The 3rd of December has been declared a feast or saint’s day for Francis Xavier. He was one of the first Jesuits, a co-founder of the order.
Eventually, he becamea Catholic missionary to Japan. Which is where I find him interesting. Now, he was fervently hostile to nonChristian religions, and with that, if indirectly, there’s some blood on his hands. But also, I believe he is the first Westerner to write a moderately accurate report of Zen in a European language.
Me, I’m endlessly fascinated by those early Buddhist Christian encounters.
It’s impossible to say what the first Buddhist and Western encounters were. Although probably in the Near East and in Greece in classical antiquity. Alexander’s foray into India in the fourth century before the common era had consequences for both Buddhism and Western religion and philosophy.
Frankly, that’s an area where hard evidence is scant. Although there are numerous tantalizing hints. A dramatic example is Pyrrho’s apparent adaptation of Buddhism’s three marks of existence into his philosophical system. Today there are some delicious speculations about Buddhist influences, some perhaps more grounded in the documentary history than others.
In the third century before the common era, Emperor Ashoka sent missionaries to the Greek colonies in India and Bactria. Buddhism flourished in the Greco-Indian Gandharan civilization, which generated one widely read Buddhist classic, the Milinda Panha, the Questions of King Millinda. There are some physical evidence suggesting a Buddhist presence as far West as Greek Egypt. But again, mostly hints.
I am becoming convinced there were Buddhist influences in the formation of desert monasticism both in Syria and Egypt. The evidence for this is ambiguous. There is material evidence of Buddhist images created in local materials. The rest is indirect.
Stories of the Buddha himself are found in the Medieval Golden Legend. Specifically, the legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, a loose retelling of the story of the Buddha has an Arabic version and eventually became a Christian retelling of the story that may date to the early Middle Ages. And by the fourteenth century this adapted Buddha came to be venerated as a saint in both the Orthodox and Western churches. A delightful story.
And then in the early sixteenth century, there’s Francis Xavier.
His is a story I delight in.
Born in the Kingdom of Navarre, today a part of Spain, in 1506. In 1534 the good father was one of the first seven men to undertake vows of the Jesuit order. He spent some years attempting to evangelize India, with that stain on his memory, and then off he went to Japan.
There Father Xavier appears to have actually cultivated a genuine friendship with Abbot Ninshitsu of Fukushoji in Kagoshima. They spent many hours together and talked of many things.
Heinrich Dumoulin gives a delightful accounting of Xavier’s inquiry into Zen’s meditation and the abbot’s response, translated or paraphrased, I don’t know how loosely, from Xavier’s “famous” “great letter.”
In a stroll through the temple grounds the two friends came across monks seated in meditation. Deeply impressed by the modesty, the concentration, and the repose they displayed, Xavier asked the abbot, “What are these monks doing?” The abbot laughed and said, “Some are calculating the contributions received from their followers during the past months. Others are thinking about how they might get better clothing and personal care. Still others are thinking of vacation and pastimes. In short, no one is thinking of anything important.
I really, really like Ninshitsu Roshi.
I don’t believe the good father quite got the point. Zen can be elusive for someone too subtle in their thinking. Which is kind of a hallmark of the Jesuits.
But he did listen, and whether he got the point, he did try hard to accurately recount what happened.
And in the ensuing years, many Jesuits would also find Zen very interesting.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In