________________
LAURENCE FREEMAN
LE: At the age of eighty-six, I think he was able to do that.
L.M.: What part does the teacher of Christian meditation such as yourself have to play in the life of the individual Christian meditator? And what is the community's role?
L.F.: I feel quite strongly that the teacher-for the meditator in the Christian tradition-or for one who is coming to meditation in the Christian faith—that the teacher would be Christ. You have a living master in Christ. He is not just a Socrates or a Lao Tzu, who has left us beautiful words and ideas. The Christian believes that Christ is a living teacher. Christ is teaching us continuously, and moment by moment in the spirit-in the gift of the spirit. I think that this is the great reference point in Christian meditation, with regard to the teacher.
Saint Augustine says that Christ teaches us to pray. Because he prays in us— with us and for us. That is significantly different from the Eastern tradition of the guru, where the guru is a very important figure. He or she who seems to the Westerner to be almost divinized. The Indians and the Tibetans tend to see the guru as the personification of the Absolute.
L.M.: Father Bede encountered that too.
L.F.: Yes, Father Bede did. I was with him once when one of the Hindu villagers came to his hut, and fell at his feet, and kissed his feet. Father Bede, who was the most humble person you could imagine, simply looked at me and smiled. And when the man had left he said: “You know, he's worshiping God in me, not me.” So I think for the Christian that is the starting point.
It is also true to say of course that Christ teaches us through one another. And in the Christian church right from the very beginning—as Saint Paul makes clear in one of his letters. One of the most important ministries and ways of serving the community was to be a teacher. There are individuals who are called to teach. I don't think that their personality is the center of the teaching. But they are called to use whatever gifts they have to serve the community. They try to bring people to the experience of the teacher within—to Christ. The individual teacher in the Christian tradition always teaches within a community, whether small or large. Whether we see that as a monastic community, or a contemplative network like the World Community of Christian Meditation, or within the church as a whole. The Christian teacher
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
