The White Robed Monks of St. Benedict are an independent, non-mainstream Catholic organization that blends traditional Christian sacraments with Soto Zen Buddhist practices and philosophy.
They are completely separate from the mainstream Roman Catholic Church and mainstream Benedictine orders. Operating under the tradition of the Old Catholic Church, they exist as an independent jurisdiction that offers sacraments like baptism and marriage to anyone “without question,” particularly targeting those who feel alienated by institutional religion.
How Do They Mix Christianity with Zen?
While it may seem strange on the surface, the group builds a bridge between the two traditions by stripping both down to their contemplative roots. They view Zen not as a conflicting religion, but as a practical method for spiritual clarity.
- The Rule of “Listening”: The foundational text for Catholic monasticism is the Rule of Saint Benedict, which famously begins with the Latin word Ausculta (“Listen”). The White Robed Monks use Zen’s seated meditation (zazen) as their primary tool to practice this absolute, quiet listening.
- Silencing Delusions: They teach that quiet meditation helps a person filter out personal biases, delusions, and ego, allowing them to better hear the will of God.
- “The World is the Monastery”: Unlike traditional monks who live cloistered lives behind monastery walls, these contemporary monks live ordinary lives in the secular world. They can be single or married and maintain normal day jobs while practicing mindfulness.
Perspectives on the Group.
Because this combination is highly unusual, opinions online and within religious communities vary significantly. On platforms like Reddit’s r/Christianity community, discussions reflect mixed opinions.
- The Consensus on Parallels: Many users pointing out the intersection note that Zen concepts like self-emptying, simplicity, and living in the present moment align closely with historical Christian asceticism and centring prayer.
- The Critics: Other users view them as a pseudo-Catholic group that prioritizes experiential “spirituality” over traditional dogma, effectively dodging standard moral doctrines and rules established by the historical Church.
Ultimately, the group does not see Christ and Buddha as conflicting forces, but rather as parallel teachers of universal compassion and unity
Thomas Merton & Buddhist
Public Talk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Festival of Faiths speakers joined His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his public talk at the KFC YUM! Center in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday, May 19, 2013. The Drepung Gomang Institute hosted the event.
- Date: 19 May 2013, 13:55
- Source His Holiness the Dalai Lama encrourages Compassion and talks about that inspired powerful meeting between he and Thomas Merton.
- Author: Center for Interfaith Relations from Louisville, United States
Sketch of Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, theologian, mystic, poet, and social activist. He was a professed member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky, where he lived from 1941 until his death.
Merton wrote more than 50 books over 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice, and pacifism, along with scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton’s most widely read works is his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain (1948).
Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through study and practice. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures.
Buddhism in the West and Buddhist modernism
Buddhism has been gaining popularity in the West. Starting with a cultural and academic elite in the 19th century, it has since spread across Western culture, especially since the 1960s.
In the 20th century, Christian monastics such as Thomas Merton, Wayne Teasdale, David Steindl-Rast, and the former nun Karen Armstrong, and Buddhist monastics such as Ajahn Buddhadasa, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Dalai Lama have taken part in interfaith dialogue about Buddhism and Christianity. This dialogue aims to highlight the common ground between Buddhism and Christianity.
Although the prevalent romantic view of Buddhism sees it as an authentic and ancient practice, contemporary Buddhism is deeply influenced by Western culture. With the rise of Western colonialism in the 19th century, Asian cultures and religions developed strategies to adapt to the Western hegemony without losing their own traditions. They adopted Western discourses and applied Western polemical styles to defend indigenous traditions.
What! What? What are you saying??? You have a Buddhist Ministry; how can it be that you are a Christian? That doesn’t look kosher!!!
Indeed, our Buddhist ministry is not religious. Still, it is a secular ministry designed to be inclusive and respectful of all beliefs.
Our Chaplain’s role is to connect with those who identify as ‘Spiritual but not religious’ (SBNR), also known as ‘spiritual but not affiliated’ (SBNA), or less commonly ‘more spiritual than religious.’ This phrase is used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. In contemporary usage, spirituality has often become associated with the individual’s interior life, emphasizing the well-being of the ‘mind-body-spirit.’ At the same time, religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions. The interactions are complex, as even conservative Christians designate themselves as ‘spiritual but not religious’ to indicate a form of non-ritualistic personal faith.
Where did that come from?
From a Catholic Monk, Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton OCSO (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. In December 1941, he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, and in May 1949, he was ordained a priest. He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky, where he lived from 1941 until his death.
Merton, a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, was a beacon of hope during a period of heightened hostility. His interfaith conversations, which preserved Protestant and Catholic theological positions, helped build mutual respect. He is best known for pioneering dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, Japanese writer D. T. Suzuki, Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa, and Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. His extensive travels and writings on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, as well as their relationship to Christianity, were highly unusual in the United States at the time, particularly within the religious orders, but they continue to inspire us today.
In October 1939, Merton invited friends to sleep at his place following a long night at a jazz club. Over breakfast, Merton told them he wanted to become a priest. Soon after, Merton visited Fr. Ford at Corpus Christi to share his feelings. Ford agreed with Merton but added that he felt Merton was suited for the diocesan priesthood and advised against joining an order.
Soon after, Merton met with his teacher, Dan Walsh, whose advice he trusted. Walsh disagreed with Ford’s assessment. Instead, he felt Merton was spiritually and intellectually suited for a priestly vocation in a specific order. They discussed the Jesuits, Cistercians and Franciscans. Merton had appreciated what he had read of Saint Francis of Assisi; as a result, he felt that might be the direction in which he was being called.
Walsh set up a meeting with Fr. Edmund Murphy, a friend at the monastery of St. Francis of Assisi on 31st Street. The interview went well, and Merton was given an application and Fr. Murphy’s invitation to become a Franciscan friar. He noted that Merton could only enter the novitiate in August 1940 because that was the only month they accepted novices. Merton was excited yet disappointed that it would be a year before he fulfilled his calling.
By 1940, Merton began to doubt whether he was fit to be a Franciscan. He felt he had not been candid about his past with Fr. Murphy or Dan Walsh. Merton arranged to see Fr. Murphy. Fr. Murphy was understanding during the meeting but told Tom to return the next day, once he had time to consider this new information. That next day, Fr. Murphy told Merton that he no longer felt Merton was suitable material for a vocation as a Franciscan friar and that the August novitiate was now complete. Merton believed that his religious calling was finished.
Secular Buddhism, sometimes also referred to as agnostic Buddhism, Buddhist agnosticism, ignostic Buddhism, atheistic Buddhism, pragmatic Buddhism, Buddhist atheism, or Buddhist secularism, is a broad term for a form of Buddhism based on humanist, skeptical, and agnostic values, valuing pragmatism and (often) naturalism, eschewing beliefs in the supernatural or paranormal. It can be described as atheists or agnostics embracing Buddhist rituals and philosophy for their secular benefits.
Secular Buddhists interpret the Buddha’s teachings and texts rationally and often existentially, considering the historical and cultural contexts of the time when the Buddha lived and when the various sutras and tantras were written.
The secular Buddhist framework strips Buddhist doctrine of various traditional beliefs that could be considered superstitious, or that cannot be tested through empirical research, such as supernatural beings (such as devas, bodhisattvas, nāgas, pretax, Buddhas, etc.), merit and its transference, rebirth, and karma, Buddhist cosmology (including the existence of pure lands and hells), etc.
Traditional Buddhist ethical views regarding social issues such as abortion and human sexuality may or may not be called into question as well, with some schools, especially Western Buddhist ones, taking alternative stances.
Unlike the various kinds of Buddhist modernism, which modify traditional schools of Buddhist thought and practice in light of the discourses of modernity, secular Buddhism is founded on a reconfiguration of core elements of the dharma itself. To this end, it seeks to recover the original teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, without claiming to disclose “what the Buddha meant.” Instead, it interprets the early canonical teachings in a way that draws out their meaning in the Buddha’s historical context (the culture of the Gangetic plains in the fifth century BCE) while demonstrating their value and relevance to people living in our own time. Both aspects of this interpretation are literally “secular” in that they evoke the Latin root word saeculum – a particular age or generation. Stephen Batchelor’s Confession of a Buddhist Atheist captures the movement’s ethos.
Secular Buddhism proposes leaving behind the metaphysical beliefs and soteriology of Indian religious culture. This culture saw human life as an irredeemable realm of suffering, from which one should seek transcendence in an enduring beyond-human condition – a stance that virtually all Buddhist schools, as well as Hinduism and Jainism, perpetuate. Secular Buddhism, by contrast, seeks to present the Buddha’s teaching as a guide to full human flourishing in this life and this world. Adopting a post-metaphysical philosophy is part of existing religious forms of Buddhist orthodoxy, which have evolved since the Buddha’s death. Instead, it aligns with today’s post-metaphysical philosophy, not least phenomenology, and thus runs parallel to similar movements in radical Christian theology, as seen in the work of thinkers such as Don Cupitt and Gianni Vattimo.
Secular Buddhism rejects power structures legitimated by the metaphysics of orthodox Buddhist belief. It questions notions of spiritual progress based on standardized prescriptions for meditation practice, as well as the idea that Buddhist practice aims to gain proficiency in meditative techniques endorsed by the authority of a traditional school or teacher. Instead, secular Buddhism emphasizes a praxis that encourages autonomy and encompasses every aspect of one’s humanity, as modelled by the noble eight-fold path (appropriate view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration). This approach can generate a wide range of responses to specific individual and communal needs, rather than insisting on “one true way” to “enlightenment” valid for all times and places.
Wikipedia
L’arbre du Refuge Secular Buddhist
2016 – 2026
The Right Rev. Marie at the Tam Bao Son Buddhist Monastery in Harington, Quebec
Tam Bảo Sơn Monastery was created in 1990 in honour of the 4 crowned places of the Buddha. The monastery’s 337-hectare grounds have been in the Township of Harrington since September 1988.
690 Chemin de la Rivière Rouge
Harrington, QC J8G 2S7 Canada
Photo: REM
