<Begin Segment 18>

SF: I was wondering, most kind of Christian religions in the U.S. -- and correct me if I'm wrong here -- have sort of a Eurocentric kind of an orientation because of where they started and so forth. If Buddhism has more of an Asian sort of orientation with regard to, say, groupness, collectivism, interpersonal style, do you think that there might be some utility or some usefulness for trying to get away from, say, the highly verbal sort of way that our larger society is, in so much as if we could develop something that's more intuitive, or less verbal, or something of that -- that might be a unique kind of contribution or...?

PN: Yeah. That's, that's my thesis, in terms of -- we of Japanese American background, or even the Asian, that our whole methodology and approach to the world -- the world view -- is different from the Euro-Western approach, which is so dualistic. You know it's so clear-cut; one is right and one is wrong. What you call the yin-yang, or whatever you want. It's both, and it's inclusive. And our contribution -- and I believe this is the future -- is where we recognize the tremendous contribution that can come from our Buddhist background, which is part of the Japanese culture, where -- as you use the word, intuitive -- it's more spiritual. It's a feeling level, poetic level, it, it, and ultimately, it's a real level, you know, of experience. And when we can come together in terms of the experiential and the spiritual level, we can have real harmony. But when it's all academic and intellectual, mathematic, scientific, dualistic, that we're always going to have conflict and debate. So this is our contribution that we can make in terms of methodology, not only in terms of religion, but politics and other things. So this is the future. But in order to do that, there is a need for us to be open enough to know where we stand and at the same time be inclusive. That's what I believe. I mean, if you are a Christian, understand why you're a Christian. And have this understanding that the Creator God as a Christian belief is inclusive. If you're Buddhist, then the harmony and the unity of the universe can be brought together through your meditation. And, you know we could all work together because of this commonality that is ours, whether you approach from the Christian perspective or Buddhist perspective. But understand that. And to be able to, in your own mind and heart know this, and then you can embrace others. I think that's very important as we look forward to the future.

SF: Are there any ways to facilitate the development of that sort of perspective? I mean, how might we encourage the development of that?

PN: Yeah. I appreciate you mentioning that because [Laughs] this group that -- I'm director right now of the "Council for Pacific Asian Theology," which is basically a Christian approach. That is really to raise the consciousness of people to realize that we have to be much more inclusive and respect the other perspective too, whether religion or other things in life, political, and whatever else. And it's a movement, actually. It's a theological movement. And as we try to raise the consciousness of the public as well as the church, we're hopeful that people begin to see that, hey, we're gonna really have to include the Buddhist, Christian dialogue, and Hindu and other religions in such a way that we begin to feel this oneness. But, you know, being a Christian group, we have to believe that this is really, underneath it all, a Christian approach. And the Christian approach has become too dialectical and dualistic and academic, that it doesn't include all of that. So we have to show that even Christianity is much more inclusive than the way we're taught in the Euro-Western approaches. So we're trying to bring this consciousness to pass through this movement by having conferences here, lectures here, workshops here. Just trying to get the public to begin to see that -- as well as, of course, the church. And church is the one that resists this more than anyone else. [Laughs] So that's our difficulty. But it's the beginning. It's a beginning.

SF: I understand that you're working on a Buddhist-Christian wedding? How does that -- how might that look?

PN: Yeah. That's a good question because I'm trying to understand that myself. But the fortunate thing is that the Buddhist priest is a good friend of mine. And we have this couple -- one's a Buddhist, one's a Christian -- and they both understand this. But they're thinking about the community and their parents and others, and how the church stands on all this. So it's kind of a experiment for us in a way. And it's a good one, where we develop a ceremony, a ritual, in which it will involve both in a way in which the commonality of both that brought together, and everybody might be as pleased as possible. 'Course, when you have dogmatic, adamant groups, you, pretty hard to change them. But we figure that the majority will be understanding. And when this Buddhist priest and I work together, maybe it becomes something very common from now on because there are a lot of Buddhists and Christians getting married. I've had several ones before, but it would be Christian and then a Buddhist ceremony, or a Buddhist and then Christian. But why not put it together?

SF: Right. Okay.

BF: Good work. I think we're out of time.

SF: Out of time. Yeah -- unfortunately. Thank you very, very, very much.

PN: Well thank you. And for the, you know what you folks are doing. I tell you, this is great.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.