(p.130)….” When we touch one thing with deep awareness, we touch everything…when we drink a cup of tea very deeply, we touch the whole of time. To meditate, to live a life of prayer is to live each moment of life deeply.”
Amartya Sen points out that the two great emperors of India,Asoka(3rdC.B.C.) and Akbar(16thCA.D.) at different times imposed tolerance for different religious traditions so that all religions could survive in India. Tolerance was one of the great qualities of these ancient relgions before they became very fundamentalist in recent times. Asoka who was responsible for spreading Buddhism to the various lands of Asia was highly respectful of the religious traditions of others who did not subscribe to his spiritual tradition: “ For he who does reverence to his own sect while disparaging the sects of others wholly from attachment to his own sect, in reality inflicts, by such conduct, the severest injury on his sect.”(p.18) Akbar(16C) too enjoined that “ no man should be interfered with on account of his religion, and anyone is to be allowed to go over to a religion that pleases him.(p.18)
Asia’s roots of spirituality lie in these great religions of the East, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. These ancient traditions show how strong are the spiritual lives of the followers of these religions. If Christians have to make a decisive mark upon the people of these nations, they have to do it through an authentic living of the Christian faith, a practice of life based on Christian love. The other -centered love is the corner stone of Christianity and no other religion has taught it so consistently and clearly the dictates of love as Christianity has done. The commandment of Jesus “Love one another as I have loved you” looms large over these ancient spiritual traditions and no teacher of any other religion has taught his disciples to love as Jesus has done. Through his death and resurrection, he showed that the commandment is not a just a verbal exercise but comes from one who laid down his life for others and regained it through his own divine power.
When Mother Teresa rose to great fame and when the Indian newspapers were carrying glowing reports about her works of charity, someone wrote in one of the Indian newspapers why the followers of Hinduism could not act like Mother Teresa. They were baffled by the uniqueness of the faith that moved her. It is there that the distinctive nature of the Christian faith began to be appreciated. It is not through doctrines but through a life of love that we can make Christianity show its unique distinctiveness.
Poverty and Unemployment
When we refer to the spiritual traditions of Asia, we cannot ignore the prevalence of poverty that is rampant all over Asia. We are aware much more deeply of the squalid living conditions that exist in our nations. Millions of people live in slums or in abject poverty. Along with a burgeoning middle class, there exists also a class of people who cannot have access to decent shelter and other conveniences of life as food and clothing. What do we do with this disparity? What do we learn from this?
One of the lessons of poverty and unemployment is the realization that nothing is permanent and that material affluence is a transient phenomenon. Every person living in these regions is aware of the stark nature of poverty and of the impending disaster that waits for every one if things go awry. From the awareness of the existence of poverty , one receives certain spiritual blessings. They are the willingness to accept poverty and to accept everything as the will of God. Sometimes, people call it as fate. But it is not a depressive feeling of abject helpless ness, but a willingness to accept limitations and poverty as the will of God in one’s life just like the blessings one receives in life instead of resorting to violence, arson, or looting.
The existence of poverty imposes certain responsibilities on our part. We have to strive hard to alleviate the poverty of our neighbors. Fortunately, many of our people have shown the willingness to share the burdens of their fellow countrymen and to improve the living conditions of the poor. A lot of initiatives in the cooperative sector has been undertaken to improve the living conditions of the poor. Instead of leaving the poor to the vagaries of a market economy, some of the countries have taken upon themselves the responsibility of improving living conditions by offering food at subsidized rates and assisting the poor with affirmative actions in the fields of education and employment.
The spiritual values of poverty –the willingness to accept limitations, openness to the will of God etc are part of our spiritual fabric.
The Strength of the Christian Faith:
Recently, one of the columnists of the Times of India wrote, in connection with the screening of the movie Da Vinci Code in India, that Christians will never feel upset about the screening of the movie because they believe in something that is unbelievable . He says “Many would say that the movie is a sensational stuff, that it is slanderous of Christian faith. But compared to the central tenet of Christian faith, Brown’s pot boiler is a damp squib. A nine-day wonder that does not stand a chance against the awesome might and mystery of a faith system whose reverberations resound 2000 years after it was formulated. What is that tenet? That the Son of God could be born in the guise of a flesh-and blood-mortal, suffer crucifixion and undergo the miracle of resurrection to redeem human kind. It is not a bombshell of a plot; it is a thermonuclear explosion. No sensation –seeking thriller writer could have had the imagination or the nerve to dream it up.And even more profoundly mysterious and baffling that the Christian credo is the phenomenon of faith itself.”(Jug Suraiya)(Times of India,May 20,06). But it is for us to show that faith is true through our life---our concrete ways of living.
We know that the major religious traditions of Asia do put a great emphasis on meditation, simplicity of life, non-violence and compassion. The Christian way of living will definitely will have profound impact on the lives of their compatriots if the Christians too can combine these above mentioned attitudes along with the practice of their faith.
The Rise of Hindu Fundamentalism and Islamic Terrorism:
In the past few minutes, I have been speaking about the religious traditions that were responsible for the roots of Asian spirituality. Harmony and tolerance were the faces of such a spiritual tradition. But things have changed dramatically within the last few years. The rise of Hindu fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism has changed the faces of Asia quite a bit. Hinduism is a tolerant religion and has fostered a great sense of tolerance for the last two millennia. But with the rise of a particular political party whose main agenda is the identification of India with Hinduism, hostile attitudes have been created in the general population against Christianity.
India has had four waves of Christian presence. Kerala, the southernmost state of India was blessed with the presence of St. Thomas the Apostle who preached the faith in the first century of the Christian era. The Christian community that grew out of the preaching of St.Thomas began to use Aramaic(Syriac language) in their liturgy and their rite is known as the Syro-Malabar rite. Christians, thus, were in existence in Kerala right from the century. The relationship of the Christian community with the people of the majority religion was very harmonious and cordial. In matters of worship, traditions, and customs, there were a lot of similarities. Christians never in their customs or traditions appeared to be foreign to them except in their liturgy and in the practice of their faith. Now, this fabric of unity and cohesion is slowly being broken by the rise of Hindu fundamentalism produced by the rise of a particular political movement.
The next wave of the Christian presence came with the arrival of Francis Xavier. Then came the Protestant missionaries and the last attempt at evangelization was by Indian missionaries themselves. With the presence of all these different phases of Christian growth, there was not any hostility shown to the Christians. But now with the rise of this fundamentalist party, there began to emerge anti-Christian attitudes in many regions of the country. The attack on and the murder of the Australian missionary and his children in the state of Orissa, the disturbances in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan are recent examples of the broken harmony. When the present Holy Father in accepting the credentials of the new ambassador of India mentioned how necessary it is to preserve and protect the fundamental rights of its citizens especially in their right to worship as enshrined in the Constitution of India, there was a great hue and cry from the leaders of this party.
So, too, the rise of Islamic terrorism has changed the faces ofAsia. In many Islamic countries, there is no freedom of worship and Christians are being persecuted. In Saudi Arabia, the Christian faith cannot be practiced in any place except in the barracks of the American army. In Pakistan , there are great restrictions and public hostility to the practice of the Christian faith. In Indonesia, many Christian villages were looted and destroyed.
Hence this aspect of contemporary life has also to be taken into account when we speak of the religious traditions of Asia. How did it happen that the so-called Asian harmony and tolerance were tossed aside by these groups? What is happening in China? There are improvements in the economic conditions of the country but very little religious freddom is allowed to its citizens. Many Western nations close their eyes to these restrictions imposed on the freedom of religion but they encourage its economic transformation.
As Amartya Sen points out, in reference to India, that there is an attempt in India for historical revisionism and that the new political movement is trying to reduce India from its broadness to a narrow state. According to him, the new movement “ has entered into a confrontation with the idea of India itself.”(p.74) “In the confrontation between a large and small India, the broader understanding can certainly win. But the battle for the broader idea cannot be won unless those fighting for the larger conception know what they are fighting for.” (p.72)
We have to be alert to the political changes happening in Asia and use our influences here to terminate or at least mitigate these hostile forces that try to tear apart the fabric of unity and harmony that was Asia’s patrimony.
Our coming together in this Convention is a good opportunity for us to create an atmosphere for the fostering of such a spirit. There are attempts on the part of some of our people to put pressure on the political set-up here to put pressure on such hostile political forces in Asian countries to stop their anti-Christian attitudes.
The presence of Asian Americans in the US has been growing stronger as years go by. “Asians were reported living in the US as early as 1763 when a Filipino settlement was established at Saint Malo in the bayous of Louisiana. …the first major Asian settlements date back to the mid-1800s. Along with many others, Chinese were drawn to California by the gold rush. By 1852, more than twenty thousand Chinese had settled into California. Their numbers grew because the Central Pacific Railroad needed laborers to complete its transcontinental railroad.”(Thomas C. Fox, Pentecost in Asia,P.115). The 2000 census counted nearly 12 million Asian Americans in America. As the presence of the Asian American Catholics is becoming prominent, the US Bishops’ Committee issued a Pastoral letter entitled “Asian Pacific Presence: Harmony in Faith”. The Pastoral letter concluded with the following words: “By being authentically Christian and truly Asian in the footsteps of Christ, they have brought to us a more profound understanding of what it means to be truly Catholic. They have taught the Church in the US the meaning of harmony; the necessity of dialogue with their cultures, with other religions, and with the poor; a renewed sense of family loyalty; the unity between diverse cultures and diverse Catholic church communities; and the closeness of all God’s creation.”(Thomas Fox, p.122)
As we are gathered here for the first time under the umbrella of the Catholic Asian American Forum, we have got a new opportunity to present to the world our distinctive way of practicing our faith. The integration of Asian culture with the Christian faith will be a great opportunity for evangelization in our communities and will be a strong attraction for our youths to hang on to their faith and not be uprooted by the consumerist culture of the secular society in which they live. We shall also devise ways in which this unique Asian American Catholic experience can be developed and strengthened.
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