Marcus Braybrooke

As a tribute to Wayne Teasdale, who died in October 2004, Interreligious Insight is reviewing the following of his published works.

The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions, New World Library, Novato, California, 1999, 292 pp., hdbk., $14.95, ISBN: 1-57731-102-7.

A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life, New World Library, 2002, 220 pp., £11.99,

ISBN: 1-57731-181-7.

Catholicism in Dialogue: Conversations Across Traditions, Sheed and Ward, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, 2004, 195 pp., £14.99, ISBN: 0-7425-3177-5.

Holy people, traditionally, have withdrawn from the world in their search for the Divine. In recent years, a new pattern of spirituality, which draws inspiration from all the great faiths, has emerged in which the pursuit of holiness takes place in the midst of the struggle for peace and justice and the service of the poor. Mahatma Gandhi said once that ‘If I could find God in a Himalayan cave, I would proceed there at once, but I can only find him in the service of the poor.’ Mother Teresa likewise prayed that our eyes would be opened to see God in the poor and hungry.

Brother Wayne Teasdale, whose death is mourned by many friends, colleagues and students across the world, embodied this new approach to spirituality. Thankfully, his recent publications, of which there is only space to mention a selection, mean that Wayne still speaks to us through them.

Fr. Bede Griffiths, a pioneer of the spiritual meeting of East and West, had a decisive influence on Wayne Teasdale. Wayne was already a lay monk at the Hundred Acres Monastery in New Hampshire when he first visited Shantivanam, Fr Bede’s ashram in south India, in 1986. On Wayne’s third visit to the ashram, Fr Bede asked him if he would take sannyasa, from him. Wayne agreed, even before he had had time to think about this. Just as the new sannyasi was thinking that he might make his home at Shantivanam, Fr. Bede told him, ‘You’re needed in America, not here in India…The real challenge for you is to be a monk in the world.’

Appropriately one of his books is called A Monk in the World. “Monasticism in all its forms,” he says, “exists to nurture the development, fruition, and gifts of the inner monk or mystic.” Wayne was convinced that everyone has this mystic potential, which is best developed by contemplation, and this was one of the reasons why he chose to be a monk living in the world, so that he could share every day problems of earning a living and of commuting. He was also motivated by the words of Jesus that “Whatever you do for the least of my brethren you do for me.” Why,” he says, “did I not choose to be locked away in a remote hermitage? Because I want to identify with and be identified with all those who suffer alone in the world, who are abandoned, homeless, unwanted, unknown, and unloved.”

In A Monk in the World, Wayne shares with reader how to live a spiritual life in the midst of daily preoccupations and worries. He speaks about his own contemplative life, which includes regular times of silence or “centering prayer”, reading the scriptures of the world, a daily walk to reflect on the beauty of nature. He shows how to give their true value to time, work and money. As a celibate, he writes movingly about the importance of friendship. Wayne vividly describes some of his encounters with the homeless and what he has learned from them and in a moving chapter, written after he was diagnosed to have palate cancer, he explores the role of suffering in our spiritual growth. The book also has chapters on the Church and on ‘interspirituality’ - subjects which are more fully covered in other books.

Wayne Teasdale grew up and remained a faithful, if critical, Catholic. His Catholicism in Dialogue is primarily addressed to fellow Catholics to persuade them of the necessity for dialogue. This is a less personal, but well informed, book. Part I sets the scene with a look back to the Second Vatican Council and a discussion of different types of dialogue. In Part II, he concentrates on the example and teaching of Pope John Paul II and discusses Catholic documents, such as Dominus Iesus. In part III, he considers the approaches of exclusivism, inclusivism and pluralism and the tension between dialogue and mission. Chapter eight has a particularly good account of inter-monastic dialogue, in which Wayne has been actively involved. Finally, he shares his vision of a church that includes “all the universal concerns of the human family”, giving special attention to the Church’s relationship to Islam. He suggests Islam would be stronger if there was some form of central authority or universal assembly. This would help to isolate extremists and add weight to those who Muslims who call for positive relations with members of other faiths.

The book ends with Wayne’s plea for the Church to be the matrix of a “Civilization of Love”. For this to happen, Wayne was convinced that the Church must be fully committed to interreligious dialogue and this was why he was so active in support of the Parliaments of the World’s Religions.

Interreligious dialogue and, more specifically, what Wayne calls “interspirituality”, is the subject of his beautiful book, The Mystic Heart, in which he presents a practical spirituality in a universal context.

In the first part, in a very personal way, Wayne introduces the reader to the rich mystical traditions of the great religions, inspiring him or her to explore the mystic path. He does not blur the distinctiveness of the various paths but insists that “the religions complete one another’s understanding of ultimate reality” and that “to leave out any spiritual experience is to impoverish humanity”. Regardless of the tradition, he writes, “the effects on the person of the spiritual journey are the same”. He or she undergoes a radical refashioning of his or her being. Their sense of union with the divine and with all life creates a greater awareness and fills them with compassion.

Once again, in Part II, Wayne Teasdale shows his belief that every person has the potential to discover his or her mystical nature. This section is more practical. It introduces the reader to a variety of spiritual practices which lead to an awareness of the true self. Wayne insists that a viable spirituality today is socially engaged. It does not turn its back on the sufferings of the world. The social dimension has three important elements: simplicity of life, selfless service and a prophetic or moral voice. Simplicity is a challenge to the rampant consumerism of modern society. It shows compassion for the poor and respect for the environment. There are well known examples of selfless service, such as Mother Teresa or Dorothy Day, but many unknown people who devote themselves to their families, to the sick or just make time for other people. The spiritual person needs also to be active in seeking justice and Wayne was himself tireless and passionate in championing the cause of the Tibetan people.

The third part of The Mystic Heart treats of the Mysticism of the Natural World, which, in Fr. Tom Berry’s words, is “a mode of the divine presence”. The final section is headed “Global Mysticism”, where Wayne gives particular attention to the “Guidelines for Interreligious Understanding”, formulated by Fr. Thomas Keating and fifteen members of the Snowmass Conference. The first guideline affirms that “the world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality to which they give various names: Brahman, Allah, (the) Absolute, God, Great Spirit”. It is this basic agreement which should unite people of faith and it is this shared experience of Ultimate Reality that is the ground of the faiths’ challenge to the selfish exploitation, which is at the root of so much violence and suffering in the world. This is why the mystic insight is vital for the world’s future, as Wayne made clear both in his writings and in the causes which he supported.

Following the spiritual path to Wayne is not just an individual pursuit but essential for the future of humanity. In The Mystic Heart he again speaks of a “Civilization with a Heart” which depends upon the emergence of a global spirituality. Such global spirituality, he says, will be contemplative, interspiritual and intermystical, socially engaged, environmentally responsible, holistic, engaged with the media, cosmically open and aiming for integration. Wayne longed for the emergence of a Universal order of Sannyasa who would prepare for a new age. But he would agree that anyone who develops his or her spiritual life – the “inner monk” - and cultivates compassion and the love that risks all for the sake of others is helping to build a civilization with a heart, in which the human community has learned to live in harmony with cosmos and at peace with all beings.

Wayne’s life and writings express the highest ideals of the interfaith movement and why it is indeed a pilgrimage of hope for all life on earth.

Some other books by Wayne Teasdale:

Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to his Interspiritual Thought, Skylight Path, 2003, 288 pp., $10.95, ISBN: 1-89336-177-2.

The Mystic Hours - a daily reading from spiritual writers. New World Library, 2004,

ISBN: 1-57731-472-7.

Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths, Deep Books, 2004, 224 pp., $21.99, ISBN: 1-59473-039-3.