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NEMBUTSU AND CHRISTIAN MEDITATION

Kenneth MULLEN

INTRODUCTION

This paper explores the parallels that can be drawn between the Nembutsu practice and the mental recitation of a prayer word as recommended by modern Christian meditation move­ments. It focuses primarily on the practices and organisation of the Christian Meditation and Centering Prayer Movements. Both developed from within the monastic Benedictine tradition, but both continue to attract a predominantly lay following. One of the most common spiritual methods recommended to lay people within different religious traditions has been the constant repetition of a brief prayer word: this is often called the prayer of the Name. This practice historically has generally left the monastic tradition and entered the way of the common person. Most of these mantric methods were part of the monastic tradi­tion. What was new was their recommendation to the laity. The mantras that have entered lay practice most fully have been the ones addressed to the pure lands of infinite light and life in the Buddhist tradition, and the Jesus prayer in orthodoxy and the mantras from the Benedictines in the Christian tradition.

THE DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHIES OF THE MANTRA

Over the past half century there has been a recognition of

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Nembutsu and Christian Meditation

the urgent need for a revitalisation of prayer within the Chris­tian tradition. Within Catholicism this has partly come about through the reforms of Vatican II and the opening out of aspects of the monastic tradition to the laity. This need for a revitalisation of the church and a new way of prayer continues to be felt, witness the title of the talks at current church confer­ences, and the regular calls about the importance of contempla­tive prayer for the vitality of the Church. At present both the renewal of the contemplative tradition in Christianity; and the renewal of the contemplative approach among the laity are encouraged.1

There has also been questioning within western monasti-cism about the use of prayer and^ the renewal and rediscovery of contemplative styles of prayer.2 Two of the most prominent and popular approaches have been that of the work of Father John Main and Father Thomas Keating, both Benedictines. John Main formulated Christian Meditation (CM) and Thomas Keating Centering Prayer (CP). CM recommends constant repetition of a prayer word 'the mantra', CP maintains one can leave the mantra or prayer word as one enters the silence. The stress in both is on the word rather than on the image, although Centering Prayer does talk about the possible use of a visual symbol. But generally it is imageless prayer.

Christian Meditation

I will now describe John Main's method of Christian Meditation.3 John Main, as a young Benedictine in the far east was taught the use of a mantra by an Indian teacher, Swami Satyananda. He was later told by his Abbot to give up this method of prayer, but then in his reading he discovered that it also lay in the heart of the Christian tradition. This tradition was expounded in the writings of the 17th century English

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Kenneth Mullen

Benedictine Augustine Baker.—where he stated the path was open to lay and monastic people alike. Reading Baker sent John Main back to John Cassian. We can already see a de­veloping concern and attempt to outline a tradition for this teaching. In Christian Meditation a list of monks and contem­platives down through the centuries who have recommended this approach is now given. The list is discontinuous, and therefore parallels the approach taken by Honen when con­structing a lineage for his Pure Land School.4

The constant internal repetition of a prayer word is a simple approach but not an easy one. It is non-vocal, does not need to be coordinated with the breathing, and does not involve visualisation: 'It helps to chose a word not in your own lan­guage, so that it does not have mental associations.'5 Saying the mantra continuously, 'just say your mantra', is the heart of John Main's teaching and this is recommended as a good guard against the 'pax perniciosa' (pernicious peace) and the 'sopor letalis' (lethal sleep). John Main did believe that after a long period of practice one could be led into absolute silence, but he believed it was counter-productive to an individual's progress to describe such states. We can see a strong element of yoga teaching in Christian Meditation. John Main died at a rel­atively young age and we may speculate if his ideas would have changed and developed had he lived.

Centering Prayer

Thomas Keating in his Centering Prayer6 method also rec­ommends focusing on, and repeating a simple prayer word. Keating, in his discussion of contemplative prayer, makes a distinction between methods of contemplative prayer. Some he designates as being more concentrative, others as more recep­tive. Indeed he goes so far as to rank them on a scale of 1 to

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Nembutsu and Christian Meditation

10.7 The Jesus Prayer and mantric practice (the constant repeti­tion of a word or phrase), and John Main's method of contem­plative prayer he places towards the concentrative pole. Centering prayer (Keating's own method), the prayer of faith, prayer of simplicity, prayer of silence, prayer of simple regard, active recollection, and acquired contemplation, he puts to­wards the receptive pole. I feel this axis is close to that of self power vis-a-vis Other power. In other words constant repeti­tion gives way to less repetition and to resting in the silence, or indeed to a deep listening to the silence.8

Inculturation

Another stream from Vatican II has been the acceptance of elements of other religious traditions which do not contradict the teachings of the Catholic church. This has led to dialogue between the major world faiths and most notably between Hinduism and Catholicism.

One of the major pioneers in this field was Abhishiktanan-da, a Benedictine monk who also became a sannyasi. In his writings he often mentions the use of mantra, or short prayer phrases and how these relate to, and might be incorporated into Christian devotion. In his short work 'Prayer',9 he discus­ses the correspondences between the Indian Om and the Christian phrase Abba, the prayer of Jesus. He also mentions the case of Hindu converts to Christianity who had spon­taneously used the name of Jesus in the form of a mantra sand­wich. Such a process is closely related to the increased accept­ance of inculturation by the Catholic church, where it is possi­ble to use practices found within different cultures and seek to incorporate them within ritual devotions rather than rejecting them. Abhishiktananda was French by birth but there are now many Indian born Christians who write on these topics.10

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Kenneth Mullen

Foremost amongst these is Vandana Mataji. Her key books are: 'Nama Japa:11 The Prayer of the Name in the Christian and Hindu Traditions' and, the now classic: 'Ashrams, Gurus and Christians'.12 'Nama Japa' is a full exposition of the prayer of the Name both within the Hindu and Christian traditions. By prayer of the Name she means the constant repetition of a Name of God, either vocally or mentally. This is a form of bhakti yoga found in most of the world's faiths. Her range of reading and quotation on this spiritual practice is vast, from the Desert Fathers, and straying out with the Hindu tradition, to the Buddhist Shin Nembutsu sages.

Of particular interest is the attempted synthesis between East and West at the level of the Name. Of relevance is her in­clusion of eastern style Christian mantras: Yesu Om, Om Namah Christaya, and Aum Sri Yesu Bhagavate Namah. She also presents a description of a Christian meditation that is in the puja form familiar within both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, where both visualisation (in this case of Christ) and recitation of mantra (Yesu Om) are advocated. Finally there is a selection on sadhkas of the past who attained realisation through the prayer of the Name. Again, people within both the Christian (St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Charles Wesley, and Abhishiktananda) and Hindu (Sankaracarya, Mirabai, Gandhiji, and Sri Aurobindo) traditions are mentioned.

The book also has a section on the Shin tradition. Vandana mentions the Nembutsu and describes it, unlike other mantras, as philisophical in nature. Generally she sticks closely to the exposition given by Suzuki,13 mainly describing the experiences of the Nembutsu sages.

Quakerism

So far I have focused on the use of a prayer word within

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Nembutsu and Christian Meditation

Catholicism; is it to be found within the Reformed tradition? Well yes it is, but to a far more limited extent. I will briefly touch on Quakerism. Quakerism has often looked to the monastic tradition and its way of prayer for insight. Thomas Kelly,14 a Quaker, recommends the use of a constant repetition of a phrase from the Bible: 'The processes of inward prayer do not grow more complex, but more simple. In the early weeks we begin with simple words. '

In Pym's15 recent book: 'Listening to the Light* he states '...other practices, drawn from practices outside Quakerism, have been adopted in recent years by some Friends.... One of the most widespread ways used to still the mind is the repeti­tion of a mantra. A mantra is a word or phrase which is repeated over and over again until the mind becomes quiet. This kind of meditation is found within all the great spiritual traditions of the world. ' Of course, as Pym has pointed out, Quakerism has often borrowed from the spiritual writings of the Catholic tradition.

A lot of this material could be, and indeed has been termed Christian yoga,16 and a very important distinction which runs through some of these works is the distinction between effort­ful and effortless contemplation. This distinction has similar­ities to that between self-power and Other power. Yoga in its essence is effortful and thus easily becomes the provenance of, in Weber's term, spiritual virtuosos,17 a spirituality of the peaks and not of the valleys.18

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

So far I have briefly looked at the theological underpinnings of these practices. I would now like to turn to their social and organisational implications. Most of these methods of contem­plation were part of the monastic tradition. What is new is

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Kenneth Mullen

their current recommendation for use by the laity. The present need for such forms of contemplative prayer is very real as can be witnessed by recent articles.19 However, when we come to consider organisational structures, we often encounter some very familiar age old problems linked to power and authority. I wish to ask if these are necessarily linked to the practice.

Father Laurence Freeman in his paper: 'The Mantra in the Christian Tradition of Meditation and the Teaching of John Main* states that the teaching has 'ramifications into many aspects of the church and its place in the modern world'.20

Grass Roots and Hierarchy

The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM) is developing at a very fast rate. It has very popular appeal, is now widespread, with a worldwide constituency. Christian Meditation Groups have similarities to AA meetings with their small group structure and informal network. You can see cor­respondences with Sato's21 description of the structure of early Shin meetings, with the move from the larger Amida Halls of the monasteries to the smaller meetings organised by Honen.

The emerging organisational structure has been well de­scribed in the WCCM's 25 th Aniversity Tribute.22 Meditation groups are spread over many countries. These groups remain small but continue to multiply. The WCCM is largely based on voluntary contributions and volunteers. Each meditation group has a leader, or perhaps more accurately a facilitator, but their position remains ambiguous:

'John Main believed that contemplative experience creates community and that each human being, whatever their lifestyle, is drawn to this contemplative depth.' The key term to note here, is whatever their lifestyle. 'Most meditation groups are indeed led by lay people.' The WCCM is essentially a spiritual

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Nembutsu and Christian Meditation

fellowship. John Main started a lay community in the grounds of Worth

Abbey. We can see then at the very beginning the possibilities for tension between the lay and the monastic. Although John Main at the start saw the teaching on the mantra as a way of enriching his own monastic tradition, he gradually saw that its simplicity ideally met 'the crying need of so many people of all ages and walks of life for a deeper experience of prayer.'

Connected to this has been the creation of an oblate pro­gramme. As Freeman23 states: 'Recognising John Main as a deeply committed monk, and one who encouraged their own deepening commitment to the spiritual path, it was not surpris­ing that some meditators wanted to unite themselves more closely to the Benedictine tradition by being received as oblates of St. Benedict.' And further: 'An oblate makes a personal com­mitment to witness to the Christian Ufe in his or her daily life by nurturing the virtues of stability, conversion, and obedi­ence. Becoming an oblate does not in any way set one apart from the world ...Oblates come from all walks of Ufe, and sometimes adaptions need to be made for special circumstances and states of life. '

Many have come via the Web pages of the community: 'This oblate community is unique in that many of them are geographically distant from the monastery... The community has, therefore, evolved into what has been called a "monastery without walls."'

Here we encounter e-mail spirituality and we may ask if this new medium leads to forms of démocratisation within reli­gious movements. This new form of communication makes ideas available very quickly to a great number of people. We can see how this links with Vatican II and the attempt to ex­tend spirituality, and indeed monastic spirituality to the laity.

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Kenneth Mullen

Sectarian Friction

Although originally from within the Catholic Benedictine stream, both Christian Meditation and Centering Prayer have, from the beginning, seen themselves as being ecumenical. In­deed these ideas were quickly accepted by numerous people from Protestant denominations. However, there has often been friction between people from different Christian denomination­al backgrounds, with the result that Christian Meditation has occasionally been accused of being no more than yet another Catholic networking group.

This was particularly true of Australia where disputes led to Protestants leaving the organisation. The old tensions (denomi­national, sectarian etc.) have a tendency to reassert themselves within Christian Meditation. Where do such renegades and disillusioned people go? Perhaps we are witnessing a similar situation as described by Barker24 and Rochford25 with regard to New Religious Movements, where people who were heavily committed to the movement often become disillusioned and move out towards the periphery. They still believe in the ideas and may still practice, but they are no longer involved in the organisational structures.

Hierarchical Structure and the Emergence of an Elite

There are other problems commonly associated with initial­ly small but rapidly expanding religious groups. Controlling power can become centralised with a small group of people who may have the time, money and resources to contribute to the developing organisation. I would like to point out, how­ever, this is not just a problem for the Christian Meditation movement.

The organisational structure of CM is in fact emergent.

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Nembutsu and Christian Meditation

There is now a Guiding Board, and also National Councils and regional Coordinators. These are seen to give 'structure and direction to the work of the community.'26 There is also an In­ternational Centre, a School of Teachers, and Medio Media, the printing arm of the community.

Do such new developments as the inauguration of The School for Teachers necessarily indicate a growth of hierarchy within the movement? It will indeed make the teachings avail­able to more people. The WCCM have already outlined three phases for the School. Phase 1 is a weekend introduction. Phase 2 will consist of modules on specific themes, presented on days and retreats and seminars, teaching to larger audiences. Phase 3 will consist of a week long 'directed meditation re­treat. ' As can be seen, an educational structure is emerging and indeed emerging quite rapidly.

As the organisation expands you can witness the develop­ment of an inner core, with Fr. Laurence Freeman as the spir­itual guide, supported by a guiding board. There are also National and International Centres. People can now travel the world to attend various retreats. In so doing they may develop a feeling of being closer to the centre of things (as they hear talks by Fr. Laurence Freeman on Christian Meditation) than individuals, who for financial or other reasons, cannot attend retreats. This has already produced a two tier structure within the organisation.

Allied to these developments may be the issue of how one keeps such a seemingly simple practice interesting. In the WCCM one way this is done is via a series of retreats, confer­ences and seminars. For example, there are now retreats on Christian Meditation and yoga, Christian Meditation and circle dancing, and meditation and healing.

There is also the problem of the high turn-over of new members, older people and groups continually being super-

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Kenneth Mullen

ceded by 'new converts' often with more money and resources. This is similar to the process that can be seen in the develop­ment of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. As with other reli­gious groups, we now witness the common process of con­tinual change accompanied by the buying and selling of houses, accommodation and retreat centres.

The organisation is deeply committed to Inter-religious dia­logue. At present this mainly takes the form of dialogue with the Dalai Lama and joint pilgrimages for peace. But again it is on the level of the leaders of the religious orders that this inter­change is taking place, not really at the level of the laity (cf. DIM and the organisations for Inter-monastic dialogue). The Inter-faith movement in Christian Meditation is particularly strong with regard to Buddhism: '... potential for Christians of all denominations to meet in common faith. Indeed, people of all religions can meet in their common humanity by meditating together.'

What we are witnessing, then, is a religious organisation in a period of rapid growth. Change often involves consolidation but it can also mean fragmentation. In the Christian Medita­tion movement today we may see elements of two types of fragmentation:

1. within the organisation between a smaller inner core and the larger membership of the numerous small groups.

2. people who are breaking away from the organisation.

CONCLUSION

In this paper I have tried to delineate major elements of the new Christian Meditation movements. I have looked at the different views they hold on the meaning of this practice of re­peating a short prayer phrase. I have also commented on the organisational development of these religious movements. In

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Nembutsu and Christian Meditation

so doing, I wish to highlight similarities with the early de­velopments of Jodo Shinshu.

The 'founder' of Christian Meditation, Fr. John Main, was very much influenced by reading the work of Augustine Baker, an earlier Benedictine. Again we can see parallels here with Honen's spiritual breakthrough when reading the early Pure Land masters, a sort of seminal discovery — in this case the re­discovery of the mantra in the Western Tradition and the rec­ognition of its importance.

Another similarity with the Pure Land Tradition is the idea of reinterpretation of what we in fact mean by the term 'man­tra', or rather not just its reinterpretation but also a shift in the context of its use. In Shin Buddhism, the Name becomes the only practice. Again within Christian Meditation a close read­ing of John Cassian and the Cloud reveals differences of empha­ses. John Main has interpreted these writers, reading them in a specific way. This has produced a method of contemplative prayer that is at once modern and western, but also with east­ern overtones.

The concern of John Main was very much on the word leading into silence, but to do this one needed to continually repeat a mantra 'say your mantra ...until your mantra is rooted in your consciousness.' This obviously has resonance with the traditional Indian teaching on mantra. But perhaps we can also relate this to Shinran's teachings on the three most im­portant vows: the 18th, 19th and 20th. The individual may de­velop through these vows, moving from the self-power prac­tice of the repetition of the prayer phrase to the recognition of, and being enveloped by, Other power. Bloom, in his essay,27

speaks of just such a development in Shinran's own life and de­velopment.

This movement is seen to be from head to heart. Freeman28

makes an important point: 'another way of describing the pro-

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Kenneth Mullen

cess is to say that at first you say your mantra, then you sound it and finally you listen to it.' Again this is surely very similar to the writing of Unno29 and the concept of deep listening.

Freeman30 makes an important statement: 'The mantra allows us to "leave self behind"'. And again 'Thus we become (as we were created to be) other centred.' These statements are, I think you would agree, similar to the idea of renouncing self-power and letting oneself be embraced by Other-power.

While John Main was too good a theologian and too prac­ticed in other forms of prayer, to say that the mantra was 'the only way', he did say that it was the only way that he had found. Again we can perhaps see similarities with Shinran and his spiritual development that the Nembutsu was the only way for him. But of course with Christian meditation, there is no aim to build a sect solely on the teaching, although potentially at least this may be possible.

The theology of these practices is that they are the prayer of Jesus:

'In meditation we open our human consciousness to his and so go with him on his return to the Father in the spirit.'

This two-way process of Jesus going to the Father but then sending his Spirit back to us has close parallels with the Bodhi-sattva ideal: the Bodhisattva coming from the Dharmakaya to save sentient beings; the phases of Oso-Eko and Genso-Eko.31

Such practices are making great inroads within the Chris­tian community. Should we not also ask why the practice of the Nembutsu is not making a similar impact on the world of Buddhism in the West?

NOTES

1. WCCM, Christian Meditation Newsletter: 25th Anniversary Tribute, Greeting the New Millennium WCCM, Medio Media, January 2000.

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2. Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer. Darton, Longman and Todd: London, 1993.

3. See John Main, The Inner Christ. Darton, Longman and Todd: London, 1995. Main, J. Christian Meditation. Benedictine Priory of Montreal: Montreal, 1952. Main, J. The Gethsemani Talks. Medio Media: London, 1977. Also Freeman, L. The Christian Meditation Group. Medio Media: London, 1992. Freeman, L. Light With­in. Medio Media: London, 1995. Harris, P. Christian Meditation: Contemplative Prayer for a New Generation. Darton, Longman and Todd: London, 19%.

4. English Translation Project, Honen 's Senchakushi. University of Hawai'i Press: Hawai'i, 1998.

5. Laurence Freeman, Christian Meditation: Your Daily Practice. Medio Media: London, 1998.

6. Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart. Continuum Publishing Company: New York, 1995. Also Pennington, M.B. Centering Prayer: Renewing and Ancient Christian Prayer Form. Doubleday: New York, 1980. Reininger, G. The Diversity of Centering Prayer. Continuum: New York, 1999.

7. Keating, Open Heart, Open Mind, p. 147. 8. See Jim Pym, Listening to the Light. Rider: London, 1999. 9. Abhishiktananda, Prayer. ISPCK: New Delhi, 1972.

10. See Sahajananda, A New Vision of Christianity. Saccidananda Ashram: Shanti-vanam, 1998. Sahajananda, Non-Duality in the Upanishads and the New Testament. Saccidananda Ashram: Shantivanam, 1999.

11. Vandana Mataji, Nama Japa: Prayer of the Name in the Hindu and Christian Traditions, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers: Delhi, 1997.

12. Vandana Mataji, Gurus, Ashrams and Christians. Darton, Londman and Todd: London, 1978.

13. D.T. Suzuki, Mysticism: Christian and Buddhist. Un win: London, 1988. 14. Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion. Hodder & Stoughton: London,

1943. p.40. 15. Pym, Listening to the Light, pp.68-69. 16. See J.M. Dechanet, Christian Yoga. Burns and Oats: London, 1968. 17. H.H. Gerth, and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber. Routledge and Kegan

Paul: London, 1970. 18. See Taitetsu Unno, River of Fire, River of Water. Doubleday: London, 1998. 19. International Yoga Magazine. 20. Laurence Freeman, The Mantra in the Christian Tradition of Meditation and the

Teaching of John Main. 1995. 21. K.T. Sato, The Relationship between Master and Disciple. Three Wheels: Lon­

don, 1998. 22. WCCM, Christian Meditaion Newsletter. 23. Ibid.

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24. E. Barker, On the Margins: Qualifications to the Them/Us Characterisation of Religious Movements. Paper given at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference: Edinburgh, 1998.

25. E.B. Rochford, Jr. Re-Membering Hare Krishna: Patterns of Disaffiliation and Re-entry. In Gee, P. and Fulton, J. (eds) Religion and Power: Decline and Growth. BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group: London, 1991.

26. WCCM, Christian Meditation Newsletter. 27. Alfred Bloom, Shin Buddhism In Modern Culture: A Self Study Course. Uni­

versity of Hawaii. http://www. aloha. net/"albloom/shinstudy/, 1999. 28. Freeman. The Mantra in the Christian Tradition of Meditation and the

Teaching of John Main. 29. Unno, River of Fire, River of Water. 30. Freeman. The Mantra in the Christian Tradition of Meditation and the

Teaching of John Main. 31. Seigen H. Yamaoka, Jodo Shinshu: An Introduction. Buddhist Churches of

America: San Francisco, 1990.

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