Psychologies Magazine, June 2001 —
In 1982, I celebrated my 20th birthday in India. Nineteen years later, I returned to conduct interviews with the Dalai Lama for a book. The reasons that had once driven me to make that trip and the lasting impact it had had on me come back to me. At the time, I had been pondering the meaning of existence for several years, I was studying philosophy in Switzerland, and I had four months to spare.
India, the ultimate initiatory journey, became the obvious choice. My generation, the post-May '68 generation, disengaged from all ideological struggles, knows that politics alone will not change the world. If there is to be a revolution, it must first be an inner one, rooted in philosophy, psychology, and spirituality. At the same time, the doors of our own spiritual traditions have become foreign to us: worn-out words, too many dogmas and norms, a bureaucratized clergy, and a disregard for the body.
Paradoxically, India seems closer to us: primacy of experience over theory, spiritual work that integrates the body and emotions, effectiveness of psycho-corporal techniques, freedom for each person to follow their own path with a master of their choice.
These Eastern wisdoms also address the shortcomings of the Westerner, ill at ease in their body, bewildered by their emotions, and lacking in meaning. From adolescence, I had practiced martial arts and yoga for several years. During this first trip, I learned meditation in Tibetan monasteries in northern India. But, as the Dalai Lama and Arnaud Desjardins constantly remind us, it would be a shame if this yearning for the East made us forget the treasures of our own traditions. Indeed, India also led me to rediscover the spiritual depth of Christianity through two unforgettable stays: in a hospice and in a leper colony run by Mother Teresa's sisters. I discovered compassion in action, a profound joy, and incredible solidarity among the poorest of the poor. My values—which more or less consciously linked happiness to physical and material well-being—were profoundly shaken. The power of Christ's message and evangelical love, the importance of meditation and the "reconnection" of body and mind: these are ultimately the two messages engraved in me by this initiatory journey.
During my second and recent trip to India, I had a long discussion with a Tibetan lama. At the end of our conversation, he said to me with a huge smile, "I'm happy that you're a Christian." "And I'm happy that you're a Buddhist!" I replied spontaneously. I remembered Gandhi's words: "When you have reached the heart of one religion, you have reached the heart of all religions."
Today, I observe that India still holds a strong allure for many Westerners seeking wisdom. I meet young Europeans and Americans who have come to spend several months in India. Their look has certainly changed: short hair, clean jeans, laptops instead of guitars. Most report that the large Hindu ashrams in the South, such as those in Pune or Pondicherry, are emptying out in favor of the Buddhist monasteries that have proliferated in the Himalayan regions since the Tibetan exile in 1959 (Buddhism had been driven out of India by the conquests of Islam). This trend is ultimately consistent with what we have observed in our wealthy countries for the past twenty years: the growing success of Buddhism at the expense of traditional Western religions, but also of Hinduism, which enjoyed its heyday in our countries during the 1960s and 70s.
Pragmatic and effective, Buddhism allows Westerners to rediscover the lost keys to their "inner Orient" without calling into question certain achievements of modern rationality and scientific critique. "Believe nothing I teach you without having experienced it yourself," the Buddha affirmed.
Regarding Buddhism, we should mention two recent books:
• For a first introduction: "Wise Words of the Dalai Lama" (Editions 1, 2001).
• For further study: "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Buddhism" by Philippe Cornu (Le Seuil, 2001).
June 2001