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Contemplative Prayer think there can be more harmony, understanding, and respect among the world religions and spiritual traditions? I know you have participated in a contemplative congress with the Dalai Lama.
E.M.: I was at one of those in California. I have also been involved in the East-West dialogue for a number of years along with Thomas Keating. It all came about after Vatican II, when a new ponifical council for interreligious dialogue was established in Rome for the first time. They began by asking: Where do we begin this dialogue—with Buddhism, Hinduism, with Moslems?
L.M.: With Judaism.
E.M.: There has been a dialogue with Judaism for many years.
L.M: So then, with non-Western religions.
E.M.: After much discussion, it was noted that what we have in common with Buddhists and Hindus are monks. So they said, we must bring the monks together. That was in 1967—the next year 1968, the first interreligious meeting of monastics was held in Bangkok. Merton was there; he was invited as an outstanding Western monk.
L.M.: He wrote a lot about, and actively encouraged this dialogue.
E.M.: Merton went and spent quite a bit of time with the Dalai Lama in India before going on to Bangkok. He has written in his book The Asian Journal about the final mystical experience he had in that grotto—which has three great stone buddhas, in Sri Lanka.
L.M.: Polonnaruwa.
E.M.: Yes, Polonnaruwa. There was this diocesan priest waiting nearby, who had driven Merton to this famous site, and he must have thought: What is that man doing over there with those idols? Well, Merton was actually having a mystical experience. He came to realize that ultimately, the streams of the different religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity would converge one day.
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