Still Running Off at the Keyboard

RABBI JOSEPH GELBERMAN, BRO. WAYNE TEASDALE, AND INTERSPIRITUAL DIALOGUE

In yesterday's blog, Rabbi Joseph Gelberman had taken us from the Conference of Fr. John Rossner's International Institute of Integral Human Science, with its Spiritualist associations, to his interfaith seminary, to the InterSpiritual Dialogue organization in which he is part of the Collaborative Circle. If you scroll down about a third of the way at that link you will find his bio. Above Rabbi Gelberman's bio is the bio of Bro. Wayne Teasdale, a Roman Catholic monk who is credited with being the "grandfather of InterSpiritual Dialogue".

The website is large. InterSpiritual Dialogue is a network that "has been developing in the New York City area...motivated by the vision of...Wayne Teasdale in his book THE MYSTIC HEART: FINDING A UNIVERSAL SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS" according to the website. "Bro. Wayne predicted that a deep dialogue would emerge in this millennium between the contemplatives of many religious traditions" out of which they would develop "unitive consciousness" or a "deep, common, contemplative understanding."

The organization claims that they are "not a homogenization of long and complex histories into any common mold" and they recognize that "all individual traditions are deep and complex, and that they have long and rich histories, both in holiness and symbol. These must be respected and honored in their entirety...One cannot call oneself a Sufi if one has not truly gone the Sufi way etc."

Certainly that sounds right. But then what is one to make of the 2004 InterSpiritual Ceremony for Peace which took place September 21, 2004 at Union Theological Seminary in New York? The ceremony is detailed half way down this webpage. You have to read the whole thing to really get the flavor of it. It includes blessing Dead Sea salted water, lighting candles, processing in contemplation, singing a "Kyrie Elieson" followed by an Islamic chant in praise to Allah, along with ecstatic improvisation of flowing water.

These people were able to "gather together and experience [their] intrinsic and ultimate unity." All well and good for peace, perhaps, but what would the Trinitarian God think of a believer chanting a praise of Allah?

There is a short note on this webpage about Bob Trabold, a founding member and Friend of ISD who is moderator of InterSpiritual Dialogue's frequently held "Quiet Get-Togethers" and a practitioner in the spirit and tradition of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. It does not indicate that Trabold is Catholic.

There is also a segment on "Bro. Wayne Teasdale on InterSpiritual Dialogue" which lists the new emerging understanding which recognizes "A deep, evolving experience of community between and among the religions through their individual members", and "the growing receptivity to the inner treasures of the world's religions."

There are pictures on Page 4 in the website from the 2004 Parliament of the World's Religions which are credited to Fr. Terry Gallagher of the Scarboro Mission (Canadian Maryknoll Fathers).

About half way down on Page 5 in the website there is a section from "A Course in Miracles" where a segment of the Teachers Manual of ACIM is quoted. This same page has a brief mention of "ISD Counselors at Omega Institute (Rheinbeck)." Annette Knopp hosted a weekend retreat on Advaitic practice at the Omega Institute.

At the bottom of Page 7 in the website some "Interspiritual Dialogue Links" are offered which include http://www.onespiritinterfaith.org/., another interfaith seminary.

The Calendar and Events Reports on Page 4 talks about "Common Ground", "a tribute event to Brother Wayne Teasdale and further discussion of the further [sic] of his vision of interspirituality and interspiritual dialogue. Sept. 9-11, 2005 at Omega at the Crossings, Austin, Texas." The link is provided, as is a description of the event. Among the featured presenters was Father Thomas Keating.

The Omega Institute is a notoriously New Age institution. Why are Catholic monks working with it?

Father Thomas Ryan, who directs the Paulist North American Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations in New York City also works with The Crossings in Austin. He will present a workshop titled "Prayer of Heart and Body" December 1-4, 2005. This workshop will feature meditation and yoga taught in a context of Christian faith and used as prayer. Father Ryan intends these practices to make the practitioner "calm, relaxed and centered" and to provide a way to encounter God in inner quietude.

The Omega Institute website indicates that

After thoughtful consideration, it has been decided that Omega Institute and The Crossings operate as individually-run organizations.

The two organizations are exploring the possibility of collaborative efforts for future conferences and special events.

When they collaborate, here is some of what they will be collaborating with:

Alchemy workshops.

A Course in Miracles and the Gospel of Thomas

Cocreating your own reality

Sensual and ecstatic dancing with dieties

What you won't find is the Trinitarian God presented in a Christian context. Omega is not about Christianity unless it is of the esoteric kind, and it is not about Roman Catholicism.

But perhaps that should come as no surprise considering another of Father Keating's venues, Naropa University. Naropa also offers Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality. He is pictured here along with the course description.

Common Ground is another of Father Keating's pursuits. Omega at the Crossings presented a Common Ground workshop "An Experience of InterSpiritual Activism" described this way:

Join us at this third gathering of Common Ground, where we will co-create an inter-faith community through shared ritual, group creative process, guided experiential practices, and dialogues of discovery. Together we will explore structures, methods, and principles for InterSpiritual activism, so that we may move the work of world peace forward as a cohesive unit.

This meeting will also be a tribute to Brother Wayne Teasdale, who inspired and guided the founding of both InterSpiritual Dialogue (ISD) and Common Ground, and who transitioned last year. Some of Brother Wayne's core teachings will be illuminated through experiential meditation and contemplation.

"Transitioned"? He means died.

Bro. Wayne Teasdale was on the program for the second annual Common Ground gathering, "Discovering Community Among Spiritual Traditions" described this way:

This emerging effort is called interspirituality. It celebrates the multiplicity of human spiritual traditions as an indication of the infinite creativity of God. It encourages everyone in every spiritual tradition to learn from one another. Yet, interspirituality is founded upon the idea that we all come from the same source, and the mystical approach to each religion brings us to this realization. A mystical experience, says Wayne Teasdale, is a "direct experience of Ultimate Reality, however you may perceive it." A direct experience of Ultimate Reality reveals the indisputable aspects of it.

If you want syncretism...if you want indifference...you can't get a better program to foster it than this!

These monks have abandoned Christ, yet everywhere they go, at every workshop they give they are presented as Roman Catholics. They represent us. Is anyone stopping them? Have warnings been issued from the CDF? If they have, I haven't seen them.

Monastic Interreligious Dialogue is a leading voice for the Catholic Church on dialogue worldwide. It looks to the leadership of Thomas Merton and his relationship with Buddhist monks as the model for procedure. Bro. Wayne Teasdale defines what interreligious dialogue means in an article from Conscious Choice, November 1998, titled "Bridging the Infinite: Christians and Buddhists in Conversation":

If Christianity can be taken as representative of all theistic traditions, and it is related creatively and fruitfully with Buddhism, a non-theistic religion, and somehow their differences can be reconciled, then all the faiths can similarly be brought into harmony....

If this is to happen, however, the conversation or dialogue has to be among equals. Dialogue presupposes genuine equality, with no hidden agendas operative below the surface, or behind the scenes. The old exclusivity of Christians, especially Catholics, and the unacknowledged spiritual imperialism of some Western Buddhists, must give way to a symbiotic understanding that transcends the dominance of one over the other.

What additional indication is necessary? Monastic interreligious dialogue led by Bro. Wayne Teasdale assumes that all parties at the dialogue table are equal, and the Catholic belief in the exclusivity of Jesus Christ and ultimate truth must be rejected. At the dialogue table Jesus Christ is just another deity.

Now we know where these monks are coming from. But how will Pope Benedict see it? One of the first statements after his election was an affirmation that interreligious dialogue will continue. Bro. Wayne tells us what he has said in the past in the Conscious Choice article:

To be fair, it isn’t just these new Buddhists who have the secret agenda. There are those who regard Buddhism with suspicion, and even contempt. There is the example of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the department that ensures orthodoxy is maintained. He granted an interview to the French weekly L’Express more than a year ago, and in "off the cuff" remarks, stated that Buddhism was "spiritual, mental autoeroticism," or mental masturbation! He went on to quote an unnamed writer who had said in the 1950s that Buddhism would be the undoing of the Catholic church. Vatican officials are not in the habit of making such "off the cuff" statements unless they are calculated for publication. The views that he expressed seem to emanate from fear and ignorance, not from any genuine understanding. They certainly do not promote mutual respect and trust. They reveal a fear of an intellectual challenge from Buddhism itself in some officials of the Holy See, perhaps even including the Pontiff himself.

Cardinal Ratzinger spoke as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His job was to preserve it. Today he has a new job. As Pope Benedict, he has committed himself to dialogue. How is he going to maintain his position on Buddhism reflected in that statement while at the same time bring Buddhists to the dialogue table?

Bro. Wayne is correct is saying that at the dialogue table all are equal. Cardinal Ratzinger said the same thing in TRUTH AND TOLERANCE:

It has become the very epitome of the relativist credo, the concept opposed to that of "conversion" and mission: dialogue in the relativist sense means setting one's own position or belief on the same level with what the other person believes, ascribing to it, on principle, no more of the truth than to the position of the other person. Only if my fundamental presupposition is that the other person may be just as much in the right as I am, or even more so, can any dialogue take place at all. (p. 120)

Bro. Wayne and Cardinal Ratzinger agree. We see what Bro. Wayne has done with this belief. We are still waiting to see what Pope Benedict, who has indicated he is committed to dialogue, is going to do with it.

Can the exclusivity of Christ be held while at the same time Catholics assume the equality necessary for dialogue to continue? If they can, then they are subscribing to pluriform truth, the ultimate expression of relativism.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!