Category: Buddhism

Below is an exchange of emails between Mui Hoong, ST Forum editor and myself that started because of the article Quiet contemplation on common ground.

10 Jan 2012 10:07pm Here’s the letter to Sr Theresa Seow and Ms Chua.

11 Jan 2012 11:45am Letter to Straits Times Editor.

11 Jan 2012 14:00pm A reply from Ms Chua.

Letter to Sr Theresa Seow and Ms Chua

Dear Sr. Theresa and Mui Hoong,

n

In summary, Buddhists do not have a belief in a creator God and also do not meditate to reach God through silence.  We meditate to cultivate Samadhi (Concentration) and Prajna (Wisdom).  This wisdom culminates in Nirvana, i.e. complete Cessation of Suffering, attaining the fruit of Arahanthood or Buddhahood.  This is not communion with god/God(s).

11:45am  Letter to Straits Times Editor

Dear Straits Times Editor,

Reply from Ms Chua

from: CHUA MUI HOONG muihoong@sph.com.sg

to: “Shi ChuanGuan (ZhiXing)” <wakeupnow@gmail.com>

cc: Daulet Manecksha ,  “[DPD SEM] Felix Toh” ,  释广声 Venerable Sik Kwang Sheng, stforum@sph.com.sg, stonline@sph.com.sg, Theresa Seow

date: Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 1:13 PM

subject: Re: Clarifications on the article “Quiet contemplation on common ground”

Hi Venerable,

I am so sorry for being tardy in my response. I just saw your email to me personally and this email. I noticed from your email that you had sent me a message via Facebook – I have an account but have not checked my messages for a couple of weeks!

I enjoyed your talk and some of your words remain with me, especially the bit on “dog poo” and how we should learn to let go of misfortune and bad events and not dwell on them. Thank you for your sharing.

I am aware that Buddhists do not have a belief in a creator God.

My article mentioned several times that meditation is a search for the divine, or God, or Ultimate Reality. I also mentioned the need for mindfulness and being attentive to the here and now. It is clear from the overall article that I am not referring exclusively to the concept of a Creator God. I hope the article as a whole does not misrepresent Buddhist beliefs.

The bit where I referred to reaching GOD in silence is in this paragraph: “So when a Christian sits and centres herself with a prayer word like Yahweh or Maranatha (Aramaic for Come, Lord), when a Buddhist meditates on loving kindness, when a Taoist follows the rise and fall of his breath to harmony, when a Muslim chants the various names of Allah, or a Hindu engages her chakra in
meditation – they are all engaged in a practice both unique to their tradition, and common to all faiths: reaching God through silence.”

On hindsight, it would be more accurate to say “reaching God, or the Ultimate – through silence.”

I hope Buddhists reading the article will pardon the use of the word God in this paragraph without qualification. Any offence is unintended and I do apologise if any has been caused.

The article is attached below with the relevant paragraphs highlighted in bold and underlined.

Sincerely

Mui Hoong

PS: You are most welcome to post this reply on your website or Facebook.

Article here:

Quiet contemplation
on common ground

People of different faiths pray together in powerful expression of harmony

By Chua Mui Hoong, Review Editor

I SPENT the weekend just past holed up in an auditorium with nearly 400 others, listening to religious leaders share insights on the contemplative dimension of their faiths.

They focused oncontemplation and meditation – the common search for meaning and the journey to God, or the Ultimate Reality or the Divine Consciousness, through the path of stillness and silence.

What was particularly special was that after some of these sessions, the lights would dim, and we would all sit in silence and meditate together.

We tried to clear our chattering monkey minds of external thoughts, and used different techniques to tether the grazing cow of our wandering brain to an anchor point, a focus. Some used a prayer word from the Bible; others a Sanskrit mantra; some watched their breaths; some fingered prayer beads and recited the names of Allah in prayer.

Some fidgeted; a mobile phone or two rang; some used the meditation time to take photos or update their Facebook.

But for an amazing five sessions of 20 minutes each, we sat in companionable silence, engaged in the individual, intensely private yet intensely communal practice of silent prayer.

The event aptly titled “common ground” was organised by the Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Council for Inter-Religious and Ecumenical Dialogue and the World Community for Christian Meditation. It was also supported by the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) of Singapore.

In his opening remarks, IRO president Ashvin Desai from the Jain community noted: “We are living in a fast changing world where we are witnessing a mushrooming of spas and retreats, together with large number of people taking up yoga, meditation and other forms of individual exercises. Clearly there is strong demand for individual time and escape.”

As Mother Mangalam, a Hindu aged 85 and the life president of the Pure Life Society in Malaysia, put it, there is a crying need for periods of silence in today’s noisy, busy world.

If this sounds new ageish and mumbo-jumbo, it is not.

Meditation is at heart the ancient practice of sitting still, in silence, being attentive to the here and now – being attentive to life in oneself, life around us, and the Life Source in us.

Different faith traditions use different words, but many teach the wisdom and insight that the Divine resides in each of us, a wellspring of peace and love to be tapped.

So when a Christian sits and centres herself with a prayer word like Yahweh or Maranatha (Aramaic for Come, Lord), when a Buddhist meditates on loving kindness, when a Taoist follows the rise and fall of his breath to harmony, when a Muslim chants the various names of Allah, or a Hindu engages her chakra in meditation – they are all engaged in a practice both unique to their tradition, and common to all faiths: reaching God through silence.

This contemplative tradition common in many faiths lies beyond doctrine and dogma, and thus lends itself to meaningful interfaith exchanges.

Interfaith dialogue begins with cognitive understanding of each other’s religions. With understanding comes respect for each
other’s differences.

But there can also be commonality in diversity, as the religious leaders stressed at the seminar. This is not to say that all faith traditions are the same. They are eminently not, bound as each is to certain historical periods and culture and teachings. But faith practices have common elements, and prayer is one of them.

Sitting together in meditation, whether known as dhikr, jing gong, samayik, samatha or centering prayer, is religious harmony in action, a visible expression of respect and tolerance for other faiths. The act of praying together says more than words can, of how much I respect and value your faith tradition and honour it as being different from, yet equal to, my own practice.

This point was not lost to participants and speakers. Many marvelled that such an event was taking place in a region and a world riven with religious conflict.

Many also thought it fitting that Singapore play host to such an event, as a multi-faith society with a long tradition of respect for religious diversity. Or as Father Laurence Freeman, a Catholic and a Benedictine monk from Britain, put it, Singapore had a “particular opportunity” to be a “witness” to the potential of interfaith friendships across religions.

A few leaders also ventured the hope that an interfaith centre could be set up to provide space for people of different religions to spend quiet time together.

Habib Syed Hassan Al-Attas, the Imam and Head of Ba’alwie Mosque in Singapore, shared insights on contemplation from Islam, ending his talk with a show-and-tell. He pulled out from his robes a string of prayer beads – and then another – and another. Soon, the Muslim prayer beads, the Buddhist strand, the Catholic rosary, the Hindu prayer beads, were all strung around his arms.

Then he beamed beatifically and made the observation that these prayer chains, whether they had 108, 99 or 150 beads, were all expressions of, and paths to, the common ground in our different faiths.

I left renewed in my own faith tradition as a Catholic, resolving once again to be faithful in this practice of silent prayer. I left with an immense pride in my society, my country, that has got so many things right, it could be a beacon for others of such interfaith exchanges.

And most of all, I left the seminar feeling I had touched common ground – the wellspring of the divine that resides in humanity of all faiths – and it is holy.

muihoong@sph.com.sg

CUA Mui Hoong (Ms)

Review Editor
The Straits Times, Singapore
Tel: 6319 5301
Fax: 67320131
1000 Toa Payoh North
News Centre
Podium, 2nd storey
SINGAPORE 318994
www.straitstimes.com.sg

This morning started off as Tuesdays do for me since 2009 September.  My Dharma brother Cheng Soon and I would meet at the Buddhist Library and we would do translation of the Buddhist teachings, from Chinese to English.  Today was no different.  Except when I read the sms from Sister Theresa Seow about the Straits Times article “Quiet contemplation on common ground” by review editor Chua Mui Hoong.

Over the last weekend (7th & 8th January 2012), representatives from various faiths came together for a seminar on “The Contemplative Dimension of Faith”.  The theme and title was “common ground”, representing the contemplative practice (meditation) that is common in many religions.

As I read the article before lunch today, a line grabbed my attention.

http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/news.php?id=26114

“… they are all engaged in a practice both unique to their tradition, and common to all faiths: reaching God through silence.”

I reread the article and line a few times but did not seem to figure out how that came about.  I’ve posted the picture below on my facebook wall to highlight that it is either a misrepresentation or misinterpretation of Buddhist meditation shared during the seminar.

In my article in the handout given during the seminar, I explicitly highlighted that “Buddhists have no belief in a creator God”.  This almost did not survive the final edition due to … a space constraint … but made it to print after the organising team managed to resolve it.  I’m glad I insisted because even with that clear assertion and my session where I pointed out the clear path, fruits and goal of Buddhist meditation, Ms Chua unfortunately went away from the seminar with the wrong understanding.

Buddhists do not meditate to reach God through silence.

Simply put, Buddhists meditate to cultivate Samadhi (Concentration) and Prajna (Wisdom).  This wisdom culminates in Nirvana, i.e. complete Cessation of Suffering, attaining the fruit of Arahanthood or Buddhahood.  This is not communion with god/God(s).

There are some Buddhists and moderate theistic persons who may wonder why this monk need to highlight this.  After all, isn’t a
common ground more meaningful for peace and harmony than picking on the details?  As they say, the devil is in the details.

By highlighting this in the handout, talk, on fb and here, I’m clarifying what is and is not Buddhism.  If this remains unmentioned, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike may start to think that Buddhists also pray to God, just using different names, when in fact we do not.

Further, by highlighting this here, and especially during Geylang Serai Inter-Racial And Religious Confidence Circle (IRCC) and other dialogues in Singapore, I am trying to promote understanding and not mere ‘feel good, we are the world, hands together’ homogenised world religion type of understanding.

Common ground is a very noble and beautiful effort by the Christian community towards interfaith harmony and understanding.  Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) and its members supported this seminar precisely because of that.  But common ground was not meant to and should not lead to homogenisation.  Homogenisation can and I believe has led to the exact opposite: Fundamentalism.

As I mention in numerous talks, Buddhists do not have a belief in God (boys and girls, how many times have I mentioned this?   Sunk in yet?), but this does not make theistic believers our enemy nor Buddhists yours.  And that is very important moving forward, both in peace and harmony, but also nurturing in-depth understanding amongst faiths.

In parting, I believe that as Sister Theresa communicated to me through sms, Ms Chua was sharing her personal experience in good faith.  But I believe it would serve the readers and public better if her sharing reflect what is reality.

EDIT: Updated for formatting and typos.

Update: 10 Jan 2012 3+pm, I sent Ms Chua a fb message pointing to this blog and the fb page.  Hope to hear from her.

Update: 10 Jan 2012 9:22pm. Have not heard from Ms Chua as yet.  I am sending Sister Theresa and Ms Chua an email (sent around 10:03pm) to help Ms Chua have a better understanding of Buddhist meditation and also to request her to post a correction to the article so that Buddhism do not get unwittingly misrepresented.

Update: 10 Jan 2012 10:07pm Here’s the letter to Sr Theresa Seow and Ms Chua.