India is not associated with cool weather, so it was a pleasant surprise for the members of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) Buddhist Studies and Dialogue Group to experience 19 degrees’ weather at Bodhi Zendo in the Kodaikanal hills of Tamil Nadu, where their annual meeting was held from 6 to 8 August. Founded by renowned Zen Master, Fr Ama Samy, in 1998, the Zen meditation centre organises long and short sesshins, or meditation retreats following the Sanbo Kyodan tradition. These retreats feature several hours of sitting meditation a day. On ordinary days outside the retreats, the house observes a daily routine of morning, noon, and evening meditations.
In what felt like an irony, it was the first time for the group of Jesuits engaged in Buddhist Studies and dialogue with Buddhists to spend so much time meditating together. Fifteen Jesuits from Asia Pacific and South Asia, joined by a layperson from Singapore, a Vietnamese Maryknoll priest working among migrants in Japan, an American diocesan priest-scholar, an Australian Zen master, and the Archbishop of Mandalay, joined the daily meditation times, and many found the experience very powerful— to be united in silence, sitting together in quiet meditation.
At the opening session, Fr Thomas Amirtham SJ, Provincial of the Madurai Province, and Fr Stanislaus D’Souza SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of South Asia, gave inspiring speeches to encourage the work of dialogue. Fr Mathew Cyril SJ, current director of Bodhi Zendo, welcomed all the participants with traditional rites of welcome and blessing. It was the first time for the rhythm of the house to be disrupted by a meeting of Jesuits, an accommodation to the longstanding desire of the group to experience the programme of life at the unique meditation centre that draws people from all faiths and none from all over the world.
The Ven Buddha Pragash, an Indian Buddhist monk based in Chennai, also joined the meeting and shared his experiences. There were formal presentations on Buddhism in India by Dr Rao Mallampati, the impact of Buddhist meditation on Christian prayer by Fr Leo Lefebure (joining the meeting for the second time), and dialogue with Buddhists in Myanmar by Archbishop Marco Tin Win of Mandalay. It was the first time for a bishop to be with the group, and it was made possible by the invitation of the Jesuits in Myanmar.
Sacred Heart College, Shenbaganur
On the third day, there was time to visit key places in Kodaikanal, which has a large Catholic population. The French Jesuits left an enduring legacy in the establishment of many churches and mission stations. The group visited Shenbaganur, a Jesuit complex, which houses the Archives, Tertianship, museum of natural history, and various social centres hosted by the Madurai Jesuits. The house, well preserved after more than a century, used to be the formation house for all missionaries arriving in India. In the town centre, a huge artificial lake is only one of many projects that earlier Jesuits inspired to link the people more closely together.
Another place of interest was the big shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, a popular place of pilgrimage, built by a priest who had fallen ill and promised to Our Lady that he would build her a shrine if he would be healed.
The group dispersed after three days, feeling joyful and renewed after having shared in the deep silence and spirituality of the Zendo, the support of fellow travellers on the road of dialogue with Buddhism, and the deeper appreciation of the power of just sitting quietly together as a response to the sufferings of the world.
