Buddhism and Christianity: Teachings of Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni

Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni is one of the few Thai Buddhist figures who writes and thinks about other religious faiths when discussing Buddhism. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu tried to find the commonalities and heart of all religious traditions and Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni continues this but in a different way. Her focus is on making meditation practice suitable and flexible enough for Christians to practice. As someone with experience of foreign Christian visitors to her temple, Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhunis has thought of ways to accommodate this audience who wants to practice meditation but feel comfortable in their identity of a Christian faith.

Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni details her ideas about Christians practicing meditation most clearly in her pamphlet Meditation for Buddhists and Christians, published free by her temple, Wat Songdhammakalyani in Nakhon Pathom. In this pamphlet she advises Christians that they do not have to recite the mantra Buddho when beginning meditation but can use a different word. She advises to either repeat breathing in and breathing out or Jesus and Christ (2). This makes the meditation either secular or explicitly calling to mind Jesus within the meditation exercise.

But also in this pamphlet, like Buddhadasa Bhikkhu she writes about the similarities and agreements between the two religions. She is knowledgeable about Christianity and finds that calling oneself a Christian means that you follow the life of Christ. It follows then that one is giving toward others like him. In Buddhism too, Buddhists follow the Buddha, and trust that he was Enlightened, and try to follow his lifestyle. Thus she asserts that for both Buddhists and Christians, if we know our duty, there is no need for us to quarrel at all. I think B! uddhists and Christians, who truly practice in their own traditions will be nothing but great friends (4).

In Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhunis book about meditation, Training the Monkey Mind, where she discusses Buddhism explicitly to a non-Buddhist audience. She starts by talking about meditation and how there are many different types of meditation techniques and objects of concentration. That each person can choose which one is best for them, she finds, shows that Buddhism respects individual differences (9). Thus one can practice in different ways, even as a Christian, and still be practicing meditation. She also explains the differences between Buddhism and Christianity: You should be observing the five precepts. Not to kill, in Christianity, you take it as an order from God we ought not kill. But in Buddhism we do not have such a God-concept (10).

Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni believes that taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha is a declaration of ones Buddhist identity. She finds this comparable to the Christian tradition of Baptism. In describing how to take the three refuges, she also compares this to Christianity: Very much like the Christians, when you go for your Sunday mass . . . it is the time that you are reminded that you are to follow the spirit of Christ, . . . The same way, that is how we as Buddhists take Buddhahood into ourselves, follow the path and make it real (84). Thus Ven. Dhammananda Bhikkhuni uses Christian concepts to help her audience understand about Buddhism.

She also discusses the issue of those of another faith who feel they cannot bow down before an image of the Buddha: It is important to understand the significance of this humble gesture. When we bow down before a Buddha image it means we are able to let go of the importance of the self. We bring our head below our heart. We bow with body, heart a! nd mind and by so doing we gain merit. When a student bows before a teacher, it is the student who gains merit because she/he is able to let go of the self; the teacher gains nothing at all (50-51)

The approach is very much like science that is, it can be proved, it is not based on faith alone. But it is different from science. In scientific discovery, someone discovered it and showed it to us. But in Buddhism there is a proof but we have to do it ourselves. I cannot be enlightened for you. So to understand Buddhism in order to free ourselves from suffering, there is no need to go into details of the philosophical engagement. The message of Buddhism is very simple and down to earth, practicable (54).