There was a story in the BBC news this week that  I found amusing.  It seems that in the last carriage of the 07.53 train from Inwood to Penn station in New York commuters are studying the Talmud and discussing the finer points of Jewish law.  The report said that the study group on wheels started 22 years ago to help Long Island Jewish commuters find their way through the book which is described as "one of the most challenging and perplexing texts in the world".
It seems that study of the Talmud is growing in popularity even among women who traditionally have not been allowed to read it.   When someone asked Einstein, shortly before his death, what he would do differently if he could live his life again, it seems he said: "I would study the Talmud."

The Talmud is a practical book that tells Jews how to live but its beauty for me is that it contains a variety of opinions and encourages debate and conversation.  As you can see from this page of the Talmud the central text is surrounded by different elaborations. It contains official opinions but also minority opinions, agreements and disagreements, even folk lore and jokes.  It's the disagreements that interest me.  To have a variety of opinions about how to live and the best way to understand faith is very healthy.  And to discuss these is even healthier.  Too often religious authorities seem to  fear disagreement and makes authoritative statements which come down on the side of an opinion, making it orthodox and all other opinions unorthodox. Disagreement with these views is taken as dissent, seen as heretical and the individual to be rejected unless he or she follows the party line.  This has led to witch hunts, heresy trials, violence and even wars. 

I heard a nice story this evening about a debate between Jesuits and Dominicans in the 16th/17th century.  It was about the right understanding of grace and lasted 23 years. Prolonged debates took place before Popes until it was eventually   resolved by Pope Paul V who declared both orders could teach their own understanding of grace as long as they didn't call the other heretical.  I think the Pope intended to get round to resolving the issue later but never did so.

Seems there is a good lesson here for all religions, one that Judaism has taken to heart. To be aware that we are all limited in our views, that a point of view is a view from a particular point and to consider that there could be wisdom in another view can only be enriching for the development of our faith.  Such openness within any one faith must help openness to other faiths. 

Religion is often portrayed as formidable, serious and rather glum.  This weekend visitors to the Aberdeen Festival of Music were denied an altogether different experience of religion. The Whirling Dervishes Of Damascus were to have performed at the opening event but were denied entry into Britain for fear they might not return to Syria.  Although the Whirling Dervishes are internationally acclaimed and an amazing spectacle to see, their performance is essentially a  religious act.
 
It is thought that the whirling dance began with Rumi, a 13th cy. Sufi mystic and poet whose poetry is still popular today.  One story is that Rumi was walking in a marketplace when he heard in his heart the  words 'La Ilaha Ilallah', there is no God but God in time to the rhythmic hammering of the gold-beaters. Consumed by the love of God this chant filled his being and he began to turn round and round in ecstasy.  Over time this movement became formalised but its intention is to express love of God and  to lead to greater love and union with God.  It is an ecstatic experience which emphasises the importance of religious experience, something that institutional religion often considers suspect.

Islam is not the only religion to have its ecstatic dance. At a particular time in its history, when European Judaism was in disarray, Baal Shem Tov established a movement which emphasised devotion and the love of God, available to the most simple of souls .  This  love of God was expressed in joyful dancing and gratitude.  

While other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism have their own form of dance, religions have also been suspect of it, seeing it as being related to pagan rituals and fearing it would lead to immorality.

But dance is a way of opening to the Spirit, to the energy of the world, to the dance of the cosmos. It is a way of moving from the head to the body, listening to our own inner rhythm, beginning to move to our own drumbeat. It helps us focus on and listen to the present moment. It is a liberating experience to move, to feel the energy  within which is the energy of the world. It is joyful, freeing, and wholesome. Gabriel Roth sums it up so well when she says "We dance to fall in love with the spirit in all things" . Her question to us is " Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?  Can you be free of all that binds and bends us into a shape of consciousness  that has nothing to do with who we are from moment to moment, from breath to breath? 

Well can you?  The Ignatian Spirituality Centre shows a way.

There have been many books written about Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio since he became Pope.  But he's still only written one and that was with Rabbi Abraham Skorka when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.  The two men were and are good friends. This friendship has recently been celebrated with Rabbi Skorka visiting the Pope in Rome.

Living together in the Vatican Guest House they have shared meals and discussed what  more they can do together to promote dialogue and peace in the world.  One plan is to travel together to Israel/Palestine next year.  Both the Israeli and Palestinian authorities have invited Pope Francis, and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew1, wants the Pope to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic meeting of his predecessor, Athenagoras, with Paul VI in Jerusalem.  The Vatican has now announced that this visit will take place in March 2014.
 
Rabbi Skorka has described the experience of visiting Francis:
   “I eat with him at breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. He cares for me, and controls everything regarding my food to     makes sure it is all kosher, and according to my religious tradition. These are festive days, and I have to say certain             prayers at meals and, I expand the last prayer and translate it. He accompanies me together with the others at table         -his secretaries and a bishop, and they all say ‘Amen’ at the end”.
    We are dreaming of traveling together to Israel soon, and the Pope is working on this subject”, the Rabbi said. “I dream     of embracing him at the Kotel, or Wailing Wall, and I will accompany him to Bethlehem, in the Palestinian territories. His     presence can help a lot at this moment when the peace talks are starting again”, he added

The Vatican report said that by acting in this way, the Pope and Rabbi are sending an extraordinary message of friendship, dialogue and peace not only to their respective religious communities but also to the whole world.  How I would love them to be accompanied by such great figures as the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Chi, Desmond Tutu for example  - what a witness for peace that would be.

Though not quite in the same vein another first is the discussion about a joint Jewish - Catholic campus for two primary schools in East Renfrewshire.  The discussions are at a very early stage and both schools would have their own ethos, administration etc but sharing a campus would surely mean cooperation and dialogue between both staff and pupils.

All of this is good news for a world hungry for it.

Akong Rinpoche had a dream - to make the valley of Eskdalemuir in the Scottish Borders Buddhist .  This dream has almost been realised.  There is now a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, temple and college, retreat houses and permanent accommodation around the monastery for lay followers.  To visit Samye Ling monastery is to step into a little bit of Tibet.  It is to experience the living faith of Tibetan Buddhism and to receive a warm welcome from the nuns and monks who live and work there.

This week the community has been shocked and saddened by the sudden and violent death of its founder Akong Rinpoche.  He was a man of few words who escaped from Tibet as a teenager, founded the monastery at Samye Ling, handing over its running and development to his younger brother Lama Yeshe.  He gave up being a monk and married in Scotland believing that was the best way for him to spread the message of Buddhism. He remained a very influential figure in Samye Ling while putting time and energy into the Rokpa Charitable Foundation  to serve the poor in Nepal and Tibet and encouraging his followers to engage in charitable works wherever they found themselves.  This was a man who, as a Buddhist, lived out the virtues of compassion and loving kindness. As  a Buddhist all his meditation and actions would have been dedicated to the relief of suffering and the good of all sentient beings.  How terrible, then, that he should have been killed while visiting his charitable projects in China.

For the next 49 days prayers will be said for his happy rebirth. Whether one believes in rebirth or life after death the life  and the compassion that has flowed from Akong Rinpoche will continue through the Samye Ling community and the charities he has founded. It's as though he has set in motion a great stream of love and positive energy which can't be contained. It has been set loose on the world and will continue to affect the world after he has left it.  I cannot help but compare this with Tommy Robinson who this week left the English Defence League.  While he now declares that he wants  to combat extremism in  more peaceful ways he has set up a movement that seems motivated by hate and which he admits he can't control.  The energy that he has sent out into the world is so different from that of Akong Rinpoche and much work will need to be done to counteract it.  Is this not a lesson for us all?

"Proselytism is solemn nonsense, it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us....This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart but the important thing is they lead towards the good"  These are the words of Pope Francis in an interview with an Italian atheist, Eugenio Scalfari as reported in the Catholic Weekly, the Tablet.  Shocking words for some.

Proselytisation has negative connotations as it suggests a certain inducement and pressure on people to convert to a religion other than their own.  It's seen as an infringement of religious freedom and an indictment on other faiths as it suggests absolute truth in one and not the other.  I have often heard it said in interfaith situations that Christianity is guilty of this but not others, with a certain pride in the openness of other faiths compared to Christianity.  No doubt many Christians have been guilty of this kind of proselytisation in the past and perhaps some evangelicals might even have that approach today but many others, including the Pope, are committed to religious freedom and respect for other faiths, wanting to focus on dialogue and working for the common good. 

This does not do away with a sense of mission, however.  All faiths believe they have a universal truth which they want to share with others, even those that don't appear to be missionary. There is an obligation on Baha'is, for example, to teach their religion as  a way of bringing peace and justice to the world.  In fact Baha'is are encouraged to move to countries or cities where there are no or few Baha'is to help spread knowledge of their faith. This is often the reason that Baha'is are found in interfaith groups in even the remotest of areas.

Buddhism has historically been a missionising religion which spread mainly through monks and missionaries all over India, South Asia and Indo-China. Today Buddhists want to preach the Dhamma and offer talks and courses in public places to spread the teaching of the Buddha.  Buddhism is also very successful at adapting its message to the contemporary world.  As one Buddhist monk said, when he set out to teach meditation no-one came but when he called it stress management lots of people came.

So while the Pope decries proselytism he sees Christians as having a message and mission for the world. In the interview with Scalfari he tells us what this is "We have to be a leavening of life and love. Our goal is not to proselytise but to listen to needs, desires, and disappointments, despair, hope.  We must restore hope to young people, help the old be open to the future, spread love. Vatican II ..........decided to look to the future with a modern spirit and to be open to modern culture. The Council Fathers knew that being open to modern culture meant religious ecumenism and dialogue with non-believers".  This surely is a mission that all faiths can participate in.