Eminent Theologian, Fr. Aloysius Peiris S.J. Passes Away
An Eminent Theologian, Rev. Fr. Aloysius Peiris S. J. Passes Away
Fr. Aloysius Peiris S. J. who passed away recently was a student at St. Aloysius College, Galle from 1949 (at around the age of fifteen) to 1953. He resided first at the College Boarding House and thereafter at the St. Xavier's Seminary, Kalegana. Some of the Jesuit priests with whom he came into contact were, the Rector, Rev. Fr. Vito Perniola, historian and Pali Scholar; Rev. Fr. S. G. Perera, historian; Rev. Fr. Aloysius de Mattia, his spiritual advisor; Rev. Fr. Cyril Ponnamperuma, world renowned scientist, who was then a Sub Prefect; Rev. Fr. L. Cramer, Botanist; Rev. Fr. Paul Casperz, an Oxford Scholar; Rev. Fr. Thomas Kuriacose, then a Sub Prefect; Rev. Fr. Julius Pogany (then learning English along with us and later teaching Physics to us in the HSC Form); and a number of other well-known Belgian, Neapolitan and Ceylonese Jesuits.
Fr. Aloy sat for the Senior School Certificate Examination & the London General Certificate Examination - Advanced Level & passed with several distinctions, including Latin & Pali. Fr. Perniola , may also have influenced Fr. Peiris to specialise in Oriental Languages & engage in the study of Buddhism.
He entered the Jesuit Order in 1953 at the age of 19 years after his Novitiate in India. He completed his ecclesiastical studies at the Sacred Heart College, Shembagannur in Tamil Nadu & also studied classical Indian thought, literature & Sanskrit. He returned to SAC a few years later as Sub Prefect.
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| Fr. Aloy at SAC as Sub Prefect |
His Jesuit Superiors apparently realised that the young Peiris was a valuable addition to the Jesuit Order and planned his future academic career, which was as follows during the period 1953-1973:
1953-1955 Entered Jesuit Order on 23 December 1953. Novitiate in Calicut, India
1956-1959 Philosophical Training at the Sacred Heart Collage, Shembaganur, Tamil Nadu, India.
1961 Bachelor of Arts, First Class Honours in Pali & Sanskrit, University of London
1962-1966 Theological Studies and Pastoral Exposure at Pontifical Faculty of Villa San Luigi, Posillipo, Naples
1966-1968?
1968-1971 Buddhist Studies at Vidyodaya Campus. Dissertation: Some Salient Aspects of Consciousness and Reality in Pāli Scholasticism as Reflected in the Commentaries of Ᾱcariya Dhammapāla. Awarded Ph.D.
1971-1972 (Sept to Apr) Tertianship in Ahamadabad, India. *
1972-1973 Gregorian University, Rome.
* "During his Tertianship (the final period of Jesuit formation) in India in 1971, he let his hair and beard grow long, clothed himself in loose saffron coloured shirt and sandals, wrapped himself with a pilgrim’s shawl and "plunged into" the life of a mendicant monk following in the footsteps of the Buddha. The experience he had in Banaras, the holy city on whose outskirts the Buddha preached his first sermon after his enlightenment, was a true 'moment of inculturation' for Pieris." (Page 11 of the Daily Mirror of 13 Dec. 2013 - Prophet of the Poor and Inter-religious Dialogue by Fr. Milroy Fernando S.J.)
It was during Fr. Aloy’s growing up years that:
In the 1950s an allegation arose about Catholic Action - it was widely believed that Catholics were given preference in the recruitment of staff to the Government Service.
In 1962 a coup to topple the Government was revealed and almost all who were arrested were Christians, one of whom was an old Aloysian, whose family resided by the side of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Galle
In 1971 an uprising by armed underprivileged youth was suppressed.
It was also at this time that a movement known as Liberation Theology was gaining ground – The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines it as “a Christian movement, developed mainly by Latin American Catholics, that deals with social justice and the problems of people who are poor, as well as with spiritual matters”. This was not encouraged by the Vatican as it operated within a Marxist framework, but it continued to exist and was picked up by countries in Africa and Asia.
In Ceylon, some of the more progressive priests realised that the church had to take up the cause of the poor and under-privileged and the leading proponents were:
Oxford Scholar, Rev. Fr. Tissa Balasuriya, O.M.I. who co-founded the Centre for Society and Religion with Bishop Leo Nanayakkara, following the 1971 uprising. The objective of the institute was to facilitate inter-cultural relations, inter-religious dialogue, and social activism.
Oxford Scholar, Rev. Fr. Paul Casperz S.J. who co-founded in 1972 the Satyodaya, Centre for Social Research and Encounter with Bishop Leo Nanayakkara, which provides basic services such as housing, water, sanitation, and educational and vocational training for the plantation and other underprivileged communities in the upcountry region. Fr. Casperz was a former teacher and Principal at St. Aloysius College, Galle.
There were others such as Fr. Michael Rodrigo etc who embraced this movement.Another old Aloysian and class mate, Fr. Ashley Samarasinghe, in his early years as a priest, chose to give up the worldly comforts he was used to, and worked with the poor in the dry zone village of Pallerotte, off Embilipitiya, living under tough conditions.
It was in this backdrop that Fr. Aloy established on 7 June 1974, the “Tulana Research Centre for Encounter and Dialogue”. Its activities can be read here: Discernment: The Tulana Resource Centre at Kelaniya Fostering Discernment | Thuppahi's Blog
Academic Block, Artwork, Jesus washing the feet of a Disciple by Ven. Uttarananda Thera, Mural by Kingsley Gunatilleke
In the ensuing years in addition to managing the Centre which he created, he also undertook a number of international assignments in different parts of the world, both in the East and the West, related to the teaching of theology in the form of Professorships, Lectureships, Conduct of Seminars and Public Lectures, Editorial Work, etc which highlighted the esteem with which he was held as a theologian.
In the course of his religious training and worldwide assignments, Fr. Aloy acquired proficiency in several western and oriental languages.
He has also authored several books on Theology, a selection of which is shown below:
Fr. Aloy received the following awards and honours in recognition of his work:
In 1987, Fr. Aloy was awarded an honorary doctorate in theology by Tilburg University in the Netherlands, recognizing his pioneering contributions to Asian theology of liberation and interreligious studies.
On November 23, 2015, the University of Kelaniya conferred upon him the Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) honoris causa, honoring his scholarly work in theology, philosophy, and dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism.
Fr. Aloy’s unique contribution to the Liberation Theology movement is described as follows in the Tulana website:
“We focus on the challenges of Buddhism and Asian socio-political liberation through rigorous research, dialogue, and publication in Indology, Theology, and South Asian Culture. Tulana’s mission is to foster scholarly excellence and deep reflection (Tulana: discernment) that directly animates marginalized communities, artists, and peacebuilding movements across the nation.”
It is not clear whether the Vatican or the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka approved of the brand of Liberation Theology promoted by Fr. Aloy. It is certain that the church realised the importance of his mission of building bridges with other faiths. It remains to be seen whether his followers will promote his vision with equal vigour.
K. K. de Silva (an old Aloysian)
Reproduced below is an article by Fr. Aloy
on Jesuit-Buddhist Dialogue
Link to the article given below (PDF version):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_SMOuPYGlXc9Yn7QTE9MojPDXnk088nP/view?usp=share_link
15
Jesuit-Buddhist Dialogue in Sri Lanka: From its Origins to the Present Times
Aloysius Pieris, S.J.
A revised and updated version of a paper originally written at the request of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Goa (India) and presented at the Jesuit Symposium held on July 12-13, 2018.
Introduction:
Necessity of Being Autobiographical
It is embarrassing for me to make this presentation because I happen to be the first Lankan Jesuit to have been missioned by Superiors to be engaged in “formal dialogue” with Buddhists. This took place fifty and more years ago (1966) with no precedent to follow and in a tense atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. How this initiative had later developed into something beyond Buddhist-Christian dialogue is indicated towards the end of this presentation.
It is true, however, that in a predominantly Buddhist country such as ours, no Jesuit can undertake a work (including the parish apostolate) that does not touch the needs of the wider society and therefore involving some encounter with Buddhists, at least indirectly. We have today a Jesuit teaching in a State University and specializing in children’s education and is therefore immersed in the Buddhist ethos. The Jesuit Social Centre and the Jesuit Academy in Galle, the Shanthi Centre in Colombo, Satyodaya in Kandy, Youth Training Centre in Cholankanda are places where Buddhists are served by the Jesuits today. All this is the fruit of renewal launched by Vatican II which changed the atmosphere irreversibly on this matter and hence Jesuits are on the whole dialogical in their approach to Buddhists and Buddhism, though not in any formal sense.
But things were not so easy over half a century ago when I was sent by Holy Obedience as the first ever Christian to study Buddhism under Monastic Tutors with a view to obtaining a Doctorate in Buddhism and thus initiate a formal dialogue with Buddhists and their doctrine, practice and culture. This story needs to be told if I must write anything under the title given to me by the organizers. Hence I once more apologize for the inevitably autobiographical character of this presentation.
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1. Non-Jesuits in the Forefront
The first observation to be made is that Jesuits were not the pioneers in Buddhist Christian Dialogue in Sri Lanka. On the contrary, even the renowned Jesuit scholar Fr. S.G. Perera, s.j., a nationally recognized historian and a respected representative of the Catholic elite of the 1940s—truly a trailblazer in Catholic apologetics as required by that epoch—advocated an emphatically anti-Buddhist species of Christian nationalism, frequently and overtly referring to non-Christians as ‘heathens’ and other Christians as ‘heretics’ in his writings and speeches.1 His collaborator, the Oblate Bishop Edmund Peiris, also shared his views. Even Fr Vito Perniola—admired by Buddhists for his contribution to the advancement of the knowledge of Pali (the language of the oldest version of Buddhist Scriptures)—had adopted a controversial rather than a dialogical approach towards Buddhism.2
The credit of initiating Christian-Buddhist understanding as a way of life (rather than as a formal commitment) in the Catholic Church goes to a few bold members of the Diocesan Clergy and two members of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation. They all were Jesuit Perera’s junior contemporaries, namely, Frs. Moses Perera and Cyril Edirisingha (products of the then Jesuit run Papal Seminary in Kandy and presbyters of the Jesuit-run Diocese of Galle) and Fr Sam Alexander Ranasingha (a former student of the Jesuit-run St Joseph’s Seminary, Tiruchianppalli, India and working in the Jesuit-run Trincomalee diocese). Finally there was the very colorful personality of Fr Marcelline Jayakody, OMI—poet and musician—
who was hailed by the Buddhists as the pansalē svāmi (“the Catholic Priest of the Buddhist Monastery”). Another Oblate priest, Fr Anthony Fernando (who later quit the Oblates and left the Presbyterate) was also a pioneer in Buddhist-Christian dialogue and was responsible for establishing a Christian Culture Section originally attached to the Buddhism Section of Humanities Department in University of Kelaniya in 1976.3
The boldness and courage of these non-Jesuits can be gauged only against the background of the anti-Buddhist policies of the Portuguese and Dutch colonialists followed by the Buddhist-Christian controversies and animosities that marked the 19th century under the British colonial rule,4 with serious aftereffects in the mid-twentieth century.5 The formal dialogue
1 Cf. Aloysius Pieris, foreword to Historical Sketches: Ceylon Church History, by S.G. Perera, s.j., 3rd imprint, (Colombo: Godage Brothers (Pvt) Ltd., 2013), vi-viii.
2 See my comments in Vāgdevī 21, Journal for Religious Reflection, 11/1 (Jan 2017): 67-68. 3 N. Lowe, “Kristiani Sanskruti Adhyana Aṃsayē Itihāsaya,” Krisamsā 1, no. 1 (2013): 1-6. 4 Elizabeth Harris, Theravāda Buddhism and the British Encounter: Religious, missionary and colonial experience in nineteenth century Sri Lanka (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2006); R. F. Young and G. P. V. Somaratna, Vain debates: the Buddhist-Christian controversies of nineteenth-century Ceylon, vol. xxiii, Publications of the De Nobili Research Library (Vienna: Institut für Indologie der Universität Wien, 1996), 236.
5 The passing of the Sinhala Only Bill in 1959 and the Nationalization of the Schools, popularly known as the “Schools Take-Over,” were mainly intended to counter the English-Speaking Christians’ domination in education.
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initiatives on the part of Catholics (including inter-religious dialogue centres) appeared only a few years after Vatican II—more precisely in the early 1970s.6
The Reformed Churches were far ahead of the Catholic Church. After antagonizing the Buddhists by challenging them to public debates and by writing anti-Buddhist tracts in the 19th century (more about this below), the Methodist church learnt a lesson and turned a new leaf. The Methodist Pastor John Simon de Silva (1868-1940) inaugurated a new era of a culture
friendly ‘nationalism’ which, however, was neither Buddhism friendly nor ecumenical7 paralleling the Jesuit Perera’s anti-Buddhist and anti-ecumenical nationalism mentioned above. Openness to other religions is recorded first at the Centre for Religion and Society (CRS) founded in 1953 by the British Methodist Pastor Rev. Basil Jackson and reconstituted under its new name “Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue” (EISD) by his successor Rev. Dr. Lynn A. de Silva—a pioneer in Buddhist-Christian dialogue; this institute continues to this day as a locus of inter-religious encounter specially under its present director, Marshal Fernando. The Anglicans led by Bp. Lakdasa de Mel tried to bridge the cultural gap between Christians and Buddhists while his nephew Fr Yohan Devananda established the very first Christian ārāmaya modelled on Buddhist monasticism. Many (not all) Evangelical Christian Groups seem to regard inter-religious dialogue (unless geared to eventual conversion) as a betrayal of the mission mandate of Jesus and are engaged in a very zealous conversion spree.
2. Early Jesuit Posture
Obviously the major apostolate of the Jesuits until 1970 was secondary education, in which they excelled. The majority of our students were non Christians (Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims). Our mission policy was to serve the non-Christians and witness to Christ before them through our commitment to their education rather than indulge in proselytism as such. In letters to Rome, Jesuits had acknowledged not having converted the Buddhists in their schools. However the Jesuit ‘missionaries’ who ran parishes (and were therefore distinguished from “College Fathers”) were zealous in trying to make converts but never in great numbers. They did not seem to have been influenced by the dialogical approach of their aforementioned diocesan colleagues.
In this context, inter-religious dialogue never entered the Jesuits’ mission agenda. On the contrary even ecumenism (inter-Church
6 Centre for Society and Religion, Colombo (Tissa Balasuriya. OMI, 1971; Satyodaya, Kandy (Paul Caspersz, s.j., 1972); Tulana, Kelaniya (Aloysius Pieris, s.j, 1974); Subodhi, Piliyandala (Fr Mervyn Fernando, diocesan, 1973); Subasetgedara, Alukovita (Fr Michael Rodrigo, OMI) 1980; etc.
7 Cf. Prabo Mihindukulasuriya, “Christian Nationalsim of Rev. John Simon de Silva (1868- 1940),” Journal of the Colombo Theological Seminary, vol. XIII (2017):139-183.
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dialogue) was viewed negatively. When Bp. Lakdasa de Mel (Anglican) took the bold initiative to invite Catholics for an ecumenical meeting, perhaps in the late 1940s or early 1950s, the Jesuit Vicar General of the Galle Diocese entrusted Fr. Mark Anthony Fernando, s.j. with the task of handling it and [Fr. Mark confided in me triumphantly that] he took the occasion to state clearly and bluntly that true ecumenism consists of accepting the true church which the Roman Communion alone is. If that was how Lankan Jesuits of that time viewed inter-church dialogue, we can imagine what Buddhist-Christian dialogue would have sounded in their ears!
I was a scholastic at this time and I was no different from the rest of the Jesuits until Vatican II made the breakthrough. Even as late as in 1958 when I wrote my L.Ph thesis on Buddhism, my mentor Fr Ignatius Gnanaprakasham, s.j. tried hard to convince me that my negatively critical approach towards Buddhism was not Christian; my insensitivity frustrated him.
It was in the second decade of 1960s that there was a boom in ecumenism in our country, with many Jesuits (M. Catalano, Joseph Ciampa, Pio Ciampa, Joe Somers, Tom Kuriacose, Paul Caspersz, and myself) among the pioneers who included also many Oblates. But Buddhist-Christian dialogue did not take the kick-start that characterized inter-church dialogue. It was actually the Reformed Churches that initiated formal dialogue with non-Christians as noted earlier. In the RC denomination I was destined to start that process. But that process was through a dark tunnel, as described below.
3. Groping through a Dark Tunnel
After my theology in Naples, following our Superior’s instructions, I enrolled myself at the London University which approved the following as the topic for my PhD thesis: a comparative study of mindfulness in the Bible (Hebrew zkr) and Buddhist Scriptures (Pali sati). On my way to London, I was taken by Father Michael de Give, s.j. (later a Cistercian monk) to his own teacher Mgr Etienne Lamotte, the famous Buddhologist in Louvain. When I mentioned the topic of my thesis, he turned me upside down by asking me. “How can/dare you compare what you know with what you do not know? You must forget your Christianity and immerse yourself (il faut plonger) into Buddhism and write something from within it. Leave comparative studies to the end of your life”!
Adhering to his advice, I changed the topic of my thesis! A letter from my superiors made me change also the University! For Fr. Vito Perniola, a recognized Pali Grammarian of Italian origin, and the one who pushed me into Indological studies, had suggested to our Provincial Emmanuel Crowther that I be called back from Europe and be advised to do my Doctoral studies in Sri Lanka under the Buddhist monks in their university.
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I interrupted my journey to London and returned to Ceylon (as our country was known then). Fr Emmanuel Crowther (a Jesuit full of Vatican II and transformed by the Jesuits’ General Congregation 31) sent me to do my doctoral studies to the University of Sri Lanka Vidyodaya Campus with these memorable words, which are carved in my heart: Son, we are sending you on uncharted ground; we cannot guide you; you will have to guide us later. So do not be afraid to make mistakes, even serious ones, but keep us informed. Encouraged by his words I went and handed over my application for the PhD course at that University.
Alas! Something unpleasant and unexpected happened and that shocked me into a bout of despair and inertia from which I finally emerged with a new understanding of my mission. Despite having passed BA Honours examination in Pali and Sanskrit from London University with first class honours which qualified me to go for PhD without sitting for MA, the University of Sri Lanka (Vidyodaya Campus) was not at all keen to register me for the PhD, whereas a monk with a second upper class was accepted without ado. The monastic who headed the relevant Department, a person known to be fair and just, seemed nevertheless perplexed as to why I gave up such an easy chance of doing PhD in Buddhism at a Western University! What was my real motive? For one full year and a quarter I was kept in suspense without being officially registered. I could not use the University Library as I did not have the admission card. I had to go to the Colombo Museum Library to do my research. The irony was that I had finished a good part of the research by the time I was finally given admission to the university. It was frustrating.
But the Vice-Chancellor of the time, fortunately, was Ven. Dr Walpola Rahula Thera, a very liberal and universally recognized Monk scholar, whom I had befriended in France thanks to that same Catholic Priest-Buddhologist, Mgr. Etienne Lamotte of Louvain. Quite gently and persuasively Venerable Rahula explained the reason why some dons (specially in the Buddhist Department) seemed to have no faith in me or in any Christian who sought to be academically qualified in Buddhist doctrine under tutorship of Buddhist scholars!
And what was that reason for this distrust? All Christian Missionaries who had studied Buddhism under Buddhist monks in the past had later written and published anti-Buddhist tracts that ‘proved’ the falsity of the teachings of the Buddha and the superiority of Christianity. Their motive for studying Buddhism has been later revealed to have been sinister. Here below are examples:
The first accused in the list was Giacome Gonçalvez, the great Oratorian Missionary from Goa. After being generously instructed in Pali and Buddhism by scholarly monks, he wrote and circulated his classic Devavedapurāṇaya which irritated the Buddhists so much that as soon as they managed to get a printing press in the late 1800s, they responded to
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Gonçalvez’ apologetics with a scurrilous attack on Christianity in a book titled Durvādīhṛdaya-vidāraṇaya.
Note that the JESUITS, under whom the Oratorian missionaries in our country were educated in Goa, had inculcated in them a solid spirituality which made them tireless self-sacrificing missionary saints, among whom ranks St. Joseph Vaz who endeared the hearts of Buddhists by his all too visible holiness;8 but the post-Tridentine theology they were taught by the same Jesuits made some of these Goans see other religions as non-salvific; but following the example of the more advanced renaissance JESUITS (de Nobili, Ricci and Beschi), they made use of the cultures minus [the liberative core of these] religions to clothe Christianity with. They called it adaptation at that time; now some call it inculturation. But it assumed an apologetical format of evangelization that annoyed the Buddhists. One well respected Buddhist of our own time, Mr Gunaseeli Vithanage was justifiably blunt in publicly and frequently calling it the Chameleon’s camouflage for pouncing on the prey—a trick for conversion.
The British Methodist missionaries, too, adopted a similar posture. The Buddhist monks trusted their Pastor Daniel John Gogerly so much that they equipped him with a profound knowledge of Pali language and Buddhist doctrine; and in return the Buddhists received a book called Kristiyāni-Prajñaptiya, which aimed to prove the falsity of Buddhism and the correctness of Christianity.
The following episode, the likes of which seem to have a solid historical basis9 and which I heard from a few academics of that time more than justified the Buddhists’ fear and suspicion about me:
At the beginning, the Buddhist recluses welcomed British missionaries and went to the extent of offering them the preaching halls in their temples, free of charge, for catechizing Christian children; they also generously provided transport (i.e., bullock-carts) for their missionary work. Then one day, as a reciprocal gesture of friendship, the monks invited the missionaries to take part in a Buddhist ceremony. The Christian evangelists were alarmed by what they regarded as a diabolically inspired gesture of enticing them to partake in a pagan cult; and on the appointed day they entered the temple premises with printed versions of their negative view of Buddhism and the Buddha; and they distributed these leaflets just as they were welcomed with garlands. The Buddhists, to their horror, came to see for the first time the true face of missionary Christianity, with its mask removed.10
8 As maintained in my Foreword to Life of Blessed Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Sri Lanka, by S.G. Perea, 3rd reprint, (Colombo, 2005), ix-xix.
9 See Kitsiri Malalgoda, Buddhism in Sinhalese Society 1750-1900: A Study of Religious Survival and Change (Berkely: Unibersity of Caligornia Press, 1976), 211-213; Elizabeth Harris, Theravada Buddhism and the British Encounter: Religious, Missionary and Colonial Experience in Sri Lanka, 191 ff. 10 Could this also explain why Pope John Paul II was snubbed by the monks during his visit to Sri Lanka? As they were preparing to give him a very warm welcome, his visit was heralded by the arrival of his book On the Threshold of Hope, in which the chapter titled “Buddha?” was a piece of anti-Buddhist apologetics based on a false interpretation of the Dhamma. See Aloysius Pieris, “Christian and Buddhist Responses to the Pope’s Chapter on Buddhism,” Dialogue, NS, XXII (1995): 62-95.
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Hence after walking into the University in 1967 and expressing my desire to be specialized in the doctrinal intricacies of the Buddha-Dhamma, I began to realize that I was projecting before the Buddhist intelligentsia the hostile image of a distrustful and militant Christianity which Vatican II (1964-66) had just then disowned in favor of another image which was yet to be made visible. It became quite evident to me that any work of dialogue and collaboration with Buddhists had to go hand in hand with the work of implementing the church-renewal ushered in by this great ecclesial event. And that is exactly what I tried to do.
4. Eight Years of Clearing the Way (1966-1974)
While I had completed my thesis within a year and half, the granting of the doctorate dragged on for five years (1966-1971) because two supervisors died one after the other11 and the third left for USA after making me revise it.12 I begged on my fours not to impose a fourth supervisor and a third revision! I was happy that my third supervisor was brought back at the University’s expense to preside over my defense, which was unexpectedly tense as it was the supervisor who cross-examined me with such ruthlessness that I came out of the defense with a feeling that I wasted my five years. On hearing it my Provincial, (by that time, Fr W. Moran) assured me that he would send me to Sorbonne to get my Doctorate.
But I soon received a confidential information from a friend in the examination department that my thesis was sent to two external examiners in two foreign universities so that if by chance I started an anti-Buddhist campaign later, the university would not incur the blame for approving my thesis. However I was also informed that the external examiners had expressed a very positive opinion about my research! So all trouble taken during those trying years had borne fruit. This means that despite the historically well founded apprehensions about my motives, the university had been as cautious as it was quite fair by me; so I declare with folded hands.
That was how I started my Christian encounter with Buddhism— purified of the Christian biases of another era and paying an initial price for the precious grace of gaining the confidence of the Buddhists, both scholars and saints. This is an event that lasted five years and here below are the highlights:
(1) The departmental head and supervisor made it clear that to understand Buddhist ethico-psychology (on which I was writing my thesis) one cannot depend on “Couch-Psychology of the Christian West” but on introspection as taught by the Buddha. In other words, I was not qualified until I underwent that experience. The Provincial
11 Venerable Dr. Kotagama Vachissara Thera and Prof. K.N. Jayatillake. 12 Prof. Dr David Kalupahana.
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Crowther’s carte blanche came to my rescue. The only way out was humbling oneself before meditation masters, who “looked uneducated at first sight” (not even O Level qualification) but were wise men who, like peṭṭhgams (those old musty treasure chests found in our homes), contained the sacred wisdom of centuries. Two lessons I learnt:
[i] Humility was the only key that opened those treasure chests. I realized that it was when Jesus humbled himself before that Asian Guru by the River Jordan that he heard the mission-mandate from the Father. Perhaps the Asian Church had not yet received it—I concluded—because the Church was trying to teach without learning and speak without listening.
[ii] The second lesson was that it was my sincere efforts to experience the liberative core of Buddhism—greedlessness, non-self—employing Buddhist methods of arriving at it, that qualified me to dialogue with Buddhists. For the language of Love which I learned from the biblical tradition had to dialogue within me with the language of Knowledge which the Buddhists employ. The Biblical agape and Buddhist gnosis are two modes of human communication which must come to terms with each other in one’s interior being before a Christian-Buddhist Encounter and Dialogue Centre be launched in the external forum.
(2) The Catholic Church’s sense of self-sufficiency was another obstacle to overcome. Rev. Dr Lynn A. De Silva of the Methodist Church had already been engaged in Buddhist-Christian Dialogue for several years and on hearing of this “first Christian, a Catholic, doing his Doctorate in Buddhist studies in a Buddhist Institution”, came to meet me and requested collaboration. It was I who should have gone to meet him and seek guidance. We struck a deep and lasting friendship and we indulged in an ecumenical approach to Buddhist-Christian Understanding,
which is what I continue to this day. I collaborated with him ecumenically in Buddhist-Christian encounters organized at his Centre for Religion and Society (CRS) which he would later baptize as EISD (Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue) and I still continue to collaborate with this Centre. The result was the launching of the Journal Dialogue, New Series which he and I co-founded in 1974 and co-edited till his death in 1982 and I continue as its chief editor to this day. The policy of conducting inter-religious dialogue ecumenically remains unchanged to this day in the Dialogue and Encounter Centre I founded in 1974 (about which see no. 4 below).
(3) During the doctoral studies here in Sri Lanka, I was fully engaged in Buddhist-Christian dialogue in many areas. Let me mention only two of them. One was in the area of Buddhist-Christian mixed marriages. I took pastoral care of so-called “mixed couples” both before marriage and after marriage. Unlike Hindus and Muslims, who can pray to God together with Christians, a Buddhist cannot join his or her spouse in a
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common prayer. Buddhist cannot pray to the Buddha but can express a wish before his image or presence. So I translated the “Our Father” into Sinhalese using Buddhist idioms and formulating it in the benedictative mood so that a Buddhist could join the Christian partner in making this common prayer (expressed in the form of a wish rather than a direct request)—the one before the Buddha image and the other before God. Ven. Dr W. Rahula Thera’s nihil obstat was sought before popularizing this common recital. Another area was my engagement with slum dwellers in a very poor area in Colombo, where (Tamil speaking) Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus with a handful of Christians were struggling together to overcome their poverty. There, inter-religious dialogue was a necessity for their sheer survival and I got a group of young Christian and Buddhist medical students to engage in saucy-dāna (health service) during the week-ends so as to educate them in the dialogue of life as practiced by these destitute people.
(4) In 1971, the final year of my Doctoral Studies our nation experienced the first ever island-wide armed insurrection of Marxist inspiration organized mainly by the Sinhala Buddhist youth a few of whom I had already met and befriended at the same university, for this university was one of the cradles of the insurrectionists. Their grievances were valid but what intrigued me was why these Buddhist youth sought the help of Marxism to remedy social evils rather than resort to the Salvific Message of the Buddha. This led me much later (from 1974 onwards) to launch out on a project of studying the social doctrine of the Buddha and sharing with groups of rural Buddhist youth as part of my mission.13
But there was an initial obstacle: My Jesuit superiors had clearly set out my future mission as a globe-trotting Indologist-cum-Theologian serving the international academe with my base in the Faculty of the Gregorian University in Rome and serving also as a visiting lecturer in EAPI of the Ateneo de Manila University in Philippines. I was, therefore, struggling to resolve the conflict between (a) “obedience to my superiors” who had such plans for me (b) “obedience to the signs of the times” which would have me work among the Buddhist youth here in our country. Fr Conget, our Tertian Instructor gave me the best advice possible: Obey the Superiors first and then question their decision.
After a semester of teaching in Rome (1972-73) and a similar experience in Manila, I presented my case to the Superiors: that I would continue to serve the international academe as an Asian Christian contributing to the universal church the insights of Eastern religions but with my
13 In this mission I was very much inspired and assisted by the monk-scholar, the late Ven. Dr Kakapalliye Anuruddha Thera whose PhD thesis (presented at the Lancaster university) was on the Social Doctrine of the Buddha.
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base here in our country in a Buddhist ethos rather than in Rome where I would lose my Asian roots and thus fail in the mission the Superiors have entrusted to me. After a year of discernment, the superiors decided in favour of my proposal. I retained my annual Manila engagement (36 hours in 2 weeks) and dropped the Roman one (24 lectures in six months). This way I could spend the greater part of the year in Sri Lanka!
Thus in 1974, I started the “Tulana” Research Centre for Encounter and Dialogue in a Buddhist ethos close to the Kelaniya University (See our website www.tulana.org). It was shifted in 1980 to a large spacious property thanks to a handsome donation received from Fr Pedro Arrupe, our General, in response to a request made by the then Provincial Fr Thomas Kuriacose. The Provincial’s written mandate to start this centre clearly indicated that a new model of an apostolic community was expected of me. Today three highly qualified lay persons, who have renounced lucrative jobs and positions to work with me, are the three pillars of Tulana.14 They join me in earning our living, organizing our multiple apostolic activities and maintaining the Centre.
5. Buddhist-Christian Dialogue at “Tulana”: a Summary
(1) RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS
Sri Lanka for Buddhists, in one sense, is like Rome for Christians: monks from other Buddhist countries come to our universities to get their academic degrees in Buddhism. For there is here a longstanding tradition of scholarly research. Option for remaining in villages (grāmavāsī) to study the Dhamma and impart it to the people—over that of solely living in the forests (vanavāsī) engaged in meditation—determined the character of Sri Lankan Buddhism. Hence serving the Buddhist academe became for me a priority.
(a) I was invited by Miss Horner of the Pali Text Society to edit and translate the Pali work Paramatthamañjusā, a conceptually abstruse and linguistically convoluted sub-commentary (which was the basis of my doctoral research). This engagement in what might become my magnum opus (if time permits) stimulated me (thanks to many questions this complex text raises about different aspects of Buddhism) to publish a whole heap of research papers in Buddhist Philosophy in recognized journals.
(b) The first anthology of such articles (Studies in the Philosophy and Literature of Pali Ābhidhammika Buddhism, Colombo, 2014) was well received in university circles specially after the most world-renowned Buddhist scholar, Ananda P. Guruge, acknowledged in his Foreword that he found in it answers to questions that bothered him for years! The second
14 Sheila Fernando, Robert Crusz and Nimal Pieris. Fr Dilan Perera, s.j. is destined to join Tulana as the Director Operis after his higher biblical studies in Rome.
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anthology of already published articles are now being assembled to be eventually published in two volumes. This contribution of mine to Buddhist Studies was officially recognized by the University of Kelaniya by granting me a D.Lit (honoris causa).
(c) I am also a visiting lecturer in that university. Till a replacement was found, I had been the external examiner for MA students of the Pali and Buddhist University and second examiner for Hebrew and Greek for Christian Culture Department of the Kelaniya University. I was also the first to introduce a course on Comparative Study of Religions in the Pali and Buddhist University and a summary of that course has been published as Chapter VII in my book Prophetic Humour in Buddhism and Christianity: Doing Inter-Religious Studies in the Reverential Mode, EISD, Colombo, 2005, pp.105-134.
(d) We at Tulana edit two international journals: [i] Dialogue, New Series, which Rev. Dr Lynn de Silva and I started editing in 1974, is continued to this day (even after the former’s demise eight years later, i.e., in 1982) and is a globally patronized journal fostering Buddhist-Christian dialogue and now catering also to dialogue with Hinduism and Islam; [ii] Vāgdevī, Journal of Religious Reflection also edited and published by us in our own Tulana Media Unit (TMU, for which see no. 5 below).
(e) We have three libraries. One of them, a small one, which I inherited from the Jesuits, namely [i] the “S.G. Perera Memorial Library” on the History of the Country; the other two, very much bigger, I had built over the years: [ii] one on Indology (Indic languages, religions, philosophies, history, literature, arts, etc.), amply perused by students, lecturers and Buddhist monks from the Buddhism and Pali section of the Kelaniya University. FR FRANCIS D’SA of the Goa-Pune Province is gratefully remembered for his generosity in providing many Sanskrit originals and several secondary sources as well as English translations of Hindu classics. [iii] The other is on Western Thought, including Hebrew-Greek Scriptures, biblical studies, Christian Culture (arts, languages, theology, philosophy, history), etc. This third library is also perused by the students of the Western Civilization and Christian Culture Department of the Kelaniya University.
(2) BUDDHIST-CHRISTIAN ENCOUNTERS
Tulana is a venue for Buddhists and Christians meeting, not only at the academic level of research and study, but at the level of religious experience and spiritual guidance. As mentioned earlier these encounters are ecumenically organized ventures. Inter-ecclesial unity is forged in the process of many churches joining in the common mission of inter-religious dialogue. I have named this trans-ecclesial ecumenism, i.e., churches meeting together without losing their respective ecclesial identities but facing together the realities of Asia—Buddhism being one of them. This is the
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ecumenical context in which we conduct most of our inter-faith and inter ethnic encounters. In fact we keep close collaborative contact with main line churches as well as with the various evangelical groups.
(3) INTER-ETHNIC RECONCILIATION
In the current situation of the country specially after the ethnic-war, any dialogue with any group of religionists, a fortiori the Buddhist who constitute the majority, necessarily includes clearing misapprehensions and promoting mutual understanding. As mentioned above, we join the other churches in organizing (at our Centre) sessions for ethnic groups to meet one another in an atmosphere of openness. In fact our Tulana centre is the only Jesuit institution where men and women from all the major religious, ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country are brought for reconciliatory sessions—of course, thanks to the collaboration of non-RC churches, specially the Methodists and Anglicans.
In fact there used to be, every second Sunday of the month, a skype conference which provides an update (with political analysis) on the current global and local aspects of the North-South (Tamil-Sinhala) conflict and the true path towards its resolution.
(4) (BIBLICAL) SCRIPTURE STUDY
Every Wednesday evening I used to conduct a Scripture Study Session on the coming Sunday’s Readings. Pastors and lay persons from other Christian denominations too attend these weekly sessions. The Tulana Media Unit (TMU)—another department of our Tulana Centre, for which see below—
records them. About 350 audio-versions reach members of both the clergy and the laity by Saturday. Many priests told me that they use them for their Sunday sermons. Due a spell of ill-health followed by Easter Attacks on Churches and the Pandemic, this service has been temporarily suspended.
(5) MEDIA APOSTOLATE
The Tulana Media Unit (TMU) commenced operations in 1995 when Robert Crusz joined the Tulana Community after living and working in the U.K. for 21 years in a grass-roots based production workshop which produced critical documentaries for television, and feature films based on issues related to the lives of immigrant communities living in Europe and North America. The workshop also conducted media education and training for young people in the UK and abroad. It was because of this experience that I invited Robert Crusz to establish the TMU through which he continues with this combination of media production and Media Education work in video, radio, drama and publishing with the Sri Lanka Jesuit Scholastics, local schools, sub-urban and rural young men and women, producing a range of video films and documentaries, radio programmes and publications on issues relevant to the Sri Lanka situation. The TMU has acted as a host
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institution for the Sri Lanka Fulbright Visiting Scholars Programme on two occasions to date. Both Robert Crusz and the assistant director of the TMU, Dulhan Silva have been invited by Yale University, in New Haven, USA, to conduct workshops and collaborative programmes in community video, and to date two of our video film students have been international award winners for their short films. The TMU has kept record of our activities (Buddhist-Christians encounters, inter-ethnic reconciliation workshops, multi-religious seminars—which bring adherents of all the four religions: Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus, sessions on justice issues, ecological concerns etc.).
(6) CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY SEEN BY BUDDHIST ARTISTS
I have engaged nationally and internationally recognized Buddhist artists in the creative task of telling the Christians through their medium of communication what they think of Christ. Whereas evangelization traditionally consists of telling the Buddhist who Christ is, we at Tulana reverse the process: we invite the Buddhists to tell us who Christ is—as they perceive Him. Sometime I give them a text and ask them to interpret it. These artistic creations, which educate Christians to see their religion from another perspective, are available in our website.
Another powerful example is the Passion Play composed by a nationally esteemed Buddhist Litterateur15 It is a unique Sinhala classic which (at the author’s request) I edited posthumously with blessings and financial assistance of the State Ministry of Culture. I also published this same author’s Christmas Play which was written at my personal request. I got its lyrics put into music by the most famous Buddhist folk-musician of our nation.16 During Advent and Christmas one year, the National Radio serialized it as a ¬read (rather than acted) play—with lyrics sung by a choir trained by the composer himself. It is a species of non-colonial Christianity which we wish to see in Asia!
(7) CENTRE FOR EDUCATION OF HEARING IMPAIRED CHILDREN (CEHIC)
Founded by Sr Greta Nalawatta PHS with the sole collaboration of our Tulana Centre, the CEHIC has become, inter alia, a model of inter-religious (particularly Buddhist-Christian) collaboration. (See its website: www. cehicsrilanka.org). It is where “the deaf hear and the mute talk” thanks to the (time-consuming, energy-consuming and money-consuming method of deaf education known as) auditory-verbal training which the Sister and the staff trained by her give the children from the age of eight months so as to integrate them into normal schools at the age of five. Some of our children have graduated and are graduating from universities (a first in our
15 Shree Charles de Siva, a member of the editorial boards of the Sinhala Encyclopedia 16 Mr. Rohana Baddage.
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country’s history). Since the education is given free of charge (in keeping with the original Ignatian principle of serving rudes ac pueros ([poor] rural children), Sister and I have to be begging for money from Christian-Western sources and indirectly risk having the major say in money-matters over and above the Buddhist majority. We avoided this risk in the following manner:
We incarnated a new model of inter-religious collaboration wherein aid from a Catholic country is administered in such a way that money power does not rest solely in the hands of the Christian founders of the project (Sister, me and the late Mr Irvin Basnayaka). From 1982 onwards I traversed a difficult path, through trial and error, to find the correct formula. The constitution, which I got lawyers to draft and legally passed avoids both the private
owned and state-owned models; rather it has created a community school owned by the parents and (the three of) us so that money is administered by a Trust Board, of which Sister and I are “equal partners” with the parents, the majority of whom are non-Christians. Though we are responsible for begging for financial assistance and procuring them—Misereor helped us with the building—we (the three Catholic founders) have to ask permission from the Board of Trustees for any expenses we wish to incur for some work. Thus by renouncing POWER that comes from MONEY, we Christians have gained the AUTHORITY that comes from GOD. The Buddhists who form the majority in this community school are not threatened by our Christian initiatives. Furthermore we encourage celebration of Buddhist feasts in the school with Christian collaboration. In fact our policy has received unstinted endorsement from the Buddhist prelate, Venerable Velivityave Kusaladhamma Thera who has been collaborating with us as Patron and Trust Board Member. This is a well tested model, which we can now recommend to Christian minorities engaged in social work and justice movements among a Buddhist majority.
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