S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 9 1 1 Martin Dojčár Our Lady of Guadalupe The Virgin of Guadalupe is considered the Patroness of Mexico and the Continental Americas. Replicas of the tilma can be found in thousands of churches throughout the world and numerous parishes bear Her name. And what about the intra-Buddhist dialogue? For the last couple of decades, there is growing ecumenical awareness among different Buddhist branches, doctrinal schools and monastic traditions. What is your take of that? Very similar to how different religions have not really been in dialogue for long, it is also true that the different Buddhist traditions have not really met each other until we all started showing up in the West. When I first got interested in Buddhism, I would often hear people talk negative about “other” traditions, kind of like, “Our team is the best and you better not trust that team…” Maybe that kind of talk still happens and maybe I’ve learned to associate with people who don’t think that way? Personally, I have only attended one or two Buddhist monastic meetings – there is only limited time and energy available to us. But other members of my community have taken the opportunity to learn from and share what we find valuable to other monastics trying to figure out how to be nuns or monks in the West. This sharing is important as what we are doing is very alien to the West. There are many practical issues where we might be able to act together to form a coalition – like around health care, nursing homes for elder monastics, issues with regards to Visa and Work Permits, etc. At a deeper level, when we learn more about different Buddhist traditions, we can see clearly that we all have the same Buddha as our teacher, and many of the differences that have developed over the centuries could have been caused by culture. Seeing where we have similarities or understand why a different tradition does something differently also helps us to appreciate each other and also deepen our faith and understanding of our own teachings. Thank you very much for sharing your insights with us!
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