FR. JOHN WATARU UEKURI SJ
A Description of my work for Dialogue Between Christians and Buddhists
I am fully involved in retreat guidance, and I do this job mainly using the method of Sadhana retreats composed by the late Fr. Anthony De Mello SJ. (To be precise I follow the methodology worked out by Fr. Miguel Lafont SJ, who has adapted the De Mello retreats to the Japanese situation).
In Sadhana Retreats the VIPASSANA meditation is introduced in the principal section, and here our way of breathing and our awareness of the sensations in our body are important. The Lord Buddha himself is reported to have developed these exercises.
I conduct around 15 Sadhana Retreats a year in the East Japan area, and along with some who love meditation I study the issue of dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism using various books, as for example, Awareness (by Anthony De Mello) and The wind of Nothingness breathes on a Person who Prays (by Shigeto Oshida).
I have also opened up an Internet website entitled “Sadhana – Oriental meditation and Christian prayer,” and here I write about different methods of prayer or meditation. In the website, the themes dealt with are the following: “What is Sadhana, To pray with the Body, Prayer with Fantasy, Other ways of Praying, My experience of Sadhana sessions,” and other related topics.
In order to manage all these affairs I have a team composed of around 20 lay Catholics and one nun.
Fr. Uekuri can be contacted at the following e-mail address: uekoko@cocoa.ocn.ne.jp
You can obtain all the information you want about our SADHANA program at the following Website. Please click on the following link and you will be transported to our Website: http://sadhana.jp/