Pastoral Letter in a Time of Brexit

Dear Friends

In response to some of the troubling conversations I have had this week please see below a Pastoral Letter.

Much love

Peter

 

 

A Pastoral Letter to a Friend in a Time of ‘Brexit’

 

‘In this you rejoice, even though now for a little while you have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, so that the genuineness of your faith – being more precious than gold which, though perishable, is refined through fire – may be found to result in the praise and glory and honour of the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ I Peter 1: 6-7

 

My dear friend,

You wrote this morning about how frightened you feel about what is happening in our continent at this time. First of all, let me reassure you that you are not alone. Like all people of heart and sensitivity you are distressed to see unscrupulous people exploiting human weaknesses, that we all have, for personal gain. In this, we are all suffering humanity and prey to the same dark forces of the unconscious. Within our own minds lie the racists, torturers and murderers of the short twentieth century – this much we should have all learnt by now. First and foremost, in reaction to recent events we are all called to repentance. We must all examine our consciences very carefully and acknowledge the part that we have played in contributing to the madness presently engulfing our countries.

Secondly, you are right – this is a time of trial. As St Peter reminds us, our faith must be tested. For years now we Christians have bemoaned the ebbing tide of faith on this continent. Well, God may have answered our prayers – but not quite in the way we were expecting. He is, after all, ‘the God of surprises’ and, well, he has surprised us again! In the coming days, weeks and months we shall all be tested at the deepest possible levels: mind, body, heart and, above all, spirit. As the Apostle warns us, this will be a refining and purifying fire and much will have to be burnt away. Sadly we are living at a time of appalling spiritual ignorance. The result of years of hollowing away of our collective spiritual literacy means that we are ill-equipped to survive the trial we are being summoned to. We believe there are only two things that, ultimately, can help us (as the church has always taught): the overwhelming love of Christ and the support of each other (the church on earth). Please be assured of my deepest prayers and support at this time and I ask for yours, dear friend, too. Together we shall support each other. We are being called to account – perhaps sooner than we might have expected. God help us all.

Finally, and probably least importantly, you enquire about the political situation. Tempting though it is to indulge in party politics I shall refrain from doing so. The facts are these: for the first time in our life-times our British parliamentary democracy is being tested in a way it has not been before. I have great faith in the wisdom, common-sense and good humour of my fellow countrymen and women and I feel confident that we shall find a way forward through this madness. However, we must also prepare for the worst. The poison of nationalism and racism has been injected into the veins of the Body Politic at a time of heightened terrorist activity. It is a dangerous drug and history teaches that once a people has tasted its artificial sweetness it becomes dependent upon it. Racism, and its concomitant dehumanising violence, must be resisted  at every level – otherwise we stare into the abyss.

In summary, then, dark forces are at work dear friend, however, when was that not the case! As Christians we live in the pale light of the Easter Dawn. In such light even the cruelty and barbarity of the cross is transfigured. What is for sure is that we all have a choice. We can run away or ignore it – yet how far, ultimately, will that get us? St Peter, fleeing persecution, encountered the Risen Lord walking determinedly back towards those very same horrors. ‘Quo Vadis Domine?’, he famously asked, ‘Where are you going to Lord?’ Now we must each ask our Lord the same question all over again. As the prophet says:

 

‘And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel and Parsin.

This is the interpretation of the matter:

MENE – God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

TEKEL – You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.

PARSIN – Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.’

(Daniel 5: 25-31)

 

Our kingdom is divided. May God give us all strength to come through this time of trial.

 

Yours in solidarity with our fellow suffering humanity.

 

Peter

 

Brexit - a Europe of the Spirit

A Europe of the Spirit

 

On hearing the Brexit news last week the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales prayed the prayer of the late Cardinal Martini invoking the call for a ‘Europe of the Spirit’ – the Europe of saints and philosophers, artists and reformers. How fragile and vulnerable that spirit seems today. We have witnessed a volte face in the past few days. One correspondent noted that ‘nothing has changed’. She was right, nothing has changed. Yet, as Wittgenstein once said, ‘nothing has changed – yet everything has changed’. The facts have not changed. The fact of widespread, crippling and endemic unemployment has not changed. The fact of the greatest refugee crisis facing Europe since 1945 has not changed. The fact of brutalised people wanting to slaughter innocent citizens has not changed. The facts have not changed. What has changed is our attitude. We have let the genie out of the bottle, and history teaches that once this is done it is harder to squeeze it back in. We have released the toxic dialectic of race into our discourse. The electorate has proposed a racial solution to the facts. We shall resolve these problems through racial lenses – an English solution for an English people. We shall pull up our drawbridge and deal with these problems on our own terms. So be it. However for Christians this is troubling. First and foremost, our Christian response should be, not what we can grab from the EU, but what can we give to the EU. The UK is amongst one of the richest nations on earth, we must be prepared to shoulder our burden for the common good.
Amongst our European saints and philosophers is one who witnessed at first hand the last time these ‘solutions’ were tried out on European soil. Edith Stein (St Teresa Benedicta a Cruce) was a Jewess, atheist, German, Catholic and Carmelite nun. For her, labels are meaningless. Yet during the gravest crisis that Europe faced in the 1930s she recognised that at the heart of human existence was our intimate, fragile and mysterious relationship with the Divine. She also recognised that once that secret relationship was distorted and maimed by unscrupulous voices nothing can stop humans from entering the abyss. Now more than ever do we need her intercession. I have been praying to her constantly since last week. Not to protect us from our outside forces but to protect us from ourselves. We must heed the call to repentance. We must ask ourselves what part our own prejudice and ignorance is playing in the events that are unfolding with terrifying rapidity around us. How have we allowed our own racist fears to creep into our interpretation of the facts? How have we brutalised ourselves from the cries of our fellow human beings drowning and weeping on the shores of Europe? How have we ignored the gentle promptings of the Holy Spirit in our dealings with our fellow human beings? Like Edith, we all must now face these difficult questions today, at this hour, if greater catastrophes are to be averted...

 

As Matthew Parris has detailed in the Times last Saturday, this is not a fait accompli. What we have now is a constitutional mess. Two forms of democracy have clashed and the one that has worked more or less successfully for around 500 years (representational democracy) has been trumped by the third experiment  in direct democracy for the whole country in the history of the United Kingdom. The displeasure (and in some cases nausea) of our elected representatives to enact a vaguely kneejerk direct mandate is apparent – as Parris with his inside knowledge of parliament and the Tory party makes clear. It is clear that we must have another general election to secure this new mandate and this will happen within the next 12 months. This is the only way a Brexit mandate could be secured and enacted. The 60 million dollar question is – will the British electorate support such a mandate? This election will be a Brexit Election, it will be the only issue on the table. It is highly likely that such a mandate can be rejected – especially as seems now likely that we have entered into six months of unremitting economic and political chaos. So, now, for all who value freedom and the Europe of the Spirit (especially the young) the way forward is clear. We must prepare ourselves mentally, spiritually and physically for the struggle of the election to come. This will be the only issue we can fight and we must support all candidates who oppose the Brexit. At the same we must be extremely vigilant about our thoughts, actions and reactions.

Edith Stein, St Teresa Benedicta a Cruce, Pray for the United Kingdom, Pray for Europe, Pray for All Suffering Humanity. Amen.

Retreat Association Summer Event, Royal Foundation of St Katharine, Monday 6th June

As promised, here are the details of the Retreat Association Summer Event

Kind regards

Peter

Retreat Association Summer Event

The Royal Foundation of St Katharine, London

6 June 2016, 9:30am - 4:00pm

The day includes:

·         Guest speaker Professor Peter Tyler will be exploring the possibility of mindfulness in the Christian context.

·         Patrons Fr Christopher Jamison OSB and Rev Graham Sparkes will give their reflections. Liturgist Emily Walker will lead us in song.

·         Chair of Trustees Rev Ian Green and Executive Director Alison MacTier will outline the work of the Charity.

·         Sandwich lunch, morning coffee and afternoon tea.

Join us for a day of talks, discussions and opportunities to network.

A draft programme for the day is also available. Ticket price £48.

Fuengsin Trafford (1936 - 1995) - Pioneer of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue

 

 

Dear Friends

 

Next Monday I will be speaking at the Retreat Association Summer Event at The Royal Foundation of St Katharine (web link: http://www.retreats.org.uk/summer-event.html   I shall also put up a separate posting on this). The theme is ‘Christian Mindfulness?’ and as I was preparing for it over the last few weeks I had a pleasant surprise. Paul Trafford, the son of my first Buddhist teacher, Fuengsin Trafford, has published his account of her life and teachings: Thursday’s Lotus – The Life and Work of Fuengsin Trafford (available on Amazon). The book has been a complete joy for me. Not only has Paul captured the life and spirit of Fuengsin, it is doubly enjoyable for me as it took me back to the Worcestershire of my childhood in the 60s and 70s where Fuengsin and I both lived.

 

Fuengsin Trafford (Fuengsilapa Sarayutpitag) was a remarkable Thai lay Buddhist teacher. Born in 1936 in Thailand she moved to England in the early 1960s to take up a UNESCO fellowship programme at the Institute of Education in London (she was a very skilful teacher) where she met and married Tony Trafford, a Roman Catholic who worked for HM Customs and Revenue. As Paul Trafford writes:

 

‘Brought up as a practising Buddhist, at around the age of 20 she investigated many temples in and around Bangkok for a meditation teacher. After much searching, she found a suitable teacher named Ajahn Gaew, who taught her the practice of Dhammakaya meditation. A few years later, on the day of her departure to a land far away, a large band of monks, as well as friends and colleagues, gathered at Donmuang Airport. In her tribute to Ajahn Gaew, a contribution to a memorial of his life, she relates how he informed her that she would spread the Dhamma in the West. She found this hard to believe, but she was soon gaining experiences in Hampshire and 10 to 15 years later there were developments that made her reflect that the prediction might come true after all…’

 

As a pioneer in the UK she helped create the contemporary Buddhist scene by establishing and helping to form Buddhist groups across the country. As a lay-woman she was always diffident about her ability to teach the Dhamma, however several Abbots and teachers in Thailand gave her special permission to convey the Dhamma which she duly did before her untimely death in 1995 of cancer. Paul Trafford again:

 

'Particularly during her later years, Fuengsin was very actively involved in Inter-Faith Dialogue. She was part of the Multi-Faith Centre, based at Harborne Hall in Birmingham, under the direction of Sister Dr Mary Hall. This centre has been a pioneer in dialogue with a team of representatives from the six major Faiths – Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism – travelling around and sharing aspects of their spiritual journeys. A highlight of their work was a series of lectures in North America, including some at the UN building in New York – Fuengsin was a member of this delegation. Fuengsin worked at a number of other centres, including King Edward’s Sixth Form College in Stourbridge and the federation of colleges in Selly Oak.'

 

In this, the first biography of her, we find out about the range and ability of this remarkable woman. Buddhism, like Christianity (or psychotherapy for that matter) is sometimes riven with disagreements and arguments between the different schools or ‘vehicles’. One of Fuengsin’s most endearing qualities was her ability to transcend these divisions. For her the Buddha (and Buddhism) was greater than any particular sect and in her teachings she often went to the heart of the matter. Here are some quotes of hers from an interview she gave to the County Express and which Paul has placed on his Fuengsin website http://fuengsin.org

 

“Buddhism is all about trying your best – it’s not necessary to crave for perfection, because if you try too hard for anything you don’t achieve it.

“Your behaviour is only a reflection of your mind.

“When you meditate you become single-minded – that doesn’t mean narrow-minded, merely that your mind is opening up and you are more capable of appreciating and understanding things.

“The key words are compassion, kindness and love.

“Buddhism can change your life if you follow it – it has certainly given me strength to cope with things over the years. Based on the four [noble] truths of Buddha, life certainly becomes richer.”

 

In his book Paul also relates an extraordinary incident which affected the course of my life. As a Jesuit novice in Birmingham our enlightened novice master allowed us to attend the Interfaith Course at Harborne Hall mentioned above. The highlight of the course for me was Fuengsin’s teaching. I had had an on-off relationship with Buddhism for many years and as well as reading widely around the subject I had visited Buddhist viharas such as the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now Triratna) in Bethnal Green. Fuengsin, however, was the first Eastern Buddhist I had encountered at close quarters who was able to answer (or at least try to answer) some of the many questions I had had about Buddhism. She dealt with my (what were probably very stupid) questions admirably. But we also struck up a deal. For my private Buddhist tuition I would teach her Western philosophy which I had studied at Oxford University. I was very happy to do this and we found all sorts of resonances between philosophers such as Kant, Hume and Wittgenstein and the teachings of Lord Buddha. Our conversations continued for over 2 years, at the end of which I decided that the Jesuit life was not for me (here I was helped by the sage words of Fr Gerry Hughes SJ, an appreciation of whom I have posted on another part of this blog). However, even after I had left the Order, Fuengsin and I continued to meet and debate. During this difficult part of my life she was a great pastoral help as well as an intellectual help. I remember very vividly when during this time I asked her if I should consider taking refuge as a Buddhist. Her reply, quick as a flash, was pure Fuengsin: Best way for you to be Buddhist is to be good Roman Catholic. Wow! Here was a woman ‘sent to the West’ to spread the Dhamma urging me to remain a Roman Catholic! She was of course right as the subsequent 20 years have shown. I think what I sought in Buddhism then – especially mindfulness, contemplation and the way of peace– can be found equally upon the Christian path. Consequently when the Retreat Association asked me to give the address next week I was delighted to accept and perhaps tease out again some of those wonderful synergies between Buddhism and Christianity that Fuengsin has first revealed to me. In the words of Francis Vineeth CMI ( see other blog post on him),  Lord Jesus remains my ‘sat-guru’ – my highest guru. However, I have enormous respect also for the teachings of Lord Buddha who offers extraordinary insights into the human condition. Let us continue to work then for dialogue and harmony between our two wonderful religions, very much in the loving spirit of Fuengsin – a remarkable and much missed pioneer of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue.

Durham University - Spirituality, Theology and Health Seminar

Here are the details for this Thursday's seminar,

Best wishes

Peter

 

Pentecost and Christian Mindfulness

Dear All

First of all, apologies for not posting anything on here for a month or so. I seem to have been busier than ever with university work and have just returned from a wonderful pilgrimage to Assisi - more on that anon.
For now I attach part of a talk I shall be giving at Durham University this Thursday for Prof Chris Cook's excellent spirituality and psychology seminar. More details on his website. I also attach a picture from Fr Vineeth's ashram of the season of Pentecost which we are about to enter. I pray that the Spirit of Truth will fill your hearts and minds in the coming weeks and months.

best wishes

Peter

Contemporary Mindfulness

When the molecular biologist Jon Kabat-Zinn first developed his mindfulness courses at the University of Massachusetts in the late 1970s he was not so concerned with the metaphysical implications of Buddhist meditation practices as their clinical and medical efficacy. This novel notion of giving mindfulness meditation a sound clinical and experimental basis is what proved the essential catalyst for the subsequent explosion of mindfulness (See Boyce 2011, xii- xiii). Thirty years later the clinical evidence for the efficacy of these methods in treating illnesses as diverse as depression, cancer and eating disorders is overwhelming (even though latterly there is the inevitable counter-movement expressing the ‘dangers’ inherent in mindfulness). This, alongside courses such Kabat-Zinn’s own Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme (MBSR) the eight week forerunner for many of the later mindfulness courses and the Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) developed at Oxford by Prof Mark Williams and colleagues have contributed to the success of mindfulness as we know it today.

          Kabat-Zinn himself defines mindfulness as ‘paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgementally’ (1994:4). This ‘bare’ definition is supplemented by many practitioners with wider values drawing upon something closer to the Buddhist notions we began with. Thus Chozen Bays (2011) suggests that it is ‘deliberately paying attention, being fully aware of what is happening both inside yourself – in your body, heart and mind – and outside yourself in the environment... it is awareness without judgement or criticism’ (Boyce 2011: 3). She goes further to state that ‘when we are mindful, we are not comparing or judging. We are simply witnessing the many sensations, thoughts and emotions that come up as we engage in the ordinary activities of daily life.’ We could continue multiplying these varying definitions yet, following Mace, what becomes clear when we analyse these contemporary understandings of mindfulness is that there seem to be two directions in current usage. First, the desire, as Mace himself puts it, to concentrate on the ‘bare attention’ to observe, Buddha-like, the passing show of sensations, thoughts and emotion with no sticky entanglement. As neuro-biologists and scientists have become interested in the subject this ‘pure bare mindfulness’ (difficult as it is to isolate) has become the main source of their study. On the other hand, writers such as Chozen Bays above or Shapiro (2006) link the practice with wider connotations of ‘heartfulness’ (see above), compassion and the general teleological development of character.

          Esoteric though these debates sound I think they go right to the heart of the subject we are considering today: ‘How far, if at all, can mindfulness be accommodated into an established religious practice such as Christianity?’ And I think the answer will be (in typical philosophical fashion) – ‘it depends what sort of mindfulness you are talking about’. Let me explain further...

 

About Soul

I am delighted to announce that my friend and colleague, Tim Wainwright's 'About Soul' weblink is now live:

http://www.aboutsoul.org/


He writes:

'This project is a consideration of soul in the everyday lives of Londoners.

I will be uploading videos regularly over the next eighteen months, and versions of the work will be exhibited in various London venues starting in September 2016.

This is the last in a quartet of projects begun in 1993; the others were concerned with mind, body and heart.'

We shall be showing a video made from material collected for this project at our 'soul seminar' on 6th September at St Mary's and launching both the project and my 'Pursuit of the Soul'...

best wishes

Peter