Franco Zeffirelli; Stephen Lynch (HNP); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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| "A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows" - St. Francis of Assisi. |
St. Francis and Buddhism
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| Our Buddhist novices are like little friars. |
As Franciscans around the world commemorated the feast of St. Francis, [Friar] Stephen Lynch, OFM, who spent many years in the [East], wrote of the similar ideals and traditions of Franciscans and Buddhists.
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| That soldier is saving Issa from drowning. |
He describes the self-giving and self-realization that are significant to both groups. The news of the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs brought attention to Buddhism, since it is said that the respected innovator and business leader found focus through that tradition.
St. Francis had in common with the Buddhists the importance of nonviolent love and commitment to peace, in practice as well as in theory.
- PHOTO: A Theravada Buddhist monk admires Franciscan art of Issa on the cross as Buddhists and Franciscans build interreligious bridges (catholicphilly.com).
Both Francis and the Buddha were ascetics of deep prayer [meditation, contemplation, and jhana]. Tennyson, in The Death of Arthur, offers this marvelous piece of spiritual insight subscribed to by both Franciscans and Buddhists:
“More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
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| The Spanish call him San Francisco. |
Prayer and work, nonviolent love, fasting, and detachment from the material world are integral to both Buddhist and Franciscan spirituality.
Francis condemned the Crusades [mass murder campaigns declared by the pope against Muslims] as being hungry for war and for the use of power to accomplish their goals for the "Holy" Land.
A famous Buddhist monk, Prof. Yokoi, rector of the Zen Buddhist Institute of Komazawa University in Tokyo, felt St. Francis of Assisi exemplified the three fundamental ideals of Buddhism.
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| Pope Francis honors the Buddha with Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monks (ivarfjeld.com) |
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| Pope Francis makes Buddhist friends (cbc.ca) |
He felt that St. Francis was a person without covetousness, without anger, and without delusion.
- [The Three Poisons in Buddhism are greed, hatred/fear, and delusion. Therefore, nongreed, nonhatred/nonfear, and nondelusion are the three great ideals.]
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| I'll send you all loving kindness. |
I first met Professor Yokoi when we were together on a five-week Tokyo TV series on religion. We were discussing the things Buddhism and Christianity have in common. I learned two aspects of Eastern religion that were new to me.
I had not realized that Buddhism felt strongly about the abiding presence of the Creator in all living things.
- [NOTE: Buddhism does not in point of fact believe in "the Creator" although Maha Brahma, or the Great Supremo, is acknowledged as thinking s/he (brahmas or supreme-gods being neither male nor female but asexual) is that; the Buddha recognized that this brahma was not actually "the Creator" nor was there another.]
And also I had not realized the fact that, in Prof. Yokoi’s words, we are all brothers and sisters, sharing enlightenment from the same cosmic center of creation we Christians call God. [There is in Hindu-influenced Mahayana Buddhism an impersonal conception of GOD as Brahman, godhead, the Ultimate Truth behind the illusion of maya. That conception is beautiful but quite different than the generally accepted Christian view of a personal God.] |
| Thus have I heard. Bird is the word... |
Francis intuitively sensed the indwelling of God in all things. [St. Francis more likely sensed the indwelling of GOD/Brahman in all things, GOD being the all, all of us and the universe collectively, our essential oneness and nonseparation.]
As such, each creature is worthy of reverence and became the object of St. Francis’ special courtesy and respect. Francis preached to the birds and animals as easily as he preached to his fellow human beings.
And his message was always the same: How wonderfully God [Brahman] blesses all creation; how all creation should respond to God’s love with praise, joy, and gratitude.
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| Contemplative Franciscans friars (fnp.org) |
Prof. Yokoi told me he never went to Rome without also visiting Assisi (the birthplace of St. Francis), as he put it, “to breathe the air that gave the world a Francis of Assisi.”
Both Buddhism and Christianity insist that all creatures are worthy of reverence. For the “Little Poor Man of Assisi,” each creature in its own way bore the image of the Divine Presence.
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| Take this, Father. - Thank you, venerable sir. |
St. Francis’ approach to perfection emphasized the indwelling of God in all things. God’s Providential Love for creation stands as the key to peaceful human relationships.
Buddhist spirituality supports the same message. [It sort of maybe does but not quite. Hinduism and Catholicism/Christianity have a great deal in common without knowing it]. More
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