On Friday 15 November 2019, the newly founded Association of our spirituality and companionship alumni, the Maltese Association for the Study of Spirituality and Spiritual Companionship (MASC), held its first open public event, a Buddhist-Christian dialogue, entitled “Philosophical Interpretation and Daily Life in the Way of Chinese Zen Buddhism.” The event was co-hosted by the Malta China Cultural Centre (MCCC) and Carmelite Institute Malta. Vice-Chairperson of MASC, Mr Martin Azzopardi SDC served as an intermediary between MCCC Director Mr Yang Xiaolong and MASC to hold this event.
The evening’s lecture with its hands-on experience was led by Buddhist Abbess Miao Duo who is Superintendent of Fo Guang Shan France, where Fo Guang Shan Europe is headquartered. Initially, there was a short film to demonstrate “The Art of One Stroke Calligraphy.” Then, at the heart of the evening, after the audience had been divided into several tables of nine or ten persons each, the Venerable Abbess led the audience into the practice of mindfulness, into the focused-awareness of being-present, through and within the experience of the “Tea Ceremony” with her team of Buddhist “Tea-Masters.” But before doing so, after her opening introduction to the ‘art’ of calligraphy that ‘writes itself’ virtually without awareness ‘in a single stroke,’ Mr. Martin Azzopardi SDC, Vice-Chairperson of MASC, introduced the Abbess and the event to the audience.In his address, Mr Azzopardi described the cultural and spiritual context of Buddhist thought that makes Buddhist-Christian dialogue possible. In his prefatory reflection, he both compared and distinguished the Buddha and the Christ. The existing commonalities suggested how Thomas Merton, as a Christian, could say that he also wanted “to become as good a Buddhist as I can.” Also, in that Christian and contemplative context, Fr. Charlò Camilleri, as Prior of the Carmelite Priory in Mdina and Faculty representative to MASC, blessed and welcomed the participants and the distinguished guests by offering for them The Prayer of St. Francis with the Bodhisattva Vow, which the group in their Christian example then completed with the Lord’s Prayer. The Venerable Abbess Miao Duo then led the assembly in an exercise that combined relaxation with an attentive mental focus to one’s bodily and sensory experience. After this initial effort to put aside all that was extraneous to the present moment, the Abbess then conducted and facilitated the “Tea Ceremony” which she described for nearly seventy participants, who at each table followed their respective “Tea Masters” in the ceremony for the preparation and consumption of tea, which process allows for the conscious discrimination and differentiation of various sensory experiences in their very moment of attention and awareness. In this “Tea Ceremony,” as one simultaneously sharpened and broadened one’s attention to various sensations, elements of that conscious experience would become even more focused and even more complex, so that sometimes spontaneous, or even very unexpected, sensations were favoured. The “Tea Ceremony” was also complimented gradually by other more elaborate contexts, such as the visual sight and movements of a costumed dancer, or the tranquil sound of gentile flutes. Even the very movements of the “Tea Masters,” each in her individual attention and of each participant’s attention to her, provided a further discipline to one’s awareness of the reflective space, and of its nature to open up consciousness to the meditative “silence” within it.
Then discussion followed, with Abbess Miao Duo’s taking up some engaging questions posed to her in dialogue with Mr. Martin Azzopardi. Public questions also were entertained, which allowed for the Abbess to elaborate Buddhist practice and thought. In its formal conclusion, MASC Chairperson Dr. Edward J. Clemmer thanked Abbess Miao Duo, as he offered the audience and its distinguished guests a specific religious context for the humanity that binds Chinese Buddhist wisdom with the Christian experience of the universal Christ.
Fr. Glen Attard, MASC Secretary, also facilitated the physical preparations for the event coordinated by the MASC Executive Committee. And in its conclusion, featuring vegetarian Buddhist and typical Maltese snacks, the MCCC graciously hosted a reception which promoted that evening’s many continued friendships and opportunities for individual discussions among the Maltese participants and Chinese guests.
