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Christian Sannyasa
W.T.: You leave your body at the gate.
L.M.: Regarding the Shantivanam community in India where Bede lived until his death seven years ago, and where you have spent a good deal of time: How is it contributing to this new sense of community and church?
W.T.: It's a very welcoming environment for people, even though it needs to be more inclusive. It is a part of the Camaldolese Benedictines. They are great people; but it is a very exclusive order.
L.M.: Aren't all the orders exclusive?
W.T.: All the orders are into excluding people--except those that they find acceptable to their charism and their way of life. Although they need to do that to a certain extent to survive, I think they are in sense betraying the gospel. The gospel is about inclusion, not exclusion. This is a lesson that the church has got to learn. Christ was inclusive; he was not exclusive. Still, there is a more inclusive quality at Shantivanam that is open to men and women, Catholics and non-Catholics, Buddhists, atheists.
L.M.: Is there a lay oblate order of Shantivanam?
W.T.: They have lots and lots of oblates. People can come there for long periods and pursue the contemplative experience within the community. It is a light for the world. Though Bede is not physically there with his darshan, his presence.
L.M.: Since he died in 1993, it must be harder for the community. It is for any community when the teacher or guru dies.
W.T.: But Shantivanam will continue to have a role.
L.M.: What about loneliness in this battle of the inner life? It is not limited to a sannyasi, or to the spiritual path, though our sensitivity and awareness are heightened by meditation. It's not something to reject. We need to understand it. But it is there.
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