Past and Present
Buddhist
The Buddha was born in northern India of a princely family as Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakhya clan. His mother died when he was one-week old, and he was raised by his stepmother and trained to become the successor of the kingdom. He married and had one son. Leaving home at age 29, he gave up his princely life and became a wandering ascetic, seeking to answer the question of why people suffer. At age 35, finding that extreme asceticism brought him no closer enlightenment than did an indolent, luxurious life, he turned to the middle path of moderation. He attained enlightenment by turning his meditation inward, achieving the realization of ultimate reality and becoming “the Buddha”, “the Awakened One”.

In his enlightenment experience, the Buddha discovered the Four Noble Truths, the causes of and methods to eradicate dukkha, unsatisfactoriness, which underlies all life. He then “turned the wheel of dharma” (began teaching the path to enlightenment/liberation) and devoted the next 45 years of his life teaching others so that they might also attain liberation from suffering. He died at aged 80 and entered into parinirvana, ultimate reality, that state of complete peace and quiet that goes beyond concepts of existence or non-existence.

Buddhism does not recognize a beginning or an end to the cosmos, but rather recognizes that there is a non-ending arising, maturing and dying of universes, all by natural law rather than by a primary cause. Thus, many different Buddhas have existed in many different eons, in many different universes. All sentient beings have a Buddha-nature, the potentiality of attaining enlightenment. While it would be difficult for a non-human to become a Buddha, all beings still have that potentiality of achieving human form and eventual enlightenment. What distinguishes a Buddha from other enlightened beings is that the Buddha has achieved supreme enlightenment and so has discovered the truths that Sakyamuni also discovered, and initially expounds the dharma in a universe or an age.

Thus, while Sakyamuni is the historical Buddha of our time-period and is honored by all, in some traditions the central figure is not Sakyamuni, but a different Buddha. The most popular of these is Amitabha Buddha, Lord of Infinite Life and Light, and he is venerated as the central Buddha in the Pure Land Schools.

As Buddhism spread from India to other countries, outward appearances changed as it took on indigenous ethnic characteristics. Eventually three major Buddhist traditions emerged. Theravada (the School of the Elders) became more prevalent in south and south-eastern Asia: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. Mahayana (the Great Vehicle) emerged as a major tradition around the second century CE and spread to East Asia: China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. By the eighth century CE, the third school Vajrayana (the Diamond Vehicle) emerged in Central Asia: Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Mongolia, and eventually southern Siberia). By the twelfth century, virtually all the specific schools within Buddhism were well-developed in their modern form.

While Theravada remains a fairly cohesive whole, it is more conservative in its attitudes and resembles most closely the Buddhism practiced during the Buddha’s lifetime. Mahayana Buddhism added more scriptures to the canon, presenting the Buddha’s teachings from a more non-dualistic view of reality. Vajrayana Buddhism added some elements of tantrism (esoteric, mystical rituals). Each developing school added layers on to the already existing canon, so that changes in practice come not only from an interpretive base, but from a canonical one as well.

Catholic
Jesus of Nazareth lived for approximately 33 years at the beginning of the common era in Judaea and was crucified by Roman authorities. He was a Jew, and he collected around himself a community of disciples who discovered that in this Jesus of Nazareth, YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, the God who had revealed himself historically to the Jews, had become completely human. They recognized Jesus as the Son of God, the Christ, the Messiah prophesied in the Bible and expected him to return to institute the kingdom of God upon earth. His life of proclaiming the kingdom, his healing and forgiving, his passion and death upon the cross, and his resurrection from the dead were the ultimate revelation of God and established for eternity God’s identification with humanity and the means of humankind’s redemption from sin and death.

The community of disciples, inspired and graced by God’s Holy Spirit, proclaimed the salvation found in Christ to the world, a proclamation that has never ceased. Christ has been proclaimed on every continent in every culture: Each ethnic group has found in Jesus something uniquely its own which they celebrate through their own cultural genius and add in this way to the ongoing revelation of the Christ. In the world today great spiritual creativity is being expressed by “Third-World” Christianity: that of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Though originally persecuted in the ancient world, faith in Christ became the foundation of Western civilization. Throughout the Middle Ages this faith was preserved and perpetuated in the hierarchical structures of bishops, patriarchs, and popes; the heroic spirituality of monastics; and the theology debated and refined in the great universities of medieval Europe; and the devout of lives of countless individuals, serfs and nobles alike.

In the eleventh century, the breakdown of the old Roman empire complete, theological and political disputes that had long threatened the unity of the Eastern and Western branches of Christianity resulted in the tragic separation of the Church of Rome from the churches of the East. At the beginning of the modern era, a renewed understanding of the prophetic ministry of Jesus was expressed by the Protestant Reformation. Protestants, contending that Christianity should never be tied to a single institutional expression or interpretation, broke with the Roman Church, and Western Christianity was splintered. Today, there are three major branches of Christianity: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.

Each community contributes, in its own capacity, the presence of Christ as the divinely transforming agent and goal of human history. Across the ages, he remains the Alpha and Omega of history, the baby born in poverty, the preacher proclaiming reign of peace and justice, the prophet offering himself on the cross, the suffering servant and glorified lord of humanity, its judge and savior.

The Founder and the Follower
Buddhist
To Buddha, either sitting in meditation or standing to teach, is the usual image that adorns Buddhist altars and shrines. As the Buddhist follower looks upon this image of the serene figure and the compassionate, smiling face, he/she again pays homage to the teacher, the great enlightened one, who shows the way of peace and spiritual development to all. To him is given the greatest reverence, for he has shown the way to liberation. He is not a god nor is the Buddhist concerned with god concepts. Hs is the human teacher, one who has raised himself out of all suffering and attained perfection and has revealed the path which can be followed by any person. In some Buddhist schools, emphasis is placed upon “self-power”, and the individual strives for perfection and enlightenment. In other schools, the individual seeks guidance and assistance from Amitabha Buddha or one of the great bodhisattvas (highly developed spiritual beings who devote their lifetimes to helping others) for help in attaining that state which leads to enlightenment.

Buddhist practice is threefold: ethical behavior, mind development, and intuitive wisdom. Ethics is usually seen as the foundation of all Buddhist practice. To proclaim oneself as a Buddhist is to willingly take on the practice of certain precepts as a guide for behavior. The way in which a follower determines whether any particular action is moral or not rests upon the ultimate question, Is this behavior harmful to myself or others? Is this behavior beneficial for myself and others? One should always act in ways which are wise, ways which are non-harmful to oneself and others. Besides trying to act in non-harmful ways in body, speech and mind, one also strives to develop the perfections of generosity, ethical behavior, patience, spiritual endurance, mental discipline and wisdom as well as the development of the four noble states of living: loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.

Serious Buddhist practitioners constantly examine their behavior to discover their strengths and weaknesses. They attempt to strengthen those behaviors which are wholesome and to discourage those which are unwholesome. There is always the awareness that the precepts cannot be kept perfectly; guilt is discouraged as counterproductive. The precepts are not commandments, but are guidelines for living a wise life. Thus, Buddhists do not sin if they break a precept, rather they have behaved in a harmful way, the results of which will return to them.

The second aspect of practice is mind development, which is considered necessary for Buddhist practice. Meditation, or the practice of mindfulness or awareness, helps the individual to calm the mind and free it from self-involvement and self-attachment, from ideas and emotions. The practice of meditation helps a person to observe how the mind functions and to produce understanding, to experience insight and eventually liberation. Meditation is not an activity that is done only at a special time. Meditation is the state of mind of one-pointed concentration, of awareness and mindfulness, that allows one to see clearly without the mental fetters of “me and mine” which usually determine the way one perceives reality. While sitting meditation is extraordinarily important in some traditions of Buddhism, in others self-awareness is developed through other practices.

Rituals, chanting and practice of mindfulness during daily life are important tools in helping the individual to develop disciplined behavior. Thus, Buddhists perform pujas, or offerings to the Buddha, in order to recall his great virtuous qualities and to remind them of their spiritual goal. Prostrations are done to help lessen pride. Chanting and study of the sutras is also an important part of developing discipline and understanding.

The third part of practice is the development of intuitive wisdom that comes only when one can break free of the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion. And this can occur only when we understand that there is no separate identity, no self, no soul. Only when we see that our ordinary perception of things is an illusion, coming from a self-centered deluded mind, can we hope to experience complete ultimate reality.

Catholic
The crucifix, the image of Jesus dying upon the cross, is the universal symbol of Catholicism. To gaze upon it is to witness the horror of what humanity can do to itself, but at the same time, to see the power of God’s love to save humankind through it. To see the dying Christ is to see God in the most vulnerable form of humanity and, at the same time, humankind’s hope of reconciliation. He is the path to our union with God and imitation of him, the key to our salvation. “Love one another as I have loved you, ” Jesus said. “Take up your cross and follow me.”

Though the crucifix is displayed in many places, the richness of its meaning and power is most visible when it stands over the altar. Upon that altar, as head of the congregation gathered in the church, the priest celebrates the eucharist, the sacrament of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus at his last meal when, with his disciples, he broke bread and shared wine, identifying them as his body and blood about to be broken and shed to redeem all humanity. “This is my body; this is my blood,” speaks the priest as Jesus did that night. The body he speaks of is the body of Christ upon the cross and also glorified at the resurrection; it is the bread he consecrates; it is the congregation participating; it is the worldwide church and all Christians who have ever lived; in all of these Jesus is fully present. Each eucharistic celebration renews and reactualizes the central mystery of Christ’s conquest over sin and death, in which all Christians participate as members of the body of Christ.

At the center of our lives as Christians is the sacramental unity of life in Christ. We became Christians through the sacrament of baptism. In earlier times the person was fully submerged in water, a kind of symbolic burial, and then raised up again, symbolically resurrected with Christ. It means a new beginning—a new life—a life of union with Christ. This participation in the death and resurrection of Christ is a lifelong process, not completed until our own deaths and resurrection. It is a process of personal purification and divinization, but the process ultimately includes the cosmos itself. The presence of the resurrected Christ is drawing all of humanity and the cosmos toward a final reconciliation with their Creator, toward a new creation.

To sign oneself with the cross as we do is to take up a life of exemplary love. It is especially to take up the cause of those who have no one else to act on their behalf, the powerless and oppressed, for they are humanity at its most vulnerable. Christian spirituality must be manifested in involvement with one’s social community and in pursuit of justice. “Whatever you do to the least of these, you do it to me,” Jesus said. The pursuit of justice and concern for others imitates the earthly life of Christ.

Reading Scripture and praying are the other chief practices of our spiritual lives. Both are done as encounters with the Christ. The Divine Office, for example, consisting of prayers and scriptural readings, is the daily offering of the church itself to God. The practice of meditation and contemplation, which dates from the earliest years of the Church, continues to enrich the lives of Christians today. Through such prayer one can be drawn to the highest levels of prayer, mystical union with God. In recent years Christians have found certain practices from the Buddhist tradition helpful and consistent with their own tradition.

Directions
This statement, tentative and limited, reflects our early experiences. We feel it shows that the Buddhist–Roman Catholic dialogue is moving in the right direction, dealing with religious prejudice and fostering mutual respect and understanding. Our next steps include discussing historical and social concerns such as the colonial experience of Christianity among Asian Buddhists and the ways our religions deal with racism, and fundamental concepts such as the arahant and bodhisattva, original sin, the communion of saints, and heaven and hell.