SERENE COMPASSION This page intentionally left blank SERENE COMPASSION A CHRISTIAN APPRECIATION OF BUDDHIST HOLINESS Denise Lardner Carmody John Tully Carmody New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1996 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1996 by Denise Lardner Carmody Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Carmody, Denise Lardner, 1935- Serene compassion : a Christian appreciation of Buddhist holiness Denise Lardner Carmody, John Tully Carmody. p. cm. ISBN 0-19-509969-9 1. Buddhism—Doctrines—Introductions. 2. Buddhism—Relations— Christianity. 3. Christianity and other religions—Buddhism. I. Carmody, John, 1939-1995. II. Title. BQ4132.C37 1996 261.2'43—dc20 95-42758 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper PREFACE This book builds on two prior volumes that we have published on Christian appreciation of the spirituality of other religious traditions; Christian Uniqueness and Catholic Spirituality (1990) and Catholic Spiritu- ality and the History of Religions (1991), as well as on our recent In the Path of the Masters (1994). Here, we take up an appreciation of Buddhist holiness from a Christian point of view, in effect setting Christ in dia- logue with the Buddha. Specifically, we expose for a Western audience interested in the riches of Buddhist spirituality six topics at the heart of the Buddhist enterprise: the Buddha himself, his teaching, the com- munity that he founded, meditation, morality, and Buddhist wisdom. In each case, we stress the insight and beauty that Buddhists have generated before suggesting what Westerners may find problematic. By the end of the study, readers should be able to estimate how what Christians call "grace" has been at work abundantly in the tradition and community flowing from the Awakened One. Although we are going our own way in this work, we acknowledge gladly the help we have found in the writings of such pioneers of in- terreligious dialogue as Ramon Panikkar, Leonard Swidler, Hans king, and Paul Knitter. We also acknowledge, with affection as well as grat- itude, our debts to the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research at Collegeville, Minnesota, and to the Jewish-Christian-Muslim Dia- logue sponsored by the National Conference and the Journal of Ecumen- ical Studies. Santa Clara, Calif. D. L. C. May 1995 J. T. C. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS 1. Introduction 3 2. The Buddha 12 3. The Dharma 30 4. The Sangha 48 5. Meditation 67 6. Morality 86 7. Wisdom 105 8. Conclusion 124 Index 133 This page intentionally left blank SERENE COMPASSION