Wayne Teasdale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wayne Robert Teasdale ( 1945 - 20 October 2004) was a monk, an author and teacher from the U.S.A.. He became known primarily as a creative proponent of the mutual understanding between the world's religions; he was also an advocate for social justice issues.

Contents

[edit] Life

Raised in Connecticut in a Catholic family, Teasdale was spiritually challenged by the political turmoil of the 1960s, which plunged him into a series of disconcerting reflections lasting three years. While enrolled in a small Catholic college, he began to visit St. Joseph's Abbey, a Cistercian monastery (Trappist) near Spencer, Massachusetts. Here, he came under the spiritual direction of the then Abott, Thomas Keating, a founder of the centering prayer movement.

Teasdale received a Masters in Philosophy, and later in 1986 he earned his Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University. His dissertation was on the theology of the late Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk resident in India. He went on to teach at various institutions, DePaul University, Columbia College, Benedictine University, and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he lived for many years. As a teacher, Professor Teasdale formed lasting personal relationships with his students and became a mentor to many.

As a result of his correspondence with Bede Griffiths, O.S.B., Teasdale visited his Shantivanam Ashram in Tamil Nadu, India; he then lived for two years at an Ashram nearby. In 1989, through Bede Griffiths, Teasdale was made a Christian sanyassa (or Hindu renunciate). A major spiritual influence on Wayne Teasdale, the Benedictine Bede Griffiths (1906-1993) was an author, a proponent of Wisdom Christianity as well as of dialogue between Hindu and Catholic religious, and generally. Eventually Teasdale made a profession of vows before Francis Cardinal George, then the Archbishop of Chicago, in 2003.

Often he labored at various social causes, from environmental responsibility to homelessness, especially while he lived in Chicago. He participated in studies which explored the relationship between MDMA and mystical experiences, though of course he opposed drug abuse. He spoke quietly about how to benefit the human community. Often people would be affected by the kindness of his heart. He could also be funny and rollicking. Teasdale served the Parliament of the World's Religions by sitting on its Board of Trustees, where he worked with others in order to convene the centenary Parliament of 1993 in Chicago. This event brought together eight thousand people of many different faiths worldwide; out of it came the Guidelines for a Global Ethic.

Devoted to a new interfaith understanding, Teasdale came to espouse what he termed interspirituality, a perspective that discovered in the world religions a degree of commonality which could be approached through mystical experience. Teasdale was active in promoting and developing this facet of spirituality.

He associated with several contemplative and interfaith groups, including the Hundred Acres Monastery in New Hampshire (his resident address for several years), the North American Board for East-West Dialogue, and Common Ground (Center for inquiry, study, and dialogue). Teasdale also was coordinator of the Bede Griffiths Trust. He became well acquainted with the Dalai Lama. As a member of the Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, he assisted the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso and others, including the Cistercian Thomas Keating (mentioned above), in negotiating the text of the Universal Declaration on Nonviolence (1990), which sought to further the Satyagraha ideals established by Gandhi.

The Synthesis Dialogues has sponsored several conferences for selected religious and secular leaders, which aimed at increasing dialogue between faiths and at discerning how such interspiritual cooperation could benefit human affairs in general. Teasdale worked with the group initiating the dialogues. He can be seen and heard at a 1999 synthesis conference in Dharmsala, centered on the Dalai Lama, in the documentary Dalai Lama Renaissance.

In 2002, Brother Wayne, with friends and colleagues, founded Interspiritual Dialogue (ISD), an NGO accredited by the United Nations Department of Public Information. After Wayne's transition in 2004, ISD expanded internationally to become Interspiritual Dialogue 'n' Action. This network works to promulgate Brother Wayne's vision of interspirituality and the Interspiritual Age. In 2008, ISDnA, the Common Ground Conferences and other friends of Wayne partnered with One Spirit Learning Alliance and Interfaith Seminary in New York City to form a core educational program based on Brother Wayne's work and that of the Integral thinkers like Ken Wilber and Don Beck. A centerpiece of this program has been articulated by Drs. Gorakh Hayashi and Kurt Johnson, colleagues of Brother Wayne, in The Heart of Brother Wayne Teasdale's Vision of the Interspiritual Age. (Vision in Action, 2008).

Teasdale died of cancer in 2004.

[edit] Sources

See his Publications and External Links below.

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

  • Essays in Mysticism: Explorations into Contemplative Experience, Forward by George A. Maloney (Liturgical Publications/Sunday Publications 1982) ISBN 0941850021
  • Towards a Christian Vedanta: The Encounter of Hinduism and Christianity according to Bede Griffiths (Asian Trading Corporation 1987) ISBN 8170861225 Developed from his dissertation at Fordham University.
  • The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions, Forward by the Dalai Lama, Preface by Beatrice Bruleau (New World Library 1999) ISBN 157731140X
  • A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life, Forward by Ken Wilber (New World Library 2002) ISBN 1577314379
  • Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to his Interspiritual Thought, Forward by Bede Griffiths (Skylight Paths Publishing 2003) ISBN 1893361772
  • Catholicism in Dialogue: Conversations across the Traditions (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2004) ISBN 0742531775
  • The Mystic Hours: A Daybook of Inspirational Wisdom and Devotion (New World Library 2004) ISBN 1577314727

[edit] Editor

  • The Community of Religions: Voices and Images of the Parliament of the World's Religions, editor, with George Cairns (Continuum International Publishing Group 1996) ISBN 0826408990
  • Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths, editor, with Martha Howard, Forward by Joan Borysenko (Skylight Paths Publishing 2004) ISBN 1594730393

[edit] Articles

[edit] Audio

  • Hermitage of the Heart: Contemplative Practices from Hundred Acres Monastery (2003 Sounds True) [Cassette] ISBN 1564559521

[edit] Criticism

Opponents of the interspiritual view argue that interspirituality compromises many of the basic tenets of certain world religions. Literal/Fundamental Christianity, for example, asserts that the Bible and the message of Christ found therein, directly contradict and expressly defend themselves against interspiritual interpretation. Nevertheless, interspirituality is gaining in popularity.[citation needed]


Perhaps a close reading refutes such criticism of "compromises". Counter-examples would include: the priest Melchizedek, to whom Abraham tithed; Jethro, priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses; Cyrus the Great, whom the Bible praises as anointed of God; and the influence of Greek philosophy on Judaism before and after Christ, and its influence on Christianity. The teaching would be that the stranger or foreigner is not by dogma to be associated with heathenism, but rather is to be treated well (e.g., by the golden rule), a difficult mandate to follow with integrity.

[edit] External links