Bhutanese really love their neighbours

"If love of God is proved by love of neighbour, many Bhutanese are very close to God,” wrote Father William Mackey (1915-1995) in his unfinished book, and warranted it by saying that the Bhutanese really love their neighbours.

The Canadian Jesuit lived in Bhutan for 32 years, most of it in remote areas, where he assisted in setting up modern schools. In these institutions, he joined the students in their daily prayers and observed them. For him, this experience not only gave him an insight into Buddhism and enriched his life, but also allowed him to understand his own god and life more clearly.

The Guluphulus
For father, it was an evening ritual to wander through the dormitory, before the lights were turned out. There, he encountered students squatting on their beds, unconscious of the commotion around them. He described this as experiencing prayer. “They descend inside themselves, beneath the level of sense beneath the level of mind to the fundamental level of being.”

Father called this immobile meditation, where experience of reality is given importance and the practice to encounter oneness and uniqueness takes precedence over the intellectual approach (father thought this was a fallacy). Unlike his approach to god, he found his students approach more realistic. He said that they did not try to grasp infinite reality with their finite minds or through fixed concepts. He said it was impossible to do so, as no word or image can express an unlimited reality.

Moved by his student’s ability to calm their minds, he slowly began to follow their examples. “I can now squat peacefully for 45 minutes every morning, trying to experience the reality of god in my life,” father said. “The Bhutanese guluphulus (rascals) have taught me how to pray.”

According to father, the religion of Bhutan is more Lamaism Buddhism, and he believes it to have come from India via Tibet, infiltrated with a large dose of Tibetan tantrism, Chinese beliefs and doctrines.

Father was impressed with how the Bhutanese were close to reality. For example, he said it was common practice to make simple daily offerings. “The offering of the day with all its troubles, problems good and bad, one of the children will take the sangphur - little metal cup or vase - in which some leaves or sticks are burning and waft the smoke in front of their altar, and around the room. It is a daily Bhutanese morning offering of the day, good and bad difficulties and problems, to Sangye, Lord Buddha, asking for his help and guidance.”

Soon father’s approach to prayer became what he called, Bhutanese and Trinitarian. “I try to experience the reality of being father in being “I am”- an opportunity to be - a chance to suffer, work, and pray to make a little world a more loving place.

YabYum - Duality and Union
The Jesuit Dragon said that Lamaism propagated the practice of duality and union and, using a common sight as an example, explained the concept and experience of union that an individual can experience in this life. “Every temple contains statues and pictures; every home has its own statue of YabYum - Mother and Father squatting in the marriage act - similar to the Song of Songs in the Bible.”

Father said that this is how Bhutanese represent the union, the oneness of individual with the Supreme Being, one in mind and body, in affection and in love.

God - Who is he or her?
One of the fundamental differences between Buddhism and Christianity is the concept of God. The former faith accepts that all sentient beings have the seed of Buddha and can become one; while Christians believe in the concept of the Supreme Being. Buddhists are open to the idea of creation and happy to debate about it; while in the western world, god is seen as the creator.

Father said that the god he believes in is the Supreme Being and is omnipotent, omniscient and has ways and means that we know nothing about. However, like any Christian, Father believes that God is the creator and saviour. “God is at work in all religions. God has created all men. He wants to save all men.”

For a Buddhist, the reality of Supreme Being is too big to be included in a name or image. Father admitted this and said that the people of Bhutan represented this concept, in art as a small temple on top of a mountain with rays of light coming from the lhakhang or the monastery. Father agrees that no concepts can enclose the limitless. “No word or idea can express the unknowable. No mind can grasp the ungraspable.”

The Jesuit states that the Christian idea of experience is not appreciated. He believed that mirroring the Supreme Being is possible, and says that experience and love implies to all life and are fundamentally one. “All life is sacred because it mirrors something in an inferior way of the reality of the Supreme Being. There is no “I”; it does not mirror God. But God has mirrored the “I” and if it does not exist, that would imply a certain equality of being, a dualism of being that is not advaita, not two. A true Buddhist strives to strip his ego and eventually annihilate it, destroying the I.

“I can see God the Father, Son and Spirit actually, really at work in Lamaism. My work and life have been enriched by my contact with Lamaism.” Father reminds himself that, by living, working and praying with the Bhutanese, he could experience his god’s omniscience.

Father Mackey lived 32 years in Bhutan. During this time, the Roman Catholic never converted any of his students. Instead, he drew inspiration from the guluphulus and quietly reveals it in his book that never saw the light of day. The Canadian Jesuit acknowledged the spiritual depth of the Bhutanese, and admitted that it influenced his life and changed his perception of the concept of god and helped him become a better person; a good Christian, Catholic, Jesuit and priest, and prays that he could be a bridge between these two faiths and enrich them.

Source: Kuenselonline