Dharma and Agape

By Michael Zanzucchi

Seventy Christian and Buddhist scholars renew two ancient words

The greater the distance between us, the more obvious our differences become. While April’s Hindu-Christian symposium in Rome brought together two separate worlds, united by ancient Indo-European roots, a second conference for Buddhists and Christians seemed to involve two entirely different universes.

There was a genuine desire to draw closer, yet also a definite need to find something substantial that goes beyond just a Western interest in Buddhist meditation, which is not enough for a solid foundation for true dialogue. That something proved to be Buddhism’s dharma and Christianity’s agape.

The symposium linked Christians of different churches with Buddhists from four traditions: Theravada, from Thailand, and Nichiren, Tendai and the more recent Rissho Kosei-kai movement, all from Japan. The participants in the symposium began with an intent to listen to one another, “self-emptying” in order to be open to each others’ religious experience. The gathering was not aimed at making headlines, just at taking steps toward universal fraternity by bridging centuries of separation and mutual indifference.

For centuries, in fact, our cultural and religious traditions have been unknown to each other. If there has been communication, it has generally been for an academic elite. Especially during the last five hundred years, our history has been marked by encounters that have brought misunderstandings and mutual suspicion.

Today’s world urges us to seek mutual understanding and respect. Technology exposes us to the traditions and customs of different peoples, bringing us to live side by side. Yet this close proximity can highlight differences, causing conflicts and oppositions. Our challenge is to appreciate the religious and cultural attributes of each people, which are rich sources of wisdom and light. Without erasing our individual uniqueness, we progress toward universal fraternity.

But what is Dharma?

You could say it is a truth that, revealing the deep roots of reality, is a guide in the cosmic, moral and religious spheres. Compassion is at the heart of this guiding truth because for the Buddhist to behold the truth is to find compassion for all living beings.

“May every human being be happy,” reads the Suttanipata, a collection of the Buddha’s sermons. “As a mother, even risking her life, watches over and protects her only son, we have to love every living being with that tender love. We have to love the world in its entirety—above, below, all around and without any limitation—with an infinite goodness that is full of benevolence.” Buddha was the perfect incarnation of this compassionate ideal.

Westerners may be more familiar with agape—Christian love in its purest form, love that is God, who communicates life, pouring it out like living water over every human being with an infinite love and excluding no one.

Focolare founder Chiara Lubich shared her writings on agape during the conference: “Lord, give me everyone who is lonely,” she read. “I have felt in my heart the passion that fills your heart for the forsakenness enveloping the entire world. I love everyone who is sick and lonely; I also feel for plants when they are in distress ... and for animals left alone. Who will console their weeping? Who will feel compassion for their slow death? Who will press a despairing heart to their own heart? Let me be in this world, my God, a tangible sacrament of your love, of your being love. Let me be your arms, embracing and transforming all the loneliness of this world into love.”

Comparing the two concepts of the compassionate dharma and Christian agape, points of convergence emerge naturally, as if they were ever-present elements in an anthropological archetype that originated in some pre-religious phase of humanity’s history.

Of course, true dialogue is not syncretism, or artificially trying to mix and fuse thoughts or beliefs. Instead, the points of convergence become common ground to build universal fraternity together.

Guided by wisdom, the Christian and Buddhist speakers at the symposium discussed other facets of dharma and agape. Their conversation was not merely spiritual but also aimed at demonstrating how these spiritual concepts enlighten fields such as politics, economics and psychology.

The speakers also sparked real interest in their audience. An explanation of vipassana (insight) meditation by Phra kru Bhavanavirach, wise words from the great Theravada teacher Ajahn Thong and a solid address by Nichiko Niwano, president of the Rissho Kosei-kai were especially informative.

“I have understood how profound Christianity really is, instead of a religion that many consider too materialistic and easy,” said the venerable Ryoko Nishioka, president of the Japanese Tendai tradition.

Monsignor Piero Coda, professor of Trinitarian Theology at the Lateran University in Rome, described how he too as a Christian was enriched by the dialogue through “the extraordinary grace that we have received in listening with our heart, mind and soul to the beliefs of each other, finding riches ever new.”