Vangelo e Zen – comunità di dialogo interreligioso

* Notes

[1]. For information on the Seimeizan Center for Prayer and Interre­ligious Dialogue, see my “Seimei­zan 1987-1922: five years of interreligious experience” in The Japan Mission Journal, 47/2 (Summer 1993): 119-129.

[2]. To have an idea of the presence of Zen Buddhism, and the practice of zazen in the West, especially in the USA, it would be enough to follow the information given by the News­letter of the Society lor Buddhist­Christian Studies, edited at Purdue University, West Lafayette, In­diana, USA.

[3]. Since the bibliography on this topic is very large, I mention here only some examples of zazen manuals, at random: Elaine MacInnes, O.L.M., Teaching Zen to Chris­tians, Zen Center for OrientaI Spirituality, Marikina, Metro Ma­nila, Philippines, 1986; Albert Low, An Invitation to Practice Zen, Tuttle, Tokyo, 1989; Kakouan ­Mumon Yamada, Pratiquer Zazen, Traductions et notes: Bernard Re­rolle, Jean- Yves Leloup et Leonore Gottwald, Editions de l’Ouvert, La Sainte-Baume France, 1988; Kado­waki Kakichi, Meiso no susume, Sogensha 1989 (Italian translation by Piergiorgio Moioli: Invito alla meditatione, Ed. Paoline, Cinisello Balsamo/Milano 1992).

[4]. See also, Ritus “De sacra commu­nione et cultu mysterii eucharistici extra Missam”, nn. 3060-3108. Some new norms were laid down by the Instruction, Inaestimabile donum 1980: VoI. II, 1988, nn. 3959-3993.

[5]. An interesting study on the role of silence in eucharistic adoration is that of Enrico Mazza – Rinaldo Falsini, “Il silenzio nell’adorazione eucaristica”, Rivista Liturgica (Ed. LDC, Torino) 1989, pp. 413-428.

[6]. Among his main publications on the subject, see Zen – Weg zur Erleuchtung, Wien; Zen – Bud­dhismus, K61n; Weg zur Gotteser­fahrung, K61n; Zen unter Christen. Eine Einfuhrung, Einsiedeln; Er­fahrungen eines Christen mit der Zenmeditation, Frankfurt an M. Most of these works had several editions and were translated into many languages.

[7]. In the Italian translation I have at hand, pp. 224-240: Ch. 10, “Zazen as Christian meditation.”

[8]. I commented briefly on the incultu­ration of the Liturgy with special reference to the situation in Japan, in my article on “The Tea Cere­mony and the Mass,” in The Japan Missionary Bulletin 44/1 (Spring 1990): 11-14,24-25.

[9]. See “The Attitude 01 the Church towards the Followers of Other Religions. Reflections and Orien­tations on Dialog and Mission”, lO May 1984, n. 35; “Dialogue and Proclamation. Reflections and Orientations on Interreligious Dia­logue and the Proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Ch,rist” May 19, 1991, n. 42.

[10]. See Hugo Enomiya Lassalle, Meditazione Zen e preghiera cris­tiana, p. 89. One of the main differences will be the use or not of the koan practice (Soto and Rinzai Zen schools): cf. Hugo Enomiya Lassalle, Meditazione…, pp. 240-246.

[11]. See, for example the final statement of the fourth Plenary Assembly of the FABC (Tokyo, 1986): “The Vocation and Mission 01 the Laity. In the Church and in the World of Asia”, 4/8: Lay Spirituality. In For All the Peoples 01 Asia, F ABC ­Documents from 1970 to 1991, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New Y ork; Claretian Publications, Que­zon City, 1992, pp. 195-197. Also: Statement of the Fifth Plenary Assembly of the FABC (Bandung, 1990) “Journeying Together To­ward the Third Millennium” , 9/1: For All the Peoples of Asia, p. 288; and again the final statement of the First FABC International Theolog­ical Colloguium (Pattaya, Thailand, 1994): “Being Church in Asia: Journeying with the Spirit into Fuller Life”, Part III: The Face of the Church in Asia, in The Japan Mission Journal 48/3 (Autumn 1994): 222-224.

[12]. An exchange between Zen (and other Buddhist) Japanese Monks, and European Christian Monks began in 1979. In 1977 the DIM (Dialogue Interreligieux Monas­tique) had been founded in France for Europe, and the NABEWD (North American Board for East­West Dialogue) in America, to promote interreligious exchanges at the monastique level. See Benoit Billot, Voyage dans les Monasteres Zen, Desclee de Brouwer, Paris 1987; Bulletin of the Pontificial CounciI for Interreligious Dialogue 25/3 (Rome 1990); M.L. Fitz­gerald: “IV East-West Spiritual Exchange” 28/3 (1993): 258-262; “D.I.M., Contemplation et Dia­logue Interreligieux” (pp. 250-270).