19 september 25
I’m back at Bose just overnight. The monks and nuns were very welcoming to me when we got back, and I ate with the community again in the refectory for both lunch and dinner instead of in the guesthouse. I was scurrying back to my room after dinner when three monks stopped me on the little road between the monastic quarters and the guesthouse and really wanted to engage in some conversation. It was very touching. I kept hearing over and over again, “Come again! Stay longer!” Fra Salvatore, the guest master invited me, if I wanted to, not to come to morning prayer if I wanted some time to myself. I was really torn because I really love the liturgy here and had a really powerful meditation time in the chapel before their gorgeous crucifix. But in the end the hermit won out and I happily did my meditation, prayers and stretches in my cell and repacked my bag for the trip back to Rome this morning.
The time at Matha Gitananda Ashram was really fine, and very interesting on a number of levels. First of all, as soon as we drove through the gates (it was well cut-off to the public; there was a sign outside the gates that said, in Italian, something like, “If you believe in life after death, come in and meet our dogs.”) I had trouble remembering where I was. It was like Mount Madonna Center, only it was more Indian yet, statuary all over the place and the entire community in bright orange robes except for the few aspirants all in white. Some of the folks in the monastic community actually looked Indian, though they were almost all Italian. Our main host was Hamsananda, a large friendly Italian woman who also spoke English, as many of them do, given that if they go to India to study they need to speak English. But most of the practical things were being handled by the younger staff, all of whom could not have been more gracious and eager to please. They have been in this remote location in the hills above Savona for more than forty years now as I understand it. There is a small temple and just recently a beautiful guest house and meeting room were added. That is where we stayed and held our meetings. It was because of that new guest house that they were able to host us, as a matter of fact, which got noted several times. The new place was also built to be sustainable and ecologically friendly, again reminding me of MMC.
Then the gathering of DIM (Dialogo Interreligioso Monastico) Italia itself… I had met a few of the participants at our event in Rome with the Thai monks, but of course this was my first time with the entire group that has been meeting for at least 15 years like this. An interesting feature of this branch of DIM is that the non-Christians are considered equally members of the group, not just guests of the Christians. This was very obvious at the official business meeting the second afternoon. As everyone was gathering there was obviously a deep friendship between them all; it seemed to me the nuns were especially very affectionate with all the others. I counted seven Buddhist monks (mostly Zen with two Tibetans), 15 nuns (Benedictine, several Poor Clares, and another cloistered congregation whose name escapes me), six Benedictine monks, three Muslim participants from a center in Milano, and five of the Hindu monastics were with us for most of our meetings. Fr. Santiago from the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue was also there for the first time. He was the only one of the staff at DID that I had not met before, and we were glad to get the chance. He is a Tamil with a specialty in the dharmic religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.
We were invited to participate in the aarathi in the temple three times a day. I only went twice, but I was impressed at the level of concentration and devotion on the part of the Hindu monks and nuns, though a little surprised at just how devotional and ritualistic they are. I do not mean that in any negative way. It’s just that I associate sannyasa with going beyond ritual and the world of signs. I was remembering the samadhi hall at Tiruvanamalai, how the brahmin priests were chanting of scriptures and performing the pujas and other rituals with the participation of many pilgrims, but the orange clad sannyasis, who might have helped pick flowers and set things up, just sat in the back of the temple and watched. I was also impressed by how many of the Catholic religious went to the temple services. Mostly we sat in the back while they chanted long mantras and then accepted the light and the colored powder for the bindi. As Hamsananda pointed out, the meaning of the words of scriptures (all in Sanskrit) are really secondary; it is the power released in the sounds themselves. I remember going through a long meditation on this years ago, again at Tiru, when I was trying to convince our young monks of the value of chanting the psalms.
Each of the two mornings was given to a teaching led by Swami Hamsananda, on the theme of “living monastic space,” a topic they had begun discussing already last year. I was very impressed by Hamsananda’s knowledge of Indian philosophy and scriptures. One of the two Tibetan monks there, Sonam, was actually from Tibet, from which he escaped when he was 16, and is based in Dharamsala now. He comes to a center near Pisa for three months each year, directed to do so by HH the Dalia Lama himself, he told me. He spoke very little Italian, and I offered to translate for him if he needed it. They had a woman doing simultaneous translation with headphones for two of the major presentations, but she couldn’t make it the second day and I had to take over. I had no idea how much I had bitten off, but once I got into a rhythm it went pretty well, and he wound up wanting me to sit with him at meals too. I have done a bit of that before (namely for Alessandro when he came to the US, which was very easy actually), but this was a more of a challenge, various voices and no one slowing down for the sake of the translator, the session going on for more than two hours! As I always say, it was a good exercise.
The business meeting was very interesting. They discussed a number of practical things, the next topic, the next meeting and also new membership and criteria for the same. There was some heated exchanges, which surprised me but one never knows with Italians if that is just their way of expressing themselves. Matteo did have to remind them several times to avoid what we call “crosstalk.” Toward the end of that Matteo asked me to weigh in on what my experience had been like being with them. I had nothing but positive things to say, pointing out again that as far as I could see this is by far the most active commission in the world and a real model for others. I did point out one thing––and tried to make it as non-judgmental as possible: that I was coming into this as an American and the difference between their style and ours was very obvious: we would never go 2.5 hours without a bathroom break. (Actually, we had gone three hours by that time, as we had that morning as well.) They all laughed at that but thought about it too. I am used to that from our Chapter meeting at Camaldoli in the past. After three hours the non-Italians are starting to wither in their chairs, and you can see the Italians getting a whole new wind. I was teased a few times about my sense of time and punctuality, accusing me of being “Swiss,” and several times I heard the same thing I hear in every culture about the fluidity of “Mexican time,” or “Indian time,” or “Mediterranean time.” It made me reflect on my own sense of that and of course I just had to let go, as usual. It wasn’t a huge sacrifice.
Sunday, 21 Sept, back home
I did not choose my ticket well and wound up having an extra-long train trip home––all the way up to Torino first, and then direct to Rome on the Freccia Rossa, instead of through Milano which would have been shorter. Live and learn. But I got a lot of reading and napping done on the train. As always, I was so happy to be home in my own little room! The added incentive to get home ASAP was that a group of oblates was here from Incarnation in Berkeley. They were actually out the first evening so George left me in charge to preach for Mass and prepare, host and put away dinner for the three young guys and two women guests staying with us (I usually don’t go to the evening meal). Something about that felt very nice, actually, like it’s really my home. My friend and advisor Mark Hansen from Singapore is here with the group, and we got to have a nice long talk during a walk to Campo dei Fiori yesterday morning. George also asked me to preach for Mass today which we decided ought to be somewhat bilingual. It’s the first time that I’ve done a homily going back and forth between English and Italian, and I liked it a lot. Ironically, Mark asked me if I was posting my homilies anywhere like I used to. I told him no, because I’ve only been preaching in Italian. But funny he should mention that because… my young neighbor Francesco always checks my “script” for me and I asked him this time if he thought I could publish it. He said, Certo! So I was planning on (and did). Of course, this one is in both languages, which can wind up being twice the work. We shall see for the future.
It was also an interesting experience to be part of the team welcoming people from the US here to Rome. It really does feel like my home by now. They’ve all gone now, and I have got just over a week to get myself ready for the next trip, to Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.
